Wow, this takes me back to early childhood, my foster Dad would come home from the shop for lunch after my Mom spent the morning doing her ironing watching these game shows, I remember the smell of her fabric softener, it smelled like a pink baby's blanket. Later the lunch smells of fresh perked coffee and soup, sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, pickles, green onions, radishes, Ernie liked hot things like those little yellow peppers that made your eyes water. We would listen to Paul Harvey on the radio..."This is Paul Harvey..good day" ! She would then read the mail she received from her grown Daughter back East who's husband was an AF jet mechanic . It's odd how an old game show theme can open a window on the past. Gawd, I'd give anything to revisit the early 60's, just for a day, to see my deceased folks again and be their little boy instead of the old man I am now. JD
I was in the Match Game audience in February 1968 (aired the next month or so), and to a then-15-year-old it was fun. The celebrity guests were Morey Amsterdam and Phyllis Newman. Two shows were filmed in the same day--about an hour and a half. At the start of the second show, Gene Rayburn commented that some of the audience members (unchanged from the first show, of course) looked very familiar. The set was a nice maroon and wood (not the same as in this pilot). I wasn't on camera at any point. Sorry for all this reminiscing, but this brought it back.
+Bob Frost I dimly remember that NBC taped the old Match Game at Rockefeller Center on Wednesdays and Fridays (3 on Wednesday, 2 Friday). And the bonus round, where some large number of people were supposedly surveyed, involved the answer of only one person or just a very few that the contestants had to match. It was easy to get tickets. No waiting list lasting for months on end.
+prchristman Now, most game shows will tape a week's worth of shows in one day. I went to see Wheel of Fortune a couple of years ago. They taped 2 shows before lunch with one audience, then 3 shows after lunch with another. So if they tape all week long, that's five weeks worth of programming. Very efficient.
+CrazyWedz I can't imagine them taping all week long. They'd be done with the year in three months or so. Anyway, it was great fun back in 1968 to see all that color on a show I watched on a 1952 back-and-white set.
+CrazyWedz Just a P.S. Gene Rayburn was the announcer on the Steve Allen program and participated in skits. Great way to gain comedy experience, and he showed it all the time.
So much for the Seventies version of The Match Game which is played repeatedly on the Game Show Network, RU-vid, and other venues. It's really great that the original version from the Sixties is being played on this medium, providing many more memories. Thanks for sharing.
Fascinating to see the origins of Match Game, one of my favourite shows in the 70's. Different format, and definitely less risqué than the version I grew up with.
Wow this is so great seeing the humble beginnings of what match game has turned out to be. Great concept worked out the little ins and outs and ups and downs and stayed with the original Gene Rayburn. Thanks for posting this was a joy to watch.
Enjoyed seeing this, thanks. While this IS the pilot for Match Game, for those who Might not know, there've been around 5 iterations of the show. This - from '62-'69 - was the first. The one most people recall I's the iconic early 70's through the early '80's version. I love Peggy Cass, and for those who might not know, this version (as well as such series as ToTell The Truth), were filmed here in NYC - NOT LA. That's why there'd be a different group of 'celebrities' which could be used on series like these. I think Goodson-Todman were VERY smart to stay with Gene Rayburn as host for the 2nd, iconic version of Match Game, which is unusual, as when anything gets revamped, they usually start from a 'clean slate,' sets, rules... hosts - they almost always go & new everything's brought in. This is also why new versions almost always fail (esp. If they do this with a well-known & likes series), because the things which made the original popular are gone, & they're memory's are still close enough to irk people. This was the 'one-in-a-million' times it worked.
I remember the original "Match Game" (1962-69) and the theme song, "A Swingin' Safari" by Bert Kaempfert. I like the panels that show MATCH followed by a ringing bell when the contestants and celebs are making a match. RIP, Gene Rayburn, Johnny Olson and Peggy Cass.
Oh wow! this is my first time ever seeing this episode. I loved it. Man, Rayburn was so young. I've got to find out when they hammed up the show to what i remember when i was a kid. that was fun to watch.
