July 2, 1973: "Match Game" Premieres

Gene Rayburn with the panel on February 15, 1974,

after one of the show's most famous moments.

Top, left to right: Steve Allen, Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly.

Bottom, left to right: Fannie Flagg, Richard Dawson, Kaye Ballard.

July 2, 1973: Match Game '73 premieres on CBS. The addition of the year was necessary, because a previous version of the show had aired on NBC from 1962 to 1969. As each year changed, it became Match Game '74, Match Game '75, Match Game '76, Match Game '77, Match Game '78 and Match Game '79.

The 1960s version, filmed at NBC's studios at Rockefeller Center in New York, was hosted by Gene Rayburn, who had starred in the original Broadway production of Bye, Bye, Birdie, along with 2 other men who would become TV game show mainstays, Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly. Although Gene was happily married, he later developed an onscreen persona of a womanizer. Despite these facts, he remained friends with Lynde and Reilly, both of whom were gay (but never a couple), and hid this on TV to varying degrees.

The format of the original version of Match Game was similar to that of Password, in which there were two contestants and two "celebrity panelists." As host, Gene would read a card with a statement or phrase on it, with a blank space, which he pronounced with the word "blank," and the contestant had to try to match the word (or words) that the panelist had written down.

In 1973, CBS revived the series, videotaping it at Studio 33 at CBS Television City in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, California. By this time, Rayburn, a son of Croatian immigrants who grew up in Chicago, was living on Massachusetts' Cape Cod. So it went like this: He would drive to Boston on a Friday night, take the "redeye" out of Logan International Airport to Los Angeles, and tape 5 shows, an entire week's worth, on a Saturday; do this again on Sunday; and then fly back to Boston on Sunday night, arriving back home on Cape Cod on Monday morning.

This new version was broadcast in color, with a garish orange set. Gene would sometimes wear suits, supplied by Rubin Brothers International, that matched the set; other times, his suits would purposely clash. (Reilly liked to say that whenever Gene wore his green suit, the panelists were in trouble.) On occasion, he wore a tie that seemed to have bullseyes on it, which I initially mistook for CBS' familiar "Eye" logo. In 1978, a redesign of the set added a considerable amount of blue.

The panelists were arranged in two "tiers." From the TV viewer's perspective, the upper tier would be a male panelist, a female panelist, and another male; the lower tier would be female, male, female. The panelists on the 1st week of shows, from July 2 to 6, 1973 were as follows: Michael Landon, Vicki Lawrence, Jack Klugman, Jo Ann Pflug, Richard Dawson and Anita Gillette.

Landon had just wrapped up 14 years of playing "Little Joe" Cartwright on Bonanza, and would soon begin playing Charles Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, enabling him to finally be called what he called Lorne Greene's Ben, "Pa."

Lawrence was a member of the cast of The Carol Burnett Show, which taped from the exact same studio. Klugman was then playing Oscar Madison on The Odd Couple. Pflug was then a part of the cast of Candid Camera. Dawson was an English actor who had been part of the casts of Hogan's Heroes and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Gillette was an actress who was a regular panelist on game shows.

Most of the time, the contestants would be 1 man and 1 woman. Sometimes, it was 2 women, but never 2 men. The 1st contestants were 2 women: Joan Roselle, and Stanley Viltz, a black woman from Los Angeles, who explained that her mother had seen Bette Davis play a woman named Stanley in the 1942 film This Is Our Life, and liked it, and named her daughter that.

The 1st question was this: "The sexiest thing a woman can wear is (blank)." So, right off the bat, there was a hint that this was a game show for the post-Hays Code era. Joan said, "a negligee." Landon said, "Herself." Lawrence said, "Nothing." Klugman said, "With the exclusion of my wife: Nothing." Pflug said, "A long dress." Dawson said, "Perfume" -- referencing a question Marilyn Monroe was once asked about what she wore to bed, suggesting no clothes. Gillette said, "Nothing." So Joan got no matches. At the end of 2 rounds, Stanley was the winner, getting one match to Joan's none.

