ABC hopes to fill in the blanks with its Match Game revival

ABC

Last summer, ABC had a surprise smash on their hands when the network brought back Celebrity Family Feud with the host of the current syndicated version, Steve Harvey, taking the reins. During the game show’s daytime heyday on ABC, with host Richard Dawson, the network ran a series of primetime celebrity specials that had stars from various shows facing off against one another (like The Love Boat vs Fantasy Island for example). The new series brings a star and usually their own family members to play the game, and if you can get past the new incarnation of the show’s often risqué questions and answers (and I believe Richard Dawson would be spinning in his grave at how base some of the answers are now), it can be quite entertaining (unless you find Harvey’s incessant mugging intolerable).

So with that hit under their belts, ABC has mined the classic Goodman-Todman game show catalog to bring back more classic shows with a modern twist. First ip this summer was a reboot of the classic Q & A show To Tell The Truth which retains the elements of the original game play, but has felt the need to amp things up to 11 with a free-for-all questioning round (the original allowed each of the four panelists an allotted time to ask a series of questions), a house band, and host Anthony Anderson’s mother attempting to keep score (uselessly since there is a video scoreboard already). It’s entertaining, but a little too over-the-top and doesn’t retain the flavor of the original.

This week, ABC has added two more classic games to the schedule, The $100,000 Pyramid (which we’ve covered already) and Match Game. Pyramid has done a great job of recreating the classic show from the set to the game play, with the only weak link being host Michael Strahan. I was worried more about the Match Game revival because I’ve see a few reboots in the past that were just dreadful, and I did not think Alec Baldwin was a good choice as host (his more suave demeanor would work better on a revival of What’s My Line?).

If you grew up in the 1970s, you know all about Match Game, which actually debuted in the 1960s with a slightly different game play. The classic 70s version with its orange shag carpet and smoking celebrities became famous (or infamous) for its risqué questions (that usually went for the answer “boobs” to get laughs), host Gene Rayburn and his telescoping microphone, and a celebrity panel that became increasingly tipsy as the week forged ahead (when they taped a week of shows in one day, and every got liquored up during the dinner break). The show had three regular panelists — Richard Dawson (before he bolted for the Feud, Brett Somers, and Charles Nelson Reilly — a rotating roster of semi-regulars including Fannie Flagg, Joyce Bulifant, Kaye Starr and Joanna Cassidy, and two guest stars. People tuned in for the raucous game and to see the bickering chemistry of Somers and Reilly. The show was so popular that it spawned a nighttime, syndicated version as well.

Match Game came at a time when television was just beginning to loosen its grip on what could be acceptable on TV with primetime hits like All In the Family making waves. It was like catching lightning in a bottle, and the attempts to recapture that magic have failed miserably. So it has been an iffy proposition from the start with the new ABC version. And they have done an admirable job.

ABC

What’s good about the new Match Game? Well, first of all they have really gone out of their way to recreate the look and feel of the classic show. The six stars are sitting at the classic two-tiered desks which bear a striking resemblance to the original. The contestants still spin around on a large turntable to play the game, and there are even sections of the set that have that orange shag carpet. From an aesthetic standpoint, they have done an amazing job of honoring the original and bringing it up to date.

ABC

The game itself plays exactly the same with the two contestants choosing question A or B, and the writing attempts to capture that same risqué humor and that’s where things get a little rocky. I suppose in this era, saying “boobs” on TV is a bot antiquated, but even in the past a question may have been designed to get the stars to come up with creative ways of saying something like “pass gas” while now they can just write “fart.” It’s a bit too much for an old-timer like myself who is also appalled at some of the Celebrity Family Feud answers.

ABC

So how did host Alec Baldwin do on his first outing trying to corral the stars? Well, he didn’t have much corralling to do since there wasn’t a whole lot of banter in the way there was in the 70s. Baldwin attempted to make small talk with his panel, which included Tituss Burgess, Rosie O’Donnell, Michael Ian Black, Debra Messing, JB Smoove and Sutton Foster, and toss in a few double entendres, but the biggest laugh of the night came when Messing misspelled “satisfaction” as “satisfication.” And like with the one contestant on Pyramid who could not come up with the word bee for “Things That Sting,” the contestants and stars often missed some obvious answers for the blanks.

I love the classic Match Game and can still watch it and find it to be hilarious. This new version has possibilities once Baldwin learns to loosen up and be a bit more playful with his panel, and dial down some of the insult humor directed at the contestant. The original didn’t click until Somers and Reilly sat next to each other, so perhaps the new ABC version will once again be able to capture that lightning in a bottle once again before the end of the summer run. If not, it is still a valiant if not entirely successful effort, and I’ll keep watching, hoping to see some of that classic magic once again.

What do you think of ABC’s game show revivals? Tell us in the comments below!