Giz Wiz Biz - Match Game Memories

Were you a fan of the Match Game?

Are Dumb Dora and Dumb Donald household names in your family?

Then this is the page for you!

So what the _________ is this Match Game page all about?

A couple of times a month folks who are addicted to the old game shows on GSN (The Game Show Network) and who watch the credits at the end, e-mail me. They ask if I'm any relation to the Dick DeBartolo whose name appears on the credits of the old Match Game shows. No, it's no relation, it's me. I wrote questions for The Match Game for about 20 years. Credits on the Match Game were only run once a week. So four out of every five Match Game shows do not have credits. But on the 5th day, it's there along with the writers out in Hollywood. (I stayed in NY when the show moved west.)

In case you didn't see the GSN Special "The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank", here's a bit of history. I was hired to write the Match Game back in early fall of 1961 about 3 months before the show went on the air. During pre-production the set was designed, the rules of the game were worked out and I started to create batches of Match Game questions. When Match Game first went on the air, New Year Eve, 1961, the questions were pretty 'quiet'. They were easy to answer things such as:

Name a red flower.

Name something you can make with a potato.

Name a President whose face appears on money.

Name something you can do with an egg.

Pretty exciting stuff, huh? Toward the end of the first year, Match Game was cancelled. Mark Goodson called me into his office and told me there were six weeks of shows left to do, but after they were recorded, production would stop. The option to carry Match Game over into a second year was not picked up by NBC.

After thinking about Match Game's demise over the weekend, I came back to Goodson-Todman Productions Monday morning and set up a meeting with head honco, Mark Goodson. I told him I worked for MAD Magazine and I had being thinking about bringing a 'MAD magazine approach' to the questions. I suggested we try some silly stuff. Mark asked to hear an example of one, and I read him this:

Mary like to pour gravy on John's______.

That was the first silly Match Game question I ever wrote. Goodson laughed and said: "It's funny, but what will people answer?" I told him they would most likely laugh like he did and then give acceptable answers like meatloaf, turkey, potatoes, etc. Goodson said: "Well the show's cancelled and has just six weeks to run. So do all the silly questions you want." Then he added: "The show's already cancelled, so NBC can't cancel it twice!"

Gene, Geraldo & Dick De at a Game Show Reunion Show.On the very next show we started mixing in the new off-beat questions with the regular ones. The audience liked the the silly questions a lot and the ratings started to pick up. Even before the six weeks of production was up Goodson called me in to say the ratings had improved and that the network had picked up Match Game for another season! Going silly and adding a bit of double entendre questions gave the show a new life. One that lasted about 20 years, with three different reincarnations. And who ever dreamed, that thanks to the Game Show Network, The Match Game would live on, even today. The last time I spoke to someone from the GSN they told me Match Game was their most watched show!

www.gsn.com

MATCH GAME MEMORIES.

I recorded a one hour video Netcast for Leo Laporte's TWiT Network recalling my life working on The Match Game. There are many other stories from my days at Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. (Later known as Mark Goodson Television Productions.)

If you missed MATCH GAME MEMORIES, you can still see it here:

http://odtv.me/2009/03/29/match-game-memories/

Tuesday

24Nov2009

The Match Game DVD Collection - with an original Match Game Question! Priceless!! Oh wait, it has a price!

November 24, 2009

The MATCH GAME on DVD. What a _______idea!

And it’s not just The Match Game. It’s the best of The Match Game. A boxed set of four DVD’s!

But this boxed set contains one thing no other Match Game DVD set ever contained! On the back of each set of four DVD’s is an original Match Game question which I'll autograph.I wrote the Match Game for almost 20 years. I wrote thousands of questions. When Match Game moved to California I stayed at the New York officers. But when Match Game ended it’s almost 20 year run, Mark Goodson TV Productions* closed their New York offices. All the files were packed up and thrown into dumpsters. As boxes of Match Game questions were trashed I thought: “I should take some of them as a souvenir!” I stuffed a bunch in some envelopes and let the rest go off to the dumpsters. These questions date back more than 30 years! (*Goodson-Todman Productions because Mark Goodson Productions after Bill Todman pass away.)

More about the DVD set.

