ULTRA RARE! ‘The Match Game’…Unaired Pilot Episode
This was taped in NBC’s 8H on December 5, 1962 with Peggy Cass and Peter Lind Hayes as guest panellist. Gene Rayburn is the host and Johnny Olson the announcer, but as you will see, the game has changed a lot and so have the questions.
In the closing credits, many of the names of those positions that require a credit are blank, but our friend Dick DeBartolo’s name is there. Dick was the man that wrote the questions and when NBC threatened to cancel the show with six weeks left to go on that first season, Dick saved the day.
It was his idea to change the mundane line of questions from things like “name a kind of muffin” to questions that opened up a more risque train of thought, like “Mary has a nice set of ____”. I filled in the blank with “china”…what was your answer? LOL!
‘The Match Game’ debuted on December 31, 1962 with Arlene Francis and Skitch Henderson as celebrity panelists. The final NBC episode was September 26, 1969. Thanks to Paul Duca for finding this. Enjoy and share! – Bobby Ellerbee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAylZ3jxNdg
Digitally Enhanced 2011
I met Skitch Henderson in Nashville TN when he was DJ’ing a classics radio station in the late 1970’s.
I have great memories of working on the Match Game! The King had a big pair of …………………………..
Very strange looking stick mic. Looks like a lav improvised on to some angle iron. Then, it looks like a little overkill when Gene wears a lav, and had two mics on his podium.
Albeit rare, this has been running on YouTube for some time.
Dick DeBartolo wrote for Mad magazine as well, funny guy.
It seems like Peggy Cass was on almost everything in the 60’s. Who was this woman?
Love the “where is your home” question to the ladies… since there’s no chance they have jobs. 🙂 #anothertime
notice the crews names are blank on the credits
Soooo cool. Thanks for sharing.
From what I’ve read in old “Variety” papers of the ’60s, “MG” was quite often close to cancellation, but seemed to get one reprieve or another at the last minute.
That was the theme song for “Password” wasn’t it?
Here are some pictures of Gene Rayburn attacking the cue card guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fJq3PsxDsc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1dPHpOyfXI
I understood this was an early episode, if not the first week…I own this through a specialized collector and unlike a pilot, it has the commercials.
What I’ve always thought was so odd is that “A SWINGIN’ SAFARI” was my absolute favorite song as a kid (we literally wore out three copies of the record from my playing it so often) and “MATCH GAME” has always been my all-time favorite game show…but not until I was an adult and saw a video of the original MG did I know that my favorite song was the theme to a version of my favorite game show!