{{infobox television | show name

Match Game | image | format Game Show | runtime 30 minutes | creator Frank Wayne | producer Ira Skutch (1973–1982) | director Marc Breslow (CBS) | presenter Gene Rayburn (1962–1984)Ross Shafer (1990–1991)Michael Burger (1998–1999) | narrated Johnny Olson (1962–1982)Gene Wood (1983–1984, 1990–1991)Paul Boland (1998–1999) | company Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions (1962–1982)Mark Goodson Productions (1983–1999)Celebrity Productions, Inc. (1973–1982)The Match Game Company (1973–1982)Orion Television (1983–1984)The MG Company (1990–1991) | distributor Jim Victory Television (1975–1982)Pearson Television (1998–1999) | country United States | network NBC (1962–1969)CBS (1973–1979, 2006)ABC (1990–1991)Syndicated (1975–1981, weekly; 1979–1982 [1985–1986 in reruns] and 1998–1999, daily) | first_aired The Match Game – Match Game 73-79 – Match Game PM – Match Game – The Match Game-Hollywood Squares HourOctober 31, 1983 - July 27, 1984 Match Game – | last_aired | picture_format Black and White (1962–1969, kinescopes)Color (NTSC) (1962–1999, videotapes) | audio_format Mono (1962–1984)Stereo (1990–1998, plus recent reruns of the Rayburn version) | num_episodes ''The Match Game'': 1,760''Match Game 7x'': 1,455 (16 unaired)''Match Game PM'': 230''Match Game'' (1979–1982): 525''Match Game'' (1990–1991): 250 }}

''Match Game'' (also called ''The Match Game'', ''Match Game 7x'', and ''Match Game PM'') is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions. Gene Rayburn is the host most commonly associated with the show.

The most famous versions of the 1970s and 1980s, starting with ''Match Game 73'', are remembered for their bawdy and sometimes rowdy humor involving contestants trying to match six celebrities. The series has been franchised around the world, often under the name ''Blankety Blank(s)''.

''The Match Game'' (1962–1969, NBC)[link]

The pilot for the original version of ''The Match Game'', created by Goodson-Todman staffer Frank Wayne, bore little resemblance to its more famous descendant. Taped December 5, 1962 with Gene Rayburn as host, Peggy Cass and Peter Lind Hayes each headed a team of two non-celebrities who attempted to match answers to simple questions. All six contestants wrote down their answers to a question. If two team members matched answers the team earned 10 points, and if all three team members matched, the team earned 20 points. The first team to score at least 50 points won the game and received $100. The winning team moved on to a bonus round, attempting to guess the answer to a recent audience survey. Each correct match was worth $25 for a possible top prize of $300. The series premiered on December 31 with Arlene Francis and Skitch Henderson. The show was taped in Studio 8G at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, which was later used for ''The Phil Donahue Show'' and ''The Rosie O'Donnell Show'' and now houses NBC Sports.

A team scored 25 points if two teammates matched answers, or 50 points if all three players matched. The first team to score 100 points won $100 and played the Audience Match, which featured three survey questions. Each player who agreed with the most popular answer to a question earned the team $50, for a possible total of $450.

The questions used in the game were commonplace: "Name a kind of muffin" or "John loves his _____." In 1963, NBC canceled the series with six weeks left to be recorded. Question writer Dick DeBartolo came up with a funnier set of questions, like "Mary liked to pour gravy on John's _____", and submitted it to Mark Goodson. With the knowledge that the show couldn't be canceled again, Goodson gave the go-ahead for the more risque-sounding questionsa decision that caused a significant boost in ratings and an "un-cancellation" by NBC.

''The Match Game'' consistently won its time slot from 1963–1966 and again from April 1967-July 1968, with its ratings allowing it to finish third among all network daytime games for the 1963–1964 and 1967–1968 seasons (in the latter, the top two games were NBC's own, both of which would also enjoy long runs and multiple revivals: ''Jeopardy!'' and ''Hollywood Squares''). Although the series still did well in the ratings (despite the popularity of ABC's horror-themed soap opera ''Dark Shadows''), it was canceled in 1969 along with other games in a major daytime programming overhaul, being replaced by ''Letters to Laugh-In'' which, although a spin-off of the popular prime time series ''Laugh-In'', ended in just three months on December 26.

''The Match Game'' continued through September 26, 1969 on NBC for 1,760 episodes, airing at 4:00 p.m. Eastern (3:00 Central), running 25 minutes due to a five-minute newscast. Since announcer Johnny Olson split time between New York and Miami to announce ''The Jackie Gleason Show'', one of the network's New York staff announcers (such as Don Pardo or Wayne Howell) would fill in for Olson when he could not attend a broadcast.

On March 27, 1967 the show added a "Telephone Match" game, in which a home viewer and a studio audience member attempted to match a simple fill-in-the-blank question similar to the 70s' "Head-To-Head Match". A successful match won a jackpot which started at $500 and increased by $100 per day until won.

Very few episodes of the 1960s ''The Match Game'' survive (see "Episode Status" section below).

''Match Game 7x'' (1973–1979, CBS)[link]

In the summer of 1973, Mark Goodson and Bill Todman resurrected the show as ''Match Game 73'' for CBS, with Rayburn returning as host and Olson returning as announcer. The year in the title was updated on the New Year's Eve broadcast for the next six years. The gameplay for this version had two solo contestants attempting to match the answers given by a six-celebrity panel. Richard Dawson was the first regular panelist. Due to CBS News coverage of the Watergate hearings, the network delayed the premiere one week from its slated date of June 25 to July 2.

The first week's panelists, in seating order (top left to top right, then bottom left to bottom right), were Michael Landon, Vicki Lawrence, Jack Klugman, Jo Ann Pflug, Richard Dawson, and Anita Gillette. Rayburn reassured viewers of the first CBS show that "This is your old favorite, updated with more action, more money and as you can see, more celebrities." Dawson would maintain his bottom center seat for his duration on the show.

The first few weeks of the show were somewhat different from the rest of the run. At first, many of the questions fit into the more bland and innocuous mold of the earlier seasons of the original series. In addition, many of the frequent panelists on the early episodes were not regulars later in the series, including Klugman, Arlene Francis, Bert Convy and Steve Allen, who was host of ''The Tonight Show'' when Rayburn served as announcer. (Convy would later be chosen as host of the show's 1990 revival before being diagnosed with a brain tumor which eventually took his life.)

However, with the double entendre in the question "Johnny always put butter on his _____" marked a turning point in the questions on the show. Soon, the tone of Rayburn's questions changed notably, leaving behind the staid topics that ''The Match Game'' had first disposed of in 1963 for more risqué humor.

Famous celebrity panelists Brett Somers (Klugman's wife) and Charles Nelson Reilly began as guest panelists on the program, with Somers brought in at the request of Klugman. Klugman and Somers were married at the time, and he felt she would make a nice fit on the program. The chemistry between Somers and Reilly prompted Goodson-Todman and CBS to hire them as regular panelists; Somers, who occupied the top center seat, remained on the show until 1982, while Reilly (top right) continued appearing through the 1983–1984 and 1990–1991 revivals, with a brief break from 1974–1975 when Gary Burghoff, Nipsey Russell, and Rip Taylor substituted for him. Reilly was late for the taping of two episodes; Goodson filled in for him for the first few minutes of one, and announcer Johnny Olson did the same on the other.

Celebrity panelists usually appeared in week-long blocks, due to the show's production schedule. A number of celebrities, including Betty White, Dick Martin, Marcia Wallace, Bill Daily and Fannie Flagg, were semi-regulars, usually appearing in several week-long blocks throughout the year.

Gameplay[link]

Two contestants competed. On the CBS version, the champion was seated in the upstage (red circle) seat and the opponent was seated in the downstage (green triangle) seat. On the syndicated versions, which had no returning champions, positions were determined by a backstage coin toss. The object was to match the answers of the six celebrity panelists to fill-in-the-blank statements.

The main game was played in two rounds (three on ''Match Game PM'' after the first season). The opponent was given a choice of two statements labeled either "A" or "B". Rayburn read the statement and the six celebrities wrote their answers on index cards. After they finished, the contestant verbally gave an answer. Rayburn then asked each celebrity, one at a time beginning in the upper left hand corner of the panel, to respond.

While early questions were similar to the NBC version (e.g., "Every morning, John puts _________ on his cereal"), the questions quickly became more humorous. Comedy writer Dick DeBartolo, who had participated in the 1960s ''Match Game'', contributed broader and saucier questions. Frequently, the statements were written with bawdy, double entendre answers in mind. A classic example: "Did you catch a glimpse of that girl on the corner? She has the world's biggest _________."

Frequently, the audience responded appropriately as Rayburn critiqued the contestant's answer (for the "world's biggest" question, Rayburn might show disdain to an answer such as "fingers" or "bag" and compliment an answer such as "rear end" or "boobs", often also commenting on the audience's approving or disapproving response). The audience usually groaned or booed when a contestant gave a bad answer, whereas they cheered and applauded in approval of a good answer.

The contestant earned one point for each celebrity who wrote down the same answer (or reasonably similar as determined by the judges; for example, "rear end" matched "bottom" or a similar euphemism) up to a maximum of six points for matching everyone. After one contestant played, the second contestant played the other question.

A handful of potential answers were prohibited, the most notable being any synonym for genitalia. In instances where a celebrity gave a censorable answer, the word "Oops!" was superimposed over the index card, accompanied by a slide whistle muting the spoken response.

Popular questions featured "Dumb Dora" or "Dumb Donald". These questions often began, "Dumb Dora/Donald is/was ''so'' dumb..." or "Dumb Dora/Donald is/was REALLY dumb...". To this, the audience would respond en masse, "How dumb ''is''/''was'' he/she?" (a routine taken from ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''). Rayburn would finish the question (or, occasionally, deride the audience's lack of unison and make them try the response again). Other common subjects of questions were Superman/Lois Lane, King Kong/Fay Wray, panelists on the show (most commonly Brett Somers), politicians, and Howard Cosell. Questions also often featured characters such as "Ugly Edna" (later "Ugly Ulfrea"), "Horrible Hannah," "Rodney Rotten," and occasionally "Voluptuous Velma".

Rayburn always played the action for laughs, and frequently tried to read certain questions in character, such as "Old Man Periwinkle" or "Old Mrs. Pervis". He also did the same with Confucius or Count Dracula. Regular panelist Charles Nelson Reilly, a Broadway director, often responded with comments such as "I like it when you act" and "That character was really very good. Along with the other two that you do," to the amusement of the audience. Some questions dealt with the fictitious (and often sleazy) country of "Nerdo Crombezia". Another common subject of questions dealt with the world's greatest salesman who could sell anything to anyone.

In the second round, the contestants attempted to match the celebrities whom they had not matched in the first. On the CBS version, the challenger always began round 2 (unless that contestant had matched all six stars; in this situation, the champion selected from the two questions available). This meant that a champion who had only answered one question could be ahead of a challenger who had played both questions, rendering the final question moot. On the syndicated versions, the leader after a round played first in the next round. In case of a tie score, the contestant who had not selected their own question in the previous round made the selection in the tie-breaker round.

The first round questions usually had a number of plausible answers, while the second round questions were generally easier and were usually puns with an obvious or "definitive" answer. For instance, ''"molars"'' would be the definitive answer for "Did you hear about the new religious group of dentists? They call themselves the ''Holy _____.''"

On ''Match Game PM'', a third round was added after the first season as games proved to be too short to fill the half-hour. Again, the only celebrities who played were those who did not match that contestant in previous rounds, and third round questions tended to be even more "definitive" in their responses.

If the contestants had the same score at the end of the game, the scores were reset to 0-0 and the contestants played one tiebreaker question each, again attempting to match all six celebrities. On ''Match Game PM'' (or on the syndicated daytime show if time was running short), a time-saving variant of the tie-breaker was used that reversed the game play. The contestants wrote their answers first on a card in secret, then the celebrities were canvassed to give their answers verbally. Originally, this included regulars Somers, Reilly and Dawson only, but when Dawson left the show, the canvass was expanded to include all six panelists in the usual order. The first celebrity response to match a contestant's answer gave that contestant the victory. If there was still no match (which was rare), the round was replayed with a new question. On the CBS version, the tie-breaker went on until there was a clear winner. If it came to the sudden-death tie-breaker, only the final question (the one that ultimately broke the tie) was kept and aired.

The CBS daytime version had returning champions and the gameplay "straddled" between episodes, meaning episodes often began and ended with games in progress. On this version, champions stayed until they were defeated or won $25,000. Originally, this amount was the network's winnings limit; anything above that amount was forfeited, but the rule was later changed so that although champions retired after winning $25,000, they kept any winnings up to $35,000. During the six-year run of ''Match Game'' on CBS, only one champion retired undefeated.

On the daily 1979–1982 syndicated version, two contestants played against each other in two games, and then both retired. The show was timed so that two new contestants appeared each Monday; this was necessary as the tapes of the show were shipped between stations, and weeks could not be aired in any discernible order (a common syndication practice at the time, known as "bicycling"). Usually, three pairs of contestants competed in a total of six games over the five episodes for each week. On Friday episodes which ran short, in order to fill time, audience members played a question similar to those used in the Super Match for a small cash prize.

Episodes of ''Match Game PM'' were self-contained, with two new contestants appearing each week.

Super Match[link]

The contestant who matched the most celebrities at the end of the game won the game and went on to play the Super Match, which consisted of the Audience Match and the Head-To-Head Match segments, for additional money. On the CBS version, the winner of the game won $100.

