I bet if there were message boards in the 70's, people would be complaining about Match Game and how the questions were so much more wholesome in the sixties.
Except...they kinda weren't. Hopefully I'm remembering all this correctly...
The "name something" questions were used early on, but when the show got cancelled at one point (1964?) question writer Dick DeBartolo suggested to Goodson that they write "wacky"/"silly" questions for the few weeks the show still had on NBC's schedule (DeBartolo also wrote for
MAD magazine at this point, so this wouldn't have been too much of a stretch for him) -- and Mark, reasonably assuming
The Match Game couldn't get canned again, gave the go-ahead. The ratings jumped, NBC renewed the show, and they continued on with the silly questions through the end in '69.
Even then, the "name something" questions were used early in the 70s run before being ousted entirely, with the "wacky" questions getting stranger as the CBS era went on.