I don't remember watching this version, but I realize now I had to have watched it, but I do remember the theme song! It has been in the back of my mind since that time, but I had forgotten where I had originally heard it, it was this show! I was born in 1961 and in the late 1960s I went with my mom every 6 months into NYC for my eye doctor appointment at 39th Street and Lexington Avenue, usually around 10:30am. Then my mom and I would walk to the Grand Central Viaduct Ticket Office where we would choose free tickets to game shows that were being filmed that day! They were all arranged on a desk and we could choose whichever ones we wanted. We saw To Tell The Truth, What's My Line, Concentration, the original Jeopardy with Art Fleming, and so many more. Just a few short years later all those game shows moved to California. Nowadays only some soap operas are still taped in NYC, but of course they don't have audiences. Can you imagine if soap operas had a live audience? I think they would be much more popular again.
It didn’t change too much. The premise is still the same. Your answer has to match studio audience. It just got a lot raunchier and racier. Things were pretty tame in 1963.
Before my time, didn't know this existed, very cool! Love the electro-mechanical displays that flip when they "match" kind of like an old pinball machine. Also actually using your brain and remembering the $ value of the winnings in the bonus round (no displays).
The pilot was taped the day before I was born. I can barely remember this version in color on television when I was 5 or 6 years old, but the catchy musical intro has stayed with me.
This is so funny, the earlier shows were so prim and proper. I think Gene really made this show when he was allowed to be himself and make the show much more entertaining. I don't think it would have lasted without him, he was a great host for Match Game. And I was 11 years old at the time of this pilot.
ALL shows were prim and proper. Seen the original "The Price Is Right" with Bill Cullum and the four players in suits and ties and nice dresses and Mr/Mrs on their placards?
To really put your head in a time warp watch What's My Line through most of it's run. I think most of it is available on RU-vid. Well dressed panelists, some wit and always politeness. I think if one of the panelists cursed, John Daly would have personally given them the Heave-ho!
Wow,,, what a major change from the 70's version. However Gene could make any show a Winner. Did enjoy, but was before I ever could see this version. Thanks for all these enjoyable and descent Game Shows. They had such a touch of respect for themselves and others.
I was only 11 when the bw version was on, but I liked it. They sometimes had sports stars on (I remember Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford). But there was no way the old version could compare to the new one with 6 entertainers there who tried real hard to be funny. Even Gene was a lot more crazy than he was in the NY version.
@@mrufino1 Why thankfully? So that now even a joke can make you a outcast? Screw that. This SJW GARBAGE is a joke. If people weren't such pu$$ies the world wouldn't be in such chaos.
Edster III I’m thankful that times have changed and women can make different choices. Not sure that that has to do with what you said. I’m not criticizing gene Rayburn, it was the way things were and I agree that people don’t have to be so sensitive to jokes.
The 'sober' production was cancelled with weeks to run on the contract. Show staff decided to make changes and the show numbers improved, NBC reversed the cancellation and the rest is TeeVee history. See it here - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nJHICKg2Mkg.html
December 5, 1962 was a Wednesday. I guess there's a small chance that my mom had our Zenith black and white television (set into the wall in our wood paneled den between two vertical bookshelves, very modern!) tuned to this show...I was a little over a year old and four of my five older siblings were in our home, but my three older sisters were probably at school that day...my dad was at work... nice to think about that day.
@ The version in the pilot is Billy Vaughn's. But Kaempfert's was the one used through most of the show's run. One of my most precious and enduring sets of childhood memories was watching "The Match Game" with my grandmother and hearing Gene Rayburn sign off with "This is Gene Rayburn, for The Match Game, saying so long!" followed by the playing of "A Swingin' Safari."
I was aware of it, but it was only about 15 years ago that I found out the title. In fact, that's one of the main things I was hoping to find when I saw this clip come up in my Recommendations.
Pretty cool to see the origins of the Match Game! It's not bad by any means, but certainly not nearly as entertaining as the 70s version. Pretty glad television became a little less strict in what they allowed on air!
In the pilot, the celebrity captains on each team sat in the middle of the team's table. In the actual series, the celebrities were seated at one end of their team's table in such a way that the two celebrity captains sat next to each other. Peggy Cass was a regular celebrity panelist on "To Tell The Truth" in the 1960's and 1970's, which like "Match Game", was also produced by Goodson-Todman.
