Bertha wins again today but will her reign of power continue? Today's Panel: Tom Poston, Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Mary Ann Mobley, Richard Dawson, and Betty White
She was a wonderful contestant. Hope she spent that money on more than just bills. Sad to see she passed away, but at least she lived a long and hopefully happy life.
R.I.P. Gene Rayburn (1917-1999), Tom Poston (1921-2007), Charles Nelson Reilly (1931-2007), Brett Somers (1924-2007), Richard Dawson (1932-2012) and Mary Ann Mobley (1937-2014). Betty White is the only person from this show that is still alive at the ripe old age of 97 years old!!!!!!!!!! She'll be 98 in January of 2020. She's outlived Brett, Charles, Richard and Mary Ann and they were 2, 9, 10 and 15 years her junior!!!!!!!!!
H/H match update and preview of the week ahead: ... We're up to week 224 of our favorite classic game show (the show ends with week 291 and episode number 1455). These episodes were taped on November 12, 1977, and originally aired in mid-December of 1977. Our three stalwart regulars are all in their places with bright, shiny faces, and it's an all-veteran panel once again, with two MG family members making their final appearances this week: ~~~Semi-regular Betty White returns for her 56th week (of 75). Betty last visited in episodes 1091 to 1095, and she enjoys the best track record on this week's panel when it comes to matching in the head-to-head questions: 50.0% (19 wins in 38 attempts). ~~~Mary Ann Mobley is back, but sadly, this is her 10th and final week on the "Match Game '7x" panel. She joined the MG family in episode 21, way back in 1973, and most recently visited in episodes 1016-1020. It'd be great to see Mary Ann have (at least) one final chance to help a contestant win some big money, as these next five shows will obviously be her last opportunity to add to her H/H stats: she's achieved one match in her five attempts so far. ~~~Last but not least, Tom Poston returns for his second and final week. We first met Tom in episodes 711-715 back in 1976, so it's been over 400 episodes for him. Tom didn't answer a head-to-head question during his first week, so these next five shows are his only chance to become what would be the 39th celebrity to ever to score a H/H match on "Match Game '7x"! There were four H/H questions played last week, and King Richard handled them all (and did quite well, matching 3 out of 4). Reviewing the past 78 weeks, Richard has played *333* times. Everyone else combined played *52* times. (Charles had 17 opportunities, Brett 13, Fannie 11, Betty 3, Lynn Deerfield 1, Gary Burghoff 1, Rosemary Forsyth 1, Nipsey Russell 1, Meg Bennett 1, Scoey Mitchell 1, Trish Stewart 1, and Marcia Wallace 1.) Percentage-wise, Richard has answered an amazing *86.5%* of all the H/H questions over these past 78 weeks. (All this practice must be paying off! Richard pulled slightly ahead of Brett in overall H/H accuracy last week!) Richard starts the week off with a very good track record of having matched 42.5% of his H/H questions, which is slightly ahead of Brett's accuracy score (42.3%). They have traded places well over a dozen times over the years. I wouldn't be surprised if they switch places again at some point in the future. We've had three consecutive all-Richard H/H weeks now, so I'm hoping to see at least one other star answer a H/H question this time. My top pick would be Mary Ann Mobley. It would be nice to see her match a H/H question before departing the MG stage for the final time. Also, if Brett were to match one question, she would pull ahead of Richard again in overall accuracy for the umpteenth time. I'm never sad when Charles has a moment in the H/H spotlight, and it's always a joy to watch game-show pro and beautiful human being Betty White play the head-to-head. With such a wealth of choices, it seems almost a waste when Richard (almost) always answers every question. Yes, he's good, but the data reveals he's no better than anyone else when it comes to actually matching. Well, whatever happens in the head-to-head department this week, it'll still be enjoyable traveling back to 1977 and visiting with Gene and our panel and contestants. And it'll feel like a going-away party for Mary Ann after getting to know her a bit over these past few years. ~~~Today's action: Our champion didn't have to do anything at all today to win her