"The Match Game" and/or "The Hollywood Squares"

[sross1800]

Hi there! My name's Sean! I'm 24 years old, and I've got autism. Since I'm a huge television game show fan, and since I also know a lot about television game shows, which 1970's television game show did you like, "The Match Game" with host Gene Rayburn and/or "The Hollywood Squares" with host Peter Marshall?

Celebrities that appeared frequently on "The Match Game" with host Gene Rayburn: Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson, Betty White, Fannie Flagg, Joyce Bulifant, Patti Deutsch, Marcia Wallace, Gary Burghoff, McLean Stevenson, Elaine Joyce, Nipsey Russell, Bill Daily, Dick Martin, Patty Duke Astin, Debralee Scott, and Vicki Lawrence!

Celebrities that appeared frequently on "The Hollywood Squaes" with host Peter Marshall: Paul Lynde, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Charley Weaver, and Wally Cox!

And celebrities that appeared on "The Match Game" with host Gene Rayburn also appeared on "The Hollywood Squares" with host Peter Marshall, and vice-versa, so it's all good! And also Peter Marshall appeared on "The Match Game" with host Gene Rayburn, and I think, but I'm not quite sure, but I think Gene Rayburn might have appeared on "The Hollywood Squares" with host Peter Marshall, but I'm not quite sure.

Thanks!
Sean

 

[Silkie]

Both at the time - fun nonsense.

 

[RyanHoward]

Hi there! My name's Sean! I'm 24 years old, and I've got autism. Since I'm a huge television game show fan, and since I also know a lot about television game shows, which 1970's television game show did you like, "The Match Game" with host Gene Rayburn and/or "The Hollywood Squares" with host Peter Marshall?

Celebrities that appeared frequently on "The Match Game" with host Gene Rayburn: Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson, Betty White, Fannie Flagg, Joyce Bulifant, Patti Deutsch, Marcia Wallace, Gary Burghoff, McLean Stevenson, Elaine Joyce, Nipsey Russell, Bill Daily, Dick Martin, Patty Duke Astin, Debralee Scott, and Vicki Lawrence!

Celebrities that appeared frequently on "The Hollywood Squaes" with host Peter Marshall: Paul Lynde, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Charley Weaver, and Wally Cox!

And celebrities that appeared on "The Match Game" with host Gene Rayburn also appeared on "The Hollywood Squares" with host Peter Marshall, and vice-versa, so it's all good! And also Peter Marshall appeared on "The Match Game" with host Gene Rayburn, and I think, but I'm not quite sure, but I think Gene Rayburn might have appeared on "The Hollywood Squares" with host Peter Marshall, but I'm not quite sure.

Thanks!
Sean

You're probably thinking of the 1983-84 hour-long "Match Game/Hollywood Squares" show. Rayburn hosted the Match Game segment, but it was Jon Bauman(yes, the
former "Bowzer" of the famous 50's revival group Sha-Na-Na) who hosted the Squares segment. Bauman also served as a Match Game panelist, while Rayburn was in
one of the Squares. That revival combo only lasted a few months on NBC.

 

[Ultimajock]

You're probably thinking of the 1983-84 hour-long "Match Game/Hollywood Squares" show. Rayburn hosted the Match Game segment, but it was Jon Bauman(yes, the
former "Bowzer" of the famous 50's revival group Sha-Na-Na) who hosted the Squares segment. Bauman also served as a Match Game panelist, while Rayburn was in
one of the Squares. That revival combo only lasted a few months on NBC.

...I vaguely recall a few times when Rayburn did a week of Squares between NBC's 1969 cancellation of the original Match Game and CBS' 1973 revival...

 

[Fakeem]

Why was the original "Match Game" cancelled and what was the reason to do a revival 4 years later?

 

[SteveRichards]

I think the NBC version of MG was canceled, at least in part, due to the popularity of "Dark Shadows," which it competed against at 4:00/3:00 CT. The shows that NBC put in MG's place didn't fare any better until "Somerset" finally cut in to "Dark Shadows"'s ratings.

Game shows had been absent from the CBS daytime schedule for a few years, and the genre was brought back to the network in 1972. The success of the CBS version of "The Price Is Right" played a roll in CBS bringing back "Match Game" in 1973.

