While it only airs for an hour on weekdays, this is still one of only two pre-1999 game shows to still air on Game Show Network (the other one currently being What's My Line?, which airs in the early morning hours).
Edited for Syndication: As of 2022, Buzzr airings edit out Johnny Olson's "stay tuned for Tattletales" announcement during the credits; this is indicated by a jump in the music. Buzzr also removes the sponsor plugs at the end of PM episodes, skipping directly to the credits.
Follow the Leader: Jack Barry-Dan Enright productions copied the format pretty blatantly with Hollywood Connection (1977-78), which was pretty much Match Game but with questions about the celebrities instead of fill-in-the-blank. Yahtzee (1988) was basically Match GameWITH DICE!
Hey, It's That Sound!: For the 1990 version, the sound the Star Wheel made when descending from the rafters of the studio was previously used on another ABC/Goodson series, Trivia Trap, in reverse (as the sound made when the bank of monitors ascended during the Trivia Ladder).
Hostility on the Set: In 1976, Richard Dawson landed a hosting gig on Family Feud. Initially he was content to be doing both series simultaneously. However by 1978, Richard started experiencing burnout, and became detached in his role as panelist, often giving blunt one-word answers (at least once, he notably refused to smile even when Rayburn all but demanded him to). Part of this appears to have stemmed from his inability (unlike on the Feud, where he had sweeping powers to overrule the judges and the timekeepers) to contest rulings he disliked, which most famously resulted in the "School Riot" (where his answer of "finishing school" was ruled not a match by the judges, who did accept "college" and "scuba diving school" - the contestant had said simply "school"). The addition of the 'Star Wheel', in June eliminated his specialty spot as the panelist most chosen for the Head-to-head Match, which further disillusioned him. By August, he was gone, never to return.
The 1960s version was destroyed by NBC, and only 11 episodes exist, including the pilot, which is now in the public domain and can be downloaded for free here.
The Star Wheel years of CBS version rarely airs, especially the episodes after Dawson left.
Both 1990s revivals are currently absent from television, with 1990-91 version having seen airtime on GSN from 2002-2004. The 1998-99 version has only appeared on TV oncenote aside from various blooper specials after its cancellation — a special GSN marathon celebrating the Match Game franchise's 50th anniversary in 2012.
GSN and Buzzr have skipped over a few episodes due to misplaced/broken tapes. Some more are skipped due to no-longer-PC content, and still more are skipped due to celebrities refusing to give clearance to their appearances.
The Alec Baldwin ABC version has one episode from its final season, production #509, that never aired. It is not known who was featured on it, but it is worth noting that episode #508 (aired on August 7, 2019 as part of Season 4) featured Chris D'Elia, who faced allegations of sexual abuse in June 2020.
No Budget: The 1998 version, which offered a "top prize" of $5,000, even though previous versions went as high as $20,000. The set also reeked of cheapness; no turntables or score displays (in fact the only thing on the set that moved was the sliding doors through which Burger made his entrances).
Out of Order: Was common with the Alec Baldwin ABC version:
The two halves of the July 10, 2016 episode (production #103) were broadcast the other way around than how they were actually filmed. Although this may have been, presumably, to put a Super Match win at the end of the show, it also explains why the audience was laughing so hard at the question involving Tituss Burgess's pinot noir in the "first" game, because he had brought up pinot noir earlier as a guess in the "second". Based on how it aired, most viewers probably assumed that the guess was actually a Call-Back to the first game.
Season 2 consisted of 12 episodes, but 14 were produced, resulting in the two leftover episodes (production #203 and #209) airing as part of Season 3.
In an inverse of the above, Season 3 had 18 aired episodes, but only 12 were produced. This resulted in broadcast Season 3 consisting of two episodes from production Season 2 and four meant for a Season 4.
Although broadcast Season 4 had 14 episodes, which was the exact number of remaining episodes from production Season 4 (18 produced), the last two aired episodes were actually from production Season 5 (production #508 and #502), which was taped in its entirety before the show was even renewed. As a result, two episodes meant for Season 4 (#401 and #409) aired as part of Season 5.
The Pete Best: Jack Klugman. Jack agreed to appear during the first week of Match Game 73 on the condition that they bring his then wife on a later week as a celebrity. Her name - Brett Somers (Klugman).
Production Posse: A lot of the celebrities on the Baldwin version- Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski, Titess Burgess- appeared at some point on 30 Rock (they never mention it, though).
