Match Game (1998)
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See Match Game at its worst!
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Match Game is an American television game show created by Frank Wayne for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. It premired on NBC in 1962 and ran until 1969, with several revivals being made over the next three decades. The game featured contestants trying to come up with answers to fill-in-the-blank questions that are often formed as humorous double entendres (beginning in the CBS run), the object being to match answers given by celebrity panelists.
This page will talk about the ill-fated 1998 syndicated Match Game revival by Pearson Television, which was used to run on CBS syndicated stations from 1998 until 1999.
Format
The format is almost the same as the previous Match Game revivals, except for a few changes, all of which are covered below.
Why It's No Match
- It only had five celebrities instead of six.
- Lazy set, especially with its mid-season remodel that tries to look party-like.
- The contestants now chose from pun-laden categories rather than choosing from the usual questions A or B.
- The celebrity chosen during the Head-to-Head match now stood at a temporary podium, and the contestant could make eye-contact with him/her, which wasn’t allowed in the previous revivals.
- Regular panelist Judy Tenuta was very loud and obnoxious, and always needed to be the center of attention.
- It was so bad, it took 18 years for the next Match Game revival to come out (excluding Game$how Marathon's 2006 effort and the unsold 2008 pilot that TBS never picked up).
Redeeming Qualities
- The format of the Audience Match and Head-to-Head Match were mostly left untouched.
- Michael Burger was a decent host.
- Other panelists like Vicki Lawrence and George Hamilton did their best to pick up the slack.
- It was at least an improvement over the unsold "MG2" pilot from two years earlier.