Audience Match[link]

A two-to-four-word phrase was given, with part of the phrase blank, and the contestant attempted to fill-in the most common response based on a prior studio audience survey. The contestant consulted three celebrities for suggestions, and chose their favorite of those answers or one of their own. The top three answers were then revealed in ascending order. The most popular answer in the survey was worth $500, the second-most popular $250, and the third most popular $100. If a contestant failed to match any of the three answers, the bonus round ended. The idea for ''Family Feud'' was derived from the Audience Match.

Two Audience Matches were played on ''Match Game PM'', for a possible total of $10,000, or $20,000 after the Star Wheel was introduced. On one 1976 episode of ''Match Game PM'', a contestant failed to win any money on either Audience Match; the contestant then got to play a fill-in-the-blank with the entire panel for $100 per match as a consolation prize.

Head-To-Head Match[link]

A contestant who won money in the Audience Match then had the opportunity to win ten times that amount (therefore, $5,000, $2,500 or $1,000) by exactly matching another fill-in-the-blank response with one celebrity panelist. Originally, the contestant chose the celebrity; later, the celebrity who played this match was determined by the Star Wheel. In the very start of the 1970s series, Rayburn read the question before choosing a celebrity, but was changed after a few weeks. The contestant was instructed that their response must be an exact match, although singular/plural matches were usually accepted (whereas synonyms were not).

Richard Dawson was the most frequently chosen celebrity in the 1970s version, as he had a knack for matching contestants often. The producers tried to discourage contestants from repeatedly choosing him, even before the introduction of the Star Wheel. In 1975, a rule was briefly imposed that a returning champion could not choose the same celebrity for the Head-To-Head Match chosen for their previous visit to the bonus round. However, this rule was dropped after six weeks.

Star Wheel[link]

The Star Wheel was introduced in 1978 to determine which celebrity a contestant played with in the Head-To-Head Match. The wheel was divided into six equal sections, one for each celebrity. Each celebrity's section featured a bar with five gold stars in it, and if the wheel stopped in the starred area, the potential Head-To-Head Match payout was doubled. In 1979, each celebrity's section was modified to feature only three separately-divided sections, each featuring one gold star instead of the larger connected area with multiple stars.

The wheel was added because contestants consistently kept choosing Richard Dawson for the Head-to-Head Match, and the producers wanted to ensure that other panelists had the chance to participate. Ironically, the first time the wheel was spun, it landed on Dawson, inspiring four of the panelists (including Dawson) to stand up from their places and leave the set momentarily out of disbelief.

A version of the Star Wheel was also used on the 1990 version of the show.

Ticket Plugs[link]

Director Marc Breslow used a technique in which two celebrities' and/or contestants' faces were combined while Johnny Olson announced information on how to obtain tickets to a taping. This type of ticket plug debuted during the summer of 1975, but were much more common during the daily syndicated 1979–1982 version. Match Game PM did not feature ticket plugs.

Staffing and ratings[link]

The 1973–1982 versions were produced by veteran Goodson-Todman producer Ira Skutch, who also wrote some questions and acted as on-stage judge. Marc Breslow directed, while Robert Sherman was associate producer and head writer.

When CBS revamped ''Match Game'' in 1973 with more of a focus on risqué humor, ratings more than doubled in comparison with the NBC incarnation. Within eleven weeks, ''Match Game 73'' was the most watched program on daytime television. By summer 1974, it grew into an absolute phenomenon with high school students and housewives, scoring remarkable ratings among the 12-34 age demographic. The best ratings this version of ''Match Game'' saw were in the 1975–1976 season when it drew a 12.5 rating with a 15 share, higher numbers than that of some prime-time series; this was due in part to the fact that it had been paired with ''The Price Is Right'', a hit in its own right, during this time. It surpassed records as the most popular daytime program ever with a record 11 million daily viewers, one that held until the "Luke and Laura" supercouple storyline gripped viewers on ABC's ''General Hospital'' some years later.

Every New Year's Eve, when the two-digit year designation in the ''Match Game'' sign was updated, there was a New Year's party with the cast and studio audience. Up to and including the 1977–1978 changeover, a new sign was built each year. Coinciding with a redesign of the set, a new sign was built with interchangeable digits that could be swapped as the years changed. Additionally, this sign allowed for a "PM" logo to be attached for tapings of the syndicated program instead of using an entirely different sign.

In 1976, the show's success, and celebrity panelist Richard Dawson's popularity, prompted Goodson-Todman to develop a new show for ABC entitled ''Family Feud'' with Dawson hosting. This show became a major hit in its own right, eventually surpassing the parent program. ''Feud'' was said to be based on Dawson's expertise on ''Match Game'''s "Super-Match".

Meanwhile, ''Match'' kept its high standing in the ratings despite a short-lived move ahead one half-hour during summer and fall 1975. In late 1977, however, CBS made a fatal mistake regarding the show's time slot. Impressed with the ratings boon that resulted when ''Price'' and ''Match'' were paired in afternoons, CBS soon realized that in the morning slot that ''Price'' had left behind, they had a ratings crisis. CBS moved ''Match'' along with ''Price'' back to the morning time slot. However, because much of ''Match'''s audience was composed of students who were in school at that time of day, ratings began to sag and eventually free fall; many of these students did not return. As a result, ''Family Feud'' quickly supplanted ''Match'' as television's highest-rated game show.

CBS attempted to correct the problem on December 19, 1977, with a scheduling shuffle among ''Match'', ''Price'', and ''Tattletales''. In a move that turned out to do even more damage, the network moved ''Match'' to its 1960s timeslot of 4:00 PM, a time slot which by this point many local stations were preempting in favor of local or syndicated programming. As a result, ''Match Game'' was unable to get the audience it once did in the 1960s at 4:00.

1978 changes and cancellation[link]

On June 28, 1978 the "pick a star" format used in the Head-to-Head Match was replaced with the "Star Wheel". While the show's top prize nearly doubled (partly to counter the high inflation of the era) and the new feature allowed more celebrities the chance to participate in the end game, it also eliminated what effectively was Richard Dawson's "spotlight" feature.

On July 19, a new ''Match Game'' set was built by CBS, changed from the original bright orange to a new set with blue and white colors, as well as revamping the logo from the curved letters to a straight-line lettering it would use for the rest of the run. This was mainly for convenience; with a new ''Match Game'' set and sign, a whole new sign no longer had to be built each year as had been done previously. An attachment designating the year was simply taken off the end of the revamped ''Match Game 78'' sign and replaced with a new one numbered 79 on New Year's Eve 1978 (aired January 2, 1979) becoming ''Match Game 79''. (An alternate attachment was used for ''Match Game PM''.)

At 4:00 PM, the show trailed ''Feud'', ''Price'', and NBC's ''Wheel of Fortune'', and fell out of the top three game shows in 1979 for the first time in the CBS run (as opposed to a solid and twice top-3 hit in the 1960s). The 1,439th and final CBS episode aired on April 20, 1979however, the show did not air on April 5, causing the Friday episode from that week to air on April 9. The last nine aired episodes were culled together from three separate taping sessions, leaving six unaired. In addition, the last two weeks recorded went completely unaired. ''Match Game'' was replaced by ''Whew!'' at 10:30 A.M., which required a move of ''The Price Is Right'' to 11:00 (the time slot where it remains to this day), which in turn required ''Love of Life'' to move from 11:30 to 4:00.

Weekly syndicated version: ''Match Game PM'' (1975–1981)[link]

On September 8, 1975 the first syndicated version, a weekly nighttime series dubbed ''Match Game PM'', premiered. The series, sold to many ABC affiliates (including the network's owned and operated stations such as WABC in New York), was produced by Goodson-Todman and distributed by Jim Victory Television, G-T's syndication partner for ''Concentration''.

''Match Game PM'' was designed to be self-contained, the first version of the game to have that distinction. The front game was originally played the same way as the daytime ''Match Game'' with two rounds of questions, but beginning in September 1976 a third round of questioning was added to fill time in the half-hour. The maximum score a contestant could achieve remained six points, with matched celebrities not playing subsequent questions.

Tiebreakers were conducted differently than on the daytime version. A "Super-Match"-style question was asked, and the contestants wrote down their answers, then called on celebrities for a match. Until Dawson's departure in 1978, only the three regular panelists (Sommers, Reilly and Dawson) played in the tiebreaker, but afterwards all six celebrities were used.

''Match Game PM'''s Super-Match used two Audience Matches, with the answer values combined and multiplied by ten for the Head-to-Head Match, with a maximum of $11,000 available. When the Star Wheel was introduced, that potential payout grew to $21,000 if a contestant spun a double. On the only episode when a contestant did not score in either Audience Match, she was given the opportunity to play a consolation question using the front-game format for $100 per match, and won the maximum $600.

''Match Game PM'' ran until the end of the 1980–1981 TV season. For its last two seasons, the show's affiliate count went down significantly due in large part to a daily syndicated version that debuted in September 1979 (although some markets, like New York, kept both shows on the air as WABC-TV continued to air episodes of ''Match Game PM'' into its final season). The show aired 230 episodes over six seasons, and remains the longest-running version to air in syndication.

Later revivals[link]

''(The) Match Game'' (1979–1982, daily syndication)[link]

After the cancellation of ''Match Game 79'', there was still enough interest in the series for Goodson-Todman and Jim Victory Television to consider a continuation of the daily series in syndication as the weekly ''Match Game PM'' was still airing and had not stopped production. The consideration eventually came to fruition as a daily syndicated ''Match Game'', without a year attached and often referred to on air as ''The Match Game'', debuted on September 10, 1979.

The rules and gameplay were the same as before, including the Star Wheel Bonus, but the format was altered slightly. Each contestant on this version of ''Match Game'' played a two-game match against another contestant, and the Super Match was played after each game. As on ''Match Game PM'', a contestant did not win any money for winning the game. There were also no returning champions on the daily syndicated series, as two new contestants began each match.

The maximum payout for a contestant was $21,000 (two $500 Audience Matches and two $10,000 Head-To-Head Match wins), the same its syndicated sister series ''Match Game PM'' was offering during this time.

For the first two seasons Bill Daily, Dick Martin, Richard Paul, and Bob Barker were among the male semi-regulars who filled Dawson's old spot on the panel. McLean Stevenson, who had done so once in September 1978 and twice near the end of the second year of this version, appeared in nearly all of Season Three (1981–1982) and became a regular from the eleventh taped week through the end of the run.

The fee plugs which had aired in the middle of the show on the CBS version were featured during the closing credits. The ticket plugs were now shown on every episode. Each ticket plug had two people's faces merged into one image by putting a man's face on a woman's head, putting a mustache on a woman's face, or putting a pair of red lips on a man's face or simply putting two halves of the faces together. The 1990 ABC version used a similar sequence to introduce the stars.

The syndicated ''Match Game'' helped exacerbate the perception of the 4:00 PM time slot being a "death slot" for network programming. After CBS canceled ''Match Game 79'', the network moved the long-running soap opera ''Love of Life'' into the vacant timeslot. Although the syndicated ''Match Game'' was not a direct cause of the ratings problems ''Love of Life'' facedthe 4:00 PM timeslot, the last network daytime slot, had been a problem for CBS, NBC, and ABC for years and ''Love of Life'' had seen a precipitous drop in ratings since the April 1979 move to the late afternoon many stations ran the syndicated series against the veteran soap opera and, in the case of some CBS affiliates and owned-and-operated stations, preempted ''Love of Life'' in favor of the new ''Match Game''. (''Love of Life'' aired its final episode on February 1, 1980, twenty-one weeks after the debut of the new ''Match Game''.)

The daytime syndicated show produced 525 episodes, running until September 10, 1982 exactly three years after its debut.

MG's 1973–1982 run was taped in Studio 33 at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, except for one week of shows in 1974 in which it was shot in Studio 41.

''The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour'' (1983–1984, NBC)[link]

In 1983, producer Mark Goodson teamed up with Orion Television (who had recently acquired the rights to ''Hollywood Squares'') and NBC to create ''The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour''. Rayburn, after a year as a morning show host in New York, agreed to return as host. However, few of the regular ''Squares'' cast appeared on this version. Jon Bauman ("''Sha Na Na''") served as the lone regular panelist on this version, and the two swapped seats for ''Hollywood Squares'' with Bauman serving as host and Rayburn as the lower-left-hand square. Gene Wood served as announcer, with Johnny Olson and Rich Jeffries substituting.

These rules were roughly the same as those of ''Match Game PM'' with both contestants given three chances apiece to match each panelist once. The major difference was in the tie-breaker. Four possible answers to a Super Match-like statement (example: "_____, New Jersey") were secretly shown to the contestants (examples: "Atlantic City", "Hoboken", "Newark", "Trenton"). They each chose one by number. The host then polled the celebrities for verbal responses. The first panelist to give an answer selected by one of the contestants won the game for that contestant. The winner of the ''Match Game'' segment played the returning champion in the ''Hollywood Squares'' segment with the eventual winner of ''Squares'' playing the Super-Match. The Audience Match featured payoffs of $1,000, $500 and $250, while non-matching contestants were given $100. For the Head-To-Head Match the contestant picked a celebrity who revealed a hidden number (10, 20 or 30); that number was multiplied by the contestant's Audience Match winnings to determine the grand prize ($30,000 being the top possible amount). Champions remained on the program for up to five days unless defeated.

''The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour'' ran from October 31, 1983 to July 27, 1984. Several music cues from the program are still used today as background music during prize descriptions on ''The Price Is Right''.

