MATCH GAME star wheel
Michael John Falkner
IKhuri (ikh...@aol.com) wrote:
: Does anyone know why they added the star wheel to MATCH GAME?
To throw some randomness into who gets the final question for the big money.
Everybody used to choose one of the regulars since they knew the game.
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Mike Falkner, mfal...@csd.uwm.edu Milwaukee, Wisconsin
"The Electric Youth Renegade" D.G.I.F. #10769
WWW: http://www.uwm.edu/~mfalkner No quotes. (No room!! =))
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IKhuri
Does anyone know why they added the star wheel to MATCH GAME?
Imad Khuri
Ikh...@aol.com
CHIEFKCJOE
For the first 4 years, nearly every contestant picked Richard Dawson to
play the Super Match with. I think the producers thought it might be
fairer to the rest of the "celebrities" who never got a chance to fill in
the blank at the end of the game.
Also, I think it had something to do with Richard Dawson going on to host
Family Feud. Dawson stayed until 1978, when his 5 year contract had
expired. Goodson Todman also added the opportunity to "double" your money
with the spin of the wheel, so I believe there were a few reasons for the
introduction of the wheel. A few years earlier, they had introduced the
BIG WHEEL on the Price is Right when it expanded to an hour, so I guess
they thought they knew a good thing when they had it.
MrTV1
In article <4pnfad$p...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, ikh...@aol.com (IKhuri)
writes:
>Does anyone know why they added the star wheel to MATCH GAME?
>
>
I think it was to randomize the selection of the celebrity that played the
Super Match. Before that, the player picked that star. Maybe certain
stars were getting picked while others were not. Plus, they added the
STARS to double your money!
John
C319Chris
"Does anyone know why they added the star wheel to MATCH GAME?"
To randomize the selection of the celebrity who played the Head-To-Head
question. It also added the possibility of doubling the Head-To-Head
stakes.
Don Del Grande
ikh...@aol.com (IKhuri) wrote:
>Does anyone know why they added the star wheel to MATCH GAME?
I think it's because when Richard Dawson decided to leave the show (I guess he
felt doing five "Match Game" episodes AND hosting five "Family Feud" episodes
a week, plus syndicated episodes, was too much for him), the producers decided
to make the celebrity choice random (and were able to introduce a "big money"
element into the game as well).
Ironically, Richard Dawson was the first person to be spun on the wheel. (In
the next game, Charles Nelson Reilly did one of his "newspaper gags" where he
was reading about "the fixed Star Wheel".)
TRIVIA: Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the first celebrity to be
part of a $10,000 win Debralee Scott (and I think the clue was "New York
_____"; the match was "Times")?
TOUGHER TRIVIA: Whatever happened to her, anyway? It seems that the only
person to "escape" "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" was Martin Mull...
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Don Del Grande, del_...@ix.netcom.com
And back then, the chance of a "double" was 50%, later lowered to 30%
C Alliaume
>Does anyone know why they added the star wheel to MATCH GAME?
I'll start, because I wanted to introduce a different Match Game question
anyway.
Per Chris Lambert's award-winning (and if it hasn't won an award, it
should) Game Show Page (available at
http://silver.ucs.indiana.edu/~wlambert/GameShows.html):
Richard Dawson was a very popular choice at this level [Head-to-Head
Match]
until he left the show in 1976. He was so good, in fact, that the show
soon
required the contestant to spin a "Star Wheel" to determine his/her
celebrity
partner. (Unfounded rumors claim the Star Wheel was rigged in a way that
it
would never land on Dawson.) Each star was listed on the wheel, and some
spots
gave the player the right to play for double stakes...Dawson still
appeared as a panelist until 1976, when he quit because of the Star Wheel
being added to "his game."
And now, a question to throw out to the panel:
We all know All-American is testing Match Game, Tattletales and Card
Sharks for syndication in early 1997. It's probably a reasonable
assumption that Match Game will be one of the two games. (I'm rooting for
Match Game and Card Sharks, to avoid an overload of celebrity games.) I'm
not sure how the format of the game will work (two rounds or three, one
full game per day or games carrying over from one day to the next, etc.),
but in any case let's assume "Match-Up," from the 1990-91 ABC version, is
dropped from the main portion of the game.
How would people feel about "Match-Up" being used to accumulate the cash
needed to play the Head-to-Head Match, rather than the Audience Match?
($100 for every match during this segment, 10 or 20 times the amount won
during Match-Up if the contestant makes a Head-to-Head Match.) This is
based on a couple of things:
1. Match-Up wasn't a terrible idea, but it *was* stupid to play it in
between rounds 1 and 2 of the comedy portion of the game. Used as part of
the end game, it would make more sense.
2. The celebrities still occasionally goofed around in the Audience Match
section (unless the contestant was wise enough to pick Brett Somers,
Charles Nelson Reilly and Richard Dawson, all of whom realized this was
the time to give out some money, not go for a laugh). Match-Up would
force them to be a bit more serious.