What a wonderful pilot show. It really was a good game and Peggy Cass was a delight. I had never heard of Peter Lind Hayes, but he was great too. Gene looked so young, like he was 35 or something (although he was actually a bit older than that). I had to laugh at 12:38 when Gene said "It's been a very exciting game, one of the most exciting..." Since it was the first episode, it sort of had to be the one of the most exciting ones so far! (I know, he must have meant one of the most exciting TV games shows of all time, or something like that.) Still, at the moment, it struck me as unintentionally humorous. Finally, I was wondering how they were going to award the winnings. I figured each of the two "civilians" would get the amount won ($225 today). No way would they be so cheap as to divide it between the two teammates, I thought. Ha! They did divide it! Each winner walked away with 112.50! Too funny. This was actually a pretty good show, but not even in the same league as the now-classic "Match Game '7x".
Surprsingly, they decided to play it for comedy when the suits had the same complaints. In fact on the re-make that is better known, the same happened, but it quickly was played for comedy as well.
Agree totally. Once they sexed up the questions & had more comic celebrities on the show. It brought bought both Gene & the audience to life. These earlier ones are great to see, however, I agree the '70's ones were superior..
There was one Match Game from the 70s where Gene said that there was one time in his career where he did a game show where Johnny Olson was not the announcer and it went badly. It's obvious the two enjoyed working together.
Olson is perhaps best known for his work as an announcer for game shows, particularly the work he did for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. Olson was the longtime announcer for the original To Tell the Truth and What's My Line?, and spent over a decade as the announcer for both Match Game and The Price Is Right, working on the latter series at the time of his death. RIP JOHNNY OLSON
I used to watch this version. In fact, I was on a tour of NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center in July of 1967 and we happened to walk by Studio 8-H, where this show was taped, just as a taping session was taking place.
@@Sheba531 Billy Vaughn's version is used in the pilot. In the 1964 shows that you can see here, it is Bert Kaempfert's version, and that was the one that had the longest run. On the day that Gene Rayburn's death was reported on the radio, it was "A Swingin' Safari" that was played in the background.
Everybody had fun on this game show. Notice that Gene Rayburn asked the men contestants what do they do, and he asked the women contestants where do they make their home.
I I've always liked match game. Wanted to be a contestant but never knew how to get on. So I played along at home. Most times I got the right answer. Rarely missed. Even though it's no longer a daytime regular, only syndicated episodes I still watch it. But there's an episode I haven't seen; it's one where a contestant won her match and came on stage to play for the studio audience round wearing a shorts. She looked so good that Gene Rayburn could hardly contained himself. I would be very appreciative if that episode would show up. thanx GSN.
I always find it interesting how different the classic game shows that I grew up with in the 70s differered from their original production. The original Price is Right had different gameplay as well
I wish I could find episodes of Dough Re Mi, because my grandma whom I never met because she died when my mom was 15 was in it...and I never saw her before.
One of my favorite game shows. I've been watching it on Buzzer, recently. Gene was cute here! Such a good host, too! Also, Johnny Oelson was there as an announcer!
Olson is perhaps best known for his work as an announcer for game shows, particularly the work he did for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. Olson was the longtime announcer for the original To Tell the Truth and What's My Line?, and spent over a decade as the announcer for both Match Game and The Price Is Right, working on the latter series at the time of his death. RIP
Good gracious. Every answer should have been Rudolph. The deer has a song named for him and a number of movies made about him. Lol! Here it is decades later and Rudolph still ain't gettin' "no" respect. I really enjoyed this version. I remember back in the 60s and 70s my mother and I binged on game shows; especially *_The Match Game, Password and The Price is Right,_* mom's fav.
WIsh I could watch this without being so used to the 70s version which I watched when it couldn't be preserved on videotape or RU-vid by the average person. Seems practically like Password, if you want to work out the precise variations be my guest. Great that we can still see this.
Actually that lady that said Lassie is more point on than the rest, he didn't say 'breed' of dog....so I would have said Marmaduke! and what is up with Gene's microphone??? Thanks for putting this on here!!
Good questions. Rayburn could sell refrigerators to eskimos. Good radio guy. He did fine for himself. I like the "hands up" instead of a damn annoying buzzer.