''Match Game'' (1990–1991, ABC)[link]

In 1989, ABC, which had not carried a daytime game show since ''Bargain Hunters'' in 1987, revived ''Match Game''. The producers (including Jonathan Goodson, who took over the show at this time) selected Bert Convy, a former ''Match Game'' panelist in the early days of the program, as host. Convy filmed a full week of pilots for the show, but in April 1990 (three months before the show was scheduled to premiere) was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor and forced to relinquish hosting duties. (Convy died from the tumor on July 15, 1991, three days after ''Match Game'' ended its run on ABC.)

Among those considered to replace Convy was Gene Rayburn, who had just finished ''The Movie Masters'' for AMC and had expressed interest in returning. The producers were uninterested in the 72-year-old original ''Match Game'' host, however, and chose stand-up comedian and former ''Late Show'' host Ross Shafer as Convy's replacement. Charles Nelson Reilly returned as a regular panelist and Brett Somers served as a guest panelist for several weeks. Vicki Lawrence, Sally Struthers, Brad Garrett, Bill Kirchenbauer, and Ronn Lucas were among the semi-regulars for this version of the show. Gene Wood returned as announcer, with Bob Hilton filling in for one week.

On this version, matches were worth money instead of points. Each match during the two ''Match Game'' rounds was worth $50. All panelists played both questions for each contestant, regardless of whether they matched in the first round.

After each round of questions, contestants were given a chance to build their scores further by playing a new round called "Match-Up!" with a panelist of their choice. This was a rapid-fire series of Super Match-style questions, each having two possible answer choices, and the round was played similar to the Head-to-Head Match. The contestant was shown both potential answer choices and secretly chose one. The question choices were then revealed to the celebrity, who made their own choice; the contestant won money if both answers matched. Both Match-Up! rounds were played to a time limit; the first round was played for 30 seconds and each match was worth $50, while the second was played for 45 seconds with $100 earned for each match. Whoever had the most money at the end of the second Match-Up! round won the game and kept the money; the loser went away with parting gifts and prior winnings if they were a returning champion.

The Super Match was played identically to the 1978–1982 version of the round. Originally, the payoffs of $500–$250–$100 for the Audience Match were identical to the CBS version's payoff structure, but changed after three weeks to $500–$300–$200. Unlike the 1970s ''Match Game'' and its syndicated counterparts, a contestant was not eliminated from the Head-to-Head Match if an answer did not appear on the Audience Match board. Instead, the contestant was allowed to play for a minimum of $500 as a consolation; this was doubled to $1000 once the payoff structure for the Audience Match was changed.

Once the contestant's Audience Match winnings were determined they then faced the Star Wheel to determine the stake for the Head-to-Head Match, with a maximum amount of $10,000 available. The Star Wheel round was slightly modified for this ''Match Game'' series instead of spinning the wheel itself, the contestant spun a green arrow, and instead of three stars underneath each panelist's name there were two red dots. The red dots served the same purpose as the stars, meaning that if the arrow landed on one of them the contestant's Head-to-Head Match stake would be doubled. Otherwise, play was the same as before: the contestant and panelist had to match exactly in order to win the Super Match. Champions on the ABC version could remain for up to five days.

Because many ABC stations in major Eastern Time markets carried local news at 12:00 Noon, the show was mostly seen in smaller markets and on independent stations in some larger markets without network clearances, and was canceled after one season. A proposed move to another network (rumored to be CBS) for the 1991–1992 season had been announced on the finale, but never materialized. ''Match Game'' has the distinction of being ABC's last daytime game show to date.

''Match Game'' (1998–1999, daily syndication)[link]

In 1996, producers produced a pilot (see below) for a new revival of Match Game, just five years after the previous incarnation had left the air. While that version (which did not air) had a much greater departure from the game's original format, the producers significantly retooled the format to create a somewhat more faithful remake of the program, which was picked up in syndication and began in fall 1998. It is the only version of the show to not air on a broadcast network (as the 1979-82 version and ''Match Game PM'' were essentially continuations of the CBS version).

Michael Burger was chosen as host of this revived version of the show, while Paul Boland served as its announcer. The only celebrity guests who had appeared on previous versions of the show were Vicki Lawrence (who appeared on two weeks of the 1970s version and regularly on the 1990–1991 version) and Nell Carter (who had appeared on the final week in 1991). The regular panelists on this version were Carter, Lawrence, and Judy Tenuta, and semi-regulars were George Hamilton, John Salley, Coolio, and Rondell Sheridan. Production returned to Studio 33 at CBS Television City on this version.

This incarnation of ''Match Game'' was played with rules similar to that of the 1973–1982 versions with a few exceptions. The show featured a panel of only five celebrities instead of the usual six. Questions in this version were not labeled A or B, instead titles with puns were a clue as to the content (à la ''Win Ben Stein's Money''). As on the 1990–1991 version, all five panelists played each round regardless of whether they matched a contestant on the first question; correct matches in the second round were worth two "points" while those in the first were awarded one.

After two rounds, the highest scorer played the Super-Match, which was played identically to its 1973–1978 incarnation, including the $5,000 top prize. If no match was made in the Audience Match portion of the Super-Match, the contestant played for $500 in the Head-To-Head Match.

This version was noted for its sometimes over-the-top risqué humor of the celebrities and contestants. For instance, the prohibition on answers such as genitalia was no longer existent. On many episodes, answers that were deemed inappropriate for daytime TV were edited out with a "cuckoo" dubbed over the audible answer and a "CENSORED" graphic over the answer card and sometimes the person's mouth.

While Burger generally received positive reviews for his hosting, the series was mostly panned. Its humor was seen to have crossed the line from risqué into the out-and-out dirty and many stations pushed it into late-night slots. Its low budget and lack of returning champions (staples of several modern game shows) were also focal points for criticism. This was especially since two of the previous three versions to air all featured returning champions and offered cash prizes well in excess of $10,000 in an era when purchasing power was roughly twice that of 1998.

This version lasted one season, running from September 21, 1998 to September 17, 1999.

''Gameshow Marathon'' (2006, CBS)[link]

On June 22, 2006 ''Match Game'' was the sixth of seven classic game shows featured in CBS' month-long ''Gameshow Marathon'' hosted by Ricki Lake and announced by Rich Fields, and the second of two "semi-final" games in the tournament. The contestants were Kathy Najimy and Lance Bass with Betty White, George Foreman, Kathy Griffin, Bruce Vilanch, Adam Carolla, and Adrianne Curry as the panel. White retained her normal sixth-seat position and was the only one from the original series to appear for this segment of ''Gameshow Marathon''.

Lake used the same signature long-thin Sony ECM-51 telescoping microphone Rayburn used during the CBS version, and the set was rebuilt to be almost an exact match of that used from 1973–1978. Najimy won the game, scoring five matches to Bass' three.

The format was that of ''Match Game PM'', except that in the Super-Match the Head-To-Head Match was played for 50 times the amount won in the two Audience Matches ($50,000), which was won.

The set was repackaged and sent to Studio 33 for the taping of the failed ''Match Game'' revival for TBS (see below).

Episode status[link]

1962–1969[link]

Only 11 episodes are known to survivethe pilot and ten kinescope recordings, all of which are archived at the Paley Center for Media. Nine of these are black-and-white kinescopes and one is a color episode (from 1969, and presumably also a kinescope). The pilot has since fallen into the public domain.

In 1965, ''The Match Game'' began to be produced on color videotape; however, none of the tapes are known to have survived the wiping and re-use procedures of NBC during that period as none of the surviving episodes are in color.

1973–1982[link]

All three versions that aired during this period are presumed to be intact, and currently air on GSN. GSN has also aired all 16 episodes that were recorded in 1979 but not aired by CBS at the time.

1983–1984[link]

All episodes are intact, but due to cross-ownershipCBS Television Distribution owns the rights to ''Hollywood Squares'' (at the time of ''MGHS'' it was owned by Orion Television) while FremantleMedia owns ''Match Game'' have never been rerun.

1990–1991[link]

All episodes of this version are intact, along with all five Convy pilots. GSN aired this version as recently as 2004, and the VH1 miniseries ''Game Show Moments Gone Bananas'' aired a clip from a Convy pilot, as well as a clip with Ross Shafer.

1998–1999[link]

The series is intact; however, it has not been rerun. Brief clips have been seen on various game-show blooper specials.

Unsold pilots[link]

1985[link]

Plans were made to re-launch ''Match Game'' as a stand-alone series in daily syndication in conjunction with the revival of the nighttime version of ''The Price Is Right''. Rayburn was once again to serve as host, but he had already committed to ''Break the Bank'' at the time, and was unavailable. The project was postponed, and reruns from the 1979–1982 daily series aired instead.

1987[link]

Rayburn was fired from ''Break the Bank'' after 13 weeks and several disputes with the producers, and by late 1986 was once again available. The January 19, 1987 issue of ''Broadcasting & Cable'' featured a trade advertisement promoting another five-day-a-week revival attempt in syndication, again with Rayburn as host. The advertisement featured a red-colored version of the 1978–1982 logo and was promoted as featuring "the biggest names in entertainment" plus "big cash prizes".

However, around this time ''Entertainment Tonight'' allegedly reported that Rayburn was 70 years old; he was in fact only 69, however this was still several years older than most producers thought he was. With this, plus his production feuds on ''Break the Bank'' and ''The Match Game–Hollywood Squares Hour'' still relatively recent, the revival project was scrapped.

After this incident, Rayburn hosted only one more seriesAMC's ''The Movie Masters'', which ran from August 2, 1989 to January 19, 1990. Rayburn claimed that the leaking of his age subjected him to age discrimination for the rest of his life.

''Match Game 2'' (1996)[link]

A pilot was shot in September 1996 at KTLA Studios in California for a revised version called ''Match Game 2'' with Charlene Tilton (a panelist on the 1979–1982 version) as host. The panel for this show included Downtown Julie Brown, David Chokachi, Gil Gerard, Rondell Sheridan, and Kathleen Kinmont.

The format featured gameplay not used in any other version:

Instead of celebrities writing answers and contestants providing verbal responses, ''MG2'' switched the roles, similar to the tiebreaker in ''Match Game PM''.

A "Panel Poll" took the place of the Head-To-Head Match in the Super-Match. Each celebrity was given a choice of three adjectives, and the contestant guessed who picked what at $100 per match. This was done twice, after which the Audience Match was played.

In the Audience Match, instead of having the third, second, and most popular answers worth money, they each multiplied the contestant's earnings. The third most popular response doubled the "Panel Poll" winnings, the second most popular tripled their winnings, and the most popular multiplied their winnings by five for a top prize of $5,000.

Many elements of this pilot, such as a change from a six celebrities to five, were kept in for a second pilot shot a year later with Michael Burger as host.

''What The Blank!'' (2004, FOX)[link]

''Vanity Fair'' and TVgameshows.net reported in May 2004 that a pilot called ''What the Blank!'' was taped for FOX and hosted by Fred Willard for air during the Summer 2004 "off" season.

It was said that the game was an incorporation of 21st-Century elements into the classic game as well as an added feature that people from along the streets would be able to participate for matching with contestants and celebrities in ''Street Smarts''-style.

FOX abruptly canceled the series before the show made it to air; the status of any episodes produced is unknown.

2008 proposed revival (TBS)[link]

TBS commissioned a pilot for a revived ''Match Game'' as part of an overhaul of its late night television programming. On June 21, 2008, Andrew Daly hosted a pilot episode with Sarah Silverman and Norm Macdonald among the panelists, using the ''Gameshow Marathon'' episode's set. TBS eventually passed on the project in favor of ''Lopez Tonight''.

Reruns[link]

The 1973–1982 incarnations are shown in reruns daily on Game Show Network. Virtually all episodes of this version are still extant, although some reportedly are not shown due to celebrities' refusals of clearances. On November 26, 2006 the network broadcast an hour-long documentary titled ''The Real Match Game Story: Behind The Blank'' featuring rarely-seen footage of the 1960s version, many odd or memorable moments from the main 1973–1982 runs, plus interviews with Rayburn, Somers, Dawson, DeBartolo, producer Ira Skutch, and others involved in the show's production. The special was never officially released on DVD, although preview copies of the show were distributed to media outlets. Some copies of this preview DVD which features the special and a companion episode of ''Match Game'' show up for sale on eBay.

The 1990 version has also had runs on GSN, most recently throughout 2002-2004. The 1998 version has never been rerun.

Music[link]

''Match Game'' featured several theme songs throughout its various runs. From 1962–1967, Bert Kaempfert's instrumental "A Swingin' Safari" was used as the theme; a slightly different rendition (Billy Vaughn's cover of the same song) was used on the pilot. From 1967–1969, a new theme composed by Score Productions was used.

When the program returned in 1973, Goodson-Todman once again turned to Score Productions for a music package. A new theme, which was titled "The Midnight Four", was composed by Score staff composer Ken Bichel with a memorable "funk" guitar intro, and similar elements and instruments from this theme were also featured in the numerous "think cues" heard when the panel wrote down their answers. Alternate think cues were extracted from the music packages for ''Tattletales'' and ''The Money Maze''. In keeping with the zany atmosphere, the music supervisors also used other notable musical works to add to humorous situations. Among the non-Score Productions music heard on occasion was the "burlesque" music titled "The Stripper".

The music for ''The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour'' was composed by Edd Kalehoff. None of the music used from the 1970s version was used in this version. The main theme song and several of its cue variations are still used on ''The Price Is Right''.

