Hosts who got worse over time

[JMFabiano]

There was an episode of PW+ in the trading circuit that was THOUGHT to be the last one Ludden did. Someone posted Ludden's ACTUAL last episode on YouTube recently.



This is part one of Ludden's last show... the one going around the trading circuit, which was reportedly his last one, Vicki and Robert are wearing red, and Allen acknowledged it.

Other identifying points of the "fake" last Allen episode: he is wearing a yellow ribbon on his jacket, and he plugs the NBC game show lineup at the end.

(And speaking of "fake" final episodes, still wondering about the origins of that Barry TJW reported to be the last, you know, the one with the Savers dubbed over the opening and closing)

[ChuckNet]

You could also add Louie Anderson to that list...given his off-camera troubles later in FF's run, it seemed like there were times toward the end where he was pretty much phoning it in. Def agree w/the inclusions of Cullen, Barker and Marshall as well (though I can't help but wonder if the behind-the-scenes issues on Yahtzee and R2R had anything to do w/the latter's issues, since he seemed to do a fine job hosting that one GS Week ep on Bergeron's HS).

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[Ian Wallis]

It's funny about Rayburn. There were definitely some rollicking times on the syndicated show, especially with McLean Stevenson. Still, I wonder if both he and Brett had a harder time holding their vino as time went on. Gene seemed pretty sluggish, and Brett looked less like the life of the party, more like she was tired and needed a ride home.

It was revealed later that Gene was bitterly disappointed Match Game was cancelled.  I'm sure he would have continued with it if he could have, but after 9 years the ratings just weren't there anymore.

He blamed CBS for moving the show around the schedule during the last couple of years of the network days, but I wonder if it would have died a natural death anyway.  It had quite a long run and I think it had just ran its course by 1982.

[Eric Paddon]

I've been watching the last weeks of the syndicated version recently and MG by then was IMO just a tired show that had indeed run its course, generating little of the fun it did in its glory days.    The show had also become more and more cheap in making Audience Match and Head to Head Match questions so overly esoteric and hard that too often you had contestants failing to win much of anything.

[BrandonFG]

I've been watching the last weeks of the syndicated version recently and MG by then was IMO just a tired show that had indeed run its course, generating little of the fun it did in its glory days.

I agree...I used to watch those eps. on GSN, and the chemistry just wasn't there. They tried, and McLean and Bill Daily were suitable replacements, but it was still not the same from the mid-70s era.

[whewfan]

I've been watching the last weeks of the syndicated version recently and MG by then was IMO just a tired show that had indeed run its course, generating little of the fun it did in its glory days.
[/quote]
I agree...I used to watch those eps. on GSN, and the chemistry just wasn't there. They tried, and McLean and Bill Daily were suitable replacements, but it was still not the same from the mid-70s era.
[/quote]

While I applaud the syndicated MG for running the show as if it was live to tape, there were several noticeable edits in the syndicated run. In the syndicated run, they tried to fit in 2 bonus games per show, and they also set it up so that the Friday show would NOT straddle into Monday, because they weeks ran out of order. Sometimes that resulted in having time to kill, and Gene would do so by having members of the audience play head to head with any celeb.

[Eric Paddon]

They would not necessarily go for two bonus rounds in one show.    The norm seemed more like three matches, six contestants over the course of the week, at least by the end that's what it was.

McLean Stevenson as a regular the last season, I found more irritating than amusing.   Frankly, hearing McLean talk about a "dumb-off" rang more than a bit hollow with me given how he was not exactly the brightest of lights when it came to playing the game himself (remember his "Doo-doo" answers from MG73 or his even more pathetic performance on Pyramid trying to describe something as simple as "legs"?).    A line like that from Dawson would have worked because no one played the game better than him and if he made a contestant the butt of a joke over his gameplaying it at least had some credibility.