H/H match update and preview of the week ahead: ... This is the first day of week 192 of our favorite classic game show (the final week is number 291, so we're much closer to the end now than the beginning). These episodes were taped on April 3, 1977, and originally aired on April 29th and early May of 1977. This is another great week with a panel of old friends and familiar faces! Our stalwart regulars are joined by: ~~~Semi-regular Fannie Flagg returns after seven weeks away for her 56th week of 90. She'll have a chance to break that three-way tie with Charles and Betty! ~~~Ethel Merman is back for her fourth week (of 5 total). She last visited in episodes 776-780, so it's been a while. Ethel has never been called on to play the H/H. ~~~Last but not least, Don Sutton joins the panel for his second (of 4) weeks. He made his debut back in episodes 846-850, and, like the majority of celebrities recently, Don has never been chosen for the head-to-head either. King Richard played six out of seven H/H questions last week, so his reign continues... Reviewing the past 47 weeks, Richard has played 200 times. Everyone else combined played 36 times. (Charles had 13 opportunities, Brett 10, Fannie 6, Betty 3, Lynn Deerfield 1, Gary Burghoff 1, Rosemary Forsyth 1, and Nipsey Russell 1.) Percentage-wise, Richard has answered an astounding *84.7%* of all the H/H questions these past 47 weeks. Last week we got to see long-time fill-in panelist Nipsey Russell have a shot at the H/H. Although he didn't match, it was nice to see someone other than Richard sweat it out on the hot seat. If I had my druthers, I'd see at least two celebs beside Richard have a chance to play each week. The week of episodes 851-855 is a perfect example of how fun and exciting the head-to-head match could be, with four different celebs all scoring matches that week! - Betty 1/2, Richard 1/2, Charles 1/2, Brett 1/1. More weeks like that, please! No matter how the H/H goes this week, it's still a lot of fun to spend a few minutes with these crazy loonies back in 1977! ~~~Today's action: Our champion needs to match both Don and Brett just to achieve a tie. But it was not to be. Brett plays the "villainess" today, sending our champion spinning off after five games and $8,000 in winnings. Today's audience match question: "Pace ________" (My thoughts: Maker, car, picante sauce) The celebs: Fannie (Maker), Richard (Setter), Charles (Yourself) The choice: Maker The answers: Back and Forth, Setter, Maker Our new champ gets off to a good start. Now, who will he choose for the chance to win $5,000? He did choose Fannie for the first suggestion and said that her answer was the first thing he'd thought of too, so perhaps they're on the same wavelength? But I wouldn't write off Richard. After all, he has been chosen almost 85% of the time over the past 11 months or so... He does choose Fannie! Fannie has matched 13 of 26 total H/H questions (50.0%) so far. She last played (and matched) way back in episode 798. Whatever the result, this will break the three-way tie with Betty and Charles... For the sake of comparison: Charles has matched 33 of his 66 attempts (50.0%), Richard has matched 259 of his 618 attempts (41.9%), and Brett has matched 28 of her 68 attempts (41.2%). (The remaining two panelists have never played a H/H question.) Today's H/H question: "Bye bye________ " (I'll say "Birdie" because what else is there? Maybe Bye Bye Miss American Pie which Don McLean recorded and released in 1971.) The contestant looks elated at having gotten such an easy question. In fact, he's chomping at the bit to give Gene his answer, even as Fannie is still writing. And wow, she's still writing! It looks like a hugely long answer (or else she switched cards at some point and I didn't see it). The contestant gives the predicted answer to an enthusiastic round of audience applause. Fannie looks contrite. Fannie seems downright embarrassed as she reveals her response: "Blackbird." - ("Bye Bye Blackbird" is a jazz song first published in 1926. Peggy Lee sang it in the 1955 movie musical "Pete Kelly's Blues.") No match today. ~~~Here's our updated leader board showing the 11 celebs with at least 3 H/H matches, ranked by accuracy: (Note: An asterisk before a celebrity's name signifies that she has "retired" from the show and her H/H stats are now complete.) (Note: For tied scores, I consider the one with the greater number of matches to be higher; if the matches are equal, the celeb who first achieved that score goes on top.) Orson Bean - 100% (4 wins in 4 attempts). TIE: (*)Jo Anne Worley - 75% (3 wins in 4 attempts). TIE: Joyce Bulifant - 75% (3 wins in 4 attempts). Gary Burghoff - 71.4% (5 wins in 7 attempts). TIE: Charles - 50.0% (33 wins in 66 attempts). TIE: Betty - 50.0% (19 wins in 38 attempts). Fannie - 48.1% (13 wins in 27 attempts). Jo Ann Pflug - 44.4% (8 wins in 18 attempts). Richard - 41.9% (259 wins in 618 attempts). Brett - 41.2% (28 wins in 68 attempts). Bert Convy - 33.3% (5 wins in 15 attempts). *These stats include every head-to-head match from episode 1 through 956, excluding the lost/missing/damaged episodes: 31, 32, 33, 311, 312, 313, 324, 325, 645, and 910. (As per MatchGameProductions, these episodes "are nowhere to be found and also aren't in the Goodson/Todman Library. Sadly, looks like they are lost forever!") -- Also, note that episode 849 was never produced.