second game when her challenger drew what seemed to me like a tough question for the second round, and failed to match anyone. *Today's audience match question: "Lou ________"* (My thoughts: Grant, Ferrigno, ???) - Another dreaded "name" question! I find those so hard, because personalities come and go, and it's hard to recall exactly who would have been top of mind so many years ago... The celebs: Richard (Grant), Charles (Costello), Brett via Betty (Gehrig) The choice: Costello (Goodness, the audience is totally booing her today! On the prior show, that audience was applauding everything she said!) I think I would've chosen "Grant" too, since it was my first thought, and if Richard came up with, then it's got to be good, right? The answers: Grant (oopsie!), Rawls, Costello Not bad! Yesterday, she discarded all the stars' suggestions and scored $500 with her own answer, and today she picks the top answer again! This lady is no dummy! For the H/H I'm sure she'll choose Richard again, given they did match last time. (And she seems to have a little crush on him!) I'm just saying... She does call on Richard again. This is now King Richard's 12th consecutive time answering the H/H question, and his recent success has been far above his long-term performance. Stats: Richard has matched 121 of his 274 most recent attempts (44.2%), 60 of his last 134 attempts (44.8%), 41 of his last 90 attempts (45.6%), and 13 of his past 26 attempts (50.0%). His overall success rate is *42.5%* and this is his 752nd attempt so far. For the sake of comparison: Betty has matched 19 of her 38 attempts (50.0%), Charles has matched 34 of his 70 attempts (48.6%), Richard has matched 318 of his 751 attempts (42.5%), Brett has matched 30 of her 71 attempts (42.3%), and Mary Ann has matched 1 of her 5 attempts (20.0%). Tom Poston hasn't yet had a shot at a H/H question. *Today's H/H question: "________Crackers"* (Didn't we have this one before? It sounds so familiar. I'm torn between Graham Crackers and Cheese and Crackers. I'll say Graham. For some reason, I don't like "Saltine" as an answer. - Maybe I'm thinking of "Soup and _______" when crackers and salad were the most logical answers.) As he so often does, Richard seems to silently consult with his sixth-seat colleague (Betty today) as he writes. I'm not sure if he's looking at suggestions she may have written or simply gauging her reaction to his answer. At any rate, he seems confident and quickly files his card. Our new champion says "Animal." I hadn't thought of that, but now that I hear it, I like it a lot. At first I thought I was hearing boos from the audience, but they ended up giving her a loud round of applause. I'm happy to report that she was right and I was wrong: It's "Animal"! (I hope she's got enough room in that little purse of hers for all that cash!) Richard scores his 320th H/H match today. ~~~Here's our updated leader board showing the 11 celebs with at least 3 H/H matches, ranked by accuracy: (An asterisk before a celebrity's name signifies that she has "retired" from the show and her H/H stats are now complete.) (For tied scores, I consider the one with the greater number of matches to be higher; if the matches are equal, the celeb who first achieved that score goes on top.) Orson Bean - 100% (4 wins in 4 attempts). TIE: (*)Jo Anne Worley - 75% (3 wins in 4 attempts). TIE: Joyce Bulifant - 75% (3 wins in 4 attempts). Gary Burghoff - 71.4% (5 wins in 7 attempts). Betty - 50.0% (19 wins in 38 attempts). Charles - 48.6% (34 wins in 70 attempts). Fannie - 48.4% (15 wins in 31 attempts). Jo Ann Pflug - 44.4% (8 wins in 18 attempts). Richard - 42.6% (320 wins in 752 attempts). Brett - 42.3% (30 wins in 71 attempts). Bert Convy - 33.3% (5 wins in 15 attempts). *These stats include every head-to-head match from episode 1 through 1116, excluding the missing/damaged/unavailable episodes: 31, 32, 33, 311, 312, 313, 324, 325, 645, 910, 1024, 1025, 1026, 1027, 1028, 1029, and 1030. *Also, note that episode 849 was never produced. (These stats do, however, include the H/H results of missing episode 968 as those results were revealed in episode 969. Note: There was no H/H in missing episode 1035, as we learn in 1036.)
Costello? Lou Grant was well known as a character from _The Mary Tyler Moore Show_ and had his own spinoff debuting in 1977. Really makes me wonder what was going on behind the board.