In 1990, Bichel re-orchestrated his 1970s theme with more modern instruments with new think cues (with the classic intro/think cue re-orchestrated). The 1998 version again used music from Score Productions.

International versions [link]

United Kingdom[link]

In the UK, ''Match Game'' was known as ''Blankety Blank'' and was presented by Terry Wogan, Les Dawson, and Lily Savage.

Australia[link]

Several versions were made in Australia. The original 1960s ''The Match Game'' was imitated, with the same name, and hosted by Michael McCarthy.

The second, more commonly-known version was ''Blankety Blanks'' and based upon the 1970s version, running from 1977–1978. It was presented by Graham Kennedy and became a ratings hit for Network Ten. Like many Australian game shows during the 1970s–1990s (mostly those done by Reg Grundy) this version was remarkably similar to the American show right down to the set, "spinning box" opening, and "Get ready to match the stars!" tagline. The signature music from the American version was not used, however, but was instead replaced by original tracks that were very similar.

A later version appeared on the Nine Network in 1985 hosted by Daryl Somers, and again in 1996 hosted by Shane Bourne.

(This show is not to be confused with an unrelated American show by the same name, which aired on ABC and was hosted by Bill Cullen in 1975.)

The Netherlands[link]

The Netherlands also had its own version during the mid-1980s with the same title as the UK version.

Germany[link]

''Match Game'' had a 150-episode run as ''Punkt, Punkt, Punkt'' (''Dot, Dot, Dot''–an allusion to an ellipsis) in the early 1990s on satellite and cable network Sat.1. The show was hosted by Mike Krüger.

On the 1970s ''Match Game'', Gene Rayburn occasionally mentioned another German version of the show titled "Schnick Schnack" (literally "Something, Anything" as there is no German word for blank.)

Brazil[link]

The Brazilian version on SBT was called Hot! Hot! Hot! hosted by Silvio Santos in 1994.

Mexico[link]

The game was called ''Espacio en Blanco'' (''Blank Space'') and was hosted by Mauricio Barcelata in Televisa. The show had a 40-episode run in 2006.

Canada[link]

A Francophone version of Match Game called ''Atomes Crochus'' began airing in 2010 on V. The host of the show is Alexandre Barrette, and the show features regular guests as did the original Match Game. Among the most regular of the guests are Alex Perron (formerly of the Quebec comedy troupe ''Les Mecs Comiques''), and Tammy Verge.

The format of the program more closely matched the 1990 American version, including a round similar to the Match Up round. Scoring was different (in the main game, matches in round one were worth 25 points and worth 50 points in round two; the Match Up round matches were also worth 50 points). The Super Match and Star Wheel rounds were also played in similar fashion as on the American version.

Turkey[link]

The game was called ''Şansını Dene'' and aired in the early 1990s on Show TV. The show was hosted by Mehmet Ali Erbil.

Home version[link]

Several home game versions based on the 1960s and 1970s American television version were published by Milton Bradley from 1963 through 1978, in multiple editions.

"The Match Game" Home Version (1963–1969)[link]

Starting in 1963, Milton Bradley made six editions of the NBC version. Each game contained crayons, wipe-off papers, 100 perforated cards with six questions per card, a plastic scoreboard tray with colored pegs and chips, and 6 "Scribble Boards". After the first edition, the vinyl "scribble boards" and crayons were replaced with six "magic slates" and wooden styli.

Rules[link]

The main object of the game is for contestants to try to write answers to questions that will "match" their partners' answers. The rules for a six-contestant game are the same as on the TV show (with similar scoring, such as receiving points for matching two answers and more points for matching all three answers), but the home game also has variations for fewer than six contestants. No bonus game is included.

Special Editions[link]

Milton Bradley also created a Fine Edition and a Collector's Edition with more questions. The magic slates came enclosed in a gold-looking folder, plus a dial to keep score instead of the pegboard. The scoring and point values were just like the TV show. The only difference between the Fine Edition and the Collector's Edition is that instead of being packaged in a normal cardboard box, it came in a leatherette case with buttons on the front apron.

Milton Bradley also created a "travel" version of the game.

"Match Game" Home Version (1974–1978)[link]

Starting in 1974, Milton Bradley created three more editions based on the most famous CBS version. Each edition contained a game board with a plastic stand, two game booklets (one with instructions) with material for 92 complete games (368 Main Game Questions and 92 "Audience Match" and "Head-to-Head Match" questions), two magic slates and styli (only of the Head-to-Head portion), and play money.

Rules[link]

As in the 1970s version, two contestants have two chances to match as many of the six "celebrities" as possible. Celebrity answers are printed in the booklets, and after the contestant gives an answer, the M.C. reads the celebrity responses one by one, marking correct answers on the game board. A contestant can get up to six matches in one game. The contestant with the most matches plays the "Super Match" round (the MC reads the question and the responses) for a chance to win money (with an "Audience Match" and a "Head-to-Head Match" similar to the TV show) of up to $5,000.

References[link]

External links[link]

1962 pilot episode at archive.org

Category:Panel games Category:American game shows Category:NBC network shows Category:CBS network shows Category:First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Category:American Broadcasting Company network shows Category:1960s American television series Category:1962 television series debuts Category:1969 television series endings Category:1970s American television series Category:1973 television series debuts Category:1982 television series endings Category:1980s American television series Category:1990s American television series Category:1990 American television series debuts Category:1991 American television series endings Category:1998 American television series debuts Category:1999 American television series endings Category:Television series by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions Category:Television series by FremantleMedia Category:Television series revived after cancellation

simple:Match Game

birth name	Betty Marion White
birth date	January 17, 1922
birth place	Oak Park, Illinois, U.S.
education	Horace Mann School
alma mater	Beverly Hills High School
home town	Beverly Hills, California
television	''Life with Elizabeth''''Date with the Angels''''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''''The Betty White Show''''The Golden Girls''''The Golden Palace''''Hot in Cleveland''''Betty White's Off Their Rockers'' (host)
other names	Gerrie, Betty White Ludden
occupation	Actress, comedienne, writer
years active	1939–present
spouse	Dick Barker (1945)Lane Allen (1947–1949) Allen Ludden (1963–1981; his death) }}

Betty Marion White Ludden (born January 17, 1922), better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and television personality. With a career spanning over seven decades, she is best known to contemporary audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and Rose Nylund on ''The Golden Girls''. Since the death of co-star Rue McClanahan in 2010, she is now the only living Golden Girl. She currently stars as Elka Ostrovsky in the TV Land sitcom ''Hot in Cleveland'' and hosts the practical-joke show ''Betty White's Off Their Rockers''.

White has won seven Emmy Awards (six for acting) and has received 20 Emmy nominations over the course of her career, including being the first woman ever to receive an Emmy for game show hosting (for the short-lived ''Just Men!'') and is the only person to have an Emmy in all female performing comedic categories. In May 2010, White became the oldest person to guest-host ''Saturday Night Live'', for which she also received a Primetime Emmy Award. White also holds the record for longest span between Emmy nominations for performances – her first was in 1951 and her most recent was in 2011, a span of 60 years – and has become the oldest nominee , aged 90. She has made regular appearances on the game shows ''Password'' and ''Match Game'' and played recurring roles on ''Mama's Family'', ''Boston Legal'', ''The Bold and the Beautiful'', and ''Community''.

Early life[link]

Born Betty Marion White in Oak Park, Illinois, on January 17, 1922, she is the daughter of Tess Curtis (née Cachikis), a homemaker, and Horace Lawrence White, a traveling salesman and electrical engineer. Her mother was of Greek, English, and Welsh descent, and her father was of Danish and English ancestry. White's family moved to Los Angeles, California during the Great Depression. She attended Horace Mann School Beverly Hills and Beverly Hills High School. Hoping to become a writer, she wrote and played the lead in a graduation play at Horace Mann School and discovered her interest in performing.

Career[link]

1939–1973: Radio career, ''Life With Elizabeth'' and television pioneer[link]

White began her television career in 1939, three months after high school graduation, when she and a classmate sang songs from ''The Merry Widow'' on an experimental Los Angeles channel. White found work modeling, and her first professional acting job was at the Bliss Hayden Little Theatre. White's career was disrupted immediately, as World War II broke out, causing her to join the American Women's Voluntary Services. In the 1940s, she worked in radio appearing on shows such as ''Blondie'', ''The Great Gildersleeve'' and ''This Is Your FBI''. She then got her own radio show, called ''The Betty White Show''.

In 1949, she began appearing as co-host with Al Jarvis on his daily, live variety show ''Hollywood on Television'' on KLAC in Los Angeles. White began hosting the show by herself in 1952 after Jarvis' departure, spanning five and a half hours of live ad-lib television six days per week over a contiguous four-year span altogether. In all of her various variety series over the years, White would sing at least a couple of songs during each broadcast. In 1950, Betty was nominated for her first Emmy Award as "Best Actress" on television, competing with such legendary stars as Judith Anderson, Helen Hayes, and Imogene Coca (the award went to Gertrude Berg). This was the very first award and category in the new Emmy history designated for women on television.

In 1952, the same year she began hosting ''Hollywood on Television'', White co-founded Bandy Productions with writer George Tibbles and Don Fedderson, a producer. The trio worked to create new shows using existing characters from sketches shown on ''Hollywood on Television''. White, Fedderson and Tibbles created the television comedy ''Life With Elizabeth'', based on a ''Hollywood on Television'' sketch. White portrayed the title character on the sitcom from 1952 to 1955, which effectively boosted her career. ''Life With Elizabeth'' was nationally syndicated by the mid-1950s, allowing White to become one of the few women in television with full creative control in front of and behind the camera at the time. Although several sources state White won an Emmy for the show this appears to be incorrect, and may be a matter of confusing the 1950 nomination with a win.

In 1954, she briefly hosted and produced her own daily talk show, ''The Betty White Show'', on NBC (not to be confused with her 1970s sitcom of the same name). Following ''Life with Elizabeth'', she appeared as Vicki Angel on the sitcom ''Date with the Angels'' from 1957 to 1958. The show later became another variety series before going off the air. White performed in commercials seen on live television in Los Angeles, including a spirited rendition of the "Dr. Ross Dog Food" advertisement at KTLA during the 1950s.

She made her feature film debut as Kansas Senator Elizabeth Ames Adams in the 1962 drama, ''Advise and Consent''. It would be her only big-screen appearance for decades.

Betty White's greatest fame during the 1960s and early 1970s with the general public was likely from her long stint as hostess and commentator on the annual Tournament of Roses Parade broadcast on NBC, often co-hosting with Lorne Greene. White began a nineteen-year run as host on the program in 1956; NBC replaced her in 1975, feeling she was too identified with rival network CBS due to her new-found success on ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''. White admitted to ''People'' magazine it was difficult "watching someone else do my parade", although she soon would start a ten-year run as hostess of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for CBS.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, White appeared on a number of late night talkshows and daytime game shows, including ''Password''. White made many appearances on the hit game show ''Password'' as a celebrity guest from 1961 through 1975. She married the show's host, Allen Ludden, in 1963. She subsequently appeared on the show's three updated versions ''Password Plus'', ''Super Password'', and ''Million Dollar Password'', having been on versions of the game with five different hosts (Allen Ludden, Bill Cullen, Tom Kennedy, Bert Convy, and Regis Philbin). White made frequent game show appearances on ''What's My Line?'' (starting in 1955), ''To Tell the Truth'' (in 1961 and in 1990), ''I've Got a Secret'' (in 1972–73), ''Match Game'' (1973–1982) and ''Pyramid'' (starting in 1982). Both ''Password'' and ''Pyramid'' were created by White's friend, Bob Stewart. In 1983, she became the first woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Game Show Host, for the NBC entry ''Just Men!''. Due to the amount of work she has done on them, she has been deemed the "First Lady of Game Shows".

1973–1985: Continued success, comedic endeavors and ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''[link]

In 1973, White made a guest appearance in season four of ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' as ''The Happy Homemaker''. As a result of her guest appearance, White landed her most significant role at that point as the sardonic, man-hungry Sue Ann Nivens, ''The Happy Homemaker'', on ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' as a full time cast member. The running gag was that Sue Ann's hard-edged private personality was the complete opposite of how she presented herself on her show. "We need somebody who can play sickeningly sweet, like Betty White," Moore herself suggested at a production meeting, which resulted in casting White herself. White won two back-to-back Emmy Awards for her role in the hugely popular series.

Following that show's end in 1977, she was given her own sitcom on CBS, ''The Betty White Show'', during the 1977–78 season, in which she co-starred with John Hillerman and former ''Mary Tyler Moore'' co-star Georgia Engel. It was canceled after one season. White appeared several times on the ''Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' appearing in many sketches, and began guest-starring in a number of television movies and television miniseries, including ''With This Ring'', ''The Best Place to Be'', ''Before and After'', and ''The Gossip Columnist''.

From 1983 through 1985, she had a recurring role playing Ellen Harper Jackson on the series ''Mama's Family'', along with future ''Golden Girls'' co-star Rue McClanahan. White had originated this character in a series of sketches on ''The Carol Burnett Show'' in the 1970s. When ''Mama's Family'' was picked up in syndication after being canceled by NBC in 1985, White left the show (with the exception of one final appearance in the show's syndicated version in 1986).

