Match Game '90 - The Lawrence/Shafer Debacle

[maleficentdiva]

LOVE VICKI LAWRENCE! FIERY REDHEAD!!!! I AM ALSO ONE MYSELF, DON'T MESS WITH US REDHEADS  WE WILL CUT YOU!!!!

[larrydh57]

gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarate!

[DDRBoi2002]

Only Charles could break that kind of tension

[Skorpio420]

Ross Shafer should have NEVER left Seattle

[The096757]

what a waste for vicki; she should have kept making episodes of mamas family until the mid 1990s. it was a very popular show.

[winddragon04]

memo to self....Vicki needs to host a game show either squares, pyramid , or match game...LMAO

[Pyrotech56]

Absolute best line was at 1:27 "Hey Vicki! Take a look at this side!" HAHAHAHA!!!

[LtSeth242]

Lmfao, "F*ck off Ross"! that made my day! 

[646guy]

Okay how much of this was real and how much was a continual rolling joke for the rst of the week...given some of her venom I hedge on the former rather than the latter...

[LtSeth242]

@646guy part of me agrees with you. i mean the very beginning of the week makes me think it's staged, but then with how low they go with each other, it makes sense that it could be 100% real. but yeah, i agree with you, it could have just been written. but then think about it, the audience gets switched out every taped episode, so it makes only perfect sense that it's totally 100% real

[divagirlreba]

I love Vicki Lawrence! an I would love to meet her someday that would be awesome.

Anybody have this whole episode?

[smittykins]

I remember watching this. Vicki eventually gives Ross his tie back...duct-taped together.

[tucsonia]

Face it, even with Charles on the panel the successor MG incarnations just couldn't match the chemistry of Gene and Bret and Richard and Charles, not just for that particular magical alchemy but because it was the Seventies! That sensibility just doesn't work in the increasingly grim new millenium.

[gymnastix]

@tucsonia I have actually read somewhere that the "chemistry" (as you call it) between Richard Dawson and Gene Rayburn wasn't all that good. From years of observing both men on TV, and what I've read, Rayburn was always fun and a gentleman, while Dawson could be a pr++k.

I read Dawson was not universally liked even among the crew on his own game show, "Family Feud."

I could see that Dawson and Rayburn could have had conflicting egos. But both men made for charming game show hosts.

[gymnastix]

@tucsonia But, no question, Rayburn, Reilly and Summers were a happy threesome. They used to refer, on the show, to some escapades in Encino. Do you recall? I think the trio may have had drinking soirees there, either in between shoots of the show, following, or some such. I'd like to know more details of that.

[gymnastix]

@tucsonia I think Brett and Charles were thick as thieves, though. After all, every fag needs a good hag. (That's a '70s-type remark that probably won't work in this "grim" era, as you said. Let's see how many of the LGBT "community" send me hate mail for that one.) But, just for the record, I'm one of those who has been provided "hagging."

[jsrosa1282]

That Bill guy on the upper left is Bill Kirchenbauer, the dad from Just the Ten of Us.

[tucsonia]

@jsrosa1282 I'm glad you cleared that up but again I would have to ask you: WHO?

[jsrosa1282]

@tucsonia Tucsonia, you've never watched Just the Ten of Us? It was a spinoff of the popular sitcom Growing Pains and it was perhaps best-known for three things: 1) Bill Kirchenbauer, who played Coach Lubbock; 2) Being part of the original TGIF lineup; and 3) Being the show where Jamie Luner started her career. JTTOU does have a devoted cult following, even though it never achieved high ratings during its original run. And Kirchenbauer is still a popular stand-up comic.

[iwtricapecod]

Ross is such a shit!!

[gameshowluvr86]

LOL...

[KidsTVCentral]

Judy Landers, future Huggabug Club Star.

[tonshaad1230]

The only Original Match Game from the 1970's was Charles Neilson Riley.

[gymnastix]

@tonshaad1230 Actually, the original "Match Game" was titled "The Match Game," aired from New York on NBC, and was also hosted by Gene Rayburn.

But no "dumb Doras" or "Old Man Periwinkles" on that one--usually "John and Mary," or "John and Marsha."