Speaking of his wife: Klugman was then married to actress and playwright Brett Somers, who played Oscar's ex-wife Blanche on The Odd Couple. Life was imitating art -- or was it the other way around? Although they raised 2 sons together, Jack and Brett were always fighting, though they respected each other's work. So when Brett said that Match Game looked like fun, Jack suggested to Gene, who suggested to co-creators and co-producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, that Brett be a panelist, too.

For one week, they were seated side-by-side on the stage's upper tier. And they went at it, zinger for zinger. Finally, it would be just Brett, and she and Jack split up in 1974. Brett developed a stage persona where she was mean to the other panelists, especially Charles Nelson Reilly, who began appearing regularly late in 1973, as she did. Each frequently accused the other of copying their answers.

Brett would also pretend to have antagonistic relationships with other panelists, including comedy writer Fannie Flagg (Brett often referenced Fannie's Southern roots and accent, and her large chest) and Mary Tyler Moore show actress Betty White (referencing her animal activism and her marriage to Password host Allen Ludden). Yet she was usually kind to the contestants, often apologizing for not matching when it looked like the contestant might lose.

Brett also developed a persona as a "dirty old lady," or a "cougar" as we would say now. Already 49 years old, and wearing wigs to hide her gray hair, when the show began, she would flirt with contestants, and sometimes with the male panelist to her right, saying, "I'm crazy about him," while insulting Charles, to her left. By July 1974, she and Gene had a running gag where, after a show, they would go to a cheap motel in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino.

Gene didn't help matters, hitting on contestants and panelists alike. By August 1975, he was placing rookie female panelists in the Number 4 seat, and saying, "We got a new kid on the block," and giving them the "proper welcome": He would spritz breath spray into his mouth, and kiss them on the lips. 

None ever objected, although Broadway star Elaine Joyce, a semi-regular in that seat, would often complain about Gene hitting on her. Vicki once sat in that seat, and as Gene was kissing her on the neck, said, "Boy, are you gonna get it!" He stopped. As Brett did with the other female panelists, he knew how far he could go, and went no further.

So a regular panel would be: A popular actor, Brett, Charles, a popular actress, Richard, and a female comedy star. That Number 6 seat, though, tended to produce, as Gene put it, "weirdo answers": Fannie, Betty, her fellow Mary Tyler Moore show castmember Joyce Bulifant, Bob Newhart Show castmember Marcia Wallace, and former Laugh-In writer and star Patti Deutsch would come up with answers that were, at times, barely comprehensible.

In her first appearance, on October 29, 1973, Fannie used the word "pee," and it was edited out. Goodson told her that the verb to use in such a situation was "tinkle," and that if she ever used the other one again, she would be banned from the show. She never used it again, and remained a regular to the end.

On that same show, a question began, "Bertha was so fat... " and panelist Bert Convy, himself an esteemed game-show host, asked, "How fat was she, Gene?" "How hot was it?" and "How dumb is he?" jokes became a running gag on the show, although they may have been started earlier by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.

The name "Dumb Dora" had been around since the 1920s, and Brett objected to the use of the name. Rather than get rid of good jokes on the basis of feminism, they gave Dumb Dora a masculine equivalent: Dumb Donald. There was also Weird Willie and Weird Wanda, Horrible Hank and Horrible Hannah, and Fat Fred and Fat Freida. Without gender counterparts were Skinny Minnie, Mean Marvin, Rodney Rich, Cheap Charlie, Absent-Minded Andy, and Muggsy, whose neighborhood was so tough!

Just as "tinkle" became the euphemism for urination, when the answer should have been "prostitute," Brett often said, "A rugmaker, or hooker." When the answer was "rear end," Richard Dawson would use the French "derrière," and, on at least 2 occasions, Betty wrote, "Dairy Air."

But you couldn't make reference to sex organs on Match Game. On September 13, 1973, just 2 months after the show began, this clue came up: "The Jolly Green Giant has a giant green (blank)!" Gene cracked up, dropped the card with the clue on it, and told everyone, "You're on your own!" Both Richard and comedian Stu Gilliam figured out that, having a garden, the JGG, mascot of Green Giant frozen foods, had a "green thumb."

And when the answer had to be "breasts," they got around it by saying, "bosoms" -- sometimes pronouncing it "ba-zooms." But on February 15, 1974, this clue came up: "The Big Bad Wolf said, 'I just came from this house, where this old lady had the biggest (blank)s I ever saw!'" And the contestant, Valerie Wood -- a woman, mind you -- said, "Boobs!"

