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‘The Match Game’: A Fred Westbrook Photo

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

‘The Match Game’: A Fred Westbrook Photo

Below is a shot of ‘Match Game 74’ from CBS Television City Studio 33. The show started on NBC on December 5, 1962 and ran there till September of ’69. At NBC, the show originated from Studio 8H and was always a color show. In the early 70’s Fred Silverman at CBS began dumping the “rural” shows like ‘Green Acres’, ‘Andy Griffith’ and ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and started adding game shows in prime time starting with ‘The Price Is Right’ in 1972. The next year, Silverman added another Goodson-Todman show which was ‘Match Game 73’ with it’s original host and announcer, Gene Rayburn and Johnny Olson. Did you know that Gene Rayburn was an NBC page in 1936? On January 5, 1967 (while still at NBC NY) Johnny Carson made a surprise appearance on the show…he came to heckle Ed McMahon who was a guest panelist for a week. True or false…this show also aired on ABC.

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14 responses to “‘The Match Game’: A Fred Westbrook Photo”

  1. Howie Zeidman

    n they did a lot of gags with the camera operator.. It does look like he is staging but I doubt it

  2. John Senuta

    Why is the camera operator staging!

  3. Howie Zeidman

    In 8H it was in black and white. There are you tube videos of it

  4. David Hammett

    To be clear, Silverman did not put these shows on in primetime, although there were syndicated versions that aired in prime access. However, CBS did also remove the sitcom reruns from the daytime lineup — including some rural ones such as The Beverly Hillbillies and Gomer Pyle — to make room for these new versions of TPIR and MG in daytime.

  5. Rob Kates

    Gene Rayburn was the announcer for Steve Allen’s Tonight Show. Find out more here: http://rwkates2001.wix.com/late-night-tv#!steve-allen/c7ea

  6. Dave Schreyer

    Match Game did NOT start out in color. In fact if it did it would be closer to the near its end of run. When it moved to CBS in 1973 it was COLOR thru it’s entire CBS daytime prime time run.

  7. Gary Weisel

    I thought the center camera in 33 was usually on the platform back in the audience, not on stage,

  8. Todd Palladino

    True

  9. Troy Walters

    Australia had its own version of Match Game called “Blankety Blanks” which ran from 1977 to 1980 and hosted by the king of Aussie television Graham Kennedy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vWr-5yqVUQ , the set props were almost exactly the same!!! They even merchandised lemonade 😉 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlLJpZLnMDo

  10. Steve Byrd

    It’s very debatable whether the original 1960’s version of “The Match Game” from NBC’s Studio 8H was in color for the length of its run. The information I have read tells me that when it premiered at the end of 1962, it was in black-and-white, and that it didn’t go color until the fall of ’65.

  11. Karin Redding

    Love this page. So full of great TV moments

  12. Albert J. McGilvray

    Interesting that the cameraman is giving the cues, and not a floor manager.

  13. W.B. Ward

    True. I believe it was on ABC in the early 90s.

  14. Eyes Of A Generation.com

    Anyone know this ‘Match Game’ camera operator? Thanks to David Rouche for the screen capture.

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