Match Game

CBS revived the show on July 2, 1973, as Match Game '73 (the number changed to match the current year). After CBS canceled the show on April 20, 1979, the show found new life in daily syndication, where it ran until 1982 as Match Game (without the year). A weekly syndicated version, Match Game PM, also ran from 1975 to 1981.

Match Game was revived on October 31, 1983, as part of NBC's Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour; that version ended on July 27, 1984. Two unsuccessful revivals were attempted in the 1990s: from July 16, 1990, to July 12, 1991, on ABC, and during the 1998-99 season in syndication.

Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers were regular celebrity panelists through most of the 1973-82 version's run; Richard Dawson was also a regular from 1973 through 1978. Other frequent panelists from this era included Joyce Bulifant, Bill Daily, Patti Deutsch, Fannie Flagg, Nipsey Russell, Marcia Wallace, and Betty White.

In the first round, the challenger chose one of two questions, which the host posed to the celebrity panel. (A typical question was something like: "He's so dumb... (Audience: "How dumb is he?") ...he thought his teacher was a _____.") The celebrities wrote their answers down on index cards; after all of them were finished, the contestant gave his or her answer, and the host asked each celebrity for his or her answer. The contestant earned one point for each match, up to a total of six points for matching everyone on the panel. After that the returning champion was given the other question and followed the same procedures.

In the second round, whoever was leading the game got to choose a question first. Only the celebrities who did not match that contestant in the first round played. A third round was played on Match Game PM after its first season; again, the only celebrities who played were those who did not match that contestant in previous rounds. Tiebreaker rounds -- during which the scores were reset to 0-0 -- were played if the game was tied after the last round.

Two Audience Matches were played on Match Game PM.

The Audience Match became the basis for another game show from the Match Game production team of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman -- Family Feud. Match Game regular Richard Dawson was chosen to host that show.

Richard Dawson was the most frequently chosen celebrity in the 1970s version, so much so that in 1978 the "Star Wheel" was introduced; contestants spun the wheel to determine which celebrity they played with. They could double their potential winnings if the spin ended on one of the stars on the wheel ($10,000 was the top prize in the daytime version; with the two audience matches on Match Game PM, a jackpot of up to $20,000 was possible there).