Jayne Mansfield was adorable. Here we see her on NBC in New York City during July 1964. Thirty-five years later, her lovely daughter would have her own "New York experience" on NBC as one of the stars of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit": the Emmy-winning Mariska Hargitay.
We'll never see these episodes on GSN again! At least, not anytime soon. Thanks for uploading them! The '60s version is so different. And, having seen only one episode of this version (the pilot included in the "Best of" DVD set), it's confusing. I do like the theme for the '60s version much better, though. :)
Notable here is Jayne Mansfield, for those who don't know is the mother of Mariska Hargitay, whom since 1999 has been starring as Olivia Benson on "Law & Order" spinoff "Special Victims Unit."
Obviously, this is a lot more "civil" as opposed to the more famous '70s version, but even then, the '70s version (actually 1973-'82, including the syndication run after it left CBS in 1979) didn't become what it would right away either. This version ran on NBC from 1963-'69 (actually started 12/31/'62).
Some of you may not know except a few of us that yesturday on the date of November 22nd ,2010 our long time and the greatest Emcee Gene Rayburn passed away in 1999 of heart failure at the age of 81 ,and weren't born back in the early 1960's as I was . I was probably around the age of 5 or 6 years ,and NBC's Original Match Game & A Swingin Safari was & still is my child hood memory ,and watched it on B&W RCA TV . Gene Rayburn I will never forget you .
@unclesporkums Jayne Mansfield probably would have, at least in the early years. You had a lot of big-name stars appearing on shows back then, so it would not have been out of place, at least until the late '70s for someone like her to have done that.
This clip really evokes memories. The original version of The Match Game. I watched it on weekday afternoons in the mid-60's. I've been a Jayne Mansfield fan all my life, and she looks adorable here. What's she doing with the dog, though? Jayne, and Orson Bean met in the 50's, while performing on Broadway in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?"
I read somewhere that the reason Jayne is wearing that ugly coat is that she showed up for the show in a typically revealing Jayne Mansfield dress and the censors wouldn't let her go on without the coat. Amazing that she is Mariska Hargitay's mom!
Sadly, this episode, the pilot, and an all-celebrity special episode are all that are known to remain, No color videotapes are known to exist (unless some are gathering dust in an affiliate storage facility). It's especially a shame that none of the 1965-1969 seasons exist. Some of those double-entendre "blanks" entered the scene and the show really became spontaneously hilarious, with Gene as the ringleader. A Score Productions theme replaced "Swingin' Safari" in late 1968.
@Noveltooner A color episode (on VT) with Tony Randall and Peggy Cass from May 1969 (with the new theme) exists at the Paley Center for the Media - Museum of TV and Radio it used to be. I've seen it and they play a phone game with someone at home.
Most of the tapes were wiped and re-used for the original "Sale of the Century" with Jack Kelly (later Joe Garagiola) with was also later wiped from history. Almost all of New York's era as THE nation's television and entertainment capital where it all began has been destroyed. Most of it left a dilapidated, crime-ridden NYC during the late 1960s and early 1970s for Los Angeles to join Dodgers that L.A. swiped from Brooklyn only a decade before.
Wow, what a blast from the past... this episode is almost as old as I am :)
Here's another trivia note: in 1962, when Mark Goodson was developing the show, one of the people he offered the job of host to was Mike Wallace, later of "60 Minutes" fame... at that time Wallace was more of a celebrity interviewer, but he turned down the "Match Game" gig in order to concentrate on hard news.
I heard the '60s version eventually became the comedy-filled version we knew from the '70s version which avoided an early cancellation; it's real cancellation wasn't a few years later.
I sure wish one of those 100 existing episodes is a comedy era ep.
This was a month before Jayne met the Beatles in Hollywood and went out with John Lennon to Ciro's.
Whenever I think of Orson Bean I think of the bird from "HR Pufnstuf" named Orson.
I remember seeing this show when I was a boy and thought that the close-ups of the celebrities sitting next to each other were shot in a split-screen. I never realized the desks were together.
Yes, it has been verified that only 12 episodes (Black and White Kiniscopes) are known to still exist. Most shows from the 50's-early 70's were destroyed because people did not see the marquee value in rerunning a show where people knew the outcome back in those days. The bulky tapes took up a lot of storage and were hard to maintain. According to Wikipedia, their are RUMORS of up to 100 episodes of the 1,700 that may still exist. But so far, only 12 exist from this 1962-1969 version.