Ethel Merman was on a 2 part episode of The Lucy Show she was just marvelous in it I love Ethel n Lucy n with Vivian Vance n Gale Gordon it was really fantastic
I've been watching these episodes of match game for the past four years straight. Sometimes five and six episodes a day. Every single day. I'm just now finally starting to get to where they play reruns.
I've been going through a lot of them lately myself. I try to watch a handful every day. I am in '77 right now. Prob will stop after that and go back to '75 to get yr. Started in '76, but not in the beginning.
Ethel Merman was always the Number One Broadway Diva since Girl Crazy and will be always....yes..she continues to get deserved fame... she still thrills her with her talent and passion.. no one like her!
Bye Bye Birdie -- saw it at the movie theater when it came out. Lovely Ann Margaret on the big screen!! A very fun movie and one of my favorites. Didn't Dick Gautier play Conrad on stage?
Don Sutton eventually went to the Hall of Fame and did play for a World Series team although briefly he pitched a handful of game with The 1988 LA Dodgers before getting released. They waited on putting him in the Hall of Fame because there was speculation he scuffed the ball while pitching.
I honestly never heard that rumor before. What I've heard is that they didn't put him in right away was that he just pitched a long time and that's how he got the stats. And that he was a good pitcher, but not a great one. He did get in on his 5th try which isn't too bad. And Gaylord Perry got in on his third try and he def scuffed the ball. I don't believe for a sec they were keeping Sutton because of that.
I fry with oil and cook with water. Or is it different in the USA? But you may also use the word "cook" for "prepare" in the english language. I'm german.
Brett was very much a veteran player by this point, and knew she needed 2 to tie. Why not make sure they both had the same answer atleast. She sure looked at Don's answer
I've often wondered about this aspect of game play, and in fact I've posted about it before: If a player needs to match everyone to stay in the game, do you, as a celebrity panelist, look at your colleagues' answers to try to agree on an answer to give the contestant a fighting chance (knowing that if you give different answers, the player is doomed). The flip side is, if the player only needs one to tie, wouldn't it be strategic to choose a different answer from your neighbor's (say if there are two or three decent answers to a question) in order to give the contestant a better chance of scoring that one match? I frankly think the stars didn't really consider this a whole lot. They put the answer they thought was funny or would match or whatever. The contestants came and went so fast, and in the long run it didn't really matter much (to the stars) if any given contestant stayed an extra game or not. At its heart, the program was more of a party than a true game show. Anyway, in this case, Brett filed her answer before looking at Don's card. I don't think the contestant should be too unhappy: she got two of the easiest H/H questions in Match Game history ("Neck ______" five seconds after Gene commented on Richard's Match Game necktie and Richard talked about it; and then "C.I. _____"). She did go home with $8,000 and that was pretty good for 1977...
Good to see Fanny back, she's a gorgeous gal😍.. Leave it to Brett to mess it up for Lillian... I thought of pace car To be a single mother and announce it back then , kinda surprised the show put her on. It would have been hilarious to have had Fanny, Betty and Joyce on at the same time.