1985–2000: ''The Golden Girls'' and new career heights[link]

In 1985, she scored her second signature role and the biggest hit of her career as the St. Olaf, Minnesota-native Rose Nylund on ''The Golden Girls''. The series chronicled the lives of four widowed or divorced women in their "golden years" who shared a home in Miami. ''The Golden Girls'', which also starred Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan, was immensely successful and ran from 1985 through 1992. White won one Emmy Award, for ''Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series'', for the first season of ''The Golden Girls'' and was nominated in that category every year of the show's run (the only cast member to receive that distinction — Getty was also nominated every year, but in the supporting actress category). When Beatrice Arthur left in 1992, White, McClanahan, and Getty reprised their roles Rose, Blanche, and Sophia in the spin-off ''The Golden Palace''. The series was short-lived, lasting only one season. In addition, White reprised her Rose Nylund character in guest appearances on the NBC shows ''Empty Nest'' and ''Nurses'', both of which were set in Miami.

White was originally offered the role of Blanche in ''The Golden Girls,'' and Rue McClanahan was offered the role of Rose (the two characters being similar to roles they had played in ''Mary Tyler Moore'' and ''Maude'', respectively). Jay Sandrich, the director of the pilot, suggested that since they had played similar roles in the past, they should switch roles, Rue McClanahan later said in a documentary on the series. White was originally scared to play Rose, feeling that she would not be able to play the role—until the show's creator took her aside and told her not to play Rose as stupid but to play her as someone "terminally naive, a person who always believed the first explanation of something." Despite being the eldest of the four women, White is the only surviving regular cast member, following the deaths of Estelle Getty in July 2008, Bea Arthur in April 2009, and Rue McClanahan in June 2010.

After ''The Golden Girls'' ended, White guest-starred on a number of television programs including ''Ally McBeal'', ''The Ellen Show'', ''My Wife and Kids'', ''That '70s Show'', ''Everwood'', ''Joey'', and ''Malcolm in the Middle''. She received Emmy Award nominations for her appearances on ''Suddenly Susan'', ''Yes, Dear'' and ''The Practice''. She won an Emmy in 1996 for ''Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series'', appearing as herself on an episode of ''The John Larroquette Show''. In that episode, titled "Here We Go Again", a spoof on ''Sunset Boulevard'', a diva-like White convinces Larroquette to help write her memoirs. In one bit, ''Golden Girls'' co-stars McClanahan and Getty appear as themselves. Larroquette is forced to dress in drag as Beatrice Arthur, when all four appear in public as the "original" cast members. White comically envisions her Rose as the central character with the other cast members as mere supporting players.

The actress has lent her voice to several animated shows, including ''The Simpsons'', ''King of the Hill'', ''The Wild Thornberrys'', ''Family Guy'', and ''Father of the Pride''. In 1999, she had a supporting role in the monster film ''Lake Placid'', as a widow who later is revealed to have raised the giant crocodile (which accidentally ate her husband).

2000–present: Hollywood mainstay and career resurgence[link]

White's career has been in revival throughout the first decades of the 2000s, and her continuing cultural relevance is reflected in the numerous television and film projects she has been a part of. In December 2006, White joined the soap opera ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' in the role of Ann Douglas, the long-lost mother of the show's matriarch Stephanie Forrester, who is played by Susan Flannery. In February 2007, White returned as Ann, who had an intent to move to Los Angeles to be near her daughters. The characters of Ann and Pamela Douglas (Alley Mills) disappeared after their March 27, 2007, appearance and were not mentioned again until October 19, 2007, when Ann appeared briefly. White would go on to appear in three more episodes following that, one on December 10, 2007; August 28, 2008; and October 28, 2008. She returned to the show on November 18, 2009 and in the November 19, 2009 episode her character revealed that she was dying of advanced pancreatic cancer. To date she has made 22 appearances as Ann Douglas. In the November 23, 2009 episode Ann passes away due to complications from her illness, with both of her daughters at her side on the beach at Paradise Cove.

In the broadcast of the 2007 TV Land Awards, White starred in a parody of ''Ugly Betty'', aptly titled ''Ugly Betty White'', in which she played America Ferrera's title character, with Charo playing White's sister Hilda, and Erik Estrada playing her father Ignacio. Her performance earned her a part on ''Ugly Betty'' as herself, the victim of Wilhelmina Slater's temper as they vie for a cab in the episode "Bananas for Betty", which aired December 6, 2007.

White had a recurring role in ABC's ''Boston Legal'' from 2005 to 2008 as the calculating, blackmailing gossip-monger Catherine Piper, a role she originally portrayed as a guest star on ''The Practice'' in 2004.

White appeared as a roaster on the ''Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner'' in 2006. On May 19, 2008, White appeared on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', taking part in the host's ''Mary Tyler Moore Show'' reunion special alongside every surviving cast member of the series.

Beginning in 2007, White was featured in television commercials for PetMeds, highlighting her interest in animal rights and welfare.

She was honored at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards with the Pop Culture Award on June 8, 2008. She accepted it along with co-stars Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan.

White returned to ''Password'' in its latest incarnation, ''Million Dollar Password'', on June 12, 2008, (episode #3), participating in the Million Dollar challenge at the end of the show. Her quick correct responses helped the contestant win $100,000. White returned to the show again on December 28, 2008 (episode #9), helping the contestants win $25,000 each. White has made a number of appearances in skits on ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'', playing the part of an Exxon representative, a Girl Scout, an accountant with a briefcase full of cocaine, a nurse who just got her medical license from El Salvador, a newspaper delivery girl, a prison guard, and an Apple representative. She appeared as herself with a shoe box full of receipts, explaining that she was doing her taxes. She appeared as herself to promote ''Together: A Story of Shared Vision'' by her and Tom Sullivan. On July 18, 2008, she appeared on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' in a skit entitled "Can You Make Betty White Flinch".

White guest starred as the "Witch Lady" on an episode of ''My Name is Earl'', and starred on Chelsea Handler's late night show ''Chelsea Lately''. Some of her other most recent television credits in the 2000s include ''Stealing Christmas'', ''Annie's Point'' and ''The Retrievers''. Her film credits in the late 1990s and early 2000s included ''Hard Rain'', ''Dennis the Menace Strikes Again'' and ''Bringing Down the House'', in which she co-starred with Steve Martin and Queen Latifah.

White appeared in the 2009 motion picture ''The Proposal'' with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. White provided the English-language voice of Yoshie in the anime film ''Ponyo'', which was released in Japan in 2008 and in the United States and Canada on August 14, 2009. She co-starred with Kristen Bell in the 2010 film, ''You Again''.

White appeared alongside Abe Vigoda in an advertisement for Snickers during the 2010 Super Bowl XLIV. The ad won the top spot on the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter. The slogan was, "You're not you when you're hungry".

A grassroots campaign on Facebook called "Betty White to Host SNL (Please)" began in January 2010. The group was approaching 500,000 members when NBC confirmed on March 11, 2010 that White would in fact host ''Saturday Night Live'' on May 8. The appearance made her, at age 88, the oldest person to host the show, beating Miskel Spillman, the winner of ''SNL'''s "Anybody Can Host" contest, who was 80 when she hosted in 1977. The May 8 SNL episode garnered the show's highest ratings since November 1, 2008, when Ben Affleck hosted. In her opening monologue, White thanked Facebook and joked that she "didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time." The appearance earned her a 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series, her seventh Emmy win overall.

In June 2010, White took on the role of Elka Ostrovsky the house caretaker on TV Land’s original sitcom ''Hot in Cleveland'', now in its third season.

A Betty White calendar for 2011 was published in late 2010. The calendar features photos from her career and her pictured with various animals. She also debuted her own clothing line on July 22, 2010, which features shirts with her face on them. All proceeds will also go to various animal charities she supports.

She guest-starred in the second-season premiere of NBC's ''Community'' as an anthropology professor. In 2010 she also guest starred in ''The Middle'' and ''30 Rock''. She also had a role as Mrs. Claus in ''Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa'', the sequel to Disney's ''Prep & Landing''.

Betty also starred in the Hallmark Hall of fame presentation of ''The Lost Valentine'' on January 30, 2011. This presentation garnered the highest rating for a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation in the last four years and according to the Nielsen Media Research TV rating service won first place in the prime time slot for that date.

White has published several books over the span of her career. In August 2010, she entered a deal with G.P. Putnam Sons to produce two more books, the first of which, ''If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't)'', was released in 2011. In December of 2011, White received her first ever Grammy nomination ("Best Spoken Word Recording") for the audio recording of the book.

NBC announced in early 2011 that White will be hosting a new show, ''Betty White's Off Their Rockers'', where senior citizens play practical jokes on the younger generation.

In 2011, Betty White appeared in the Visit California promotional film aimed at boosting tourism from the UK.

In September 2011, she teamed up with English singer Luciana to produce a remix of her song "I'm Still Hot". The song was released digitally on September 22, 2011 and the video later premiered on October 6, 2011. It was made for a campaign for a life settlement program, The Lifeline. White served as a judge alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Wendy Diamond for the American Humane Association's Hero Dog Awards airing on The Hallmark Channel on November 8, 2011 at 8PM ET/PT.

A special ''Betty White's 90th Birthday Party'' aired on NBC a day before the star's birthday on January 16, 2012. The show featured appearances of many stars with whom White has worked over the years. ''Betty White's Off Their Rockers'' aired following the celebratory event, and returned in April 2012 as a recurring show.

Charity[link]

White is a pet enthusiast and animal health advocate who works with a number of animal organizations, including the Los Angeles Zoo Commission, the Morris Animal Foundation, and Actors & Others for Animals. Her interest in animal rights and welfare began in the early 1970s while she was both producing and hosting the syndicated series, ''The Pet Set'', which spotlighted celebrities and their pets.

As of 2009, White is the president emerita of the Morris Animal Foundation, where she has served as a trustee of the organization since 1971. She has been a member of the board of directors of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association since 1974. Additionally, White served the zoo association as a Zoo Commissioner for eight years.

According to the Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Garden's "ZooScape" Member Newsletter, White hosted "History on Film" from 2000 to 2002. White donated nearly $100,000 to the zoo in the month of April 2008 alone.

Betty White served as a presenter at the 2011 American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 1, 2011 in Los Angeles.

Personal life[link]

In 1945, White married Dick Barker, a U.S. Army Air Corps pilot. The marriage was short-lived. In 1947, she married Lane Allen, a Hollywood agent. This marriage ended in divorce in 1949.

On June 14, 1963, White married television host and personality Allen Ludden, whom she had met on his game show ''Password'' as a celebrity guest in 1961, and her legal name was changed to Betty White Ludden. He proposed to White at least twice before she accepted. The couple appeared together in an episode of ''The Odd Couple'' featuring Felix's and Oscar's appearance on ''Password''. Ludden appeared as a guest panelist on ''Match Game'', with White sitting in the audience. (She was prompted to criticize one of Ludden's wrong answers on camera during an episode of ''Match Game '74''). The two appeared together on the ''Match Game'' panel in 1975.

Allen Ludden died from stomach cancer on June 9, 1981, in Los Angeles. They had no children together, though she is stepmother to his three children from his first marriage. White has not remarried since Ludden's death.

When asked about her real-life heroes White told ''Vanity Fair'', "Charles Darwin".

White is a practicing member of the Unity Church.

She is also a registered Democrat. She endorsed President Barack Obama in 2012 saying she "likes how he represents us".

Awards, honors and nominations[link]

White has won seven Emmy Awards, three American Comedy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990), and two Viewers For Quality Television Awards. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6747 Hollywood Boulevard alongside the star of her late husband Allen Ludden.

White was the recipient of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters Golden Ike Award and the Genii Award from the American Women in Radio and Television in 1976. The American Comedy Awards awarded her the award for Funniest Female in 1987 as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990. She was formally inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1995. In 2009, White received the Career Achievement Award from the Television Critics Association.

The American Veterinary Medical Association awarded White with its Humane Award in 1987 for her charitable work with animals. The City of Los Angeles further honored her for her philanthropic work with animals in 2006 with a bronze plaque near the Gorilla Exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo. The City of Los Angeles named her "Ambassador to the Animals" at the dedication ceremony. In September 2009, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced plans to honor White with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award at the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards. Sandra Bullock presented White with the award on January 23, 2010, at the ceremony, which took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. She is a Kentucky Colonel. In 2009, White and her now deceased ''Golden Girls'' cast mates Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty were awarded honorary Disney Legend awards. Betty was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in December 2010. In 2010 she was chosen as the Associated Press's Entertainer of the Year.

On November 9, 2010, the USDA Forest Service along with Smokey Bear made actress Betty White an honorary forest ranger, fulfilling her lifelong dream. White said in previous interviews that she wanted to be a forest ranger as a little girl but that women were not allowed to do that then. Today’s United States Forest Service is 38 percent female, including rangers, scientists and leaders at every level.

In January 2011, White received a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for her role as Elka Ostrovsky in ''Hot in Cleveland''. The show itself was also nominated for an award as Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, but lost to the cast of ''Modern Family''. She won the same award once again a year later.

A 2011 poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos revealed that White was considered to be the most popular and most trusted celebrity among Americans, beating out the likes of Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks.

In October 2011, White was awarded an honorary degree and white doctors coat by Washington State University at the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association’s centennial gala in Yakima, Washington.

