46 Fun Facts About Match Game

Match Game regular Richard Dawson was once married to which British film star?

Diana Dors was Dawson's first wife; he moved to the United States with her, and they had two sons, Mark and Gary, before divorcing in the 1960s.

Gene Rayburn took over the lead in which Broadway musical in 1961?

Bye Bye Birdie needed a new Albert Peterson when Dick Van Dyke left the cast, and for a time Rayburn's understudy in the role was a future Match Game panelist, Charles Nelson Reilly.

Which production company made Match Game?

Goodson-Todman rebuilt the show for its 1973 return, moving it from New York to Los Angeles, adding more celebrities and raising the prize money.

What is Match Game called in its British version?

Blankety Blank made a running joke of its cheap prizes on the BBC: every losing contestant went home with a Blankety Blank chequebook and pen.

The original Match Game premiered in 1962 on which date in the holiday calendar?

New Year's Eve stayed special: in the 1970s the show's sign, which carried the year, was swapped on air each December 31 to the strains of Auld Lang Syne.

The 1960s Match Game used Studio 8H, now home to which show?

Saturday Night Live inherited a room built in the 1930s as a giant radio studio, where Arturo Toscanini conducted a symphony orchestra on air before television moved in.

What saved Match Game from its 1963 cancellation?

Funnier, more risqué questions came from writer Dick DeBartolo, with blanks like 'Mary likes to pour gravy all over John's ____'; the show had already been axed, so the producer had nothing to lose.

Which magazine was question writer Dick DeBartolo best known for?

MAD made sure DeBartolo had a piece in every issue for more than fifty years, and he kept mailing in Match Game questions from New York after the show moved west.

Which network revived Match Game in 1973 with a six-celebrity panel?

CBS put the year in the title, starting with Match Game 73, and the studio sign was changed on air, to Auld Lang Syne, each time a new year arrived.

Brett Somers joined the panel at the request of which actor, her husband at the time?

Jack Klugman, a panelist in the show's first week, insisted the producers try his wife; Somers stayed for the whole nine-year run.

Which M*A*S*H actor filled in for Charles Nelson Reilly on Match Game in 1974–75, then stayed as a semi-regular?

Gary Burghoff, M*A*S*H's Radar, covered the seat while Reilly was in New York doing a Broadway play, and he kept coming back as a guest for years afterwards.

Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly usually sat in which part of Match Game's panel?

The top row seated the week's male guest, then Somers and Reilly, whose sparring side by side became a running act; Richard Dawson sat below, in the centre of the bottom row.

On the 1970s Match Game, the champion sat behind a red circle; which shape marked the challenger's seat?

A green triangle marked the challenger's seat on the network show; the syndicated versions had no returning champion, so a backstage coin toss decided who sat where.

Which recurring Match Game character had the audience shouting 'How ____ is she' back?

Dumb Dora questions began 'Dumb Dora is so dumb...', and the whole audience roared back 'How dumb is she?' before Rayburn could finish; a male twin, Dumb Donald, got the same treatment.

What was the name of the fictional sleazy country in many Match Game questions?

Other stock subjects included Superman, King Kong, Tarzan, the Lone Ranger and Howard Cosell.

What was Match Game's 1970s bonus round called?

The Super Match came in two parts: first the contestant tried to match a studio audience's favourite answers, then faced one celebrity head to head for ten times the money.

Which hit show was spun off from Match Game's Audience Match round?

Family Feud turned the Audience Match's survey answers into a whole show in 1976, built as a vehicle for Match Game's most popular panelist, Richard Dawson.

In 1975, Match Game's producers briefly banned contestants from doing what?

Picking the same panelist twice in a row was outlawed because nearly everyone chose Richard Dawson for the big-money match; the rule was scrapped within weeks.

What device did Match Game introduce in 1978 to choose the celebrity for its Head-to-Head Match?

The Star Wheel was meant to spread the big-money match around the panel, yet on its very first spin it stopped on Richard Dawson, and his fellow panelists walked off in mock disbelief.

Which host taped the pilots for Match Game's 1990 revival but had to withdraw after falling ill?

Bert Convy, a Match Game panelist since the 1960s, hosted a week of pilots in 1989 but was diagnosed with a brain tumour before the series began, so the job went to another host.

Richard Dawson parodied his TV-host image as Damon Killian in which Arnold Schwarzenegger film?

The Running Man cast Dawson as the smiling host of a deadly TV game show, a villainous twist on his own persona that critics singled out for praise.

What was the weekly syndicated evening edition of Match Game called?

Match Game PM ran once a week from 1975 to 1981, and because its games proved too short to fill the half-hour, a third round of questions was added.

Match Game's announcer Johnny Olson is best remembered for which game-show call?

