Which did you like better?Both were hosted by the late Gene Rayburn,and both were announced by the late ,great Johnny Olson(on the NBC original,Don Pardo substituted when Johnny Olson was ill,and the late Gene Wood substituted for when Johnny Olson was ill on the CBS shows).I personally liked the original NBC version,with the 2 teams of one celebrity and 2 contestants.(It's a darn shame that NBC erased these).As far as the CBS version,it was good at the very beginning,but got kind of tedious later on,especially when every contestant almost always chose Richard Dawson in the bonus game.I suppose that was the reason for the wheel.I never saw it at the end of the CBS run.Was it any good?

I remember both versions of Match Game. The original was more of a conventional game show with the type of questions that would turn up years later on Family Feud such as "Name a kind of muffin. The 70s version at first was like the original with more celebrities but evolved into a very funny comedy game show. It brought out the zaniness in Gene Rayburn as well as regulars Richard Dawson, Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly. Along with the double entendre questions, those were the reasons why Match Game was transformed from a marginal hit into daytime TV's No. 1 show.

To me, the 70s version jumped the shark when Dawson left and the Star Wheel was added.

I seem to like the '60s NBC version better, largely because of the set, especially the score things in front of the celebrity, and the thing on the background wall that revealed the Audience Match answer.

I seem to like the '60s NBC version better, largely because of the set, especially the score things in front of the celebrity, and the thing on the background wall that revealed the Audience Match answer.


If one or more person's match that particular answer on the original, the word MATCH would flip over and the money's added. I like the scoring devices, too since the numbers ascend to descend (example: if a player has $25, then the numbers roll downward to $50 and so forth.) I loved it when MATCH flips over on the nameplates and its theme song "A Swingin' Safari" by Bert Kaempfert and His Orchestra.

That Audience Match feature would become the Super Match in the 1970's version for CBS.

To me, the '60s Match Game was a bit more serious and a traditional game show for that time, although Gene wanted to inject some humor into the show as he said in a couple of interviews despite the objections from Mark Goodson and NBC. It had some funny moments at times, but not like in a 'happy hour' kind of setting the 70's version did.

I prefer the 1970s version of Match Game because it had 6 celebrities & 1 Super Match. Plus it went on to launch the weekly syndication version titled "Match Game PM" in 1975 before having a 3 year daily syndication run from 1979 to 1982.