Well well well. This looks like I going to have to judge this for what it is. The players seemed to be trying their best and as for Orson and Jayne; they had pretty good stories and reasons for their responses. Gene has offered a good link on the Nikita Krusevu (I _______ up the spelling I know). It was quick but exciting as we went along. Now lets see how they tackle that not so easy bonus round (Audience Match).
Did you see the flashing white square in the upper right at roughly 7:00? That was the cue that a commercial was coming. I remember that from various TV shows at the time.
To the person who said most of the episodes of Match Game were erased..you can't be sure of it. NBC has a reputation of being very stingy about releasing tapes that are in their archives. Yet they have allowed the old Peacock and other logos to be shown.
It's great to see an old Match Game after all these years. I watched the show as a kid; it's the first show I saw Giselle MacKenzie and heard Johnny Olson. It's really a completely different show than the later one with Charles and Brett but they're both enjoyable. Gene sounds as subdued as he used to on NBC Monitor in the same era.
To think Jayne Mansfield's dress was designed by Mr. Blackwell.
I disagree. We have been bombarded with the 70s version. That is unlikely to happen with this version though as only 11 of 1,760 episodes survive. I am also a fan of live tv and shows broadcast from New York City so I am biased. MG went out live every afternoon so not many were saved or at some point the tapes/kinescopes were destroyed.
Some of the later years of the NBC run of "The Match Game" may have been videotaped, but almost invariably networks re-used the then-expensive videotapes of their daytime programming in that era. So, for instance, episodes of "Concentration" (another New York-based game show) may have been taped over "Match Game" shows, etc.
I have read, for instance, the reason most of the ABC run of "Password" is non-existent is because the tapes were re-used for the early years of "Family Feud." Sad, sad practice. Understandable, but sad when one considers all that was lost.
But you are correct that the early years of "MG" were live, and thus that small supply of black & white kinescopes do exist.
Ironic, isn't it, that episodes of an earlier era are more likely to exist via kinescopes than a later era when videotape was used?
I absolutely agree with you! Don't get me wrong--I did & do enjoy the campy, more risque version of "Match Game" aired on CBS and in syndication in the 1970's and early '80's. But the NBC version based in New York was also a great show! And no question the original theme music--"Swingin' Safari"--was a much catchier tune.
Also, even though the updated "MG" used "Dumb Dora" and "Old Man Perriwinkle" as their de rigueur question names, as the original version evolved there was sometimes a risque subtext even with the frequently-used "John" and "Mary."
I also agree with you that the New York-based game shows were best, especially the Goodson-Todman panel shows and the Hugh Downs-Bob Clayton version of "Concentration'(with a live organist). That's when game shows were really in their prime!
As for this poster's comment that the '70's version of "MG" was "WAAAAY more cooler," one need only look at the butchering of the English language contained in that description to realize the level of TV viewer we're dealing with here.
It is either "cooler" or "more cool," but never "more cooler."
to Samia...NBC did not start having EVERY SHOW in color until the end of 1966, when 'Concentration' was converted to color. Color on NBC was a gradual process because of implementing the technology in both NYC and Burbank, and the local NBC stations.
And ABC and CBS did not broadcast many shows in color until 1966/67. CBS attempted to implement their own color TV system, 'field sequential' in the early 1950's but the drawback is that it was incompatible with black and white sets.
@garymichaelshannon - Not quite. Had you read the little snippet directly above it, you would have seen that it was a quote from a comment I deleted due to its use of profanity.
The name of the theme song was Swingin' Safari. I remember that song so well. I was only about 4 or 5 years old, but some things just stick with you over the decades.
Has Paris Hilton starred on Broadway? Was she ever the Queen of a major Hollywood studio? The top worldwide sex symbol? The winner of any prestigious acting awards? Your comparison is about as accurate as your insinuation that the B-movie Mamie Van Doren was more famous than Jayne! :S
@jdohe And Jerry Van Dyke was originally offered the role of Gilligan (he turned it down, and later accepted the lead on "My Mother, the Car"). Plus Dabney Coleman was originally offered the part of The Professor (I learned the latter from a "Jeopardy" question).
I believe Vaughn wrote it; both Kaempfert and Vaughn recorded it; both versions are quite similar. I have the Vaughn version as a 45 RPM single. Kaempfert's version is longer - has a second solo.
