Match Game: Encyclopedia II - Match Game - Rule Changes in Other Versions

Match Game - Rule Changes in Other Versions

Match Game - The Match Game 1962-1969

This is the original series upon which the show described above was based. For most of its life it was aired live from New York, New York on NBC during the late afternoons and was a solid if unspectacular hit for the network at the time.

The gameplay of this The Match Game bore little resemblance to its more famous descendant. Here, 2 teams of 3 each comprised of 2 contestants and 1 Star Team Captain played against each other. The teams scored points based on how many of them matched answers on a question - if only two matched, the team earned 25 points, but if all three came up with the same answer, it was worth 50 points. The 1st team to reach 100 points won the game and $100.

Questions on this show were far less risqué than on its 1970s incarnation; most were simple open-ended questions, such as "Name a kind of flower" or "What is the first thing you do when you wake up?" Ironically, many of these type questions would have been prime fodder for Family Feud, which in a very real sense was a Match Game spinoff. Also, these types of questions were common during the early weeks of Match Game 73-79' 1973 CBS-TV revival. The winning team then played the Audience Match, where each teammate think of an answer they felt was given most frequently by a polled studio audience. Each match was worth $50 in bonus money. Thus as follows:

• 1 Team Member Match: $50
• 2 Team Members Match: $100
• All 3 Team Members Match including The Star Team Captain: $150

For a total payout of $450.

On March 27-March 31, 1967: The Match Game presents a new feature called The Telephone Match after the Main Game as Host Rayburn talks to a Viewer at Home to play the contest and able enough to win the share of $500 to the Studio Audience Member by holding a Number from 1 to greater than 100 (eg: 1-120) to come up and write an answer to an fill-in-the-blank question "e.g.:_____Soup." Ironically, That an Ancestor of The Head-to-Head Match as part of The Super Match. When He or She answers an question "e.g.:Alphabet Soup" to Match the Studio Audience Member wins $500. Otherwise, When a Mismatch created that adds $100 to the intial jackpot and The 1st Record Total of The Telephone Match worth $2600 in 1967 and the 2nd Record Total in 1968 is worth $3900.

Despite the fact the original Match Game ran for just 7 seasons for the various outside factors have conspired to have virtually all of it stricken from the permanent record. It is believed no more than a dozen episodes remain of it today; GSN has aired 3 black-and-white kinescopes of it in the past. The rest are spread out in various university archives and television museums.

The original theme music was the instrumental "A Swingin' Safari" by Bert Kaempfert from 1962 to 1967. The theme was later changed from 1967 to 1969 of this version by the Score Production Band when the show was broadcast all in living color on NBC-TV (with the same different beat of "A Swingin' Safari"). In the pilot episode of the show, the same music, "A Swingin' Safari" was used but composed by Billy Vaughn.

Match Game - The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour 1983-1984

These rules were roughly the same as Match Game PM with both contestants given 3 chances apiece to match each panelist once. The major difference was in the tiebreaker. Four possible answers to a Super Match-like statement (example: "_____, New Jersey") were secretly shown to the contestants (examples: "Atlantic City," "Hoboken," "Newark," "Trenton"). They each chose one by number. The host then polled the celebrities for verbal responses, just as on the PM tiebreaker. The first panelist to give an answer selected by one of the contestants won the game for that contestant. The winner of the Match Game segment played the returning champion in the Hollywood Squares segment with the eventual winner of Squares playing the Super Match. The Audience Match featured payoffs of $1000 for the most popular response, $500 for the second and $250 for the third, while non-matches were worth $100. For the Head-to-Head Match, the contestant picked a celebrity, who concealed a multiplier of 10, 20 or 30 that was multiplied with the Audience Match earnings to create a jackpot that could be worth as much as $30,000. On NBC-TV's 1-Season Show--The Winning Cash Rewards thusly as follows:

• $1000 will be become (10: $10,000), (20: $20,000) & (30: $30,000)
• $500 will be become (10: $5000), (20: $10,000) & (30: $15,000)
• $250 will be become (10: $2500), (20: $5000) & (30: $7500)
• $100 will be become (10: $1000), (20: $2000) & (30: $3000).

Conflicts between Rayburn and the production staff, the horrible time slot it was given on NBC, and the roughness of Bauman's hosting got the show cancelled after a 1-season outing. A very good idea, but a less-than-par execution from Goodson-Todman (quite rare.) The show would be replaced by "Santa Barbara (TV Series)."

Match Game - Match Game 1990-1991

On this version of the show on ABC, matches were worth money instead of points -- $50 per match to be precise. All panelists played both questions for each player, regardless of whether or not they matched in the first round.

After each round of questions, contestants were given a chance to build their scores further by playing a new round, "Match-Up!", with one panelist of their choice. This was a rapid-fire series of Super Match-style questions, with two possible answers given; the contestant chose one secretly, and the panelist picked the one s/he felt the contestant picked. This process continued until time expired. The first Match-Up! round was played for 30 seconds at $50 per match, while the second lasted 45 seconds and paid off at $100 per match. Whoever had the most money at the end of the second Match-Up! round won the game.

The Super Match was played identically to the 1978-82 version of the round (with the Star Wheel). Originally, payoffs ($500-$250-$100 {$50 for a Mismatch}) for the Audience Match were identical as well, but after a few weeks it changed to $500-$300-$200 for each answer in descending order of popularity and $100 if the contestant was unsuccessful at picking a correct answer.

Due to many ABC stations carrying news at noon, the show did not get many clearances in US cities.

Match Game - Match Game 1998-99

As mentioned above, this incarnation of Match Game featured a panel of only five celebrities instead of the usual six. Questions in this version were not labelled A or B, but instead, titles with puns were a clue as to the content (ala Win Ben Stein's Money). Each match was worth one point in round one, two points in round two. As on the 1990-91 version, all five panelists played each round regardless of whether they matched a player on the first question. After two rounds, the highest scorer played Super Match, which was played identically to its 1973-78 incarnation, even matching the top prize of $5,000.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Rule Changes in Other Versions", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki