The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Drinking Game

[PYLdude]

The very fact a former host of the show was on the set during that question and with the answers being given is something that I think is worth pointing out. 

Who in 1983 is going to remember Gene Wood hosted any game show, much less Beat the Clock?

[JakeT]

The very fact a former host of the show was on the set during that question and with the answers being given is something that I think is worth pointing out. 

Who in 1983 is going to remember Gene Wood hosted any game show, much less Beat the Clock?

Especially one taped in Canada and (his version) only syndicated for two years a decade before...

But it has now been pointed out...if only we could get into the Wayback machine and correct the injustice done at the time...

JakeT

[JMFabiano]

What was really ironic though was that in the MG portion of the show a "Beat The Clock" question came up.    "He was so mean when he went on Beat the Clock and lost, he took a stick and beat the BLANK."   Six answer match with "host" and two answers referenced Bud Collyer but no one knew that a more recent former host was in the same room doing the announcing!

Is it really that ironic?  Keep in mind that Bud Collyer hosted BtC for 11 years on two different networks, both daytime and nighttime...Gene Wood only hosted for 2 years in syndication and it was likely unaired in a number of markets...

JakeT

I blame Alanis Morissette for forever warping the definition of that word...

[JMFabiano]

Aside from the video wall, the set always seemed rather barren to me

What bothers me about the set is that there's NO continuity to it. If you found someone with no prior familiarity, and showed them a picture of the contestant area for Match Game, the contestant area for Hollywood Squares, the Super Match board, and the panel, I don't think that person would pick up that they were from the same show. It's kind of akin to the set of The Price is Right during Barker's final year, when the set was a bunch of different ideas implemented at different times, and they didn't belong together.

For me, the color scheme was just totally wonky...dark blue/yellow video wall, light blue/white celeb area and then those god-awful colors of the contestant/Super Match area...lack of continuity is putting it mildly...it's like someone said, "Remember the acid trip dream of the '68 TTTT set?  Let's come up with a combo that's even more vomit-inducing, yet modern..."

JakeT

Think the contestant area(s) were once described as looking like some kid took his Legos and built them.   I'd say moreso with the Squares area, with its blocky podiums and primary colors.  Would it have helped if there were more grays as seen in what we know of the pilot's set?   Brings to mind the original HS set (gray contestants/host area, grid with a blue background), yet it might seem a bit colder.   

And while the HS panel through the magic of the TV cameras looked impressive for not really being a true grid/a tall structure, when it was just the MG panel was when its true dinky nature was exposed. 

As I assume the show was pre-empted for Thanksgiving, we are on to a new panel.  Yay, more Fred Travalena. 

Should I be impressed that my mom walked in and recognized Jon as Bowzer without his greaser look? 

[Eric Paddon]

The very fact a former host of the show was on the set during that question and with the answers being given is something that I think is worth pointing out. 

Who in 1983 is going to remember Gene Wood hosted any game show, much less Beat the Clock?

I was 14 years old and even *I* knew then.   Sheesh, a simple observation sure brings out the jerk in a lot of people at this place (though with one person it's been constant for the 20 years I've had the misfortune of seeing his name at these forums).   Goodbye and good riddance to bad rubbish.

[aaron sica]

As I assume the show was pre-empted for Thanksgiving, we are on to a new panel.  Yay, more Fred Travalena. 

In checking old newspaper archives, yes - Thanksgiving 1983's show was pre-empted for an NFL game. It did air the day after Thanksgiving - nothing was pre-empted then.

[aaron sica]

I was 14 years old and even *I* knew then.   

At the time of MG/HS airing (I was 9), I know who he was *and* also would have gotten the Beat The Clock reference (my first recollection of that show was the Monty Hall version). Of course, you could make the case that what 9 year olds would know that...I don't think any of my friends were as into game shows as myself...

[JMFabiano]

I was 14 years old and even *I* knew then.   

At the time of MG/HS airing (I was 9), I know who he was *and* also would have gotten the Beat The Clock reference (my first recollection of that show was the Monty Hall version). Of course, you could make the case that what 9 year olds would know that...I don't think any of my friends were as into game shows as myself...