Real Song Theme Tune: The NBC version used Bert Kaempfert's "A Swingin' Safari". The 1962 pilot used Billy Vaughn's cover of the same song.
Drag Race: "Snatch Game", an innuendo-packed Match Game parody in which the competing Drag Queens impersonate celebrities, has become a standard Once a Season feature across the whole Series Franchise.
In Experimental Film, Clark recites along to Match Game while his father dresses him.
The Simpsons: In "Bart Gets Famous" (Season 5, Ep. 12), Bart imagines he's one of the panelists on "Match Game 2034" with Billy Crystal, Farrah Fawcett-Majors-O'Neal-Varney, Loni Anderson, Spike Lee, and he crushes Kitty Carlisle's head, uttering his catchphrase "I didn't do it!"
Saved from Development Hell: The current ABC revival finally succeeded in doing this. Three revivals prior to that, counting The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, didn't even last a full year. From 1999 until 2016, any further attempts, for one reason or another, just did not get off the ground.
Gene Rayburn was slated to host a revival planned for the 1985-86 season. When Entertainment Tonight wished Gene a happy birthday and revealed his age, all plans were dropped (he ended up hosting — and then quitting — the train-wreck that was Break the Bank). Another revival was planned for 1987, also with Rayburn as host, but, possibly also thanks to the above reason, the series never surfaced. (Aside from Bank the only other show Rayburn ended up hosting after his age reveal was AMC's The Movie Masters, which ran for just under six months from 1989-90.)
An unsold pilot, MG2: the match game, was taped in 1996 with Charlene Tilton (who appeared as a panelist late in the 1973-82 run) as host. Elements from this pilot were later incorporated into the 1998 revival. Wink Martindale uploaded the pilot to YouTube in 2018.
Fremantle shot a pilot for Fox in 2004, an updated version called What the Blank?! Mixing elements of Street Smarts into the game, it was canceled abruptly before it aired. Notably, Randy West- who wrote a biography on Johnny Olson, interacts with the fandom frequently, and was known for announcing Supermarket Sweep- announced the pilot.
TBStried their hand in 2008, taping two pilots which included Sarah Silverman and Scott Thompson on the panel. Basing its set and gameplay after the 1973-78 versions (albeit with the Super Match reworked to be similar to Family Feud's Fast Money round), it was rejected in favor of Lopez Tonight. Thompson would later be a panelist on the Comedy Network version in Canada.
NBC canned the original not because of ratings (which were still very good), but because it wanted to revitalize its lineup. The replacement, Letters to Laugh-In, bombed within three months.
CBS moved the show from 3:30 PM to 11:00 AM on November 7, 1977 - then to 4:00 PM on December 19. The first change was bad enough, but the second really killed it and Dawson's departure in mid-1978 didn't help matters. Altogether, the show lasted 16 months following the move to 4:00.
The first ABC version was slotted at Noon, forcing affiliates to choose between it and local news or other programming. Most chose the latter option, a fate the previous entry in the Noon slot, Ryan's Hope, had also suffered.
Un-Cancelled: The original series, and how. NBC canned the show due to low ratings, so with six weeks left to be taped Goodson decided to approve a suggestion by one of the question writers (Dick DeBartolo, then and now a MAD writer) to start using more silly questions, under the logic that they could get away with it because The Match Game's fate was sealed and NBC couldn't cancel it twice. It turned out that the sillier questions resulted in the show being more fun, and drew a lot more viewers to the point where the network reversed the cancellation.
Bert Convy, who had been a panelist on the 1970s version and the host of fellow Goodson-produced shows Tattletales and Super Password, was tapped to host the pilot week for what became the 1990-91 series. Convy did host said pilots, but turned down the series once he was diagnosed with a brain tumor (which eventually took his life).
On the last episode of the 1990-91 series, Ross Shafer hinted that they'd be back at "another time, another channel, very shortly". What he was alluding to was the fact that, behind the scenes, CBS was interested in picking up the series for a second season, which would've replaced Ray Combs' Family Feud. Unfortunately, it never came to pass.
Orson Bean was invited to be a regular panelist for the 1970s version, but Mark Goodson vetoed him as a regular because he was still mad at him for abrutly leaving To Tell the Truth to move to Australia. His place was ultimately taken by Richard Dawson.
Written-In Infirmity: Richard Dawson wore tinted glasses during his final two weeks, as he was recovering from an eye injury. He also wore them on Family Feud around the same time, for the same reason.
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