I really can't believe nobody answered surrendered or retreated for the horrible Hank question, unbelievable. Birdy or 💘 was all I could come up with for the bye bye clue
Well, they've had quite a few women on the show before who have mentioned only just their children and NOT their husbands, leading me to believe that they were single mothers; however, they never actually referred to themselves as "single mothers" when introducing themselves, so she may have been the 1st/only 1 to do that... 🤷♀️
Glowan-Long, round 1, question B: "Fellow's a weapon of mass destruction all by himself; they all DROPPED DEAD." (Bzzt!) Question A: "Falling in love with a PURSE snatcher: that's just like Lorraine." (Ding!) Round 2, question B: "Well, he couldn't cook it or fry it until he'd DECAPITATED it, now could he?" (Bzzt!) Question A: (lay out) Super Match, part 1: (if asked before Fannie) MAKER (if asked after Fannie) PICANTE SAUCE Part 2: BIRDIE Long-Van Gorder, round 1, question A: "I won't say where the rest of him wound up, but his head was in THE EAST RIVER." (Bzzt!)
When you look at the actual results of every head-to-head match from day one to today, Fannie actually has a higher matching rate than Richard. Counting today's loss, Fannie has matched 48.1% of all her head-to-head questions. Richard has matched 41.9% of all of his. (Full stats are in my separate post.)
RIP Don, that ascending comment was awesome
Just what I love about this show, I was having a bad day and this episode made the laughs outnumber the tears ✌❤
Yes, I go to this show for a little escape from this horrible time. 🙂
I agree; Match Game has that unique comedy aspect that appeals to all!😀❤️👏
Agree
H/H match update and preview of the week ahead:
...
This is the first day of week 192 of our favorite classic game show (the final week is number 291, so we're much closer to the end now than the beginning). These episodes were taped on April 3, 1977, and originally aired on April 29th and early May of 1977.
This is another great week with a panel of old friends and familiar faces! Our stalwart regulars are joined by:
~~~Semi-regular Fannie Flagg returns after seven weeks away for her 56th week of 90. She'll have a chance to break that three-way tie with Charles and Betty!
~~~Ethel Merman is back for her fourth week (of 5 total). She last visited in episodes 776-780, so it's been a while. Ethel has never been called on to play the H/H.
~~~Last but not least, Don Sutton joins the panel for his second (of 4) weeks. He made his debut back in episodes 846-850, and, like the majority of celebrities recently, Don has never been chosen for the head-to-head either.
King Richard played six out of seven H/H questions last week, so his reign continues...
Reviewing the past 47 weeks, Richard has played 200 times. Everyone else combined played 36 times. (Charles had 13 opportunities, Brett 10, Fannie 6, Betty 3, Lynn Deerfield 1, Gary Burghoff 1, Rosemary Forsyth 1, and Nipsey Russell 1.) Percentage-wise, Richard has answered an astounding *84.7%* of all the H/H questions these past 47 weeks.
Last week we got to see long-time fill-in panelist Nipsey Russell have a shot at the H/H. Although he didn't match, it was nice to see someone other than Richard sweat it out on the hot seat. If I had my druthers, I'd see at least two celebs beside Richard have a chance to play each week. The week of episodes 851-855 is a perfect example of how fun and exciting the head-to-head match could be, with four different celebs all scoring matches that week! - Betty 1/2, Richard 1/2, Charles 1/2, Brett 1/1. More weeks like that, please!
No matter how the H/H goes this week, it's still a lot of fun to spend a few minutes with these crazy loonies back in 1977!
~~~Today's action:
Our champion needs to match both Don and Brett just to achieve a tie. But it was not to be. Brett plays the "villainess" today, sending our champion spinning off after five games and $8,000 in winnings.
Today's audience match question: "Pace ________" (My thoughts: Maker, car, picante sauce)
The celebs: Fannie (Maker), Richard (Setter), Charles (Yourself)
The choice: Maker
The answers: Back and Forth, Setter, Maker
Our new champ gets off to a good start. Now, who will he choose for the chance to win $5,000? He did choose Fannie for the first suggestion and said that her answer was the first thing he'd thought of too, so perhaps they're on the same wavelength? But I wouldn't write off Richard. After all, he has been chosen almost 85% of the time over the past 11 months or so...