"The Best of Match Game" features 30 of the show's greatest episodes, uncut and digitally transferred from their original masters. The series not only reminds people of the days before political correctness hit the airwaves, but is also a nostalgic look back at bawdy humor, as well as the plaid-panted, brightly colored disco days of the '70s. Plus, all the fan favorites from that era are featured, including Betty White, Fannie Flagg, Avery Schreiber, Elaine Joyce and the Prince of pontificating poetry, Nipsey Russell. Additional celebrity guest stars include Michael Landon, Jack Klugman, William Shatner, Vicki Lawrence, Mama Cass, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gary Burghoff and Kirstie Alley.

But wait, there’s more! Special Features include:

"Best Moments of Match Game" hosted by Brett Somers

See the original 1962 "Match Game" pilot. Very few people know what the original Match Game was like! Back in those days we erased the old Match Game shows because no one at Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions thought anyone would be interested in a seeing a game show for a second time! And besides blank video tape cost a lot of money. So older game shows were just recorded over!!

There’s also a Tribute to host Gene Rayburn

And an exclusive interview with Brett Somers

Plus a Photo Gallery

Price? Priceless! Oh, wait, it’s not priceless. It does have a price!

$22.99 plus $6.99 for Priority Shipping.

Give it as the ultimate gift for Match Game fan. You just might hear them say: “What the _______ is this?”

The list price of the DVD set is $34.95, but even if you find it cheaper, no where else but here can you get a Best Of Match Game set with a real Match Game question! (I have no idea if the original question on the box is used on any of the shows on the DVD collection. There were a ton of shows recorded & a ton of questions written!)

After "are you related to the Dick DeBartolo on the Match Game credits?", the second most asked question is:

October 15, 2009

Do you get residuals from those endless reruns of theold Match Game shows?

Well the answer is technically "yes". I got residuals just once. When the shows first went over to the Game Show Network I got two checks. I remember hearing that some money would be forth coming. When the checks arrived I thought: "Wow, this is going to be like found money!" But it wasn't quite that way. One check was for $1.12. Yep, $1.12! I thought that might at least be a weekly event, but it turned out to be the ONLY check I ever got for Match Game re-runs!

I also worked on Family Feud, writing questions. Family Feud was really a spin-off from the "audience match" part of the Match Game. (Family Feud was another Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Production. I didn't work quite so many years on Family Feud so my check for reruns of that show was only $.28. Yes, twenty-eight cents!

As you can image, I never cashed them. They were worth more as something to show friends 'my windfall', so they remain uncashed more than 10 years later. Not like they could be cashed now anyway.

It was fun writing the Match Game all those years, but it would have been much more fun today if Ihad I gotten just a bit more from the re-runs, the DVD's, the video games, the foreign editions of Match Game and all the other Match Game stuff. Oh, well, what the ______!

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Thursday

15Oct2009

These are actual Match Game questions! (Typed on yellow cards - they're were no computers back then!)

October 15, 2009

Keeping Dick's Gadget Warehouse for all these years and spending more than $85,000 in storage fees in 25-plus years, paid off in a really nice way today. I found more original Match Game Questions!

So once again if you were a fan of the Match Game, you can own a small piece of its history. A small 3" X 5" piece. Actually three of them. Read on!

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Thursday

15Oct2009

Before you click that "buy" button above, read on. (You were going to click it, right?)

October 15, 2009

So Dick, how can I own a small piece of history?

I'm so glad you asked! 'm making up small Match Game souvenir packages consisting of three 30 to 40 year old Match Game questions secured in a plastic sleeve. It's a perfect gift for anyone who was a fan of the old Match Game. Each 3 question set cost $29.99. In the same envelope I'll include an autographed copy of MAD Magazine, my other career I continued writing for every issue of MAD while writing the Match Game. Postage in the US is $4.99 for first class mail. But your free copy of MAD of costs $5.99, so postage is sorta, kinda like free and you're still a buck ahead!

IMPORTANT IF YOU LIVE IN CANADA!

Unfortunately I just filled out a Post Office form for an address in Canada and discovered the postage is $9.65. So if you live in Canada and you'd like a set, email and I'll send you an PayPal invoice for $29.99 plus $9.65 postage. The questions can go "media mail" for the same $5.99, but it will take about two weeks. If you prefer that, just put "media mail" in the message to seller box. Also put in the first name of the person the MAD Magazine should be signed to. I'm not doing any orders outside the US and Canada. Even though Match Game was on in 5 countries, it's mainly a North American thing. Thank God for the Game Show Network keeping it alive.

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