Match Game (1990)

From The TV IV

Match Game

Premiere	July 16, 1990
Finale	July 12, 1991
Airs
Creator	Mark Goodson, Bill Todman
Host	Ross Shafer
Network	ABC
Style	30-minute game show
Company	Mark Goodson Productions
Seasons	1
Origin	USA

Match Game (1990–91) is a game show that aired on ABC. It was the sixth version of Match Game, and the first not to be hosted by Gene Rayburn.

In this version, two contestants play the game under rules similar to the CBS version except for the scoring. Each matching answer scores $50. After the first round of questions, a new game called "Match-Up" is used. A contestant selects a celebrity to play this with and looks at a screen which presents a series of fill-in-the-blanks. In thirty seconds, the player selects one of the two shown responses for the fill-in and the celebrity must guess the selected answer. Correct matches score $50 a piece, and both players participate, one at a time.

Round two has all celebrities playing the regular game, with matches now worth $100 each. In "Match-Up," celebrities called in the first round are out of play, and matching answers are worth $100 a piece. The player behind in the score goes first. The player with the top score at the end wins the game and keeps the money scored.

The player now competes in the Super-Match which is structurally unchanged from the CBS show. Some weeks later, the audience match payouts were changed to $200, $300 and $500.

Airing at 12 Noon, this edition of Match Game was either bumped by affiliates for local news, aired on tape-delay in some areas or aired on independents. It lasted only a year on ABC. Bert Convy (previously of Tattletales and Super Password) was pegged to be the host at first, but after he was hospitalized with a brain tumor that would take his life a year later the job went to stand-up comic Ross Shafer.