Remembering Richard Dawson

Yet another huge loss to the entertainment world over the weekend. Richard Dawson, comedian, actor, game show host -- best known for his hosting of the original version of Family Feud -- lost his battle with esophogical cancer this past Saturday night, according to his son Gary. He was 79.

Online Pick of the Week (12/24): Match Game ‘78

Posting this now before I forget; one of my favorite televised holiday moments. This is from the Christmas episode of Match Game ‘78. Here, we can see Brett and Charles have fun and dress up in costume for the occasion. This isn’t the first time Charles dressed as Santa. He also did it in 1973 and 1977. Definitely one of the best moments of what’s known as the “post-Richard Dawson” era of the show.

Online Pick of the Week (10/22): Blankety Blanks (Australia)

The year is 1977. Like the UK version, there's no Gene Rayburn obviously, but it's still a pretty funny show. Hosted by personality Graham Kennedy, the format here on Blankety Blanks is pretty much the same here, except for the cash amounts in the SuperMatch rounds. Unlike the UK counterpart, this one does offer cash in that round. The show was produced by Reg Grundy, best known here in America for the shows $ale of the Century and Scrabble.

It's absolutely crazy how close this version of the show resembles the American version in the looks department. The set colors are exactly the same as ours was back then. Same style opening with the turning wheel, Graham Kennedy's hair looks like Gene Rayburn's did in 1977. Even one of the celebrities laughs like Brett. It's insane. From a physical point of view, it's only a music change, lighted sign and an EMC-51 microphone away from being our Match Game '77.

The episode chosen is the debut of the series. Worth a look to see how another country took Match Game and made it their own.

Online Pick of the Week (10/16): Blankety Blank

Another fun British game show to enjoy. This time it's Blankety Blank, their take on the classic US game Match Game, which has, for all of its incarnations on the BBC, have been based on the 1973-82 version of the series. The show has had its fair share of hosts: Terry Wogan (1979-83), Les Dawson (1984-90), and Lily Savage (1997-2002).




As seen by the caps here, they've gone through a different share of sets, but the game remained the same. There are 2 contestants and 6 celebrities, just like our version. Two rounds with "A" and "B" questions. Questions have blanks to them, naturally, just like our versions did.

The prizes don't quite match up with our version though. They play the SuperMatch round for prizes, and the losing contestants get that old Blankety Blank chequebook and pen. What I like about this version is that while it doesn't have the budget that the US versions had, it's still worth a good laugh. Also, the lack of a big budget really comes in handy for Les Dawson, who is featured as host on this particular episode; who as seen on other clips throughout YouTube, had no problem cracking some great jokes at its expense. And well, who are we kidding anyway? While Match Game, and especially Match Game PM had a perk of offering large sums of money in the SuperMatch rounds, the bigger reason most watch the show is for the comedy, and there's a really good supply of that here.

The episode is from 1988, and as mentioned features the second host, Les Dawson at the helm. Les had a dry, sarcastic wit with his version of the run. It's like he realized the show was comedic and not to be taken too seriously, and with that notion, he ran with it.

Blankety Blank, my online pick of the week!

Online Pick of the Week (8/14): Maury's Match Game Moments

Not only do I appreciate this pick of the week because one of my favorite shows, Match Game, is highlighted, but also because it comes from an era of The Maury Povich Show that is for me seldom missed now. This came from a time when the show had more than the same 5 or 6 subjects around to discuss and 90% of the shows altogether became about paternity and lie detector tests.



What I really love is that Gene was still his funny and high spirited self, years after Match Game ended. It's also nice seeing the late Brett Somers and Peter Tomarken too.

Maury's Match Game highlights, my online pick of the week!

Online Pick of the Week (7/30): Match Game Ticket Plugs

The pick for the end of this week belongs to the good old classic Match Game. Any new fan to the show wouldn't know now because they don't air on GSN, but during the show originally ticket plugs for people wanting to be in the show's audience would air. This clip provides a really good combination of them. The first few are rather standard. The crazy ones didn't come into the picture until 1979. They are pretty darn funny. Even if some of them really are kind of disturbing. At any rate, it's always nice to find rare things, especially if they involve legendary announcers, like the late, great Johnny Olson.



Match Game ticket plugs, my online pick of the week.

A Betty White Weekend

What a great weekend showcase for Betty White! Not only will fans of the legendary actress see her host Saturday Night Live for the first time ever, but there will be at least two marathons honoring her.

