Game Show TV Milestone Of The Week

[AH3RD]

APRIL 20, 1979

Match Game 79 aired for the last time on CBS, after 6 years and 1,445 episodes (with 10 leftovers still in the can). The last MG7X celebrity panel this week was comprised of Fred Grandy, Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Connie Stevens, Bill Cullen and Marcia Wallace.

The end began in in 1977, when CBS made the fatal decision to move Match Game 77 to the morning @ 10 AM (CDT), to serve as a follow up for the hour-long The Price Is Right. The resulting declining ratings prompted CBS to return Match Game 77 to the afternoon, but the damage was irreparable, as it continued to decline in ratings in its last 2 seasons on the network.

Match Game 79 was replaced a week later by a popular new game show, the Burt Sugarman production Whew!, which, in turn, replaced another Goodson-Todman mainstay, The Price Is Right, which scooted back into the morning position, @ 11 Eastern/10 Central, where it remains to this very day. Match Game transferred to daily syndication that very fall as simply Match Game (without, alas and alack, the tried-and-true 2-digit year designation in the title), where it remained until September 1982. (The weekly nighttime Match Game PM would continue its run through September 1981.)

[aaron sica]

A correction, and a question:

MG actually moved to 11am (EST) in the fall of 1977, not 10am. TPiR ran from 10am-11am.

Now, my question: It's been said that MG went into daily syndication in the fall of 1979. An old TV Guide I have from NYC, circa 1979, lists MG as being at 4pm on WCBS-2. Were these MG'79 reruns, or a jump start on the syndie version?

[AH3RD]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Apr 23 2004, 08:46 AM\'] A correction, and a question:

MG actually moved to 11am (EST) in the fall of 1977, not 10am. TPiR ran from 10am-11am.

Now, my question: It's been said that MG went into daily syndication in the fall of 1979. An old TV Guide I have from NYC, circa 1979, lists MG as being at 4pm on WCBS-2. Were these MG'79 reruns, or a jump start on the syndie version? [/quote]
 Oops...sorry! My bad. I must have read from the wrong time zone! So I corrected it...Central Daylight Time-wise.

And to answer your question... yes, it was a jump start on the daily syndie version. (Pity it never played in my area, though...)

[Jimmy Owen]

MG was back on WCBS at 4:00pm starting on 5/28/79, moving the "Love of Life" network airing to noon (first sign of crumbling of network influence; if Channel 2 didn't air the show at network time, why should the affils?) For those interested in the Channel 2 local sked, Stanley Siegel's local talk show moved on that day from noon to 9am and expanded to an hour, displacing "Lassie" and "Gentle Ben" reruns.  TV Guide collecting pays off again!

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Apr 23 2004, 01:06 PM\'] MG was back on WCBS at 4:00pm starting on 5/28/79, moving the "Love of Life" network airing to noon (first sign of crumbling of network influence; if Channel 2 didn't air the show at network time, why should the affils?) For those interested in the Channel 2 local sked, Stanley Siegel's local talk show moved on that day from noon to 9am and expanded to an hour, displacing "Lassie" and "Gentle Ben" reruns.  TV Guide collecting pays off again! [/quote]
 Very cool! I'd wondered when they started airing MG at 4pm...Looks like only a few weeks before the TV Guide I was talking about (June 16-22, 1979).

I believe, however, in the summer of '81, WCBS aired a local show again at noon, "Lives We Live", and pre-empted the network show. There was even an article about the show in the color section of that week's TVG, which stated the show would be moving to 9:30 a.m. at the end of August...

[Jimmy Owen]

Actually, Channel 2 didn't pre-empt the network offering.  By the time of "Lives We Live," "Love of Life" had ended and "One Day at a Time" became the 4pm occupant, and MG was moved to 4:30pm. One of these days I'm gonna have to do a website of NYC daytime skeds with timelines, etc.

[DrBear]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Apr 23 2004, 11:06 AM\'] For those interested in the Channel 2 local sked, Stanley Siegel's local talk show moved on that day from noon to 9am and expanded to an hour, displacing "Lassie" and "Gentle Ben" reruns.  TV Guide collecting pays off again! [/quote]
 Havent thought about Stanley Siegel in years. It's off topic in here, but remind me to tell you about the guy sometime. If you think Regis wears his emotions on his sleeve...

[Jim]

I remember the introduction of the daytime syndicated version brought with it a commercial with the Match Game theme playing, and at the end of each verse a shot of Charles and Brett singing "Watch Match Game every day!"

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Apr 23 2004, 07:34 PM\'] Havent thought about Stanley Siegel in years. It's off topic in here, but remind me to tell you about the guy sometime. If you think Regis wears his emotions on his sleeve... [/quote]
 The last time I saw ole Stan, it was 1985 and he was a part of the failed primetime lineup on The Lifetime Channel. Richard Belzer's Hot Properties, originally hosted by Tovah Feldshuh and Fred somebody, was another component of it as was Good Sex with Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

[Tim L]

Jimmy:
     I would love to see a website like you suggest.  Somebody had a schedule book of Network Daytiime shows a few years back Not unlike the Brooks/Marsh Encyclopedia of Prime Time TV, Though It was more just schedules than anything.  Wish I had picked it up when I had the chance.  I didnt know that Gentle Ben and Lassie were still showing in the morning on a Major Market station like WCBS 2 in 1979.

Tim Lones

[sshuffield70]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Apr 24 2004, 12:03 PM\'] [quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Apr 23 2004, 07:34 PM\'] Havent thought about Stanley Siegel in years. It's off topic in here, but remind me to tell you about the guy sometime. If you think Regis wears his emotions on his sleeve... [/quote]
The last time I saw ole Stan, it was 1985 and he was a part of the failed primetime lineup on The Lifetime Channel. Richard Belzer's Hot Properties, originally hosted by Tovah Feldshuh and Fred somebody, was another component of it as was Good Sex with Dr. Ruth Westheimer. [/quote]
 Fred Newman whose best known work was Nickelodeon's "Livewire".

[ChuckNet]

Fred Newman whose best known work was Nickelodeon's "Livewire".

He later went on to do music/sound FX for the Nick animated series Doug, as well.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Apr 23 2004, 08:46 AM\']A correction, and a question:

MG actually moved to 11am (EST) in the fall of 1977, not 10am. TPiR ran from 10am-11am.

Now, my question: It's been said that MG went into daily syndication in the fall of 1979. An old TV Guide I have from NYC, circa 1979, lists MG as being at 4pm on WCBS-2. Were these MG'79 reruns, or a jump start on the syndie version?[/quote]
Seems to me that they were the eps that CBS never aired but were made (so at least the contestants got their money).

KNXT in LA did the same thing.

[Ian Wallis]

Seems to me that they were the eps that CBS never aired but were made (so at least the contestants got their money).

There must have been some episodes in there which CBS did actually air as well.  According to online guides and old TVGuide listings, CBS jumped around during the last few weeks, airing three eps with one group of celebrities, then two with another, etc.  Maybe WCBS and KNXT ran all those episodes in order without the gaps.  

It must have been confusing for the people still watching on CBS just before it was taken off.