I was in the Match Game audience in February 1968. The guests were Morey Amsterdam and Phyllis Newman. Both game show regulars. The set then had Indian red panels, with gold and wood trim.
This show had some guests you'd now never believe would have gone near game shows. Dustin Hoffman and Ali Macgraw come to mind. They only appeared for a week. They got Lauren Bacall too.
The show ran a short 25 minutes to accommodate a five-minute news show that NBC aired at the end.
The original New York NBC Match Game premiered the last day of 1962, went to color sometime in 1965, had its set changed from natural woodstain with orange and purple accents to various shades of blue in 1966, got a different theme song in 1968 or 1969, and was taken off at the end of September 1969.
I watched the original Match Game constantly and was in the audience in February 1968 when Phyllis Newman and Morey Amsterdam were guests. The set then was a combination of deep red panels with gold and wood trim.
The show had some actors you'd never think of as game show guests. But it was early in their careers. Ali Macgraw and Dustin Hoffman made one-time showings and played well.
The show was 25 minutes long because NBC aired a five-minute news show from 4:25 to 4:30 (eastern time).
that is so f*cking wierd. i came to your page to request the episode with jayne mansfield. but i decided to wach an episode first. i'm strange. i'm 15 and know who she is. RIP Charles Nelson Reilly
In 1968, "Swingin' Safari" was dropped as the theme music for "The Match Game", probably to save money on licensing fees. It was replaced by a Score Productions original theme occasionally used as a voice-over cue on other G-T games from New York at the time.
Too bad all of these were erased... but I'm glad some still exist. GSN has aired the Mansfield-Bean episode and an all star one (with the Swingin'Safari theme. The one at The Paley Ctr has the later Score theme (which to me is VERY similar to Swingin Safari.) It could be why many people dsont remember the theme WAS "Swingin Safari" ... The Score theme was the last one used.
I remembered the Swingin' Safari theme as a kid and always liked it better than the '70s theme. The day Gene Rayburn died, on CBS News, it was the Swingin' Safari theme they played. Most people can't remember this as the original theme, making clips like this invaluable. It is inexcusable that NBC erased them without auctioning them off first. Someone would have paid.
One of the original game's funniest team captains was Michael Landon. One time in 1967, they came back on air from a break to an empty podium ready for the Telephone Match and Landon and Rayburn were typically caught flipping the used question cards like baseball cards, and it was usually Landon who started a rash of delighfully ridiculous answers.
I always remember Betty White being a lot of fun and vividly recall Judy Carne playing this version too... one time petite Judy was partnered with a VERY tall gentleman as one of her two teammates and when she walked out and passed him to her seat she looked up and said WOW!
Very nice information, GoulashFor10. Thanks for sharing your memories of The Match Game with us. It's quite a shame that nearly all of the episodes were indeed destroyed. I would love to have seen the later years of this program.
On a few occasions, the electronics would break down, so Gene would signal the matches with a school bell and Johnny would keep score with pegs on a home version of the game. When the "John and Mary" questions came up, a little "double entendre" was inevitable.
Since taped shows in New York were still treated like live theatre and television, it often happened that Gene was hanging around with us in the audience. Then, they'd come back to air on an empty podium. Gene then leaped down almost the entire flight of stairs, jump behind the podium and say, "Hi-ya! Where were we?" A couple of times he "quit" right on the air and got Johnny Olsen to host the rest of the show when players gave some totally ridiculous answers...and MATCHED across the board.
In 1964, it was still a very conservative show. From 1965 til its cancellation in 1969 (not for ratings, which were higher than ever, but the tase of NBC's new programming director), the show ascended to a good deal of delightful spontaneous madness.
Thanks so much for these clips; I used to attend tapings of "The Match Game" at Studio 8H with the Boy Scouts 1966-89 when it was also known as "The Peacock Theatre." (The original figures from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" were in a display case just down the hall.) It's a tragedy that NBC destroyed all the tapes of "The Match Game."
This is more of what I remember. And that lame theme. Also a star and 2 average Joes/Janes. I couldn't remember the scoring though. I can't recall a star ever having brought a dog on a game show before though. Maybe one of the Gabor's?
