"Match Game '73" 40th anniversary

[TVC]

The 40th anniversary of Match Game '73 is upon us. The CBS series premiered on July 2, 1973.

[Axl]

Wow, that really snuck up on me.  And since the first pilot was taped on May 19, 1973, you can argue that the 40th anniversary of the revival has already arrived.

[TVC]

Has anyone here attended tapings of the 1970s Match Game (network or syndicated versions)? I recall that the norm was to tape five episodes on Saturdays and five episodes on Sundays.

[Borusa]

GSN should have done a 40th anniversary marathon (they did a 30th anniversary marathon ten years ago).

[RG]

GSN should have done a 40th anniversary marathon (they did a 30th anniversary marathon ten years ago).

That 30th anniversary marathon was great... 30 episodes of Match Game starting at 9am.

I'm not going to hold my breath that they'll do anything to acknowledge the 40th anniversary.

[Ccook]

Match Game '73 was originally supposed to debut on June 25, 1973 but the Watergate hearings--which all three networks were covering simultaneously--put it off a week. It was at that point that the networks decided to do round robin coverage of the hearings.

Our market--Atlanta--didn't get Match Game '73 upon its debut. The CBS affiliate (then WAGA/ch. 5) was still under contract to run the remainder of the syndicated show It's Your Bet which aired at 3:30 PM (when CBS ran MG). WAGA started running MG that September.

[FamilyFeud1994]

GSN should have done a 40th anniversary marathon (they did a 30th anniversary marathon ten years ago).

I remember that 30th anniversary marathon. I'd say the 50th anniversary marathon (of the franchise as a whole) they did in December takes care of it nicely.

[TVC]

I remember seeing promos for the new Match Game that CBS aired in primetime in advance of the show's premiere on July 1, 1973. The promo consisted of a montage of clips and shots of the celebrity panelists. Arlene Francis was among them.

...the first pilot was taped on May 19, 1973...

Apparently, CBS quickly decided to place the show on its schedule after the pilot was produced.

Also interesting is that the music was only days old when the pilot was taped. The initial cues were mastered on May 14, 1973.

[Axl]

Apparently, CBS quickly decided to place the show on its schedule after the pilot was produced.

With such a fast turnaround, I originally assumed that CBS was already about 90% behind the idea of reviving Match Game, and just needed to see a pilot to make sure there were no unexpected snafus before greenlighting it.  But now, I wonder if it was originally sketched out for a fall debut, and there was some last-minute reason they had to move it up quickly.  Anybody know?

[Ccook]

Could be that the show it replaced, Hollywood's Talking, wasn't doing too well, even with Price as a lead-in. The 3 PM spot was previously occupied by Love Is A Many Splendored Thing and soap fans boycotted CBS for replacing it with Price. Another soap, Secret Storm was moved to 4 PM from 3:30 to make room for Hollywood's Talking, and I guess the soap fans just couldn't jump on the game bandwagon.

[GuyWithFace]

Sounds like what happened when ABC replaced Dark Shadows with Password two years earlier.

[imhomerjay]

Could be that the show it replaced, Hollywood's Talking, wasn't doing too well, even with Price as a lead-in. The 3 PM spot was previously occupied by Love Is A Many Splendored Thing and soap fans boycotted CBS for replacing it with Price. Another soap, Secret Storm was moved to 4 PM from 3:30 to make room for Hollywood's Talking, and I guess the soap fans just couldn't jump on the game bandwagon.

And history repeats itself, with the silliness over the demise of All My Children and One Life to Live.

Of course, were a game to be replaced by a soap...now, that's perfectly ok.