 

[Ultimajock]

I think the NBC version of MG was canceled, at least in part, due to the popularity of "Dark Shadows," which it competed against at 4:00/3:00 CT. The shows that NBC put in MG's place didn't fare any better until "Somerset" finally cut in to "Dark Shadows"'s ratings.

...IIRC, the series that directly replaced Match Game on NBC was Gary Owens' Letters to Laugh-In, of which one or two episodes have survived and popped up recently on YouTube...

 

[anotherguyTN]

I only got to see the Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour a few times. To me the Match Game portion of the show was still good, but the Hollywood Squares portion was cheapened. Having Jon Bauman as the host instead of Peter Marshall was the first and biggest mistake. Then the set was a third tier added to the Match Game set that didn't look anything like the classic Hollywood Squares sets from other versions, and the prize money appeared to be cheaper, with the big money coming in the Super Match round at the end. Then it was on in the afternoon when the other networks were doing soaps, which probably killed the ratings and caused it to be cancelled sooner.

 

[anotherguyTN]

There was also a newer version of Match Game in Canada starting in 2012, but it was probably the worst ever. There are episodes on You Tube, and the only familiar person I saw on any of them was Colin Mochrie, and they really cheapened the money to where the top prize was $2000.

 

[onairb]

I think the NBC version of MG was canceled, at least in part, due to the popularity of "Dark Shadows," which it competed against at 4:00/3:00 CT. The shows that NBC put in MG's place didn't fare any better until "Somerset" finally cut in to "Dark Shadows"'s ratings.

Game shows had been absent from the CBS daytime schedule for a few years, and the genre was brought back to the network in 1972. The success of the CBS version of "The Price Is Right" played a roll in CBS bringing back "Match Game" in 1973.

Even in 1973, it took CBS a couple of weeks to realize the show needed freshening up, which is when they went to comedy questions, rather than the old format of simple 'Name a type of muffin', or non-humrous 'fill in the blank and match' clues. The first few episodes of 'Match Game '73', you see the panelists getting bored with the staid 1960s format.

 

[rnigma1]

What I recall about the '60s "Match Game" was its use of "A Swingin' Safari" as its theme. (It wasn't the Bert Kaempfert original or the Billy Vaughn cover, but a third recording by Bill Justis.)

Combining Match Game with Hollywood Squares in one show was a pretty bad idea. The show "Bowzer" hosted previously was just as dire if not more so: "The Pop & Rocker Game," billed as "half game show, half rock concert!"

 

[Unregistered]

I think the NBC version of MG was canceled, at least in part, due to the popularity of "Dark Shadows," which it competed against at 4:00/3:00 CT. The shows that NBC put in MG's place didn't fare any better until "Somerset" finally cut in to "Dark Shadows"'s ratings.

You just made me feel real old. I vaguely remember watching "Somerset" with my mom during snow days and holiday breaks from school because I lived around the corner from a "Somerset Street", and as a kid, thought the show was about my neighbors...lol [ yeah, I was that young :-D ] In Philly, I think "Somerset" aired at 9am. I think that's when I saw it, unless it's timeslot was moved at some point.

 

[ixnay]

What I recall about the '60s "Match Game" was its use of "A Swingin' Safari" as its theme. (It wasn't the Bert Kaempfert original or the Billy Vaughn cover, but a third recording by Bill Justis.)

Same recollection here. Those elongated hexagons dominating the set stick in my mind too.

The '70s "Match Game" theme was pretty cool too. RIP Gene Rayburn and Johnny Olson.

The Peter Marshall "Squares" introduced me (and probably lots of my generation) to folks like Wally Cox, Rose Marie (wonder what she thought of the Flying Machine's "Smile a Little Smile for Me" [about a girl named Rose Marie]?), and Jan Murray.

ixnay

 

[K.M. Richards]

What I recall about the '60s "Match Game" was its use of "A Swingin' Safari" as its theme. (It wasn't the Bert Kaempfert original or the Billy Vaughn cover, but a third recording by Bill Justis.)

Until you posted that, I had forgotten that Kaempfert had composed the song and the Vaughn version was just a cover.

Wikimisinformationpedia claims the Kaempfert version was used on Match Game, several other sites (including Billboard) say it was Billy Vaughn, and I can't find any citation for the Justis version. Could you post where you got your information, please?