Thank you Super Pac for airing the Original Match Game 60's and that was my child hood memory . Have you noticed Gene's hairstyle and if you look at him in future 70's & Syndi Episodes he went back to that style in which he did looked like himself , what do you think ?
i had read that very few of the 60s version of the show still exist cause it was a live show
danman6819 3 days ago
I remember as a youngster going to the NBC Studios in NYC and watching The Match Game live.
cats3300 2 weeks ago
Wow, I had no idea this show went back to the 60's! I've been watching your clips all night. Thanks for posting these gems!
radiogirl85 3 weeks ago
The show was a lot more enjoyable before it became bawdy and dirty,
ArchSupporter 5 months ago
the 70's version of match game was much bolder than the 60's run which was simple and not racy
enter3js 5 months ago in playlist Super Classic Match Game from the 1970's to 1990's.
Jayne Mansfield was adorable. Here we see her on NBC in New York City during July 1964. Thirty-five years later, her lovely daughter would have her own "New York experience" on NBC as one of the stars of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit": the Emmy-winning Mariska Hargitay.
Noveltooner 6 months ago
What was the name of the theme song? I always liked it
MrButterball56 7 months ago
@MrButterball56
A Swingin' Safari.
GSNSmashFan3 6 months ago
She's wearing a "Mr Blackwell" dress? huh..I thought he was just a character of the stereotype ...blade...
knowallcity 7 months ago
We'll never see these episodes on GSN again! At least, not anytime soon. Thanks for uploading them! The '60s version is so different. And, having seen only one episode of this version (the pilot included in the "Best of" DVD set), it's confusing. I do like the theme for the '60s version much better, though. :)
travis7310 8 months ago
Notable here is Jayne Mansfield, for those who don't know is the mother of Mariska Hargitay, whom since 1999 has been starring as Olivia Benson on "Law & Order" spinoff "Special Victims Unit."
Obviously, this is a lot more "civil" as opposed to the more famous '70s version, but even then, the '70s version (actually 1973-'82, including the syndication run after it left CBS in 1979) didn't become what it would right away either. This version ran on NBC from 1963-'69 (actually started 12/31/'62).
WaltGekko 10 months ago
I was out for a walk one day about 20 years ago and Gene and Helen Rayburn pulled up and I gave them directions to the hospital.
1122DLAN 11 months ago
This is when the Match Game was great... not that '70s childishness!
mrp454 11 months ago
Yes. Gene Rayburn was born three days before Christmas and died the day before Dick Clark's 70th birthday.
He should have been a stand-up comedian. He was so funny. There'll never be another one like him.
nanlisa 1 year ago
I was on summer vacation from school back then. I was between first and second grade in the summer of '64.
nanlisa 1 year ago
This version sucked man. Not enough humor, boring clues and just....not the same. The 70's was much better.
Gorillazfreak18 1 year ago
@Gorillazfreak18: Sorry, I'd rather watch this one than the '70's one-it sounds a lot more intelligent, low-key, and less loud/bawdy.
Neville6000 1 year ago
@Neville6000 I liked the immature humor in the 70's version. Just my take.
Gorillazfreak18 1 year ago
Some of you may not know except a few of us that yesturday on the date of November 22nd ,2010 our long time and the greatest Emcee Gene Rayburn passed away in 1999 of heart failure at the age of 81 ,and weren't born back in the early 1960's as I was . I was probably around the age of 5 or 6 years ,and NBC's Original Match Game & A Swingin Safari was & still is my child hood memory ,and watched it on B&W RCA TV . Gene Rayburn I will never forget you .
rlrshepherdstown 1 year ago
Orson was still appearing on Match Game during it's 70's incarnations, so had Jane lived, does anyone think she would do the same?
unclesporkums 1 year ago
@unclesporkums Jayne Mansfield probably would have, at least in the early years. You had a lot of big-name stars appearing on shows back then, so it would not have been out of place, at least until the late '70s for someone like her to have done that.
WaltGekko 10 months ago
@WaltGekko Yes, exactly!
unclesporkums 10 months ago
I'm suprised that the cut of Jaynes' her dress got by the censors.
jln55 1 year ago
This clip really evokes memories. The original version of The Match Game. I watched it on weekday afternoons in the mid-60's. I've been a Jayne Mansfield fan all my life, and she looks adorable here. What's she doing with the dog, though? Jayne, and Orson Bean met in the 50's, while performing on Broadway in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?"
ftsjr 1 year ago
This being in Black and White makes this vintage clip robust in many ways
oldtilter 1 year ago
I wonder if the UCLA has any episodes of this cute show...
MattTheSaiyan 1 year ago
@MattTheSaiyan I think so. The Paley Center For Media (the new name of the Museum of TV and Radio) also has some as well.
disneyfan81 3 months ago
unemployed....
irish89055 1 year ago
I read somewhere that the reason Jayne is wearing that ugly coat is that she showed up for the show in a typically revealing Jayne Mansfield dress and the censors wouldn't let her go on without the coat. Amazing that she is Mariska Hargitay's mom!
butchboy13 2 years ago
Gene Rayburn looked like Abe Lincoln.
eliascoblentz 2 years ago
Revealing for 1964.
hugggyion 2 years ago
This is wonderful! I had read somewhere that these early "Match Game" shows were lost. Apparently not.
reneecalling 2 years ago
Sadly, this episode, the pilot, and an all-celebrity special episode are all that are known to remain, No color videotapes are known to exist (unless some are gathering dust in an affiliate storage facility). It's especially a shame that none of the 1965-1969 seasons exist. Some of those double-entendre "blanks" entered the scene and the show really became spontaneously hilarious, with Gene as the ringleader. A Score Productions theme replaced "Swingin' Safari" in late 1968.
Noveltooner 2 years ago
@Noveltooner A color episode (on VT) with Tony Randall and Peggy Cass from May 1969 (with the new theme) exists at the Paley Center for the Media - Museum of TV and Radio it used to be. I've seen it and they play a phone game with someone at home.
banjochris 1 year ago
@banjochris That's great; I'll have to check it out. Thanks for letting me know!
Noveltooner 1 year ago
Most of the tapes were wiped and re-used for the original "Sale of the Century" with Jack Kelly (later Joe Garagiola) with was also later wiped from history. Almost all of New York's era as THE nation's television and entertainment capital where it all began has been destroyed. Most of it left a dilapidated, crime-ridden NYC during the late 1960s and early 1970s for Los Angeles to join Dodgers that L.A. swiped from Brooklyn only a decade before.
Noveltooner 2 years ago
That's too bad. Seems when you want to look back in history, the opportunity is destroyed because no one took the time to preserve it.
reneecalling 2 years ago
What's the name of the show theme? I've heard that song before but can't remember the title.
swami1 2 years ago
It's "A Swingin' Safari" by Bert Kempert. A minor hit for Kempfert and also for Billy Vaughn in 1962
nealbfinn 2 years ago 2
The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
DangerouslyYours 2 years ago
Wow, what a blast from the past... this episode is almost as old as I am :)
Here's another trivia note: in 1962, when Mark Goodson was developing the show, one of the people he offered the job of host to was Mike Wallace, later of "60 Minutes" fame... at that time Wallace was more of a celebrity interviewer, but he turned down the "Match Game" gig in order to concentrate on hard news.
ekrewer 2 years ago
I heard the '60s version eventually became the comedy-filled version we knew from the '70s version which avoided an early cancellation; it's real cancellation wasn't a few years later.
I sure wish one of those 100 existing episodes is a comedy era ep.
Hondo20132 2 years ago
This was a month before Jayne met the Beatles in Hollywood and went out with John Lennon to Ciro's.
Whenever I think of Orson Bean I think of the bird from "HR Pufnstuf" named Orson.
I remember seeing this show when I was a boy and thought that the close-ups of the celebrities sitting next to each other were shot in a split-screen. I never realized the desks were together.
jfab64 2 years ago
Comment removed
jfab64 2 years ago
This is probably the early days of The Match Game.
nextbarker 2 years ago
gene was so coy.....commenting on jaynes dress color..ha ha ha.
i miss those nice people
BurkeDevlin66 2 years ago
Always great to see the pre-nervous B/D O.B.
7855waldo 2 years ago
I see the Game Show Network logo.
GarfieldnPyramid 2 years ago
I loved this show as a kid growing up in the early 60's. I like the theme music. The title is A swingin' safari by Bert Kaempfert.
pjcfay 2 years ago 2
The 70's version really changed...
UofLCardFan08 3 years ago 8
Jayne is so sweet!
hilljayne 3 years ago 5
Yes, it has been verified that only 12 episodes (Black and White Kiniscopes) are known to still exist. Most shows from the 50's-early 70's were destroyed because people did not see the marquee value in rerunning a show where people knew the outcome back in those days. The bulky tapes took up a lot of storage and were hard to maintain. According to Wikipedia, their are RUMORS of up to 100 episodes of the 1,700 that may still exist. But so far, only 12 exist from this 1962-1969 version.