He does choose Fannie! Fannie has matched 13 of 26 total H/H questions (50.0%) so far. She last played (and matched) way back in episode 798. Whatever the result, this will break the three-way tie with Betty and Charles...
For the sake of comparison: Charles has matched 33 of his 66 attempts (50.0%), Richard has matched 259 of his 618 attempts (41.9%), and Brett has matched 28 of her 68 attempts (41.2%). (The remaining two panelists have never played a H/H question.)
Today's H/H question: "Bye bye________ "
(I'll say "Birdie" because what else is there? Maybe Bye Bye Miss American Pie which Don McLean recorded and released in 1971.)
The contestant looks elated at having gotten such an easy question. In fact, he's chomping at the bit to give Gene his answer, even as Fannie is still writing. And wow, she's still writing! It looks like a hugely long answer (or else she switched cards at some point and I didn't see it).
The contestant gives the predicted answer to an enthusiastic round of audience applause. Fannie looks contrite.
Fannie seems downright embarrassed as she reveals her response: "Blackbird." - ("Bye Bye Blackbird" is a jazz song first published in 1926. Peggy Lee sang it in the 1955 movie musical "Pete Kelly's Blues.")
No match today.
~~~Here's our updated leader board showing the 11 celebs with at least 3 H/H matches, ranked by accuracy:
(Note: An asterisk before a celebrity's name signifies that she has "retired" from the show and her H/H stats are now complete.)
(Note: For tied scores, I consider the one with the greater number of matches to be higher; if the matches are equal, the celeb who first achieved that score goes on top.)
Orson Bean - 100% (4 wins in 4 attempts).
TIE: (*)Jo Anne Worley - 75% (3 wins in 4 attempts).
TIE: Joyce Bulifant - 75% (3 wins in 4 attempts).
Gary Burghoff - 71.4% (5 wins in 7 attempts).
TIE: Charles - 50.0% (33 wins in 66 attempts).
TIE: Betty - 50.0% (19 wins in 38 attempts).
Fannie - 48.1% (13 wins in 27 attempts).
Jo Ann Pflug - 44.4% (8 wins in 18 attempts).
Richard - 41.9% (259 wins in 618 attempts).
Brett - 41.2% (28 wins in 68 attempts).
Bert Convy - 33.3% (5 wins in 15 attempts).
*These stats include every head-to-head match from episode 1 through 956, excluding the lost/missing/damaged episodes: 31, 32, 33, 311, 312, 313, 324, 325, 645, and 910. (As per MatchGameProductions, these episodes "are nowhere to be found and also aren't in the Goodson/Todman Library. Sadly, looks like they are lost forever!") -- Also, note that episode 849 was never produced.
On the body feature question my first thought was "they picked my nose"
Me too.
RIP Don Sutton. Hall of Famer and does a great job on these shows!
R.I.P. Don Sutton
When did Don Sutton die ?
Beautiful Bob Long . I hope he had more kids.
Ethel Merman was on a 2 part episode of The Lucy Show she was just marvelous in it I love Ethel n Lucy n with Vivian Vance n Gale Gordon it was really fantastic
Today Commemorates Gene Rayburn's 100th Birthday
I've been watching these episodes of match game for the past four years straight. Sometimes five and six episodes a day. Every single day. I'm just now finally starting to get to where they play reruns.
Wow. There must be thousands.
I'm still on my first go round and enjoy them immensely. In episode order.
@@pencils812Between all 3 runs, CBS, PM and syndication, there woulda been about 2200 episodes. CBS had just over 1,450, PM 230 and syndication 525.
I've been going through a lot of them lately myself. I try to watch a handful every day. I am in '77 right now. Prob will stop after that and go back to '75 to get yr. Started in '76, but not in the beginning.
Gene and Charles both played Dick Van Dyke's character (Albert Peterson) in "Bye Bye Birdie" when Van Dyke was away.
maynardsmoreland interesting! I would have guessed Ethel was one of them!
Paul Lynde also took a turn in Bye Bye Birdie. It was a very BUTCH production!