Closest thing I knew of to BTC as a kid was Beat the Time from Sesame Street.  My earliest memories of the genre came from 1979-1980 (I was 2 going on 3).  Even so, don't recall my parents watching the Hall version (they did watch Whew! however, which was around for part of ANBTC's run of course)

[TimK2003]

Aside from the video wall, the set always seemed rather barren to me

What bothers me about the set is that there's NO continuity to it. If you found someone with no prior familiarity, and showed them a picture of the contestant area for Match Game, the contestant area for Hollywood Squares, the Super Match board, and the panel, I don't think that person would pick up that they were from the same show. It's kind of akin to the set of The Price is Right during Barker's final year, when the set was a bunch of different ideas implemented at different times, and they didn't belong together.

For me, the color scheme was just totally wonky...dark blue/yellow video wall, light blue/white celeb area and then those god-awful colors of the contestant/Super Match area...lack of continuity is putting it mildly...it's like someone said, "Remember the acid trip dream of the '68 TTTT set?  Let's come up with a combo that's even more vomit-inducing, yet modern..."

JakeT

When I see the HS contestant set, I keep thinking it was derived from a scaled-down prototype made out of Legos.

[Mark McNeil]

Ryan Rinkerman posted on Facebook four examples in the fairly brief run of the series to date where the Super Match answer could be the name of a current NBC show. (The others were KNIGHT ___, REAL___ and ___ BLUES.)  Lo and behold, every single time, the top answer was, in fact, the NBC series.  Draw whatever conclusions you like.

_____ BLUES. "Hill Street" or "Bay City"? 

[That Don Guy]

Ryan Rinkerman posted on Facebook four examples in the fairly brief run of the series to date where the Super Match answer could be the name of a current NBC show. (The others were KNIGHT ___, REAL___ and ___ BLUES.)  Lo and behold, every single time, the top answer was, in fact, the NBC series.  Draw whatever conclusions you like.

_____ BLUES. "Hill Street" or "Bay City"? 

IIRC, one of the celebrities said "Bay City"; when it didn't show, Gene commented that it was probably still too new of a series.

[Fedya]

ST. LOUIS or MEMPHIS.

[Jeremy Nelson]

Aside from the video wall, the set always seemed rather barren to me

What bothers me about the set is that there's NO continuity to it. If you found someone with no prior familiarity, and showed them a picture of the contestant area for Match Game, the contestant area for Hollywood Squares, the Super Match board, and the panel, I don't think that person would pick up that they were from the same show. It's kind of akin to the set of The Price is Right during Barker's final year, when the set was a bunch of different ideas implemented at different times, and they didn't belong together.

For all the fuss we make about how cool the giant light wall is/was, it was criminally underused for what I assume they paid to build and operate it.

[JMFabiano]

Aside from the video wall, the set always seemed rather barren to me

What bothers me about the set is that there's NO continuity to it. If you found someone with no prior familiarity, and showed them a picture of the contestant area for Match Game, the contestant area for Hollywood Squares, the Super Match board, and the panel, I don't think that person would pick up that they were from the same show. It's kind of akin to the set of The Price is Right during Barker's final year, when the set was a bunch of different ideas implemented at different times, and they didn't belong together.

For all the fuss we make about how cool the giant light wall is/was, it was criminally underused for what I assume they paid to build and operate it.

I think it was used for as much as it could be used.  The opening?  Some in-game and commercial static graphics and animations?  Displaying Super Match values?  Check, check, and check.  Aside from different animations and such, can't think of much more they could have done.   Maybe display the champ's total at the end of the day?   Just variants on what they were doing already, really.

Now, another observation, and one that continues to show where Goodson's priorities really stood: despite also having the same bright, primary-or-near-primary colors, it seems like there was more effort put in the Match Game contestant area.  It looked okay to me as it was, but was probably the better of the two segments' sets, could even slide away not unlike spinning away the losing contestant in 1973-82.  Whereas the HS set just felt like it was in a partial crate, wheeled onto the set and plopped to the side. 

[Jeremy Nelson]

That’s my point. For all they paid for the giant wall, they could have just done static backdrops and graphics.

Even past the set not having pieces that looked like they came from the same show, the color schemes they used didn’t match at all. There’s a green and yellow set of podiums, a red, yellow and blue set of podiums, a gradient blue panel piece, nameplates with an orange border, and a shiny black floor. I’m not an interior designer, but it felt like the colors were chosen without any consideration to the theme as a whole.