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Match Game 1990-91 thoughts

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whewfan:
No, Orson was never in the Dawson seat, in fact I don't think he ever did the syndicated run or daytime run after 1977. Perhaps by that point he was considered a little too "old school."

Brian44:
Orson did at least 1 week in '79.

calliaume:

--- Quote from: Adam Nedeff on February 21, 2025, 02:27:30 AM ---I went on a bingewatch of the final season. It wasn't so much drunkenness that stuck out to me, it was how "checked out" everyone was. The moment that sticks out to me is one that involves Brett. With about nine weeks to go, there was an episode that opens with "Get ready to match the stars..." and when Johnny announces Brett Somers, Brett's chair is empty. "As we play the star-studded big-money Match Game!" The set lights up, and Brett is crossing the stage with a cup in her hands and heading to her seat. Wasn't a bit or anything--she just wasn't there when tape started rolling and nobody CARED.

--- End quote ---
One possibility is that someone decided they weren't going to let the problems they were having on Feud, with tapings running long because of Richard Dawson, repeat on their other shows.

By that point, I suspect everybody knew the end was near. Match Game PM had ended, and I'm sure the show was getting weaker time slots -- at that point most markets certainly had Family Feud and then-hot Tic Tac Dough in prime access, and the one station that didn't probably ran something like PM Magazine as counterprogramming (or Entertainment Tonight, which was new that year). In New York, Match Game moved from 4:30 PM on WCBS in 1980 to 6:30 PM on WOR (the weakest of the independent stations) in 1981 -- but by November had already been moved to 2:30 PM (in favor of The New You Asked For It).

Hollywood Squares had gone through the same thing the previous year -- Peter Marshall noted in his book that when he needed help from Jay Redack and Bob Quigley, they were at the blackjack tables and couldn't be found, because the assumption was the rest of the staff could handle anything by themselves. (And if people were upset by Dawson not smiling in his final days on MG, look at Paul Lynde during some of the opens before the show logo appears.)

It's a shame the people in front of the camera felt this way, although it's understandable—after nine years or more, it's like being at a party that's gone on too long, and a few people are obviously looking to leave. But for the people who did the production work, it had to be frustrating knowing your job was coming to an end.

EDIT: I vaguely recall somebody saying here that in 1981, MGP considered moving Match Game tapings from CBS to Merv Griffin's Trans-American Video theater as a cost-cutting move, but it turned out the MG set wouldn't fit on Merv's stage. Can someone verify?

TLEberle:
I've had a browser tab on BUZZR for a while now (caught some of the TPIR mini-marathon) and happened upon MG '90. I wouldn't say that it's a home run but I think it's a solid double into the gap in the outfield.

Ross knows the beats and does not hail from genus Grumpasaurus Rex, so that's a win. I think as the series wore on he would be better at either reining in his charges or taking a signal from production to move on with it. I thought Jimmie Walker was funny almost uproarious, and didn't feel like he was getting in the way at all. "From the Simpsons, Marcia Wallace!" was certainly a trip. I don't know if MGP set aside the notion of regulars other than Charles, but I think a comedian in the five-hole would have been good. Given that a livestream doesn't allow you to skip forward I don't think there were a ton of twiddle thumbs moments or wishing I could move ahead

That said, Match Game needs a speed round like I need a $19,000 wine cooler. I hate that contestants get to speak all of twice and their fate is in the hands of stars who may or may not have drank their lunch. I think something like allowing each player the chance to play Match-up with all six celebrities and matching blank phrases instead of the 50/50 shot would have been an improvement.

KOMO carried the show but I think at 11 am--I don't recall having to choose between it an TPIR, so the newscast or preemption was never an issue here. I wonder if this is a case where being able to get a renewal into 1992 would help the show find its footing, add a bit of prestige and maybe last a few more years. I don't think a straight transfusion from 1973 was going to do it, but what we got obviously didn't stick the landing either.

whewfan:
I could give an argument of Match Up being a necessity for this version... look no further than Match Game 98. That version had all celebs playing both rounds, but with a broken scoring system. Never mind that later in the run, with Pearson, that owned Goodson productions at the time, insisted on a LOT of matching, thus questions in the later part of the run usually only had ONE very obvious answer, and no other possible answers, and even worse, very obvious efforts by the panel to be sure they all had the same answer... it looked like a group of students cheating on the test without a teacher around... I think once, Nell wrote the same answer on multiple cards and passed them along! For me it made the game less fun knowing everyone would have the same answer.

With the scoring on MG 98, and the nature of the questions, either you would match everyone or nobody... there was no room for error. You had to match each celeb twice, whereas in the 70s run, you only needed to match each celeb once. Match Up would've made this version as well as MG 90 a more fair way to compensate for any matches you didn't make in the other rounds.

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