The studio audience lost their minds. And every panelist except Richard walked off the stage, apparently afraid that the show was going to be canceled, and they wanted to show they weren't to blame. Gene brought them back, but Fannie walked over and politely slapped Valerie's hand. Brett reminded Fannie that she shouldn't object, "because you got the biggest ones in the room!" Fannie screamed, but what could she do? It was true: Never mind Raquel Welch, Fannie could give Dolly Parton a run for her money. (Ironically, given her stage name, she had no butt at all. She couldn't use her real name, Patricia Neal, because there was already an Oscar-winning actress with that name.)

Steve Allen did not match. Brett did. So did Charles, except he used the more genteel answer "Busts." Gene moved over to Fannie, and said, "Speaking of bazooms, Fannie, show us yours." And she shrieked again, and her answer was "Berries." Richard matched, and singer-actress Kaye Ballard said, "Feets." (It was, after all, "blanks" instead of "blank.") In spite of everything, CBS aired the episode, unedited, on March 4.

Gene called Steve's answer "pillows" a "rotten answer." He began using that term regularly, so that became the "hinge episode" of the show: From that point onward, almost anything went.

And Joyce Bulifant became the queen of rotten answers. On one 1975 episode, the question was, "The lady said to the bald man, 'I don't care if you are Allen Funt: Get your Candid Camera out of my (blank)!'" "Bedroom" and "bathroom" would both have been good answers, and the panelists were split between them -- except Joyce, who said, "Get your Candid Camera out of my pie." (Funt hosted Candid Camera. Fannie was a writer for that show, and, like Pflug, a frequent onscreen participant.)

Depending on the character in the questions -- "(Whoever it was) said... " -- Gene would sometimes do accents that bordered on what we now call "casual racism." His Godfather impression was bad, his French accent (when doing Jacques Cousteau) was worse, and his Chinese ("brank" instead of "blank") and Indian accents were atrocious.

And whatever impression he could do, Richard Dawson could it better, especially W.C. Fields, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and Boris Karloff as Dr. Frankenstein or the Frankenstein Monster. (Richard also did Groucho Marx, and Stan Laurel of Laurel & Hardy, neither of which Gene did.)

In addition to the preceding, among the semi-regular panelists were Bob Newhart Show castmembers Bill Daily and Marcia Wallace. Marcia was, aside from Brett, the only female panelist who regularly returned Gene's flirting. It would bother her when she matched Bill. It would also bother her when she matched Brett, whom she sometimes called "the Somers Woman." And, once, in 1978, acknowledging a painful truth, she said that, when a panelist was stuck for an answer, you had a 50-50 shot at getting a match if you said, "Boobs," or, "Howard Cosell." 

Patti Deutsch also once called Brett "the Somers Woman." And, like many panelists, she despised Richard Nixon, who resigned as President shortly after the show's 1st anniversary. She called him "Private Citizen Nixon" and "the San Clemente Recluse."

But she wouldn't say, "Boobs." She would say, "Upper Frontals," or "Chestal Area." If the answer was, "Wife," she would say, "The Little Woman." And if the answer was some kind of food, she would add, "...To Go."

Star Trek star William Shatner was a panelist 3 times. Two former Miss Americas were semi-regular panelists: Lee Meriwether, 1955; and Mary Ann Mobley, 1959. Three Academy Award winners were panelists: Patty Duke (using her then-married name, Patty Duke Astin), George Kennedy and Rita Moreno. On occasion when Patty wasn't there, Brett would launch into some act, and Charles, an acting teacher and a director as well as an actor himself, would say, "It's a good thing Patty Duke isn't here to see such lousy acting!" One time, Brett tempted fate while Charles, Patty and George were all there, but only Charles called her out.

Three professional athletes were panelists: Baseball pitcher Don Sutton (available because he was then pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers), and former football defensive linemen Rosey Grier and Alex Karras (both available because they had become actors by that point). Despite Richard's background, and some other natives of the British Commonwealth, only one panelist would ever be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II: Dame Joan Collins appeared for a week in 1975.