Ethel Merman was always the Number One Broadway Diva since Girl Crazy and will be always....yes..she continues to get deserved fame... she still thrills her with her talent and passion.. no one like her!
Typical Brett 😡🤨
What a star! Ethel was Mrs. Marcus in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”; the role of a lifetime!😂😂
She sure was ! I played Ethel as Annie get your gun on a Broadway play I absolutely loved my wig I looked just like Ethel with my make up
@dakotalovett2450 loved Ethel in that movie love you Ethel
Bye Bye Birdie -- saw it at the movie theater when it came out. Lovely Ann Margaret on the big screen!! A very fun movie and one of my favorites. Didn't Dick Gautier play Conrad on stage?
Yes, he was the original Conrad Birdie.
Didn’t know that
Dang in 1977 l was 19 years old. Love this show. I watched as much as I could back then. I love Brett she truly funny and silly 🤣❤
I, too, was 19 in '77!
I'm in shock; Ethel Merman was on Match Game? How fab was that? And, she was funny! Love it.
She was on several times.
The bigtime
I would've said pace MAKER as well. But I did also think of pace CAR.
Amazing that it didn't make the survey AND no one thought of it!!
@MatchGameProductions There were so many great episodes. I don't remember one I didn't like.
Don Sutton eventually went to the Hall of Fame and did play for a World Series team although briefly he pitched a handful of game with The 1988 LA Dodgers before getting released. They waited on putting him in the Hall of Fame because there was speculation he scuffed the ball while pitching.
I honestly never heard that rumor before. What I've heard is that they didn't put him in right away was that he just pitched a long time and that's how he got the stats. And that he was a good pitcher, but not a great one. He did get in on his 5th try which isn't too bad. And Gaylord Perry got in on his third try and he def scuffed the ball. I don't believe for a sec they were keeping Sutton because of that.
On this date in 1990, the tv show Saturday Night Live episode with Gene Rayburn aired.
He was on it?
When you fry chicken, you’re cooking it.
I fry with oil and cook with water. Or is it different in the USA? But you may also use the word "cook" for "prepare" in the english language. I'm german.
Bob and Fannie have the same hairdo....😁
Bob’s hair looks very healthy
Bye bye blackbird is what I thought of, as well. Never heard of Gene's choice.
Did Bob Long become Jeff Foxworthy?
Not even close.
I've seen this episode multiple times on GSN.
Brett was very much a veteran player by this point, and knew she needed 2 to tie.
Why not make sure they both had the same answer atleast. She sure looked at Don's answer
I've often wondered about this aspect of game play, and in fact I've posted about it before: If a player needs to match everyone to stay in the game, do you, as a celebrity panelist, look at your colleagues' answers to try to agree on an answer to give the contestant a fighting chance (knowing that if you give different answers, the player is doomed). The flip side is, if the player only needs one to tie, wouldn't it be strategic to choose a different answer from your neighbor's (say if there are two or three decent answers to a question) in order to give the contestant a better chance of scoring that one match?
I frankly think the stars didn't really consider this a whole lot. They put the answer they thought was funny or would match or whatever. The contestants came and went so fast, and in the long run it didn't really matter much (to the stars) if any given contestant stayed an extra game or not. At its heart, the program was more of a party than a true game show.
Anyway, in this case, Brett filed her answer before looking at Don's card. I don't think the contestant should be too unhappy: she got two of the easiest H/H questions in Match Game history ("Neck ______" five seconds after Gene commented on Richard's Match Game necktie and Richard talked about it; and then "C.I. _____"). She did go home with $8,000 and that was pretty good for 1977...
@@kevansf CIA had to be one of easiest matches in the show's history. They were trying to give away the money there. There was no other answer.
I can't believe Fannie missed that. I thought Bye Bye Birdie was a sure thing. I guess I was wrong.
I love you too Fannie
Poor Fannie got up for a thankyou and he didn't even acknowledge her☹️😔😪. Serves him right🤭
I agree.
I didn't think much of it. I did see her get up. I think it's a bit silly to do it for the first part. Second part yes. First part is optional to me.
