The Match Game
| Match Game | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by | Frank Wayne |
| Directed by | Jim Elson, Ira Skutch, Rodger Wolf, Mike Gargiulo (1962–69) Marc Breslow (1973–91) Randall Neece (1998–99) Beth McCarthy-Miller (2016–) |
| Presented by |
Gene Rayburn (1962–82) Ross Shafer (1990–91) Michael Burger (1998–99) Alec Baldwin (2016–) |
| Narrated by |
Johnny Olson (1962–82) Gene Wood (1990–91) Paul Boland (1998–99) Steve French (2016–) |
| Theme music composer |
Bert Kaempfert (1962–67) Score Productions (1967–present) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes |
The Match Game: 1,760 Match Game 7x: 1,455 (16 unaired) Match Game PM: 230 Match Game (1979–82): 525 Match Game (1990–91): 250 Match Game (2016–): 13 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Jean Kopelman (1962–69) Ira Skutch (1973–82) Jonathan Goodson, Chester Feldman (1990–91) Kevin Belinkoff (1998–99) Scott St. John (2016–) |
| Location(s) |
NBC Studios New York, New York (1962–69) CBS Television City Hollywood, California (1973–82, 1998–99) ABC Television Center Hollywood, California (1990–91) ABC Studio TV-24 New York, New York (2016–) |
| Running time | 22–26 minutes (1962–1999) 42–46 minutes (2016) |
| Production company(s) | Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions (1962–82) Sojourn Productions, Inc. (1962–69) Celebrity Productions, Inc. (1973–81) The Match Game Company (1981–82) Mark Goodson Productions (1983–99) Orion Television (1983–84) The MG Company (1990–91) MG Productions, Inc. (1998–99) Triple Threat Productions (2016–) Entertain the Brutes (2016–) |
| Distributor | Jim Victory Television (1975–82) Pearson Television (1998–99) El Dorado Pictures (2016–) FremantleMedia North America (2016–) |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC (1962–69) CBS (1973–79) ABC (1990–91, 2016–) Syndicated (1975–81, weekly; 1979–82 and 1998–99, daily) |
| Picture format | Black and White (1962–69, kinescopes) Color (NTSC) (1962–69, videotapes) 480i SDTV (1973–1999) 720p HDTV (2016–present) |
| Audio format |
Mono (1962–84) Stereo (1990–99) 5.1 Surround (2016–present) |
| Original release |
The Match Game December 31, 1962 – September 26, 1969 Match Game 73–79 July 2, 1973 – April 20, 1979 Match Game PM September 8, 1975 – September 13, 1981 Match Game September 10, 1979 – September 10, 1982 July 16, 1990 – July 12, 1991 September 21, 1998–May 1999 June 26, 2016 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour |
Match Game is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and was revived several times over the course of the next few decades. The game featured contestants trying to come up with answers to fill-in-the-blank questions, with the object being to match answers given by celebrity panelists.
The Match Game in its original version ran on NBC's daytime lineup from 1962 until 1969. The show returned with a significantly changed format in 1973 on CBS (also in daytime) and became a major success, with an expanded panel, larger cash payouts, and emphasis on humor. The CBS series, referred to on air as Match Game 73 to start and updated every new year, ran until 1979 on CBS, at which point it moved to first-run syndication (without the year attached to the title, as Match Game) and ran for three more seasons, ending in 1982. Concurrently with the weekday run, from 1975 to 1981, a five-night-a-week fringe time version, Match Game PM, was also offered in syndication for airing just before prime time hours.
Match Game returned to NBC in 1983 as part of a sixty-minute hybrid series with Hollywood Squares, then saw a daytime run on ABC in 1990 and another for syndication in 1998; each of these series lasted one season. It returned to ABC in a weekly prime time edition on June 26, 2016, running as an off-season replacement series. All of these revivals used the 1970s format as their basis, with varying modifications.
The series was a production of Mark Goodson/Bill Todman Productions, along with its successor companies, and has been franchised around the world, often under the name .
In 2013, TV Guide ranked the 1973–79 version CBS version of Match Game as No. 4 on its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.
The Match Game premiered on December 31, 1962. Gene Rayburn was host and Johnny Olson served as announcer; for the series premiere, Arlene Francis and Skitch Henderson were the two celebrity panelists. The show was taped in Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, NBC's largest New York studio, which since 1975 has housed Saturday Night Live, among other shows.
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