The oldest panelist ever was Arlene Francis, the former What's My Line? standby, who was 70 when she made her last appearance. The youngest panelist was Valerie Bertinelli, of the CBS sitcom One Day at a Time, who was 18 when she made her first appearance. (Her co-stars Bonnie Franklin and Pat Harrington also appeared.)

Actresses Brianne Leary and Kirstie Alley, talk-show host Jenny Jones, football coach Brian Billick, and advertising executive turned TV show host Donnie Deutsch were contestants before becoming famous. Leary, Alley and Deutsch each won 1 game, but Jones and Billick didn't. Deutsch survived blowing his 1st question, which was, as fate would have it, a Dumb Donald question. Just 3 years after her appearance, Leary was part of the cast of CHiPs, and became the only former Match Game contestant to become a panelist.

In 1976, Goodson and Todman created another game show, Family Feud, and named Richard the host. He became a bigger star than ever, but began to feel that he wasn't getting enough respect on Match Game. He left the show in August 1978, a few weeks after the set-design change.

The show never really recovered from his departure, and CBS canceled it early the next year. It returned in syndication, known as simply Match Game, without the year as a suffix, running until June 15, 1982. There was also a nighttime version, known as Match Game PM, that ran from 1975 to 1981, where there was a little more leeway with how explicit the answers could be.

It returned as the 1st half of The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour in 1983, with Jon Bauman, a.k.a. Bowzer of the music group Sha Na Na. They did Match Game first, with Bauman as a panelist, then he and Gene switched, and Jon would host Hollywood Squares while Gene was a panelist. But that only lasted 9 months. Another version, without Rayburn, lasted a little over a year, in 1990-91. Rayburn died in 1999, a few weeks after another revival ended after a year.

Among regular and semi-regular panelists, and others involved with the show: Producer Bill Todman died in 1979, Bert Convy in 1991, producer Mark Goodson in 1992, Mary Wickes in 1995, McLean Stevenson in 1996, David Doyle in 1997, Avery Schreiber in 2002, Debralee Scott and Nipsey Russell in 2005, Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers within a few weeks of each other in 2007, Dick Martin in 2008, producer and judge (often infuriating people with deciding certain answers weren't matched) Ira Skutch in 2010, Richard Dawson in 2012, Marcia Wallace in 2013, Mary Ann Mobley in 2014, Patty Duke in 2016, Patti Deutsch in 2017, Bill Daily in 2018, Orson Bean in 2020, Betty White in 2021, and Scoey Mitchell in 2022.

As of July 3, 2022, semi-regular panelists still alive include Jo Anne Worley, Ann Elder, Lee Meriwether, Joyce Bulifant and Gary Burghoff.

Alec Baldwin hosted a new version on ABC, starting in 2016. This version lasted 5 years, and was considerably looser with the standards, and you could say almost anything. Valerie Bertinelli was the only panelist on the original show who became a panelist on this version, although former contestant Kirstie Alley became one as well.

UPDATE: In 2025, ABC brought it back, with Martin Short as host.

*

July 2, 1973 was a Monday. Betty Grable, the 1940s "pinup girl" with "the Million Dollar Legs," died on that day, of lung cancer, only 56 years old. A few weeks later, Charles Nelson Reilly paid a nice tribute to her on Match Game.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 1-0 at Yankee Stadium. John Curtis pitched an 8-hit shutout. Fritz Peterson allowed only 2 hits, but 1 was a home run to Dwight Evans in the 5th inning.

* The New York Mets lost to the Montreal Expos, 2-1 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Charles "Boots" Day hit a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Buzz Capra gave up the homer, in relief of George Stone. Steve Renko pitched all 10 innings for the win. Despite being on the Mets' roster, Willie Mays, in his final season, did not play in the game.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3, but did draw a walk.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 9-5 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Gary Mathews, Bobby Bonds and Chris Speier hit home runs for the Giants. Davey Johnson and Hank Aaron hit them for the Braves. For Aaron, it was the 694th of his career. Only 20 more to go. But he was beginning to get the hate mail.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Al Kaline did not play.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose and Johnny Bench each went 1-for-4.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Lou Brock went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Rookie Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Harmon Killebrew did not play. Rod Carew went 4-for-5.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 8-5 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The California Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Clyde Wright outpitched Vida Blue. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* And the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled.