Back in the 70s, if you wanted to see Betty White doing an exotic dance, or a game show host rollerskating, or the author of Fried Green Tomatoes wearing a sweater with sequined hands stitched onto it—so that they appeared to be holding her breasts—there was only one place to turn: Match Game.
Audiences watched accordingly. The juggernaut ran on CBS from 1973 to 1979; it was the number-one program on daytime television for three consecutive seasons, '73 to '76. And though its original run is long over, Match Game has been on the air for 25 of the 36 years since, in one way or another—prime-time variations, syndication, revivals, enormously successful reruns on the Game Show Network. And this Sunday at 10 p.m., ABC is re-launching the property once more with Alec Baldwin as host.
If you didn’t spend your childhood watching some incarnation of the series, here’s the gist: the host reads a statement with one word intentionally left blank. Celebrity guests are tasked with guessing what this missing word is—either by using logic, or by making an innuendo-laced joke. A contestant then takes a stab at completing the sentence, winning a point every time he or she chooses the same word as one of the panelists. Questions like this one, from an episode in 1974, are typical: “Raquelle lost all of her money in the poker game, so she bet her [BLANK].”
After finding success last summer with Celebrity Family Feud, ABC wanted to revive other nostalgic game-show properties. “We basically said, Match Game is the one, if we can attach the right talent,” says Jennifer Mullin, co-CEO of FremantleMedia North America and an executive producer on the new Match Game. The original was a product made in the 70s, for the 70s, and because of the 70s; any reboot of such a ribald time capsule would be a circus requiring a specific kind of ringmaster.
So Fremantle reached out to Baldwin. “He’s got a dry sense of humor,” Mullin says. “He’s got the right sensibility.” As luck would have it, the 30 Rock star turned out to be a fan of the original show.
And so the project moved forward—which is to say, it looked backward.
“We’re very much keeping it in the vibe of the 70s,” Mullin says. “It will look and feel and sound like Match Game”—right down to the original funky bass riff that’s playing in the show’s current promos. Panelists will still sit before a light-bulb-trellis; they’ll still be introduced as floating heads inside a sparkling, lo-fi spinning marquee.
The gameplay isn’t changing either. “Formats aren’t born overnight. They take time to get right,” Mullin says. “The Goodson-Todman guys were masters at it. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” (Mark Goodson and Bill Todman were the architects behind a string of game-show hits during the genre’s boom era, including Password, The Price Is Right, and Family Feud.)
Guests appearing in the show’s new episodes, which were shot last week, include J.B. Smoove, Isaac Mizrahi, Sherri Shepherd, Ana Gasteyer, Bobby Moynihan, Edie Falco, and Titus Burgess. There’s not a shrinking violet in the bunch—and the revival aims to honor its taboo origins. “Match Game was built on innuendo. That’s what made it so fun,” Mullin says. In almost every episode of the original, someone would guess that the missing word was “boobs.”
“So we encourage a party spirit,” she adds. “It’s playing at 10 o’clock at night; you can be a little bawdier.”
How does Match Game achieve this goal? In the past—according to the Game Show Network documentary The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank—the answer was simple: vodka. Episodes shot after tapings broke for meals were noticeably looser; viewers had no trouble guessing what was in the guests’ small water glasses. After matching correct answers with contestants, panelists often called them over for a kiss on the mouth.
Mullin doesn’t cop to any network-sanctioned lubrication today, but says it was important to the producers that the guests get in the right mood before taping. “We have the panel sitting around, talking, watching old episodes, and getting to know each other to build a sense of camaraderie,” she says. Still, she does allow, “If they wish to have a cocktail, we can make that available to them.”
One of the questions you’ll hear in this summer’s 10-episode block: “At Clown College, the hazing has gotten out of control. Last year, the freshmen were forced to go streaking, wearing nothing but [BLANK].” It’s still laced with innuendo—but, unlike the question about poor Raquelle at the poker table, it doesn’t suggest a scenario in which a woman must sell her body to get out of a bind. Ah, the 70s. In one episode of the original Match Game, host Gene Rayburn put his arm around a male contestant and joked, in a fey voice, “What’ll the boys in the locker room say?” In another episode, he pulled panelist Jo Ann Pflug out of her seat in order to show off her figure to home viewers, then growled at her. It was a different time.
Obviously, ABC doesn’t intend to replicate these aspects of the original show. But transitioning any property from one era to another can pose analogous challenges. In order to work, fill-in-the-blank questions must relate to everyone; writers rely on shared cultural knowledge. But today’s audiences are more diverse in background and experience than audiences in the 70s were. “We’re trying to stay in the pop-culture zeitgeist, such as who’s in the news, or a product, or an event, like the Olympics,” Mullin says. “We had a fun Baldwin brothers question, which Alec enjoyed reading. We had a Donald Trump question.”
Perhaps there will even be a question about Match Game itself. The brand has become a touchstone in its own right; Saturday Night Live fans may remember an Alec Baldwin-hosted episode that featured a sketch spoofing Inside the Actors Studio, in which Baldwin appeared as Charles Nelson Reilly—a regular Match Game panelist in the 70s. Its most memorable moment comes when Will Ferrell, as James Lipton, says, “There is no word to describe [Match Game’s] perfection, so I am forced to make one up . . . Scrumtrilescent.” Baldwin, as Reilly, agrees, sharing a faux anecdote from the show that could easily have happened in real life: “Nipsey [Russel] says, ‘Charles, where does the joy come from?’ And I said, ‘It comes from my blank and it blanks from my blank!’ And Betty White laughed so hard, her boob fell out!” Match Game is almost too zany to parody.
What is the secret to this silly show’s incredible staying power? “It’s one of those games that has great play-along,” Mullin says. “You can tune in on any given day, at any point during the show, and know exactly where you are.” True. But there’s also more to it than that. Match Game is mysteriously mesmerizing, simultaneously approachable and risqué. It's an exclusive party that everyone is nonetheless invited to. In a word, it’s broad: truly and authentically broad, the golden ticket for network television.
Of course, the revival could always be canceled after two episodes. Networks have floated a seemingly endless stream of game shows in recent years—including Fox’s Boom!, ABC’s 500 Questions, and Fox’s Bullseye during 2015 alone. Most have failed, sometimes spectacularly—perhaps none more than CBS’s short-lived 2015 effort, The Briefcase, a competition Time magazine called “the worst reality TV show ever.”
But a Match Game revival is a safer bet—probably. In 1990, another attempt to bring the show back on ABC lasted one season. A failed 1996 CBS pilot turned into one season of syndicated episodes in 1998. Fox made a Match Game-inspired pilot in 2004 and TBS made one in 2008; neither made it to air. But most of these failures and non-starters weren’t replicating the original source material—and none of them had Alec Baldwin. Based on the success of NBC’s Hollywood Game Night, which also brings together celebrities, booze, and silly games, modern audiences are still up for joining celebrities for absurd and bawdy parlor games.
Only time will tell whether or not this version is scrumtrilescent. But we do know one thing: there will be kissing. “Yes,” Mullin says. “And some hugs too.”