Match Game controversial topic alert

[ezbidder]

Having watched Match Game now for about 3 years pretty much daily, I have to say that at some point in the show's run, something changed about the way the stars give answers to the audience match question.   In the syndicated version (especially the later seasons) it just feels like they are being prompted.  You get less "ridiculous" answers that are way off and more often than not all 3 star answers appear.  And somehow it looks like they look over somewhere (back stage) are they getting cue cards or something?   The Final one-on-one match I never felt that a star was ever prompted.

How about the main questions themselves?  Sometimes it appears there's a "spoiler" answer for a sure thing answer (Brett usually)  Were any part of the responses to the main questions scripted, e.g. to the level of the joke told?  (ala Hollywood Squares)

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'ezbidder\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 08:01 PM\'] Having watched Match Game now for about 3 years pretty much daily, I have to say that at some point in the show's run, something changed about the way the stars give answers to the audience match question.   In the syndicated version (especially the later seasons) it just feels like they are being prompted.  You get less "ridiculous" answers that are way off and more often than not all 3 star answers appear.  And somehow it looks like they look over somewhere (back stage) are they getting cue cards or something?   The Final one-on-one match I never felt that a star was ever prompted.

How about the main questions themselves?  Sometimes it appears there's a "spoiler" answer for a sure thing answer (Brett usually)  Were any part of the responses to the main questions scripted, e.g. to the level of the joke told?  (ala Hollywood Squares) [/quote]
 AFAIK, and Chris C. can verify this for sure(as he worked for GT when MG was a daily syndie show), the stars never knew the subject matter of any question on MG73-82 until it was asked on-air.

[Chief-O]

>> Were any part of the responses to the main questions scripted, e.g. to the level of the joke told?
It's been said before in past incarnations of this group.....Goodson would never allow that to be done. In the case of MGHSH, he didn't want the celebs provided with their zingers.

[whewfan]

Brett, Charles and Richard knew exactly how to keep the game moving while being spontaneous and funny. Brett and Charles just had that natural chemistry, and Richard had a large enough library of jokes and short stories to balance it out. The sixth chair, being a rotating semi-regular, always had a unique "final statement", and since the game is often decided with the sixth seat, they better have the "definitive" answer.
Once Richard stopped participating, Brett and Charles ended up working harder, and in effect this made their interaction even better and funnier.

[chris319]

Panelists were not briefed with game material. Only Gene Rayburn received a pre-taping briefing. Panelists did share answers among themselves. Perhaps the change you observe is the realization that in order to help the contestant win money, panelists should offer the most constructive and helpful suggestions they can.

[Starkman]

the only prompting I ever saw was on the syndie version where there was the running gag with Bill Daily hiding during the audience match so he wouldnt be chosen, which was about the only funny thing he did in seat 5.

However on syndie i do notice that gene repeats the question less and the celebs write answers faster. Were questions written on a board that was revealed to the celebs after it was asked so they could remember and write faster responses? Or is this just our old friends the editors at work. It would have been a good idea, some MG7x questions dragged with all those repeats and long times to respond.

[chris319]

The panelists only had Gene Rayburn's question card to work from. The time they spent writing was edited down substantially -- just listen for the jumps in the music.

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Mar 14 2004, 03:52 PM\'] The panelists only had Gene Rayburn's question card to work from. The time they spent writing was edited down substantially -- just listen for the jumps in the music. [/quote]
 Evident in the 1979-1982 syndie run...

[MCArroyo1]

Evident in the 1979-1982 syndie run...

And they seemed to do that quite often on the PM shows before 1979, to fit entire games into 30 minutes.