JackPlatt 3 years ago
Jayne: "Old bag" HA
SueBeaWho 3 years ago
GREAT GAME,THANKS ALOT FOR SHARING.
naeema 3 years ago
Well well well. This looks like I going to have to judge this for what it is. The players seemed to be trying their best and as for Orson and Jayne; they had pretty good stories and reasons for their responses. Gene has offered a good link on the Nikita Krusevu (I _______ up the spelling I know). It was quick but exciting as we went along. Now lets see how they tackle that not so easy bonus round (Audience Match).
gamshwfan 3 years ago
Did you see the flashing white square in the upper right at roughly 7:00? That was the cue that a commercial was coming. I remember that from various TV shows at the time.
rdcuff 3 years ago
This version sucks!
bshaunagrant 3 years ago
More cerebral than the 70s version...
rdcuff 3 years ago
To the person who said most of the episodes of Match Game were erased..you can't be sure of it. NBC has a reputation of being very stingy about releasing tapes that are in their archives. Yet they have allowed the old Peacock and other logos to be shown.
kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE 3 years ago
@kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE Yeah, "Concentration" is a prime example of that stinginess.
disneyfan81 3 months ago
Back then, this is all what I knew about Jayne Mansfield. Although I know now, I didn't know back then that she was the sex symbol of the 1950's.
I believe back then she didn't get a whole lot of movie roles, and she ended up appearing on television.
If she were alive today, she would have been proud of her daughter, Mariska Hargitay, who's an actress in her own right.
nanlisa 3 years ago
Most of the shows were erased, except for 9 of them, which are now in the Library of Congress in Washington.
Back then, the networks used video tape that was so expensive that they ended up erasing the shows in order to record new ones.
nanlisa 3 years ago
Like millions of other schoolkids back in the 60's, I too was on summer vacation in July of '64. (I was between first and second grade back then.)
Well anyway, I haven't seen this version in such a long long time. Even when I was a kid back then, I used to fantasize about being on this show.
Of course, this one is the innocent version of the show. No Dumb Dora or Old Man Periwinkle questions back then.
nanlisa 3 years ago
It's great to see an old Match Game after all these years. I watched the show as a kid; it's the first show I saw Giselle MacKenzie and heard Johnny Olson. It's really a completely different show than the later one with Charles and Brett but they're both enjoyable. Gene sounds as subdued as he used to on NBC Monitor in the same era.
To think Jayne Mansfield's dress was designed by Mr. Blackwell.
jgbennie 3 years ago 2
When did NBC start broadcasting 'The Match Game' in 'living color'?
kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE 3 years ago
It could've been in color by this point, but was preserved in kinescope.
And if this aired on GSN, how come only 3 ep.s are in the trading circuit?
Hondo20132 3 years ago
Because NBC is stingy with its old videotaped game shows. They did the same crap with Concentration.
kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE 3 years ago
You mean they erased this show with a few exceptions?
If so, they did that to a lot of their game shows.
But if this was mostly erased, why did this air on GSN?
Hondo20132 3 years ago
What I mean is that NBC could be holding back any videotapes they DO have of the show.
kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE 3 years ago
Considering by what I heard, there were 7 more survivors.
Hondo20132 3 years ago
IT was also thought that Match Game questions in the 60's led the way for the creation of family feud
Hoddersrevenge 3 years ago
whatever you say gene, everyone was gasping at her...........red dress. yeah thats it
kes1963 3 years ago
"WAAAY more cooler." That says it all, doesn't it?
Anyhow, this is supremely cooler than the tacky day-glo '70s version.
UncleCharlieOakley 3 years ago
sarniatownreggae Wrote:
"The 70s version of Match Game was WAAAAY more cooler than this lame black and white s*** from the 60s."
Keep it clean, please.