! Year !! Award !! Category !! Work !! Result
1951	Emmy Award
1975	Emmy Awards		''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''
1976	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''
1977	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''
1983	Emmy Awards		''Just Men!''
1984	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Game Show Host	''Just Men!''
1986	Emmy Awards		''The Golden Girls''
1986	Golden Apple Award	Female Star of the Year
1986	Golden Globes		''The Golden Girls''
1987	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1987	Golden Globes	Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy	''The Golden Girls''
1987	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series (Leading Role) Network, Cable or Syndication	''The Golden Girls''
1987	Viewers for Quality Television	Best Actress in a Quality Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1988	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1988	Golden Globes	Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy	''The Golden Girls''
1988	Viewers for Quality Television	Best Actress in a Quality Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1989	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1989	Golden Globes	Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy	''The Golden Girls''
1990	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1990	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series (Leading Role) Network, Cable or Syndication	''The Golden Girls''
1990	American Comedy Awards	Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy
1991	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1992	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	''The Golden Girls''
1995	Walk of Fame	Star on the Walk of Fame
1996	Emmy Awards		''The John Larroquette Show''
1997	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	''Suddenly Susan''
2000	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Female Guest Appearance in a TV Series	''Ally McBeal''
2003	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series	''The Practice''
2003	TV Land Awards	Quintessential Non-Traditional Family
2004	TV Land Awards	Groundbreaking Show
2008	TV Land Awards	Pop Culture Award
2009	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	''My Name Is Earl''
2009	Television Critics Association
2009	Disney Legends	Disney Legends
2010
2010	MTV Movie Awards
2010	MTV Movie Awards		''The Proposal''
2010		Best Dance (with Sandra Bullock)	''The Proposal''
2010	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	''Saturday Night Live''
2010	''New Now Next Awards''	Cause You're Hot
2011	People's Choice Awards
2011	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Web Celeb
2011	Screen Actors Guild		''Hot in Cleveland''
2011	Screen Actors Guild		''Hot in Cleveland''
2011	Gracie Allen Awards	Best Actress in a Comedy Series	''Hot in Cleveland''
2011	The Comedy Awards	Best Actress in a TV Comedy	''Hot in Cleveland''
2011	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	''Hot In Cleveland''
2011		Comedian
2011	Grammy Awards	Best Spoken Word Recording	''If You Ask Me (And You Won't)''
2012	Screen Actors Guild		''Hot in Cleveland''
2012	Screen Actors Guild		''The Lost Valentine''

Filmography[link]

''Hollywood on Television'' ''Life with Elizabeth'' ''Make the Connection'' ''Date with the Angels'' ''Santa Claus (film) '''' ''To Tell the Truth'' ''Advise and Consent (film) ''Password (game) ''Your First Impression'' ''Concentration (game show) ''What's My Line?'' ''Vanished'' ''Match Game'' '''' ''Tattletales'' '''' '''' ''Liar's Club'' '''' ''The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Betty White'' ''With This Ring'' '''' '''' '''' ''Before and After'' ''Password Plus'' '''' ''Eunice'' ''Just Men!'' ''Doctor Detroit'' ''Kill Me If You Can'' ''Santa Claus: The Movie'' ''Mama's Family'' ''Body Language (game show) ''Trivia Trap'' ''Who's the Boss'' '''' '''' ''Super Password'' ''Santa Barbara (TV series) ''Another World (TV series) ''To Tell the Truth'' ''Chance of a Lifetime'' '''' ''Bob (TV series) ''Diagnosis: Murder'' ''Family Feud'' ''Maybe This Time'' '''' '''' ''Hard Rain (film) ''Hercules: The Animated Series'' ''Me & George'' ''Dennis the Menace Strikes Again'' ''Holy Man'' '''' '''' ''Gaia Symphony II'' ''Lake Placid (film) '''' ''Ladies Man (1999 TV series) ''Ally McBeal'' '''' ''Whispers: An Elephant's Tale'' ''Tom Sawyer (2000 film) '''' '''' ''I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus'' ''That '70s Show'' ''Bringing Down the House (film) ''Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt'' ''Stealing Christmas'' ''Malcolm in the Middle'' ''Hollywood Squares ''Complete Savages'' '''' '''' ''Annie's Point'' ''Boston Legal'' ''Family Guy'' ''Gameshow Marathon (US TV series) '''': Their Greatest Moments ''Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner'' '''' ''My Wife and Kids'' ''Daytime Emmy Awards ''Back to the Grind'' '''' ''Pioneers of Television'' '''' ''Million Dollar Password'' ''Ugly Betty'' '''' ''Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show) ''My Name is Earl'' ''Chelsea Lately'' ''Ponyo'' ''Love N' Dancing'' ''Chelsea Lately'' ''Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List'' ''30 Rock'' ''Glenn Martin, DDS'' ''Saturday Night Live'' '''' ''Inside the Actors Studio'' ''Operation Secret Santa'' ''Hot in Cleveland'' ''You Again (film) ''Community (TV series) ''Pound Puppies (2010 TV series) '''' ''Betty White's Off Their Rockers'' ''''

Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1945	''Time to Kill''	Lou's Girl
1949–50	|	Phone Girl
1953–55	|	Elizabeth	12 episodes
1955	|
1957–58	|	Vickie Angel	33 episodes
1959	Santa Claus'' ||
1959–62	|
1961	|	Herself
1962	Advise and Consent'' ||	Senator Bessie Adams
1961–75	Password'' ||	Herself
1963	|
1965	Concentration'' ||	Herself
1967	|	Herself
1971	|	TV Hostess
1973–82	|	Herself
1973–77	|	Sue Ann Nivens	42 episodes
1974–78	|
1977	|
1977–78	|	Joyce Whitman	14 episodes
1978	|
1978	|
1978	|
1979	|	Evelyn Harris
1979	|
1979	|
1980	|
1980	|
1980–83	|	Herself
1982–88	|	Herself
1982	|	Ellen
1983	|
1983	|
1984	|
1985	|
1983–84, 1986	|	Ellen Harper-Jackson	15 episodes
1984	Body Language'' ||	Herself
1985	|	Herself
1985	|	Bobby Barnes
1985–88	|	Herself
1985–92	|	Rose Nylund	180 episodes
1987–99	|	Herself
1988	Santa Barbara'' ||	Waitress	3 episodes
1988	Another World'' ||	Brenda Barlowe
1990–91	|	Herself
1991	|	Evelyn Eglin
1992–93	|	Rose Nylund	24 episodes
1993	Bob'' ||	Sylvia Schmidt
1994	|	Dora Sloan
1995	|	Herself
1995–96	|	Shirley Wallace
1996	|		Mrs. Claus
1996	|
1997	Hard Rain'' ||	Doreen Sears
1998	|	Hestia
1998	|
1998	|	Martha Wilson
1998	|
1998–99	|		(voice)
1999	|	Herself
1999	|
1999	Lake Placid'' ||	Mrs. Deloris Bickerman
1999	|	Lillian Jordan
1999–2000	Ladies Man'' ||	Mitzi Stiles
2000	|	Dr. Shirley Flott
2000	|		(voice)
2000	|	Round
2000	Tom Sawyer'' ||	Aunt Polly
2001	|	Sophie Hunter
2001	|	Mrs. Krisper
2001	|
2002–03	|	Bea Sigurdson
2003	Bringing Down the House'' ||	Mrs. Kline
2003	|	Woman in Window
2004	|	Emily Sutton
2004	|	Sylvia
2004	Hollywood Squares – Game Show Week Part 2'' ||
2004–05	|	Mrs. Riley
2005	|	Catherine Piper
2005	|	Lettie
2005	|	Annie Eason
2005–08	|	Catherine Piper	16 episodes
2006	|	Herself	(voice)
2006	Gameshow Marathon'' ||
2006	|	Herself
2006	|	Herself
2007	|
2007	|
2007	34th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards'' ||
2007	|
2007	|	Herself	(voice)
2008	|	Herself
2008	|
2008	|	Herself
2008	|	Herself	Bananas for Betty" (Ugly Betty (Season 2)>Season 2, Episode 10)
2009	|	Grandma Annie
2009	Wheel of Fortune'' ||	Herself
2009	|	Mrs. Weezmer	1 episode
2009	|	Herself
2009	|	Yoshie	(voice)
2009	|	Irene
2009	|	Herself
2009	|
2009	|	Betty White	1 episode
2009–10	|	Dora / Grandma Shelia Martin	2 episodes
2010	|	Herself	(Host)
2010	|	Mrs. Nethercott	1 episode
2010	|	Herself
2010	|		(voice)
2010–present	|	Elka Ostrovsky
2010	You Again'' ||	Grandma Bunny
2010	Community '' ||	Professor June Bauer	2 episodes
2010	Pound Puppies'' ||	Agatha McLeish
2011	|	Caroline Thomas
2012	|		(Host)
2012	|	Grammy Norma	(voice)

Books by Betty White[link]

1983: ''Betty White's Pet-Love: How Pets Take Care of Us''

1987: ''Betty White In Person''

1991: ''The Leading Lady: Dinah's Story''

1995: ''Here We Go Again: My Life In Television''

2011: ''If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't)''

2011: ''Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo''

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Tucker, David C. ''The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007.

External links[link]

Betty White News on Twitter

Betty White is Hot in Cleveland

Archive of American Television Interview with Betty White June 4, 1997

''The Early Betty White'' by Kliph Nesteroff

Betty White on The Museum of Broadcast Communications

Betty White to Star on Hot in Cleveland

Video of TV Academy's Salute to Betty White

Category:1922 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Actors from California Category:Actors from Illinois Category:Animal rights advocates Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American game show hosts Category:American people of Danish descent Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of Greek descent Category:American people of Welsh descent Category:American soap opera actors Category:American television actors Category:American vegans Category:American voice actors Category:California Democrats Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Illinois Democrats Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:People from Oak Park, Illinois Category:Women comedians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:American Christians

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Name	Richard Dawson
Birth name	Colin Lionel Emm
Birth date	November 20, 1932
Birth place	Gosport, Hampshire, England
Occupation	ActorComedianGame show host and panelist
Years active	1960–1995
Spouse	Diana Dors (1959–1966); divorced, deceasedGretchen Johnson (1991–present)}}

Richard Dawson (born 20 November 1932) is an English actor, comedian, game show panelist and host in America. He is best known for his role as Corporal Peter Newkirk on ''Hogan's Heroes'', being the original host of the ''Family Feud'' game show from 1976–1985, and from 1994 to 1995, and for being a regular panelist on the 1970s version of ''Match Game'' on CBS from 1973 to 1978. He is also famous for what is to date his final film role, that of Damon Killian, host of "The Running Man" in the 1987 film, ''The Running Man''.

Biography[link]

Early life and career[link]

Dawson was born as Colin Lionel Emm in Gosport, Hampshire, England, to an American father and English mother. At the age of 14, he ran away from home to join the Merchant Marine, where he pursued a boxing career. After his discharge, he pursued a comedy career using the stage name Dickie Dawson; when he reached adulthood, he revised this to become Richard Dawson. This name he would later officially legalise. In the course of his career in comedy Dawson is known to have played the London Palladium.

''Hogan's Heroes'' (1965–1971) and other works[link]

In 1963, Dawson appeared in an episode of ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' in the role of dapper Brit entertainer "Racy Tracy" Rattigan. In 1965, Dawson had a small role at the end of the film ''King Rat,'' starring George Segal, playing 1st Recon paratrooper Captain Weaver, sent to liberate allied POWs in a Japanese prison. Having married British sex symbol Diana Dors, Dawson moved to Los Angeles, California, where he gained fame in the television show ''Hogan's Heroes'' as Cpl. Peter Newkirk. The war-related sitcom was one of the highest-rated shows on television during its six-year run from 1965 to 1971.

During the run of Hogan's Heroes, Dawson introduced sitcom costar Bob Crane (a long-time photography enthusiast) to John Henry Carpenter, who worked with the video department at Sony Electronics and had access to early video tape recorders. In later years, Carpenter, who photographed some of Crane's sexual escapades with various women, would be implicated in Crane's unsolved murder.

Late 1960s and early 1970s[link]

In 1967, Dawson released a psychedelic 45rpm single including the songs "His Children's Parade" and "Apples & Oranges" on Carnation Records. In 1968, Dawson was in the film ''The Devil's Brigade,'' as Private Hugh McDonald. Dawson and Dors eventually divorced, and he gained custody of both their children, Gary and Mark. Immediately following the cancellation of ''Hogan's Heroes,'' Dawson performed as a regular on the popular NBC variety show ''Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In'' from 1971 to 1973 and would also be a regular on ''The New Dick Van Dyke Show'' from 1973 to 1974. Dawson also appeared as a panelist on the 1972–73 syndicated revival of ''I've Got a Secret.''

Mid-1970s to mid-1980s[link]

After ''Laugh-In'' left the airwaves in 1973, game show pioneer Mark Goodson signed Dawson to appear as a regular on ''Match Game '73'', alongside Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, and host Gene Rayburn. Dawson, who had already served a year as panelist for Goodson's revival of ''I've Got a Secret,'' proved to be a solid and funny gameplayer and was the frequent choice of contestants for the "Head-To-Head Match" portion of the show's "Super-Match" bonus round, in which, after winning prize money in the "Audience Match" portion, the contestant and Dawson (or any celebrity the contestant chose) had to obtain an exact match to the requested fill-in-the-blank.

Dawson's position on the panel was the lower middle seat, directly below fellow regular Somers.

Dawson hosted a one-season syndicated revival of ''Masquerade Party'' in 1974; the program featured regular panelists Bill Bixby, Lee Meriwether, and Nipsey Russell. Produced by Stefan Hatos and Monty Hall (of ''Let's Make a Deal'' fame), the programme was not popular enough to warrant a second season.

''Match Game'' and ''Family Feud''[link]

In 1975, during his tenure as one of ''Match Game's'' regular panelists, Dawson was hired by Mark Goodson to host an upcoming project titled ''Family Feud'', which debuted on 12 July 1976, on ABC's daytime schedule. Unlike his flop with ''Masquerade Party,'' ''Family Feud'' was a breakout hit, eventually surpassing the ratings of ''Match Game'' in late 1977. In 1978 he left ''Match Game'' and won a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Game Show Host for his work on ''Family Feud''.

One of his trademarks, kissing all the female contestants, was one of the things that made the show appear to be a warm and friendly programme, and he soon garnered the nickname ''The Kissing Bandit''. On the 1985 finale Dawson explained that he kissed contestants for love and luck, something his mother did with Dawson himself as a child. In 1983, Dawson made an appearance on ''Mama's Family'' as himself, hosting an episode of ''Family Feud'' where the Harpers play as contestants (reuniting him with former ''Match Game'' co-panelists Betty White and Vicki Lawrence). After Dawson became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1984 he proudly showed his passport and photo during the introduction of an episode of ''Family Feud''.

Dawson continued hosting the ''Feud'' until both editions were cancelled; the ABC Daytime edition on 14 June 1985 and the syndicated edition three months later on 13 September 1985.

Mid-1980s – present career and returning to Family Feud (1994-1995)[link]

Dawson parodied his TV persona in 1987 by co-starring alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the action film ''The Running Man'', in which he portrayed the evil, egotistical game-show host Damon Killian. Of Dawson's performance film critic Roger Ebert (who gave the film itself thumbs down) wrote, "Playing a character who always seems three-quarters drunk, Dawson chain-smokes his way through backstage planning sessions and then pops up in front of the cameras as a cauldron of false jollity. Working the audience, milking the laughs and the tears, he is not really much different than most genuine game show hosts—and that's the film's private joke."

Dawson hosted an unsold pilot for a revival of the classic game show ''You Bet Your Life'' that was to air on NBC in 1988, but the network declined to pick up the show, which would go on to attempt two more failed revivals with hosts Buddy Hackett and Bill Cosby. On 12 September 1994, Dawson returned to the syndicated edition of ''Family Feud'', replacing Ray Combs for what became the final season of the show's official second run (1988–1995).

On Dawson's first show upon his return he received a 25-second standing ovation when he walked on set. Afterwards he said, "If you do too much of that, I won't be able to do a show for you because I'll cry." During the revival, he did not kiss the female contestants, because of a commitment he made with his wife and daughter. The final episode aired on 26 May 1995. After ''Family Feud'', Dawson decided to retire from show business. In 1999, he was asked to make a special appearance on the first episode of the current version of ''Family Feud'', but decided to turn the offer down and have no further involvement with the show. In 2000, Dawson narrated ''TV's Funniest Game Show Moments'' on the Fox network.

Personal life and family[link]

Upon retiring, Dawson took up residence in Beverly Hills, California with his wife since 1991, the former Gretchen Johnson, whom he met when she was a member of one of the contestant families on ''Family Feud'' in 1981. They have a daughter named Shannon Nicole Dawson. He did not kiss the female contestants in his second run on ''Family Feud'' due to a commitment he made to his wife and daughter. Richard announces this and shows a picture of his daughter on an episode in the '94 version of the Feud -- as he is greeting one of the contestants who happened to be a former contestant of his while he was a panelist on the Match Game. The episode was featured on the 25th Anniversary of Family Feud as No. 14 on the Game Show Network's Top 25 Feud Moments.

He also has two sons, Mark Dawson (born 1960) and Gary Dawson (born 1962), from his previous marriage to Diana Dors. Richard also has five grandchildren: Lindsay Dors Dawson, Tyler Emm Dawson, Emma Rose Dawson, Walter "Melons" Dawson, and Lauren Dawson.

References[link]

External links[link]

Category:1932 births Category:Living people Category:American comedians Category:American game show hosts Category:American television actors Category:English comedians Category:English game show hosts Category:English television actors Category:English television personalities Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:American people of English descent Category:English emigrants to the United States Category:English people of American descent Category:Family Feud Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Beverly Hills, California Category:People from Gosport

de:Richard Dawson fr:Richard Dawson

name	Charles Nelson Reilly
birth place	South Bronx, New York, U.S.
birth date	January 13, 1931
death date	May 25, 2007
death place	Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
death cause	Pneumonia
occupation	Actor, voice actor, comedian
years active	1957–2007
partner	Patrick Hughes III (1980–2007; Reilly's death)
tonyawards	Best Featured Actor in a Musical1962 ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying''
website	http://www.charlesnelsonreilly.com }}

Charles Nelson Reilly (January 13, 1931 – May 25, 2007) was an American actor, comedian, director and drama teacher known for his comedic roles in theater, movies, children's television, animated cartoons, and as a panelist on the game show ''Match Game''.

Early life[link]

Reilly was born in The Bronx, New York City, the son of Charles Joseph Reilly, an Irish Catholic commercial artist, and Signe Elvera Nelson, a Swedish Lutheran. When young he would often make his own puppet theater to amuse himself. His mother, foreshadowing his future as an entertainer, often would tell him to "save it for the stage." At age 13, he escaped the Hartford Circus Fire where over a hundred people died, and as a result, he never sat in an audience again through the remainder of his life.

As a boy, Reilly developed a love for opera and desired to become an opera singer. He entered the Hartt School of Music as a voice major but eventually abandoned this pursuit when he came to the realization that he lacked the needed natural vocal talent to have a major career. However, opera remained a life-long passion and after he achieved celebrity he was a frequent guest on opera-themed radio programs, including the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. He also directed opera productions for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Portland Opera, San Diego Opera, and Santa Fe Opera among others. He was also good friends with opera singers Renée Fleming, Rod Gilfry, Roberta Peters, and Eileen Farrell.

Career[link]

Reilly made his first motion-picture appearance in 1957, playing an uncredited role in ''A Face in the Crowd'', directed by Elia Kazan. Most of his work during this period was on the stage. Reilly appeared in many Off Broadway productions. His big theatrical break came in 1960 with the enormously successful original Broadway production of ''Bye Bye Birdie''. In the ground-breaking musical, Reilly had a small onstage part, and was the standby for Dick Van Dyke in the leading role of Albert Peterson. In 1961, Reilly was in the original cast of another big Broadway hit, the Pulitzer prize-winning musical ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying''. For his memorable origination of the role of Bud Frump, Reilly earned a 1962 Tony Award for featured actor in a musical. In 1964, Reilly was featured in the original cast of yet another giant Broadway success, ''Hello, Dolly!'' For originating the role of Cornelius Hackl, Reilly received a second nomination for a Tony Award for performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical.

While he kept active in Broadway shows, Reilly would soon become better known for his TV work. Reilly appeared regularly on television in the 1960s. For example, he did stints both as one of the ''What's My Line?'' Mystery Guests and as a panelist on the popular Sunday night CBS-TV program. In 1965, he made regular appearances on ''The Steve Lawrence Show'', which aired for a single season. From 1968 to 1970, he appeared as uptight Claymore Gregg on the television series ''The Ghost & Mrs. Muir'', which also starred Hope Lange and Edward Mulhare. In one episode, Reilly was reunited with his ''Hello, Dolly!'' original Broadway castmate Eileen Brennan.

In 1971, he appeared as the evil magician Hoodoo in ''Lidsville'', a psychedelically flavored live-action children's program produced by Sid and Marty Krofft that aired on Saturday mornings on ABC. The show was about a boy who falls into a magician's hat and enters a magical world of hat-humans. It is through these roles, as well as his playing the titular role in ''Uncle Croc's Block'' and appearing once on Walt Disney's ''The Mouse Factory'', that Reilly's voice and mannerisms were embedded in a generation of young fans.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Reilly also appeared as a regular on ''The Dean Martin Show'', and had multiple guest appearances on television series including ''McMillan & Wife''; ''Here's Lucy''; ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In''; ''The Love Boat''; and ''Love, American Style''. Commercials he made throughout the 1960s and 1970s included Excedrin and Bic Banana Ink Crayons in which he wore a banana costume.

He was also a frequent guest on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'', appearing more than one hundred times. Because Reilly was such a lively and reliable talk-show guest and lived within blocks of the Burbank studios where ''The Tonight Show'' was taped, he was often asked to be a last-minute replacement for scheduled guests who did not make it to the studio in time. During this time, Reilly was perhaps best known as a fixture of game shows, primarily due to his appearances as a regular panelist on the television game show ''Match Game''. Reilly was one of the longest-running guests, and often engaged in petty, hilarious arguments with fellow regular Brett Somers (the two generally sat next to each other on the show, Somers in the upper middle seat and Reilly in the upper right-hand seat). Reilly typically offered sardonic commentary and peppered his answers with homosexually themed double entendres that pushed the boundaries of 1970s television standards. During the filming of ''Match Game 74'' Reilly left Match game for NYC, for a short time, to film the made for TV movie ''Hamburger'' (1974) also starring Sid Caesar and Charlie Callas. The movie brings Sid Caesar back to television and has parodies including a 25 second bit on The Exorcist.

From 1975 to 1976, Reilly starred in another live-action children's program called ''Uncle Croc's Block'' with Jonathan Harris. Reilly was often a guest celebrity in the 1984 game show ''Body Language'', including one week with Lucille Ball and another week with Audrey Landers.

From 1976, Reilly was primarily active teaching acting and directing for television and theater. In 1976 he directed Julie Harris portraying Emily Dickinson in her one-woman Broadway play ''The Belle of Amherst'' by William Luce. In 1979, he directed Ira Levin's play ''Break a Leg'' on Broadway. Despite the previous year's success of Levin's ''Deathtrap,'' ''Break a Leg'' closed after one performance.

Reilly directed episodes of ''Evening Shade'' in 1990 and earned a 1997 Tony Award nomination as Best Director of a Play for the revival of ''The Gin Game'' starring Julie Harris, opposite whom he had acted in ''Skyscraper'' in 1965-66.

Reilly was a longtime teacher of acting at HB Studio, the acting studio founded by Herbert Berghof and made famous by Berghof and his wife, the renowned stage actress Uta Hagen. Reilly's acting students included Lily Tomlin, Bette Midler, and Gary Burghoff.

In the 1990s, Reilly made guest appearances on ''The Drew Carey Show'', ''The Larry Sanders Show'', ''Family Matters'', ''Second Noah'', and as eccentric writer Jose Chung in the television series ''The X-Files'' ("Jose Chung's ''From Outer Space''"), ''Millennium'' ("Jose Chung's ''Doomsday Defense''") and occasionally as the voice of "The Dirty Bubble" on the animated series ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' before that character was taken over by Tom Kenny.

Reilly was nominated for Emmy Awards in 1998 and 1999 for his performances in ''The Drew Carey Show'' and ''Millennium'', respectively.

Personal life[link]

Reilly did not publicly affirm his homosexuality until his one-man show ''Save It for the Stage''. However, much like fellow game-show regular Paul Lynde of the same era, Reilly played up a campy on-screen persona. In many episodes of ''Match Game'', he would lampoon himself by briefly affecting a deep voice and the nickname "Chuck," and self-consciously describing how "butch" he was. He mentioned in a 2002 interview with ''Entertainment Tonight'' that he felt no need to note this and that he never purposely hid being gay from anyone.

Patrick Hughes III, a set decorator and dresser, was Reilly's domestic partner; the two met backstage while Reilly was appearing on the game show ''Battlestars''. They lived in Beverly Hills.

Despite sporting what appeared to be a full head of hair for most of the prime of his career, Reilly was in fact bald, wearing a toupée throughout most of his appearances in the 1970s and 1980s. During the filming of ''Match Game 74'' his toupee became the joke of the filming when Reilly had to go to NYC to have his toupee put back on. During the filming of several episodes Reilly is seen wearing different hats because his Toupee is back in NY waiting for him to be fitted. This was the start of the long running jokes on Match game about his hair. He abandoned the toupée in the late 1990s and appeared bald in public for the rest of his life.

A Hartford resident at the time, Reilly was seated in the big top the day of the 1944 fire at a Ringling Brothers event in Hartford that has since become well known, he was only 13 years old. Because of this, he never was in attendance at the theater, as he had stated that the large crowds reminded him of what happened that day. He would dramatize it in his stage show, "''The Life of Reilly''," and even talked about his experience on a few occasions.

Final years and death[link]

The final years of Reilly's life were primarily spent touring the country directing theater and opera, and offering audiences a glimpse into his background and personal life with a critically acclaimed one-man play chronicling his life called ''Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly''. In 2004, his final performance of the play was filmed as the basis for an autobiographical independent film titled ''The Life of Reilly''.

Reilly was ill with respiratory problems during the filming of ''The Life of Reilly'' and retired from directing and performing immediately after the final day of shooting.

''The Life of Reilly'' was premiered in March 2006 at the South by Southwest film festival and Reilly's performance in the film received great acclaim. Reilly canceled his personal appearance at South by Southwest due to illness and by the time the film premiered he had been hospitalized.

On May 25, 2007, Reilly died at his home from pneumonia. His remains were cremated.

After his death, Game Show Network dedicated the weekend to Reilly, airing Reilly's funniest episodes of ''Match Game''.

