Match Game on Buzzr

[JustADiversion]

I finally stopped watching this show!! When I was young, it was hilarious. As a mature adult, not so much!! The show audience had a lot of young children, right? What trash they heard!!! Also, my votes for the biggest attention grabbers on the panels...Gary Burghoff the biggest 1!!!! My vote for the nicest female panelists...Betty White, Joyce Bulifant, and Elaine Joyce. They weren't usually very risque. Dumbest 1...Bill Daily. Also Gene Rayburn always seemed to be trying to look down the women's blouses, and to be fair, some of them wore such low-cut stuff..... He also laughed at everything the panelists said even when it wasn't all that funny!! He must've loved his own laugh!!!!Richard Dawson became very arrogant after he started Family Feud, or was it my imagination? Buzzr repeats the shows so often with the same contestants you already know who'll win, so why watch any further??

[SledgeBarone]

Richard Dawson didn't want to do Match Game after Family Feud became a hit. The producers of MG were foolish to make him continue on the panel.

I liked Bill Daily, though McLean Stevenson was an even better guest for the bottom center slot.

I loved the show too, but it gets hard to watch with so many repeats. I think I'd feel similarly if The Price Is Right (Barker version, anyway) started playing on the channel - really looked forward to the first-run episodes, but don't believe I'd be so interested in watching the repeats. Oddly, some games I was lukewarm about in their original runs (Pyramid and Super Password) I can enjoy more even with repeated viewings.

[JustADiversion]

Thank you for your views! Richard Dawson made it so obvious that he was done with the show!! I liked McLean Stevenson too, very funny!! I've always wondered why the channel hasn't gotten more of the better shows, like Pyramid. There's also Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour, at 1st I liked it because of Jon Baumann. After a while it seemed a bit boring. But that's life!! Still love Press Your Luck, the handsome host and the wacky whammies, LOL!!!

[SledgeBarone]

I never noticed Gene Rayburn looking down women's dresses! I guess that's why they had Brett Somers on the top row and the "bimbo" spot closest to the host. Did he do the breath spritzer/kissing the newcomer female celebrity bit before or after Richard Dawson began hosting Family Feud and smooching everybody?

Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour is just okay for me, too. I never really got into any of the standalone Hollywood Squares incarnations, so it was a bit hard to watch. None of the returning champions were very memorable, plus they only appear on the last half-hour of a non-straddling show, so I think Buzzr should mix up the episode airings instead of airing each week's episodes together. This would break up the monotony of lackluster celebrity lineups during certain weeks, especially since they were kept pushing NBC actors onto the show during a terrible year for the network. (None of NBC's new shows in 1983 were renewed.)

As far as I can tell, hardly anybody applied any advanced strategy to the Squares half of the show, aside from basic tic-tac-doe tactics. Since you didn't have to earn the winning square like in standalone Squares, I wouldn't automatically try to block the opponent from getting it. Instead, I'd try to capture a different square so that if the opponent goes for the winning square and misses, it would give me three in a row. Then, if I were ahead, during my turns I would try to run out the clock by picking squares that didn't line up with the squares that the opponent captured (lowering the consequences of losing the square), or by selecting the biggest celebrity windbags (think Bruce Baum or Edie McClurg types). It seemed like Jon Bauman rarely prodded the celebrities to answer quickly, so sometimes they had trouble getting two games in...

Another thing I didn't like was that in the big money final match, they went back to letting the contestant choose the star to match up with. Of course this led to contestants almost always picking whoever was the regular on the show (Jon), so of course he would usually be giving away only $10,000 at most. I liked the star wheel on Match Game - they should've brought it on earlier to make Richard Dawson go away faster...

[JustADiversion]

So many past game shows that should be on Buzzr....sigh!! Love your discourse!! Bimbo seat, LOL!!! There was 1 star, Louisa Moritz, who sat there 1 week, but she was no bimbo, just acted like 1. She was a lawyer!! Yes, Gene Rayburn started spritz and kiss after Dawson began FF. In my opinion Rayburn was much better looking, LOL!!!! I never saw the attraction Dawson had for the ladies!! No loss when he finally left!! Like your MG/HS ideas, too!! Edie McClurg, a real windbag, and that dumb tiara she wore so much? I wanted to reach into the screen and bat it off her, LOL!!!! That show had stars I haven't ever heard of.MG 78 had a few stars in the double money wheel episodes who were surprises, likely because they were past their prime. Raymond Burr, and before the wheel days they had Ethel Merman. Not likely candidates for game shows!! I sometimes watch Card Sharks, but only Jim Perry version. And if I'm bored, I'll watch Split Second, it's brain exercise. I recall a few memorable contestants from MG, but not any other show. Only the males, LOL!!!