3. It's also easier for a host to control -- I didn't watch Ross Shaffer's
version enough to know whether this was true, but David Hammett's
interview with Gene Wood would lead one to believe he had more trouble
than Gene Rayburn in controlling the celebrities and keeping the game
moving. (And I do think Ross Shaffer should be on the top of the list to
host a revised Match Game...the failure of the ABC version was not his
fault -- when your regulars are Bruce Baum, Ronn Lucas and Scorch, Brad
Garrett, Dana Fleming, and Shelley Taylor Morgan, you've got major
problems to start with.)
4. Games generally can used slight tweaks when they return to the
airwaves; this would be the fifth version of Match Game, so it's a slight
adjustment, but a useful one.
5. People generally associate the audience polls with Family Feud now,
even though Match Game gave birth to them.
6. If a contestant totally whiffed on the Audience Match, they got nothing
in the original CBS version of the game and the end game was over (no
Head-to-Head Match). Later on, they played for a token amount ($500).
This meant the Head-to-Head Match (if it was played) was pretty
anticlimactic. That would be unlikely to happen with Match-Up.
It's just a thought, and comments are welcome.
-- Curt Alliaume
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Look for Turnstile (a literary magazine I work on)
at a bookstore or newsstand near you.
C319Chris
"Dawson still appeared as a panelist until 1976, when he quit because of
the Star Wheel being added to "his game.""
This is not the account Ira Skutch gives in his book. He says Richard had
become so withdrawn and contributed so little that he was given the
opportunity to be released from his contract, an offer Richard accepted at
once.
IKhuri
Richard Dawson quit MATCH GAME in 1978.
Don Del Grande
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the only sign that Richard was leaving
that he held up a card as he was introduced on his last show that had an "I'll
miss this show"-kind of message? I thought it was strange that he was leaving
without much fanfare. Then again, given that the last new CBS episode of the
show itself didn't have any fanfare (the only clue: when it was time to
introduce the next week's celebrities, the screen went blank for 15 seconds),
it turned out not to be THAT surprising.
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Don Del Grande, del_...@ix.netcom.com
Anybody remember what was on the card?
JTRH
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Richard left specifically to host
Family Feud. I seem to remember his departure from MG more or less
coinciding with the premiere of FF.
John
CHIEFKCJOE
John,
RD stayed on the Match Game until 1978, and he was introduced on MG as
"from Family Feud, Richard Dawson."
The Chief
gen...@ix.netcom.com
>Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the only sign that Richard was
>leaving that he held up a card as he was introduced on his last show
>that had an "I'll miss this show"-kind of message? ... Anybody
>remember what was on the card?
>
If I remember corretly, he held up *two* cards ...
On the first, he had drawn the British flag. On the second, he had
written somehitng like: "The sun never sets on the British Empire".
This made me think he was not happy; that he had been forced off the
show.
-- Geno.
John Himpe
C319Chris wrote:
>
> "Dawson still appeared as a panelist until 1976, when he quit because of
> the Star Wheel being added to "his game.""
>
> This is not the account Ira Skutch gives in his book. He says Richard had
> become so withdrawn and contributed so little that he was given the
> opportunity to be released from his contract, an offer Richard accepted at
> once.
Yep! Mr. Hammett said in his interview with Geno that Dicky got so
bored between tapings (they stripped 5 in one night) that the producer
had to play Backgammon with him to keep him awake between tapings.
After you read Mr. Hammett's interview, and watch some of the later
Match Game (75 and 76) you can actually see what he is talking about.
Richard isn't funny in these episodes. I think his mind was more on FF
and his next guest apperance on TattleTales more than on playing the
game. With such a great mind like his, the dumb contestants on the show
bored him to death.
--
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Portions not effecting the outcome of this message
have been edited for broadcast.
John Himpe jhi...@awinc.com
The Game Show Web
http://www.hmtnet.com/users/jhimpe/index.html
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John Himpe
Nope -- I remember a MG New Years Eve show where Mr. Goodson comes out
to do the sign changing honors and says "Me and Dick do another show
over at another network called Family Feud". If I'm correct this was
the changing from 76-77
C319Chris
"wasn't the only sign Richard was leaving that he held up a card as he was
introduced on his last show that had an "I'll miss this show"-kind of
message?"
It may have been the only -public- sign he was leaving. I've never asked
Ira specifically about this topic, but since Richard was under contract to
appear as a regular panelist on every show, the decision no doubt went all
the way up to old man Goodson.
After his departure from Match Game, Richard had Ira Skutch "banned" from
the set of Family Feud. Since Ira never went there anyway, it was an empty
gesture. Later Richard had Howard Felsher banned from the set. Richard's
daughter-in-law performed Howard's studio functions.