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

''A Face in the Crowd'' (1957)

''The Tiger Makes Out'' (1967)

''Cannonball Run II'' (1984) - Don Don Canneloni

''Wind in the Willows'' (TV) (1987)

''Body Slam'' (1987)

''All Dogs Go to Heaven'' (1989) - Killer

''Rock-a-Doodle'' (1991) - Hunch

''A Troll in Central Park'' (1994) - Llort

''Babes in Toyland'' (1997) - Humpty Dumpty

''An All Dogs Christmas Carol'' (1998) - Killer

''The First of May'' (1999)

''Gaydar'' (2002)

''Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers'' (2006) - Red Parrot Stan

''The Life of Reilly'' (2007)

Television[link]

''Car 54, Where Are You?'' (1962) – Hilton Hartford Harlow in "Occupancy August 1st"

''The Patty Duke Show'' (1963) – Basketball coach for local high school

''The Steve Lawrence Show'' (1965)

''The Ghost & Mrs. Muir'' (1968–1970) – Claymore Gregg

''Hamburger 1974

''Arnie'' (1971–1972)

''Lidsville'' (1971–1973) – Hoodoo

''$10,000 Pyramid'' (1973)

''Password Plus and Super Password'' (1973–1982 approx)

''Match Game'' (1973–1982, 1990–1991)

''The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour'' (1983–1984)

''Uncle Croc's Block'' (1975–1976) – Uncle Croc

''The Flintstone Comedy Show'' (1980–1982) – Frank Frankenstone

''Sweethearts'' (1988–1989) – Host

''Goof Troop'' (1992) – Dutch Spackle

''Space Cats'' (1992–1993) – D.O.R.C. (Disembodied Omnipotent Ruler of Cats)

''Designing Women'' (March 23, 1992) – "L.A. Story"

''All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series'' (1996–1998) – Killer

''The Drew Carey Show'' (1998–1999) – Mr. Hathaway in 2 episodes, "Drugco" & "The Salon"

''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (1999–2007) – Dirty Bubble

''The X-Files'' – Jose Chung ("Jose Chung's ''From Outer Space''")

''Millennium'' – Jose Chung ("Jose Chung's ''Doomsday Defense''")

''Paw Paws''

Theater[link]

''Bye, Bye Birdie'' (1960–1961) – Mr. Henkel/Albert Peterson's understudy

''How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying'' (1961–1965) – Bud Frump

''Hello, Dolly!'' (1964–1970) – Cornelius Hackl

''Skyscraper'' (1965–1966) – Roger Summerhill

''God's Favorite'' (1974–1975) – Sidney Lipton

''The Belle of Amherst'' (1976) – Director

''Break a Leg'' (1979) – Director

''Charlotte'' (1980) – Josias von Stein

''The Nerd'' (1987–1988) – Director

''The Gin Game'' (1997) – Director

In popular culture[link]

In 1985, The Dead Milkmen, a Philadelphia punk band, wrote a song about Charles Nelson Reilly called "Serrated Edge."

In episode 502 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, ''Hercules'', Crow T. Robot performs an ode to Match Game, and winds up solemnly calling out to Reilly as well as the other guests of the show.

In 2001, Reilly was the subject of a sketch on ''Saturday Night Live'' spoofing ''Inside the Actor's Studio'', and was portrayed by Alec Baldwin. A later Baldwin character, the Generalissimo from ''30 Rock'', mentions both Julie Harris and ''The Belle of Amherst'', directed by Reilly as noted above. A 2008 parody of "Match Game" on "Saturday Night Live" included Fred Armisen playing a Reilly-like character. In the sketch, the host is found murdered moments before the show's taping; the subsequent on-air police investigation reveals that he'd been having a clandestine homosexual affair with the Reilly character.

"Weird Al" Yankovic wrote and recorded a tribute song titled "CNR", jokingly caricaturing Reilly with parodies of the internet phenomenon Chuck Norris Facts, with absurdities like winning the Tour de France "with two flat tires and a missing chain", or how "every day he'd make the host of Match Game give him a piggyback ride". This was part of Yankovic's digital ''Internet Leaks'' EP and included on 2011 CD release Alpocalypse. The music video was released by JibJab on August 4, 2009.

References[link]

External links[link]

Charles Nelson Reilly official website

The Final Taxi podcast on Charles Nelson Reilly

Charles Nelson Reilly on DVD, plus Alec Baldwin's SNL impression

Home video: "Our dinner with Charles Nelson Reilly"

"Weird Al" Yankovic's video, CNR

Category:1931 births Category:2007 deaths Category:American people of Swedish descent Category:American comedians Category:American comedians of Irish descent Category:American film actors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American stage actors Category:The Hartt School alumni Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Gay actors Category:Infectious disease deaths in California Category:LGBT directors Category:People from Hartford, Connecticut Category:People from the Bronx Category:Tony Award winners Category:LGBT comedians

de:Charles Nelson Reilly es:Charles Nelson Reilly

name	Gene Rayburn
birth name	Eugene Rubessa
birth date	December 22, 1917
birth place	Christopher, Illinois, U.S.Raised in Benton, Illinois
death date	November 29, 1999|
death place	Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.
death cause	Congestive heart failure
occupation	Game show host/Announcer
years active	1953–1998
spouse	Helen Ticknor Rayburn (1940–1996)
credits	''Match Game''
awards	''Lifetime Achievement Award'' from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Public Service: He became the President of the organization "Patient's for the Preservation of Lens Implantation" in 1975 at the time the US government was attempting to stop intraocular lens (IOL) implantation for the treatment of cataracts. The organization worked closely with the American Intra-Ocular Implant Society (of surgeons) today called the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS). He was pivotal in preventing the government from banning IOLs. Today it the standard of care throughout the world. }}

Gene Rayburn (December 22, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American radio and television personality. He is best known as the host of various editions of the popular American television game show ''Match Game'' for over two decades.

Born Eugene P. Rubessa () in Christopher, Illinois, he was the only child of Croatian immigrants and graduated from Lindblom Technical High School and later from Knox College. While a student at Lindblom, he was senior class president and acted in the plays ''Robert of Sicily'', and ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch''.

Rayburn was married to Helen Ticknor from 1940 until her death in October 1996. They had one child, a daughter, Lynn. After Lynn's birth, Rayburn enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force and served in World War II. Public Service: He became the President of the organization "Patient's for the Preservation of Lens Implantation" in 1975 at the time the US government was attempting to stop intraocular lens (IOL) implantation for the treatment of cataracts. The organization worked closely with the American Intra-Ocular Implant Society (of surgeons) today called the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS). He was pivotal in preventing the government from banning IOLs. Today it the standard of care throughout the world.

Radio career[link]

Before appearing in television, Rayburn was a very successful actor and radio performer. He had a popular morning drive time radio show in New York, first with Jack Lescoulie (''Anything Goes'') and later with Dee Finch (Rayburn & Finch) on WNEW (now WBBR). Radio history pegs Rayburn's pairings with Lescoulie and Finch as the first two-man teams in morning radio. When Rayburn left WNEW, Dee Finch continued the format with Gene Klavan.

Rayburn later landed the lead in the Broadway musical ''Bye Bye Birdie'' when Dick Van Dyke left the production to star in his eponymous classic sitcom.

Television career[link]

Breaking into television as the original announcer on Steve Allen's ''Tonight'', Gene Rayburn began a long association with game-show producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman in 1953. He first appeared on Robert Q. Lewis's ''The Name's the Same''; Rayburn frequently sat in for regular panelist Carl Reiner, lending a comic touch to the panel. In 1955, he took over as host of the summer replacement game show, ''Make the Connection'', from original host, Jim McKay. From there he hosted shows such as ''Choose Up Sides'', ''Dough Re Mi'', and the daytime version of ''Tic Tac Dough''. On radio, Rayburn became one of the many hosts of the NBC program ''Monitor'' in 1961 and remained with the show until 1973.

In an uncredited role (he reportedly did not want his name to appear), Rayburn played a TV interviewer in the 1959 movie, ''It Happened to Jane'' starring Doris Day.

Rayburn was also a frequent panelist in the 1960s and '70s on ''What's My Line?'' and ''To Tell the Truth'', where the interviewing skills he had burnished on ''Monitor'' made him a popular questioner.

''The Match Game''[link]

From 1962 to 1969 Rayburn hosted ''The Match Game''. In the original version, which aired from New York on NBC, Rayburn read questions to two panels, each consisting of a celebrity and two audience members. The questions in the original game were ordinary, like "Name a kind of muffin," or "John loves his ____________." Rayburn usually played it straight, though he would make jokes as the situation warranted. Because it was a live show, very few episodes were recorded for posterity; only four are known to exist. The show was cancelled in 1969 to make room for the topical, short-lived game show ''Letters to Laugh-In''.

Goodson-Todman revived ''The Match Game'' in 1973 for CBS. Gene Rayburn returned as host, and introduced a new format in which two contestants tried to match the responses of six celebrities. Writer Dick DeBartolo, a veteran of the original show, created funnier and often risqué questions ("After being hit by a steamroller, Norman had to slide his ____________ under the door.") Rayburn reveled in this freewheeling new approach, and often indulged in funny voices, banter with the celebrities, and mock arguments with the technical crew. Millions tuned in, and it soon became the highest-rated show in daytime television history.

From 1973 to 1977, ''The Match Game'' was #1 among all daytime network game shows — three of those years it was the highest rated in ''all'' of daytime shows.

The daytime revival of ''The Match Game'', which featured regular panelists Richard Dawson, 1973 to 1978, Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly, ran until 1979 on CBS and another three years in first-run syndication. A concurrent night-time version, ''Match Game PM'', aired from 1975 to 1980. Rayburn was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Host or Hostess in a Game or Audience Participation Show.

During the years when ''The Match Game'' was taped in Los Angeles, Rayburn lived in Osterville, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and would commute to California every two weeks and tape 12 shows over the course of a weekend (five daytime shows and one nighttime show per taping day).

In 1983, a year after the syndicated ''Match Game'' disappeared, the show was revived as part of the ''Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour'', with Rayburn hosting the Match Game segment and sitting on the panel of the ''Hollywood Squares'' segment. The show lasted nine months on NBC.

Rayburn knitted socks as a publicity stunt during his time on ''Rayburn and Finch'' and later became avid in needlepoint, and filled the long plane rides from New York to Hollywood with his hobby. In 1974, Goodson made a surprise on-air appearance to congratulate the host on making the show #1 among daytime television programs and gave Rayburn a needlepoint bag as a gift.

During his time in the Air Force, Rayburn was trained in meteorology and occasionally demonstrated his knowledge of the weather on ''Match Game''.

Other game shows/television appearances[link]

During and between his ''Match Game'' years, Rayburn served as guest panelist on two other Goodson-Todman shows, ''What's My Line?'' and ''To Tell the Truth''. Also during the run of the 1970s ''Match Game'', Gene and wife Helen appeared on the game show ''Tattletales'', hosted by Bert Convy. Three years after the original ''Match Game'' was cancelled, Rayburn hosted the short-lived Heatter-Quigley Productions show, ''The Amateur's Guide to Love''. In 1983 he hosted a pilot for Reg Grundy Productions called ''Party Line'', which later became ''Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak''.

Rayburn appeared as a contestant during a tournament of game show hosts on the original version of ''Card Sharks'' in 1980 and was a celebrity guest on ''Password Plus'' several times between 1980 and 1982.

Rayburn appeared on ''Fantasy Island'' as a game-show host — he and another host were game show rivals who vied to win the woman they both loved by creating the ultimate game show, with life-or-death consequences.

Rayburn once hosted a local New York City-based show on WNEW-TV (now WNYW), ''Helluva Town,'' and between game show stints in 1982-83 he returned to WNEW as host of a weekly local talk/lifestyles show called ''Saturday Morning Live''. He ended his brief tenure to return as co-host of ''The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour''.

Rayburn's last game show hosting duties were on 1985's ''Break the Bank'' (he was replaced by Joe Farago after 13 weeks), and ''The Movie Masters'', an American Movie Classics cable game show that ran from 1989 to 1990.

Just before production was to begin on a new Rayburn-emceed ''Match Game'' revival in 1985, an ''Entertainment Tonight'' reporter publicly disclosed that Rayburn was much older than many believed. Rayburn had trouble finding jobs after that, blaming the reporter for revealing his age and subjecting him to age discrimination.

Rayburn portrayed himself on a ''Saturday Night Live'' sketch in 1990, which featured Susan Lucci (as her character from ''All My Children'', Erica Kane). He returned as one of Kane's many previous husbands, to stop another marriage (officiated by his old ''Choose Up Sides'' co-star Don Pardo) with the host of a game show portrayed by Phil Hartman. He also continued to make appearances on talk shows throughout the late 1980s and 90s, usually to discuss classic game shows, including appearances on ''Vicki!'' and ''The Maury Povich Show'' and ''The Late Show with Ross Shafer''. Coincidentally, Shafer would host the 1990 ''Match Game'' revival.

Death[link]

Rayburn's last TV appearance was a 1998 interview with ''Access Hollywood'' intended to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the CBS ''Match Game''. Portions of the interview have been rebroadcast on the Game Show Network, which in 2001 showed portions of another previously unaired interview during the first airing of its ''Match Game Blankathon''.

Though in poor health, Rayburn appeared in person to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. A month later, he died at his daughter Lynne Rayburn's Beverly, Massachusetts home of congestive heart failure on November 29, 1999. He was cremated and his ashes spread in the garden of his daughter's home.

References[link]

External links[link]

Rayburn hosts NBC Monitor radio program (audio files)

WNEW, The World's Greatest Radio Station

Category:1917 births Category:1999 deaths Category:American game show hosts Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American people of Croatian descent Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in Massachusetts Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure Category:Knox College (Illinois) alumni Category:People from Franklin County, Illinois

es:Gene Rayburn fr:Gene Rayburn