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The Match Game- Hollywood Squares Hour
The "Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour" logo
Format	Game Show
Created by	Mark Goodson and Bill Todman Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley
Starring	Gene Rayburn (host of Match Game segment) Jon Bauman (host of Hollywood Squares segment) Along with celebrity panelists
Narrated by	Gene Wood Johnny Olson (sub-announcer) Bob Hilton (sub-announcer) Rich Jeffries (sub-announcer)
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	60 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	October 31, 1983 – July 27, 1984

The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour was a short-lived American television game show that combined two long-running NBC formats of the 1960s and 1970s — the former being Match Game and the latter being Hollywood Squares — into an hour-long format.

The "Match Game" part of the "MG-HS" logo in the intro, displayed on a then-state-of-the-art video wall.

The "Hollywood Squares" title in the intro.

The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour ran from October 31, 1983, to July 27, 1984, on NBC. Gene Rayburn hosted the Match Game and Super Match segments, while Jon Bauman hosted the Hollywood Squares segment. Gene Wood was the show's regular announcer, while Johnny Olson and Rich Jeffries substituted.

The show's only regular panelists were the co-hosts — Bauman sat on the panel during the Match Game and Super Match while Rayburn sat on the panel during the Hollywood Squares. Several guests on the show did have prior Match Game experience, including Charles Nelson Reilly, Fannie Flagg, McLean Stevenson, Fred Travalena, and even Bauman, who previously appeared on Match Game and another Goodson-Todman game of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Password Plus, in his "Bowzer" persona. Of the former 1970s regulars of Match Game, Reilly appeared the most, guesting in 7 weeks worth of episodes, followed by Flagg with 4 weeks. Former panelist and current Family Feud host, Richard Dawson did not appear on the panel, due to his conflicting relationship with Rayburn in 1978, nor did Brett Somers, for reasons unknown. None of the original Hollywood Squares regulars appeared in this version.

Cast members of other NBC series often appeared on the show, as did stand-up comedians like Jay Leno and Arsenio Hall, as well as younger stars such as Mary Page Keller and John de Lancie. Game show hosts also appeared on the show, including Bill Cullen, future Card Sharks host Bob Eubanks, Pat Sajak, comedian and game show host Bill Rafferty, and Chuck Woolery, who promoted his show Scrabble around the time it premiered. The cast of Leave It to Beaver was reunited for one week at the end of 1983, while another week in May 1984, featured NBC soap opera stars.

The show was a joint production of Mark Goodson Productions and Orion Television, who owned the rights to Squares at the time.

Competition from ABC's General Hospital and CBS's Guiding Light affected the show's ratings and the venture was cancelled after nine months.

The theme of the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour was composed by Edd Kalehoff for Score Productions. It can still be heard today as a prize cue on The Price Is Right, particularly for new cars, and was also used for similar purposes on the 1986-89 version of Card Sharks. The music played during the show's ticket plug has also appeared on The Price is Right, mainly for showcases and exercise equipment prizes. A revamp of the theme, "Lottery," was used by WHDHTV-7 in Boston Massachusetts in the late 1980's-early 1990's, as well as several Illinois game shows and can also be heard on The Price Is Right Live!.

The "Match Game" segment of "The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour"

The show began with two new contestants playing a round of Match Game, with a panel of five celebrities and Jon Bauman. The object was the same as the 1970s version: it was up to the contestant to match as many of the panel's responses to fill-in-the-blank questions. The rules were roughly the same as Match Game PM, with both contestants given three chances apiece to match each panelist once. The major difference was in the tiebreaker. Here, 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, just as on the PM tiebreaker. The contestant whose choice was matched first by a panelist won the game.

The winner of the Match Game segment of this show then advanced to face the returning champion in the Hollywood Squares segment. Three additional celebrities were brought onto the stage for this round, while Gene Rayburn assumed Jon Bauman's spot on the panel.

Although the tic-tac-toe format and the "agree/disagree" question concept of the original Squares were carried over to this version, there were several differences in gameplay. Here, the champion always played X and the Opponent O, regardless of the gender of the players; to date, this has been the only version of Squares not to use the traditional "Mr. X" or "M(r)s. Circle" distinction. Each individual square earned was worth $25, with $100 going to the winner of the first game, $200 for the second game, and so on. No "Secret Square" was played in this version. Additionally, most questions asked were of the true/false or multiple choice variety (this is generally believed to be the result of the show's writers not providing the same pre-show briefings to the celebrities as on other versions). Finally, on this incarnation of Squares, it was possible to win a game "by default"; that is, on an opponent's mistake, something not possible on any other version of the program.

The contestants played as many games as time allowed. When time was called, the contestant in the lead won the game and the championship, and advanced to the "Super Match" endgame.

The eventual winner of Squares played the Super Match, which was structured just like its classic form. Payoffs here were $1,000 for the most popular response in the Audience Match, with the second and third worth $500 and $250 respectively. A non-match was worth $100.

For the Head-to-Head Match, the player selected one of the nine celebrities (Jon Bauman, the five other panelists from Match Game, and the three that were added for Squares). Each celebrity concealed a different multiplier: four of them held a 10, four a 20, and one had a 30. The chosen panelist then revealed his/her multiplier, which was then combined with the Audience Match earnings to create the Head-to-Head jackpot. Under these rules, a Head-to-Head match could be worth as much as $30,000.

Champions could return up to five days or until they were defeated, with the maximum potential payout being over $150,000 (that prize was never won since the odds of selecting the required "30" five times in a row alone, let alone winning the rest of the game, would have been less than 1 in 59,000).

When the show was cancelled, plans were immediately hatched to revive both franchises as stand-alone programs. MG-HS was the last time that Hollywood Squares would air on NBC (as well as any major network), but by 1986, a successful syndicated revival of Hollywood Squares would reach the airwaves, with John Davidson as host. This revival lasted three years. A further revival, hosted by Tom Bergeron, aired in syndication from 1998 to 2004.

However, this was the last time Gene Rayburn would host any form of Match Game; yet it, too, was slated for a revival in 1985 with Rayburn as host. However, an Entertainment Tonight reporter released a report around this time of Rayburn's actual age, which was near 70. At this time, it was believed that Rayburn was too old for the job, and the plans were scrapped. Rayburn would only go on to host two more game shows, Break the Bank, from which he was fired after 13 weeks, after which he went largely into retirement. and a short-lived game called "Movie Masters" for AMC in 1990. Match Game would not return to the airwaves until a short-lived revival on ABC in 1990, with Ross Shafer as host. Match Game was again revived in 1998, hosted by Michael Burger. It too lasted only one season.

All episodes of the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour are believed to be intact; however, aside from a few bootleg clips on YouTube, they have not seen the light of day since the original airing. The most frequently cited reason for this is the issue of rights. Match Game (a Goodson-Todman production, bought out by FremantleMedia in 1994) and Hollywood Squares (a Heatter-Quigley production, acquired by Orion Television in 1983, Orion bought by MGM in 1998) had different producers and each series's rights are held by a different company: Match Game is held by Fremantle, whereas the format rights to Hollywood Squares is held by CBS Television Distribution.

Another possible reason that the episodes have not been seen is a presumed veto by the late Gene Rayburn. Rayburn, according to Gene Wood, had to be dragged back to the Match Game portion of the show "kicking and screaming" ([1]), and he reportedly had feuds with the production staff, specifically over Hollywood Squares host Jon Bauman.

• Match Game
• Hollywood Squares

• Game Show Galaxy: Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour
• Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour on the Match Game Homepage
• Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour at ClassicSquares.com