December 5, 1962…’The Match Game’ Pilot Taped
This rare unaired video was taped in NBC’s 8H on December 5, 1962 with Peggy Cass and Peter Lind Hayes as guest panelist. 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. – Bobby Ellerbee
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“Swingin’ Safari”
What is it with Gene Rayburn and oddball microphones?
Dick was also a veteran writer of “MAD Magazine”
Dick still appears on television, The Tech Guy radio show, and has a Podcast with Chad Johnson called the The Giz Wiz.
i used to go to nbc to attend tapings of the ame shows was more facinated by the equiptment then the celebraties on concentration they would show the audiance they would tell you date of broadcast i would watch it at home with my camers set up and took pictures of myself in the audiance off the tv no ome videos at that time
Wiki says Dick was born in 1945. That can’t be right. He could not have been 17 and working as a writer when this version of “The Match Game” started. Has Dick been asked to write any questions for the ABC version with Alec Baldwin?
The ones I remember are the later ones that are re-running now on The Game Show Channel. They are from their time on CBS and I was working Master Control at KTAB-TV. I had forgotten that Match Game started on NBC.
I remember the loud, jet-powered technology that spun the MATCH signs into view.
Taped 16 days after I was born …
David. I’m not sure when Dick was born, but he started writing at a very young age. Dick has nothing to do with the new show. He isn’t thrilled with it.
When I was directing–waiting for a local position–we’d play along with the show. One day they took an elderly lady out of the audience. And the word was “doll.” Blank doll…blank doll…blank doll–time is running out! Do you have match for blank doll? “My little doll baby!” We all went “arrrrhhhhhh!”
From the last NBC show, September 26, 1969. Before VCRs, this was the way I captured TV images–with my trusty Instamatic. The set changed somewhat from the pilot–the celebrities moved to where the two seating areas joined.
Final NBC Show: September 26, 1969. Joe Garagiola and Betty White.
Final NBC Show: September 26, 1969. Toward the end of the NBC run, a “Telephone Match” segment was introduced.
Final NBC Show: September 26, 1969. A Mark Goodson–Bill Todman Production! Does the tape of the final NBC showing exist anymore?