mcnabb

I just started watching old reruns of 'The Match Game' from the 1970's on Game Show Network and I have to say I'm hooked as it is very funny. I grew up in the 80's so I missed this show, but I was surprised to see how free-spirited everything was as I wonder if it broke a lot of taboos in the 70's?

Almost every joke by one of the six celebrity guests during the show has some 'sexual innuendo' in it, and it seemed like everyone played along and nobody was offended. I think about what is going on today (especially the last few months with Matt Laurer, Charlie Rose, even a politican Al Franken) and this show would have never lasted 5 minutes on TV.

GuessWho

Every answer in the new Alec Baldwin version is sexual too.

Count Dooku

It really is impossible for anyone from Generations X, Y, Z, Millennial, to appreciate just how sanitized of sex television was before cable TV came along.

Game shows like Match Game, along with Hollywood Squares and the Newlywed / Dating Games were like tuning in to the naughty world of those free-spirited people in Hollywood.

Even though it was couched in innuendo and double entendres, the idea was: "They aren't talking about sex, but I know they are really talking about sex, and I can't believe they are talking about sex!"

Remember that television production in the 50s came from NYC. 70s TV was reacting to what was still a new production environment in LA, and the shows were reflecting the new attitudes of the new atmosphere.

In 1970, the ten largest cities in US still included Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore. California was still exotic. A sunny land where beautiful tanned women wore bikinis off the beach and did not wear bras under their shirts.

All this is to say, that I cannot believe there is still an interest in something like The Match Game in 2017. I guess there will always be a certain pleasure in seeing celebrities be bawdy, but who finds this kind of broad and obvious humor titillating? Mormons?

Count Dooku

Slutty Sally said, "My favorite president is Nixon, because I love [blank]"

mcnabb

I think this is why I find the show so entertaining because I am just not used to seeing that on basic TV, especially a game show (Yet I grew up with HBO and sex and nudity and don't even bat an eye). I grew up in the 80's whenever started to become PC (and more family oriented). The 70's had All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Mary Tyler Moore, and Sanford and Son, while I grew up with Who's The Boss, Cosby Show, Growing Pains and Family Ties. Even the old Johnny Carson shows from the 70's were much different then Talk Shows now, as they were just laid back and nothing was prepacked.

When I watch those shows I'm amazed when Fred Sanford and George Jefferson say the 'N' word because it was bleeped out as long as I can remember. So when you watch a show like Match Game and everybody is having a good time, making sexual remarks, smoking, and I'm sure they had a favorite beverage before, it's almost like I'm living on a different planet now.

Rex Fenestrarum

Well, what specifically happened with The Match Game was that the show started off very conventionally. It didn't get good ratings, so CBS informed the show about 6 episodes in that they we going with the full order of 13 episodes, but no more after that. So the writers - knowing they were going to be out of a job soon - decided to have fun with it, slipping in as many double entendres as they could. Word of mouth quickly spread, and the show became a hit. It was as simple as that - not "reflecting the new attitudes" or anything like that.

Toonview

Match Game was a favorite of mine as a kid, along with the Hollywood Squares and the Newlywed Game. These days my wife has Buzzr on a lot, so we've watched a lot of Match Game. I still enjoy it, even more since I know so much more about the stars on it these days. It's still fun and it's easy to imagine all these guys hanging out at Malibu cocktail parties together.

Unfortunately it's also kind of gruesome since I keep realizing that most of the panelists on any given episode are dead now. Figuring out which ones are still alive before hitting Google is almost a game by itself.

Abob Teff

In the "modern" thread I've mentioned the special place this show holds in my heart ... and while the new version started of clunky, it found it's groove in what seems like a similar manner. The early episodes seemed as if they were feeling out the network to see where the lines were. Once they were rolling, it seemed as if there were very few boundaries.

When does the new one come back, anyway?

whotony

Match Game was a show that was first on in the 60's also osted by Gene Rayburn.
But it was very straight and dull.

Came back in the 70's and was radically different.

A handful of eps are included on Amazon Prime Video.

I don't know if that six episode thing is true, never saw that before.

Game show typically record a bunch of eps in one day and then air later in the year so I'm not sure
how they could know anything after 6 episodes.

whotony

Season 3 of the Alec version starts this week.

I love the new version but I think they use too many questions that rely on 'Boob" being the answer.

Abob Teff

Count Dooku has started a new career trimming trees. Before he can get his business started, he has to take the stick ________.

[cue music and endless repeats of the question]

whotony

Question needs a rewrite.

Count Dooku

You are saying that CBS put on A DAILY game show with a production order of 6 episodes and then increased the order to 13??

So CBS was producing a show that would run for 2 and 1/2 weeks??

Count Dooku

The premise of your attempted joke is that I am prudish, when actually I am saying that the "risque" humor of Match Game is tame in 2017.

Count Dooku

I wrote my post off the top of my head, but now that I read the Match Game wiki page, it just confirms what I said.

whotony

But what is the joke part of that question?
The questions still squally made sense.
What stick is this about

Is it an attempt to get to the word “out”.

But what stick is he taking out and why a stick?

whotony

A link to that specific wiki? I missed that info on the one I saw.

whotony

Dumb Dooku is so dumb that when he tried to start a trimming business he trimmed their _______ by mistake.