[SledgeBarone]

It's nice talking with you, too! I was too young to see Richard Dawson on Match Game in its first-run episodes, but I don't get the attraction to him there either, though I did find him entertaining as FF host. Yes he was smart and a good choice when playing for the big money, but he didn't look that great, and his voice didn't sound all that British to me. (I wouldn't say he had a sexy accent, but I'm a straight guy, so it's not for me to judge. ) It was hilarious seeing the first ever wheel spin land on Dawson, and then most of the panel walking out in mock disgust. Equally funny was seeing the first-time starlet (don't remember her name) spinning around, wondering what was going on and where she was supposed to go when that happened!

I don't usually watch the original Press Your Luck. The whammies are funny, but the contestants are just too loud for my taste. I did enjoy last year's revival with Elizabeth Banks, so I guess I'm guilty of judging on looks, too. (She was also a surprisingly good emcee, though.) And I'll have to admit that Dian Parkinson was part of the attraction of TPIR in the 80s/early 90s. But they also showed personality. I never understood why Wheel of Fortune exploded in popularity when Vanna White became the hostess. She looked good, but never seemed to say anything interesting.

Is looks the reason why you watch Perry Card Sharks over the Eubanks/Rafferty versions? I think all 3 of those versions are good. The 80s version could've done more with Suzannah Williams and Lacey Pemberton ... I think the producers wanted their own version of Vanna, so those two were kind of useless on the mic as well. The contestants never failed to annoy me when they would get a great opening (or changed) card, advance to the 2nd slot but with a lousy card, and then freeze right away. You only have 4 turns (at most) with the cards to advance 5 slots, so keep going! If you miss, at least you'll have a great card to guess with on your next try, even if you're not allowed to change it! I also thought the car game was a little weird for the show - it came off as being a little too easy and unsatisfying to win a car that way, plus it was odd that the "dealers" would be showing off the (usually junky) car like TPIR models.

[JustADiversion]

I confess to a bit of shallowness with the Jim Perry hosted version!! LOL!! This is fun!! If we're going to continue, let me not forget my manners here! I'm Thelma from CT! Liked TPIR when Bob Barker was host, for some reason Drew Carey is so-so. And the loud contestants on PYL, yes, I agree, bu it might have been the enthusiasm that sparked that!! The whammies and Peter Tomarken were the attractions for me, LOL!!! What did MG and TPIR have in common? Can't guess?? Johnny Olson!!! Loved him!! His voice was the signature of those shows for me back in the day!! JO actually once filled in for gary Burghoff on MG panel!! GB didn't turn his clock back during the US time change and JO was a great panelist!!I also recall the MG episode you mentioned!! The debut of the star wheel!!! That was Sharon farrell!!! Did you see her flip out over 1 of the male contestants?? He was so cute and she was going crazy over him,LOL!! He won too BTW!!!Gene Rayburn and Scoey Mitchlll were teasing him so bad, it was adorable!!! Did you know Dawson eventually married a contestant he met on FF?? True story!!! And 1 game show I'd love to see again is Joker's Wild, hosted by Jack Barry. Uhoh, am I showing my age?? LOL!!!!

[SledgeBarone]

Hi Thelma, you can call me Paul. I'm in Washington state. I believe Jim Perry dyed his hair during his years as a US game show host. Before that, he sported gray hair on Canadian game shows. He managed to cover up his age pretty well. I saw a clip of him making a cameo on Studs (90s dating show hosted by Mark DiCarlo, who won the grand prize on Perry's Sale of the Century in the 80s) after he retired, and he still didn't look old!

Yeah, I really liked Johnny Olson too! He's by far the best TPIR announcer. I really dug when he was featured in showcases. Rod Roddy didn't do that very much, and when he did, he mugged way too much to the camera for my liking. George Gray has the same problem.

I don't remember Sharon Farrell getting excited about a male contestant, but that sounds like something she would do. I remember that she said something unintentionally so risque that left Gene Rayburn speechless.

