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‘The Match Game’, NBC Studio 8H…Photo 3 of 5

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

‘The Match Game’, NBC Studio 8H…Photo 3 of 5

Here, we have cameras 2, 3 and 4 on the set during rehearsal. Camera 1 was Bob Batsche’s and was on the other side of the set to shoot Gene Rayburn. To the left of the cameras are two easels with chip charts. The little rolling stand is the credit roll machine which we are seeing from the side. Behind it is the flip card – super stand. To help orient you, the SNL fixed sets are on the west wall which would be to our left. The north wall is behind these cameras and the seating is on the east wall. Can you help with the seating?

I think, but am not sure, that these seats are something like the pull out bleacher seats many high school auditoriums have. I’m not sure if the audience came in from the 9th floor, or loaded from the bottom up on the 8th. I know that the south half of the permanent balcony seating has been glassed in as a green room and bird’s eye studio used by radio and TV for space missions, but I do not know the status of the north half of the balcony seating at this time. Thanks to Bob Batsche for these great photos.

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8 responses to “‘The Match Game’, NBC Studio 8H…Photo 3 of 5”

  1. Dick DeBartolo

    I keep finding new things in this photo! On the left is where I sat during Match Game tapings. The questions were on a board that stood up against the set on that little table. That rolling chair is where I sat. I was on headset talking to the producer in the control room. Once we agreed on the next MG question Gene should use, I handed it to a stagehand who put it on wooden stick with a giant paper clip. He then pushed the slightly folded over question thru a little tunnel and it popped up next to Gene Rayburn. SFX made it sound like it was automated! What a treat to see these pictures.

  2. Dick DeBartolo

    For Match Game the audience entered the studio on the 9th floor. And walked down to their seats. The seats started to the far right in this photo. Those white panels mark the first row of seats. Johnny Olson stood at that mic with his script on the music stand next to it. That way he was close to the audience for the warm-up and to cue applause during the show if needed. These photos are just great! It brings back years of working in studio 8H.

  3. Don Newbury

    For what it’s worth, I went to a taping of this when I was a kid and I remember sitting almost in the last row of the studio with my father And getting scared to death by Johnny Olson. He used to like going up and down the aisle to say hi to people. Well, neither me or my father saw him approaching because we were watching the show. All of a sudden this hand comes out of nowhere to shake my father’s hand and we both jumped. He got a good laugh out of it, as did we. He seemed like a very nice guy. Was “Match Game’ also done in another studio?

  4. Chris Clementson

    Johnny would have had a hand-held mic available to him for his warm-up. That BK1A is likely not it.

  5. Dave Miller

    There was a set of pull out bleachers on the north (W. 50th St) wall of 8H for years. Audiences entered on the 9th floor.

  6. Mark Ogden

    I look at these photos, I can’t get Bert Kampfert’s “Swinging Safari” (which was the show’s original theme song) out of my mind. I may have to download it from iTunes.

  7. Tom McKeever

    Besides being in studio 8H for the Apollo missions my friends and I used to go to NBC early in the morning for tickets for quiz shows. One show we saw taped in 8H was the “Who, What or Where” show. Was the host Art James? I believe it was a 25 minute show. Anyway I remember coming down from the 9th floor walkway. I was told when the Space Center was up that the seats were pushed back into the wall like gym bleachers. They would have been behind the Command & Service Module wall during Apollo 8. Hope I’m remembering this correctly.

  8. John Holt

    Over by the men we have an RCA 77 ribbon microphone on an RCA floor stand with cable hook. Between the men an RCA BK-1A dynamic on a similar stand. I wonder what they were used for.

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