Oooo
Good to see Fanny back, she's a gorgeous gal😍.. Leave it to Brett to mess it up for Lillian... I thought of pace car
To be a single mother and announce it back then , kinda surprised the show put her on.
It would have been hilarious to have had Fanny, Betty and Joyce on at the same time.
I really can't believe nobody answered surrendered or retreated for the horrible Hank question, unbelievable. Birdy or 💘 was all I could come up with for the bye bye clue
Ass-ending order. I'm surprised the censor wasn't miffed. lol
I absolutely love Ethel Merman she was a gem I absolutely love her hair I style my hair like Ethel maybe when I die I will re incarded as Ethel Merman
Why does Bob look like Dave Chapelle in White Face
Is Tina the first single mother on the show? I can't think of another one.
I think so.
Well, they've had quite a few women on the show before who have mentioned only just their children and NOT their husbands, leading me to believe that they were single mothers; however, they never actually referred to themselves as "single mothers" when introducing themselves, so she may have been the 1st/only 1 to do that... 🤷♀️
@@laurenewittmer2511 she could be a widow
Bye bye black bird...WT fudge. I thought of Birdie or baby, fanny really dropped the ball on that easy one.
Bob Long? More like David Spade. Of course David would have been 13 at the time, but dayum, he even sounds like him.
Glowan-Long, round 1, question B: "Fellow's a weapon of mass destruction all by himself; they all DROPPED DEAD." (Bzzt!)
Question A: "Falling in love with a PURSE snatcher: that's just like Lorraine." (Ding!)
Round 2, question B: "Well, he couldn't cook it or fry it until he'd DECAPITATED it, now could he?" (Bzzt!)
Question A: (lay out)
Super Match, part 1: (if asked before Fannie) MAKER
(if asked after Fannie) PICANTE SAUCE
Part 2: BIRDIE
Long-Van Gorder, round 1, question A: "I won't say where the rest of him wound up, but his head was in THE EAST RIVER." (Bzzt!)
He was an Idiot for NOT kissing Fanny with that 1st match
They matched purse and money again. They did it a few episodes back and people complained.
In racing, the prize money is called a "purse."
Guessing again I see
@@RaineStudio That us true
So THAT"S who Don Sutton was.
Bob Long's not wearing a belt! And his tie barely reaches his waistband!
Oooo
If Ethel would have said, "Fried", that would have matched cooked because you can't fry something without cooking it.
Do I detect at least a right nip on Fanny? Hot
Fanny....what a ...fanny
She blew it for that guy.
In what year did this air?
1977... Hence, the title: "Match Game '77"... 🙃
@@laurenewittmer2511 OK, terrific. But what year did this take place? Wonder Woman 1984 wasn't filmed in 1984.
I would have said Pace Arrow or Pace Maker.
Never pick Fannie for the big money. She couldn't even screw it up with a good wrong answer, like "Bye, bye love." Ah, well. She was a lovely person.
Come on now that's a bit harsh. Fannie has matched before and will match again. Richard isn't always right either.
Since Bob picked Fannie in the Super Match (which he did win $500) he had the right to pick Fannie in the head to head allso.
When you look at the actual results of every head-to-head match from day one to today, Fannie actually has a higher matching rate than Richard. Counting today's loss, Fannie has matched 48.1% of all her head-to-head questions. Richard has matched 41.9% of all of his. (Full stats are in my separate post.)
@@kevansf Sure!
YAAAAAY he didn't pick saint Richard.
Although Fannie ruined the whole thing 😥(I could see her doing that in the game, but not in the SUPERMATCH!
Fanny was deliberately stupid here!! NO way in heck she didn't think of bye bye birdie!! Rest of the show was great, comical and fun, Fanny ruined it.
That was done on purpose.
In my opinion Fannie did not ruin the head to head answer, because she even admitted she did not think of Bye Bye Birdie
I do not think she tanked it. I just don't. She's not vindictive like that.
Bob got robbed!
Umm, that would be difficult since he won
And yet Bob still won
Has anyone seen the episode that Betty is talking about at the end of the video at 2:50?
ua-cam.com/video/bEZkCnTKGW4/v-deo.html
First