The "blank" was the only consistency.

Instead of two vertical tiers of three celebrity contestants facing two guest players, there were two horizontal tiers, each with two celebrites and a guest player on the 1960s version of the show.

[tonshaad1230]

@gymnastix

Yeah I know some uneducated family member was on the computer some years back when that comment was made. I apologize for their ignornance.

[gameshowluvr86]

"I've never been treated this badly... not even by Dick Clark!" (Out-of-context Pyramid reference). "...and he was very famous!"

LOL! P'wned... XD

[angeloflove]

i love vicki's expression at 3:30 classic it's like she is saying "just shut the hell up ross!"

[angeloflove]

does she say piss off ross or something else

[gameshowluvr86]

I thought she said "f*** off, Ross..." XD

[angeloflove]

oh! man vicki is a fire ball

[angeloflove]

VICKI IS MY NEW HERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gameshowluvr86]

@angeloflove She-ro... LOL!

[mjg443]

question. where is gene? he makes the magic happen.

[smashwhammy]

On his deathbead

[pem1974]

@mjg443 The network decided (in all their "wisdom") that Gene was too old (BOO!!)

...although I thought Ross did a pretty good job!

[gymnastix]

@pem1974 I agree with you on both counts. Gene would still have made a good emcee. But Shafer was quite a good substitute, even somewhat resemblked Rayburn, had the same body type, was congenial enough (apart from this unfortunate week with Vicki Lawrence).

[gymnastix]

@gymnastix That was supposed to read "resembled (not 'resemblked') Rayburn," and was a typo, not a misspelling.

[gymnastix]

@pem1974 I thought I read somewhere that Lawrence had difficulties with some or someone on "The Carol Burnett Show." On later filmings/tapings of those infomercials plugging Burnett's show, Lawrence was a no-show, only Tim Conway and Harvey Kornman (until the latter's death).

Could it be that Lawrence and Burnett herself were feuding divas? Or perhaps the spat was between Lawrence and Korman? I just don't see anyone being angry with Conway.

Do you know of anything about that situation?

[gymnastix]

@pem1974 Although, to be fair, I saw some video of Lawrence arriving at LAX airport, sometime in the last few years, being followed by paparazzi, and she was as nice as could be to them, chatting about the weather as she waited for her bags to come out of the carousel. No entourage, no fans, just Vicki by her lonesome.

And if anything would bring out a "bitch quotient," being stalked by the media could do it.

[gameshowluvr86]

"Vicki's urgent, pleading phone calls to Pat Sajak and Alex Trebek..." LOL loved it.... Plus, oddly enough, Vicki appeared on Super Password in 1985 with Pat Sajak as the other guest, and played as Mama Harper as a contestant on Jeopardy!, during an episode of Mama's Family from late 1987. :-)

[jhecht424]

ROFL @ 3:37. You don't mess with Vicki!

[gamshwfan]

That was pretty cool there. Vicki and Ross seemed to have a comedic debacle that wasn't really personal but was in the spirit of entertainment; that's what Match Game is all about. Gene may have had a few things to say about vicki but didn't uproar into a scene like this. The best part was the swear word that came out of Vicki; it was funny since that was rare... unlike what would come out of her mouth 7 years later. This was good chemistry here; worth yof 4 stars since it wasn't good chemistry.

[gameshowluvr86]

Vicki Lawrence is the quintessential game show prima donna!!

[SuperGamer7]

We know, but she can play, too!

[gymnastix]

@gamshwfan Is Lawrence known for being "difficult?" What happened "seven years later?" I'd like to know, because I heard or read Lawrence had some situation, possibly even while on the Burnett show.

[gameshowluvr86]

3:13-3:17, Arte Johnson is annoying the hell out of me....

[bhamdodger]

Ross spells his last name Shafer.

[vnisanian2001]

Judy Landers is as incredibly attractive as her older sister Audrey.

[megamanj2004X]

and speaking of Audrey, when she appeared on MG '90, she was working on "One Life to Live" as Charlotte Hesser.

[gameshowluvr86]

I'd date 'em both... ;)