Yeah, I liked Jack Barry and Joker's Wild as well. It played here in a block with Tic Tac Dough. There are lots of game shows I enjoy, but mainly the 5-days/nights a week type. Body Language and Whew! are the ones I'd want back the most, even though Tom Kennedy was occasionally cringeworthy in his banter with contestants/celebrities. The weekly night-time games with the long dramatic pauses are too overwrought. ABC messed up Card Sharks by having the cards turned so slowly. It looks so sluggish compared to the way it was done in the 70s/80s.

[JustADiversion]

Hey, Paul! Nice to "meet" you!! I have a theory about those dramatic, too-long pauses...the show didn't want too many winners, so they had the hosts draw it out. MG did that a lot as the show progressed!!! It became more a showcase for the stars rather than a real game show. George Gray? Yeah, he was something, but not something good!!! Never liked him much, or Drew Carey. I'm tickled that Jim Perry hid his age by dyeing his hair, even men have some vanities!!! But he was handsome and loved his smile and laugh!!! Pyramid, Body Language, both great shows, hardly seen any more. Buzzer has it occasionally, then it just disappears from the line-up without an explanation. Go figure!! They had a 5th anniversary show with birthday episodes this past weekend, what a bust!! In a few the birthdays were mentioned quickly, then the show moved on......did you get to see it? I turned it off and went back to a good book I'm reading...

[JR1]

Does GSN only have rights to show '74, '77 and '78? Haven't seen any of the other years in recent times.

I was born in '75, so I didn't see the show at its peak. I become acquainted with the show as an adult (my mom watched reruns on GSN), and quite enjoy it. After she passed on, I have kept the tradition alive of watching.

[JustADiversion]

I don't know about GSN, but Buzzr has shown all MG episodes from 1973 , 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1977, and 1978, or at least most of them. I stopped watching a few months back as it isn't much fun when you already know who the winner is! Plus Buzzr has shown them so many times it's boring....

[SledgeBarone]

Hi Thelma, somehow I missed your response earlier. My eyes have been playing tricks on me too, I guess. I've also been busy with work, so I haven't had very much time to watch.

I might make more time to watch if Buzzr were able/willing to buy the rights to air more than a few months worth of episodes at a time for any show. I like Super Password and Password Plus, but they've been stuck in 1985 and 1979 for awhile now. Body Language is buried at 4am now, and Pyramid doesn't air on Buzzr (or any other channel?).

With Pyramid, I got a little frustrated in the 80s with all the 21-21 scorelines and the low-wattage star power of the celebrities. For some reason, it seemed that people like Henry Polic II (third-tier star of a second-rate sitcom) and Shelley Smith (who was attractive and an excellent player, but was the star of what?) were always on. And it always puzzled me that Dick Clark would always leave after signing off, instead of chatting with the four players. Between this and the usually rushed convos with the celebs, it felt like he was too important to converse with anybody. :O (This was before I was aware that there was 70s version of Pyramid, where he acted more like a normal game show host.) I thought the Donny Osmond version of Pyramid was better in the normal game, since 6 clues in 20 seconds made it easier to get separation in the scores and to come back if you were behind.

You think Match Game had the long pauses too? That's actually kind of lame, since it really wasn't that much of a big-money show. (Well, maybe it was in the 1970s, but I was too young to notice.) If it was the celebs doing that to tease the contestants, that was fine. And I really liked it when Bob Barker would say something like "And the price of the convertible is... Wouldn't you look good riding down the highway with the wind flowing through your hair?" on TPIR.

[Coffeecup]

As for the Match Game Hollywood square hour, I only watched the last half. Never been a Match Game lover, but did like Squares. Jon Bauman, great dresser, looks so nice in his sweater jacket combo but the stars ramble on and then have to have the question repeated a few times. Should have been tighter edited show.

[JustADiversion]

Hey, Paul! No problem! We all have more to attend to than this, so when you answer that's ok with me!! Love your ideas for improving the shows!! Haven't seen Pyramid anywhere since, wow, who knows when??!! Of course Buzzr buried BL at 4 AM, it's too good for that slot!! Should be earlier, liked that 1 a lot!! Another show Buzzr has is Now You See It, hosted by Jack Narz. Now I like the host but not that specific show, the pace is too slow. I much prefer him with Concentration! Still try to catch those whammies with Peter Tomarken when possible!! Otherwise Buzzr's lost me.......although there is 1 show I plan to watch, July 5, they're having Red White and Bloopers for July holiday weekend, hope it's more than just MG!! Otherwise I'll turn it off! Oh, as for Dick Clark's attitude, he did have a huge ego, that could be why he just left the set after it was over, and you're right about the guest stars too, like C-list maybe??