Match Game (1990)


Aired
Pilot, October 10, 1989 ABC Daytime, July 16, 1990 – July 12, 1991
Number of episodes
242
Run time
30 Minutes
Host
Bert Convy (pilot) Ross Shafer (series)
Announcer
Gene Wood
Origination
Studio 59, ABC Television Center, Los Angeles, California

This is chronicling the 1990 version of Match Game.

Game format[]

Two contestants, including a returning champion, competed. The champion is seated in the upstage seat and the challenger is seated in the downstage seat. The object is to match the answers of as many of the six celebrity panelists as possible on fill-in-the-blank statements.

The main game is played in two rounds. The opponent was given a choice of two statements labeled either "A" or "B". The host then read the statement. While the contestant pondered an answer, the six celebrities write their answers on index cards. After they finished, the contestant was polled for an answer. The host then asked each celebrity — one at a time, beginning with #1 in the upper left hand corner — to respond.

Pilot[]

There are three rounds, with one point per match in rounds 1 and 2 points per match in round 3.

NOTE: The Head-to-Head Match "Think Music" was a condensed version of the "choosing music" used for the pricing games Check Game, Make Your Move and Cover Up on The Price is Right.

Main Game[]

The game was played in two rounds. Each match was worth $50 to the contestant for a maximum of $300. After one contestant played his/her question, the other contestant played with the question unchosen.

Match-Up[]

After each round, the contestants played "Match-Up". In the Match-Up round, each contestant chose which star to play with throughout the round. On a contestant's turn, he/she was shown a fill-in-the-blank phrase (ala The Super Match) with two choices on his/her secret screen, the contestant chose the answer he/she thought the star he/she chose will say. The idea for the contestants was to build up their score by matching the selected star as many times as they can within the limit. Once that celebrity is chosen for Match-Up, they are out of play for the rest of the game. The first Match-Up lasted for 30 seconds for each contestant with each match being worth $50, and the second Match-Up (known as Final Match-Up) lasted for 45 seconds with each match being worth $100.

The player with the most money at the end of Final Match-Up, was the winner. If the game ended in a tie, one last fill-in-the-blank phrase was shown to both contestants but with three choices. The champion (the red player) chose an answer first while the challenger (the green player) chose one of the remaining answers. After the choices were made, the last celebrity who played Final Match-Up made a choice of his/her own. The player with the answer said by that celebrity won an additional $100 and the game. On the first show, the red player chose which contestant should play the final Match-Up question (either himself/herself or his/her opponent). The player chosen selected the answer, then chose which celebrity to match. A successful match won the game for the contestant, but an incorrect answer won the game for the opponent.

The winning player kept his/her money and went on to play the Super Match for up to $10,000. The runners-up walks away with parting gifts backstage.

Super Match[]

Audience Match[]

A prior studio audience was asked to give its best response to a fill-in-the-blank phrase, and its three best answers were placed and hidden away on a game board. Once the question was revealed, the winning contestant selected three stars who gave their answers to help out the contestant. When the answers were given, the contestant then chose which answer to use or reject them all and give an answer of his/her own. When all was said and done, the answers were revealed one at a time starting with the least popular answer and ending with the most popular. If the contestant can match any of the answers, he/she won the money attached to the answer. When the show started, the payoffs were $500-$250-$100, later changed to $500-$300-$200. If the contestant bombed out in the Audience Match, the contestant can still win $500 (or $1,000) by playing the Head-to-Head Match (later changed to $1,000/$2,000).

Head to Head Match[]

The contestant spun a green pointer around a giant wheel to determine their partner for the Head-to-Head. If the pointer landed on one of two red dots above the partner's name, their potential prize was doubled.

The host then read another fill-in-the-blank phrase after which the star whose space was landed on wrote his/her answer. The winning contestant then gave his/her answer after which the chosen star revealed his/hers and if they match, the winning contestant's earnings were multiplied by ten or twenty. If the contestant bombs out of the Audience Match and misses on the Head to Head Match, the contestant wins nothing. In the pilot, the Head-to-Head was played for an additional cash prize equal to ten times the Audience Match earnings.

Contestants can stay on until defeated or played five days.

Personnel[]

Host: Bert Convy (pilot); Ross Shafer (series)
Announcer: Gene Wood, Bob Hilton
Producers: Jonathan Goodson, Chester Feldman
Director: Marc Breslow
Set Designer: Jim Agazzi
Music: Score Productions

Trivia[]

Bert Convy was diagnosed with a Terminal Brain Tumor in April 1990 and wasn't able to do the series. So he was replaced by Shafer. Prior to this on July 15, 1991, Convy passed away due to his brain cancer.
Before becoming a model for the unsold pilot of Cash Tornado and the short-lived nighttime syndicated revival of The Price is Right with Doug Davidson in 1994 respectively, and a co-host of the syndicated lottery game show Flamingo Fortune in 1996, a unknowned Lisa Stahl became a contestant on the 1989 Convy pilot of Match Game.
The cue for when the "Star Wheel" came down on stage was later recycled and reused for the unsold 1992 pilot of The Family Feud Challenge.
This version was going to be moved to CBS in its second season and quite possibly replace Combs' Feud with it. Although this was indicated by Shafer on the series final episode, it ultimately never came to pass.
This revival is to date, the last network daytime game show to ever air on the network.
Despite its short-lived run, this was the first revival to be aired on the network, the second was in 2016 with Alec Baldwin as host.

Cancelled Merchandise[]

Main Article: Match Game (1990)/Cancelled Merchandise

Photos[]

Main Article: Match Game (1990)/Photos

Episode Status[]

This series exists in its entirety, and has aired on GSN at various times in the past. Including the 1989 pilot which was shown on GSN during the Match Game's Merry Blank-a Thon in December 2012.

An episode featuring the late Betty White was aired on Buzzr as part of a tribute to her on January 16, 2022.