I was waiting to post this until we knew for sure what exact episodes would be, but since that’s apparently not happening, I am still excited to see that GSN will be having a Match Game marathon featuring Betty. The episodes are from 1974-77. Judging from the promo that's been airing, it looks to be her best episodes from the prime years of the series. From 9 am - 4 pm.

WEtv is also having a marathon of their own Saturday evening, with The Golden Girls from 6 pm - 1 am. The episodes themselves are naturally mostly Rose Nylund-centric:

6:00 pm: “Rose The Prude”
6:30 pm: “In a Bed of Rose’s"
7:00 pm: “Isn’t it Romantic?”
7:30 pm: “Love, Rose”
8:00 pm: “Letter to Gorbachev”
8:30 pm: “Rose’s Big Adventure”
9:00 pm: “Yokel Hero”
9:30 pm: “Rose Fights Back”
10:00 pm: “Dancing in the Dark”
10:30 pm: “Once, In St. Olaf”
11:00 pm: “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun… Before they Die”
11:30 pm: “The Bloom is Off the Rose”
12:00 am: “Ro$e Love$ Mile$”
12:30 am: “Rose: Portrait of a Woman”

I say “mostly” because with the episode “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun…”, Sophia seems to have the biggest focus of the episode, but Rose is still involved with Miles a good deal and it’s still a goodie. I’m a little surprised they’d air episodes the same time as SNL, but it still looks to be a lot of fun to have stuff like this to look forward to as a countdown to the big night.

Online Pick of the Week (4/2): Match Game ‘79

For the fans who haven’t had the chance to see it yet, I can think of two reasons why this episode of Match Game is worth watching.

First, it’s from 1979... a year we were about to see within the next several months, but unfortunately who knows how much longer it will be considering GSN’s latest schedule change. Secondly, it’s a big treat for people who love behind the scenes stuff. It features the show’s director Marc Breslow’s audio feed, so you can easily hear all of the shots called. Everything. All of the camera directions and studio happenings, from the slate reading to the end credits.

What’s really to be noticed is that there aren’t any stop downs to be seen here. There were some back then obviously, no show tapes perfectly. But not as many apparently. With a lot of current game shows, you usually hear about more and more of those. This episode ran like a well-oiled machine.

The Match Game ‘79 director’s track… my online pick of the week!

GSN: Upcoming Marathons

We'll be seeing some more marathons come Christmastime from GSN. Here’s the rundown (all times 9am-3pm except for the Combs and Dawson marathons, which run through 6pm):

December 24th: Combs Family Feud Marathon
December 25th: Dawson Family Feud Marathon
December 28th: Rayburn Match Game Marathon
December 29th: Deal or No Deal Marathon
December 30th: Karn Family Feud Marathon
December 31st: 1 vs. 100 Marathon
January 1st: O’Hurley Family Feud Marathon

In all honesty, this all week marathon situation is more like the Sci-Fi (or "SyFy", ugh) Channel. Deal or No Deal? Feh. Almost two whole days of the Thankgiving 4-day weekend was filled with that show. Something else should air in its place that day. I’ll be looking forward most to the Match Game, and Dawson & Combs Feud marathons, though there could have been a little less Feud too. A couple of the Match Game episodes featured are the “boobs” answer panel walkout episode from ‘74 and School Riot from ‘77. So if you do not have the DVD set and don’t have those episodes then this would be a good time to get them. As much as I find 1 vs. 100 to be an underrated show and think that it deserves a marathon, I’d rather not see it on New Year’s Eve. Dick Clark’s Pyramid should be the show for that; I mean, come on, the man is synonymous with the ringing in the new year. A Pyramid marathon would be nice even if there wasn’t as much variety with the episodes like last year.

GSN: Weekend Schedule Change

Weekends, effective November 28th, changes listed only:

9:00 am Hollywood Squares (Bergeron, SYN 1998-2004; replaces Match Game (SYN 1979-82))
9:30 am Whammy! (GSN 2002-03; replaces Password Plus (NBC 1979-82))
10:00 AM: Chain Reaction (GSN 2006; replaces Super Password (NBC 1984-89))
10:30 AM: Family Feud (O'Hurley, 2006-present; replaces Dawson Feud)
11:00 AM: Newlywed Game (with Carnie Wilson, replaces Whammy!)
11:30 AM: Catch 21 (replaces Chain Reaction)
12:00 PM: 1 vs. 100 (replaces Meredith‘s Millionaire & Bergeron’s Squares)
1:00 PM: Deal or No Deal (replaces 1 vs. 100)
3:00 AM: Catch 21 (replaces Dawson Feud (SYN 1977-85))
3:30 AM: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Vieira, 2002-present, replaces Password (CBS 1962-67))

Blech. So much blech. What an awful schedule. Seriously. I love Hollywood Squares and Meredith’s Millionaire, but there’s no redeemable qualities with these changes at all. None whatsoever. They couldn’t get a couple shows out of the vault?