Come on down! was Olson's summons to contestants on The Price Is Right, and his successors there still shout it; he announced Match Game from 1962 to 1982.

In 1983, Match Game was paired with which other game show to fill a single hour?

Hollywood Squares filled the second half of the hour under Jon Bauman of Sha Na Na, while Rayburn ran the Match Game half; the hybrid lasted nine months.

Who hosted the 1990 ABC revival of Match Game?

Ross Shafer stepped in shortly before taping began and signed off the last show by promising a move to 'another channel, another time', which never happened.

Which Dallas actress hosted MG2, a 1996 Match Game pilot that never aired?

Charlene Tilton, Dallas's Lucy Ewing and once a Match Game panelist herself, fronted a pilot that strayed so far from the old format that producers reworked it before the 1998 series.

Who hosted Match Game's 2016 prime-time revival on ABC?

Alec Baldwin hosted and produced the revival, which brought Match Game back to New York, the city it had left for Los Angeles in the 1970s.

Who presents the 2025 ABC revival of Match Game?

Martin Short hosts and executive-produces the revival, which left the United States altogether: the previous version was taped in New York, his in Montreal.

Why did Gene Rayburn believe he was passed over to host Match Game's 1990 revival?

His age became public when a TV reporter revealed that Rayburn, widely assumed to be younger, was nearly 70; he blamed the disclosure for costing him work from then on.

In 2013, which magazine ranked the 1970s Match Game No. 4 among the greatest game shows ever?

TV Guide put the 1973–79 version fourth on its list of the 60 greatest game shows, yet the show never won the Daytime Emmy for best game show despite two nominations.

How did Gene Rayburn pick his stage name?

He was born Eugene Peter Jeljenic to Croatian immigrants in Christopher, Illinois.

Gene Rayburn was the announcer and sidekick on whose Tonight show?

Steve Allen's Tonight gave a television seat to a New York radio name: Rayburn's WNEW morning show with Dee Finch had helped to popularise drive-time radio.

Where did Gene Rayburn keep his home while Match Game taped in Los Angeles?

The East Coast stayed home: long after most of the television industry had moved to California, Rayburn kept commuting across the country to tape Match Game in Los Angeles.

Which sitcom role made Richard Dawson famous before Match Game?

Cpl. Newkirk in Hogan's Heroes kept the English-born Dawson on American screens for six seasons, from 1965 to 1971, as one of the prisoners running rings round their guards.

Richard Dawson met his second wife, Gretchen Johnson, in which way?

She was a contestant on his show in 1981, playing with her family on the game he then hosted; they married ten years later and had a daughter.

Dawson's habit of smooching contestants on his later show earned what nickname?

The Kissing Bandit traced the habit to one nervous contestant early in the show's run: he gave her a kiss for luck to calm her down, and it became a ritual with every woman who played.

On which sitcom did Brett Somers play Blanche, Oscar Madison's ex-wife?

Oscar was played by her real-life husband Jack Klugman.

In which country was Brett Somers born?

Canada was home only briefly: born Audrey Johnston in New Brunswick, she grew up in Maine, left for New York in her teens and took the name Brett from a Hemingway heroine.

Charles Nelson Reilly won a Tony for which Broadway musical?

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying won Reilly the 1962 Tony for creating the scheming Bud Frump, a year after he had been a mere understudy in another hit.

Reilly played the magician Hoodoo on which Krofft children's show?

Lidsville was a land of living hats, and Reilly's villain HooDoo terrorised it from the air, zapping the good hat people and demanding that they pay his Hat Tax.

What lifelong passion did Reilly pursue as a director later in his career?

Opera was Reilly's first ambition: he trained as a singer, gave it up for want of a big enough voice, and came back years later to stage productions for companies from Chicago to Santa Fe.

Frequent panelist Fannie Flagg later wrote which bestselling novel?

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe spent 36 weeks on the bestseller list, and the script Flagg co-wrote for the 1991 film version earned her an Oscar nomination.

Betty White's first-for-a-woman Daytime Emmy as game show host came for which show?

Just Men! had White quizzing a panel of seven male celebrities, and although it was dropped after only 13 weeks, it made her the first woman to win the Emmy for game show host.

Which game show host and sometime Match Game panelist was Betty White's husband?

Allen Ludden met White when she was a celebrity guest on his show Password; she kept turning down his proposals before marrying him in 1963.

The host of Match Game's 2016 revival won an Emmy in 2017 for impersonating whom?

Donald Trump was copied so convincingly that in 2017 a Dominican newspaper printed a photo of the impression in place of the real president, then apologised.

Which talk-show host fronted a one-off Match Game for the 2006 special series Gameshow Marathon?

Ricki Lake presided over a set rebuilt to match the 1970s original, and Betty White returned to her old seat as the only panelist from the classic series.