Thank you so much for posting these wonderful old episodes of match game I would really like to be able to watch all of them from episode 1 to the very end
@@pencils812 of course not, when I said every single episode I meant every 70s series AND syndicated AND PM show, even if I was retired and had NOTHING else to do it would take me years
I"m sure Patty or Joyce would have answered "female". ^_^ And interesting that Bertha almost got a clean sweep if it hadn't been for Tom's answer, I would have thought Falling Matilda would be more fitting.
Richard handled it well and was kindly to Bertha. He was Match Game. The show stunk after Richard left. Gene was amazing but everyone knows Richard was the real star of Match Game and the reason we still watch it. He had an uncanny way of writing the correct answers every time. Once Richard left Match Game went downhill.
In the past I've commented that this fluke in the game play can result in some potentially unfair situations: For example, the challenger might have 3 fairly good players to try to match with her round-one question on the final day just before time runs out, and then the champion will have to try to match 3 different (possibly less good players) for her round-one question. In other words, in the same round, the two players will have to match different groups of panelists (who may or may not be of equal skill), and that has never seemed inherently fair. Even so, I can't point to any specific instances where I thought it altered the course of a game. I've just come to accept it as another weird quirk of a show I love. Forcing each game to take up exactly one program and never spill into the next show would force them to be more regimented and I think it would take a lot of the spontaneity and wackiness out of the proceedings, and then it would become more like an "ordinary" game show and less like a wild house party where they decide to play a parlor game while they goof around.
@@kevansf I do NOT have a problem with games being split over from Monday to Tuesday, from Tuesday to Wednesday, etc. I only have a problem with the game being split over DIFFERENT panels. I agree that the "wild house party" is what made the show so great. At the same time, it would not have been difficult to have avoided the situation of games going over to another panel. They could have filled the time with an audience participation game, for example. They did this on the syndicated version on a few occasions. They also could have just had fun doing silly stuff. It certainly hurt the fun aspect on the syndicated version. They definitely rushed the Friday shows. I remember one instance. They started with two new contestants late on Thursday and did one question. Then they completed that game on Friday (THREE questions), played Super Match, played the second game, and played Super Match again. And they have to edit a lot of stuff out.
That would actually have been a good idea! Take the six most-winningest contestants of the past few years (or maybe adjust a bit to skew for fan-favorite former champs) and put them on the panel for a week (or even two!). (Pay them a modest amount for their time, of course, even a couple hundred a show back then would certainly have been enticing for most of them, so they'd earn a quick thousand for a day's work taping five show.) And now, here's the twist: have the celebs appear as contestants! Each star could choose a charity that he/she is playing for, with total winnings going to that cause. (I think they could adjust the prize money to make it better, and even give the "loser" a little something to donate as well.) I would start the week off with Brett and Charles being the first two "contestants"! Wouldn't that be a hoot! Then Richard could play the winner of the two, and so on through the week! (Or maybe they'd keep it "boy/girl" and Richard would replace Charles when/if he was defeated, and Fannie would play after Brett, etc. I think the promotion and novelty of it could have drawn a few more viewers back into the show. "Stay tuned for the "Match Game Battle of the Stars" & Watch your favorite MG celebrities play the game in a whole new way and win money for their favorite charities!"- Of course, it's too late now, but it's fun to dream about what could have been.
These people were brought up in time like I was. Do as your told. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. "The Golden Rule". You got a whipping with a switch, a paddle or a belt. You respect your elders, and helped your neighbor if needed. I survived a lot of switching from my dear old mother. Who happened to die of colon cancer. Being a 6 of 11 children. Ten of whom where boys. Parents are too afraid to discipline their children. The government has too much control over our lives anymore. Like never before!
Bertha started off with a dumb answer (two shows ago) but after that all of her answers were amazing. She ignored the celebrities and came up with GOD father and then chose Charle's answer Lou COSTELLO when the crowd thought it would be Lou GRANT... Even when she finally lost she gave the answer that got her the most points possible TINKLE. I think Tom Poston was the only one who didn't match her on that one.
That was Bertha's second-round question (the challenger took B). She didn't need it as she'd already won the game by matching more celebs with her first-round question than her opponent matched with both his questions. It happens relatively frequently that a champion wins without having to answer their second question.
Has anyone seen the episode that Betty is talking about at the end of the video at 2:50? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bEZkCnTKGW4.html