Whammy! continues to be run into the ground. Deal or No Deal will be seen *FIVE* times on Saturday. And knowing now much it airs on the weekdays… this is just way too much of one show. And I thought the Thanksgiving marathon was overkill. You know, I remember there was a time period from about 4 years ago to now, there’d be a few schedule changes where there’d be something that would happen that I wouldn’t like, but in spite of the negative feelings, there much more of the schedule’s changes would be positive and I’d find myself enjoying more of the channel. This is not the case anymore. Right now there’s 3, if not 4 shows that I can sit down and enjoy on a daily basis. No variety is really to be had at all now. We have the same shows with limited runs seen over and over again. The only Goodson-Todman classics left now are Match Game, Family Feud, and the original Password. It makes me dread the possibilities of future weekday schedules.

Hell, even with the reality garbage that came along, there were more classics than this in 2004.

Happy 35th Anniversary, Match Game!

Better late than never… I spent so much time trying to have this be perfect.

On Monday, July 2, 1973, Match Game '73, the revival of the classic '60's NBC game show where big stars and big blanks led to big money, debuted on CBS. That's right, this month, my third favorite game show of all time has celebrated its 35th anniversary!

This happens to be one of my favorite revivals of a game show ever, I find there's plenty to like about this show. There was the zaniness of the questions, the contestants, the groovy music… all of which would put you in that classic ‘70’s mood.

And of course, Gene Rayburn. Gene was the best. Had a great sense of humor, always had a great rapport with the stars and the contestants. He was one of the things that really made the show in its prime the absolute best. And there’s nothing better than seeing him read a question as Old Man Periwinkle.

Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly has to be my favorite celebrity duo on a game show, ever. I love hearing them make cracks about each other; they worked so well together. And Richard Dawson, who I loved best from 1973-77, was entertaining as well. He seemed to be best in his earlier days of game shows to me, both on this show and I’ve Got A Secret. The semi-regulars were a treat as well; you had the poet-laureate of television Nipsey Russell, Betty White, Joyce Bulifant, Patti Deutsch, Elaine Joyce, and last but not least, Fannie Flagg with her colorful and loud shirts.

I’d say my favorite set was the one used from 1973-78. I’ve never been a big fan of the blue set from 1978-82, which is kind of odd considering my favorite color is blue. The first set really resembled the decade to me the most.

As for the other versions, I’m thinking the Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour would have been so much better if the Hollywood Squares portion was executed better, and if they got a better host than Jon Bauman. The 1990 version I thought was pretty decent. Not that I think Ross Shafer did a bad job, because I think he did fine, but I really wish that Bert Convy got to host it, especially after seeing a clip of one of the pilot episodes. And I think the 1998 version is best left forgotten.

Happy (belated) 35th anniversary and thanks for all the blanking memories!

Remembering Another Game Show Legend: Brett Somers

The game show community has suffered yet another major loss this year. Born Audrey Johnston, to us known as Brett Somers, who was best known for her appearances as a regular on the 1973-1982 versions of Match Game, has passed away over the weekend. She died from complications of stomach and colon cancer. She was 83.

Fans of The Odd Couple would also recognize her recurring appearances as Oscar Madison's ex-wife, Blanche Somers-Madison. Madison was played by her husband, Jack Klugman. It wasn't the idea in the beginning to have Brett on as a regular. But in the very beginning Jack was on the show and suggested that Brett should be added, and soon after she was, and magic would soon be in the air once more at Television City.

Several months ago, another Match regular, Charles Nelson Reilly, also passed away. Brett and Charles are one of my favorite television duos and game show panelists of all time. They both had their ways of making us laugh with their answers with questions filled with titillating innuendo, sometimes at her expense. For example, "You may or may not believe in reincarnation, but listen to this. In a previous life, Brett used to be a ________. "And stints like "lower tier imitates the upper tier." And it's always fun to see them make fun of each other's horrible answers.

I'll be watching the GSN marathon of Match Game episodes this coming Saturday, and the rare ABC Password episode from 1971 with both Brett and Jack appearing later on with a heavy heart as we say goodbye to yet another game show legend. I'm sure Brett, Charles, Gene Rayburn, and Johnny Olson are together again somewhere, known as Gene himself would call it sometimes "The Big Match Game in the sky."