Match Game 90 Pilot

[cmjb13]

Did Convy actually tape this or was he tapped to do it, but couldn't because he was ill?

Was Schaffer the only one who did a pilot? If not, who else did?

[Seth Thrasher]

Actually, the original person that producers wanted to host the MG '90 pilot, from what I'm told, is Gene Rayburn.  But, they found out his age (Damn You ET), and so....

The Host of the Pilot was Bert Convy (To the best of my knowledge, Shaffer *NEVER* did a pilot).   In fact, Bert was *Supposed* to host MG '90, but, well, we all know what happened

They needed someone else to host, so they got Shaffer to do it

[Brandon Brooks]

[quote name=\'cmjb13\' date=\'Jun 17 2003, 06:16 PM\'] Did Convy actually tape this or was he tapped to do it, but couldn't because he was ill?

Was Schaffer the only one who did a pilot? If not, who else did? [/quote]
 Convy taped the pilot, but I don't know if Schaffer did as well.

Brandon Brooks

[zachhoran]

ET gave Gene's age in 1984 when he turned 67 I believe. This was around the time Goodson tried to launch a new syndie version of MG, shortly after MGHS came and went.

As per a post on Ezboard a month or two ago, Convy hosted a pilot for what became MG90 in October 1989(while 3rd Degree was in production). Six celebs played with two contestants. Three rounds were played, all celebs played each round. First two rounds had matches worth one point, third round matches worth two points(scoring like MG98). No Match-up round, and the SUper Match was the same as MG90's with the Star Wheel.

[Yahtzee72]

Add in the fact you had dead weight on the panel in the form of Jerry Van Dyke and Teri Copley.....nevermind.

Like a poster in that thread said, Match Up appeard to be the result of focus groups not liking the rather slow pace of the Convy pilots.

Here's an interesting question I'd like to throw out: The crappy timeslot aside, if MG90 went to air with the original format descirbed above and Bert as the host, would it have done better?

[zachhoran]

Convy would probably have been a better host than Shafer was for MG90, but given the cooling in popularity of game shows around that time(all nine of the 1990-91 network and syndie season debuts died in a year or less), I doubt it would have lasted much longer with the Convy format. ABC did not premiere a game show lasting more than a year between Feud in 1976 and Millionaire in 1999.

[ITSBRY]

Having recently seen the Convy pilot, all I have to say is wow!  He really would have been great.  It was somewhat surreal seeing Bert in this setting, but he did a fine job.  If Gene couldn't host, Convy was the next best thing.  His experience interacting with celebs made him really good with a format like MG...and I believe two or three pilots were made.  I'm pretty sure Bert made two.  The one I saw was the three round all celebs playing format with points awarded for matches.  It did seem to drag a little bit, but otherwise was a really well done pilot.  The set was pretty much identical to the Schaffer set, but one cool thing that didn't make it past the pilot was the \"flippy\" box thing that the celeb faces were shown in during the opening.  This was a real live rotating circle with red neon strips around the edges...just an update of the 70s device.  Really cool homage to MG 7X and it looked much less cheesey than that face scramble thing they used in the actual series.

I never thought Schaffer or what eventually became MG90 was bad at all, but it didn't compare to having a master like GR or BC at the helm.  Am I the only one in the world who LIKED match up?

ITSBRY
itsbry@juno.com

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'ITSBRY\' date=\'Jun 18 2003, 11:36 PM\'] I never thought Schaffer or what eventually became MG90 was bad at all, but it didn't compare to having a master like GR or BC at the helm.  Am I the only one in the world who LIKED match up?

 [/quote]
 I thought it was cool, made for a decent time-killer. But someone made a good point about it at ATGS last year: You could go with the top choice the whole :30/:45 seconds, and still make with a decent score.

[JMFabiano]

[quote name=\'ITSBRY\' date=\'Jun 18 2003, 11:36 PM\'] Having recently seen the Convy pilot, all I have to say is wow!  He really would have been great. [/quote]
 Wow indeed!  So, the Convy pilot is on the trade circuit?  

BTW, unspectacular as it is, this is my first post on the board.  Glad to be here!

J.

[PeterMarshallFan]

[quote name=\'ITSBRY\' date=\'Jun 18 2003, 11:36 PM\'] This was a real live rotating circle with red neon strips around the edges...just an update of the 70s device.  Really cool homage to MG 7X and it looked much less cheesey than that face scramble thing they used in the actual series.

 [/quote]
 I guess it was simliar to the circle shown in the closing credits?



Damn....I wish GSN would air some more pilots.

[ilb4ever2000]

Damn....I wish GSN would air some more pilots.

Not like GSN has the MG90 pilots or anything...