SuperPAC 3 years ago
I disagree. We have been bombarded with the 70s version. That is unlikely to happen with this version though as only 11 of 1,760 episodes survive. I am also a fan of live tv and shows broadcast from New York City so I am biased. MG went out live every afternoon so not many were saved or at some point the tapes/kinescopes were destroyed.
storrs19 3 years ago
kinescopes cant be "destroyed" in erasure terms, but can be burned. i dont think it was taped; it was kinescoped
secondchance1977 3 years ago
Some of the later years of the NBC run of "The Match Game" may have been videotaped, but almost invariably networks re-used the then-expensive videotapes of their daytime programming in that era. So, for instance, episodes of "Concentration" (another New York-based game show) may have been taped over "Match Game" shows, etc.
gymnastix 3 years ago
I have read, for instance, the reason most of the ABC run of "Password" is non-existent is because the tapes were re-used for the early years of "Family Feud." Sad, sad practice. Understandable, but sad when one considers all that was lost.
But you are correct that the early years of "MG" were live, and thus that small supply of black & white kinescopes do exist.
Ironic, isn't it, that episodes of an earlier era are more likely to exist via kinescopes than a later era when videotape was used?
gymnastix 3 years ago
I absolutely agree with you! Don't get me wrong--I did & do enjoy the campy, more risque version of "Match Game" aired on CBS and in syndication in the 1970's and early '80's. But the NBC version based in New York was also a great show! And no question the original theme music--"Swingin' Safari"--was a much catchier tune.
gymnastix 3 years ago
That theme song is etched into my brain. I remember when I was on summer vacation from school, I'd watch this show, as well as 'Concentration'!
kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE 3 years ago
Also, even though the updated "MG" used "Dumb Dora" and "Old Man Perriwinkle" as their de rigueur question names, as the original version evolved there was sometimes a risque subtext even with the frequently-used "John" and "Mary."
I also agree with you that the New York-based game shows were best, especially the Goodson-Todman panel shows and the Hugh Downs-Bob Clayton version of "Concentration'(with a live organist). That's when game shows were really in their prime!
gymnastix 3 years ago
As for this poster's comment that the '70's version of "MG" was "WAAAAY more cooler," one need only look at the butchering of the English language contained in that description to realize the level of TV viewer we're dealing with here.
It is either "cooler" or "more cool," but never "more cooler."
gymnastix 3 years ago 2
to Samia...NBC did not start having EVERY SHOW in color until the end of 1966, when 'Concentration' was converted to color. Color on NBC was a gradual process because of implementing the technology in both NYC and Burbank, and the local NBC stations.
And ABC and CBS did not broadcast many shows in color until 1966/67. CBS attempted to implement their own color TV system, 'field sequential' in the early 1950's but the drawback is that it was incompatible with black and white sets.
kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE 3 years ago
@SuperPAC "way more cooler"? third grade drop-out are we?
garymichaelshannon 1 year ago
@garymichaelshannon - Not quite. Had you read the little snippet directly above it, you would have seen that it was a quote from a comment I deleted due to its use of profanity.
SuperPAC 1 year ago
So carrying around a chihuahua is nothing new.
mf2101 3 years ago 3
Wow, It's interesting to see how the show changed from the 60's to the 70's.
metalface101 3 years ago 3
the song in the back ground is A Swingin Safari by Bert Kaempfert
riverman1111 3 years ago
riverman1111 (8 months ago) wrote:
the song in the back ground is A Swingin Safari by Bert Kaempfert /////
I know I've been addicted to Bert Kaempfert my whole entire life! I love ALL his music. Check them out on YouTube!
ANATOLIACHTZEIN 3 years ago
that was just great stuff, good work
Stian22 3 years ago
someone PLZ name the song played in the background........at the beginning
Stian22 3 years ago 2
The name of the theme song was Swingin' Safari. I remember that song so well. I was only about 4 or 5 years old, but some things just stick with you over the decades.
ridgerunner72160 3 years ago 2
Janye was like the Paris Hilton of 1960 - '65.
Ya wanted Marilyn Monroe,
Ya'd settle for Mamie Van Doren
Ya GET Jayne Mansfield.
(Hollywood colony talk)
Thanks for posting this!
ANATOLIACHTZEIN 3 years ago
Has Paris Hilton starred on Broadway? Was she ever the Queen of a major Hollywood studio? The top worldwide sex symbol? The winner of any prestigious acting awards? Your comparison is about as accurate as your insinuation that the B-movie Mamie Van Doren was more famous than Jayne! :S
xXPinkGoddessXx 3 years ago
Jayne Mansfield was supposed to be Ginger on Gilligan's Island. Carrol O'Connor (Archie Bunker) was supposed to be the Skipper.
jdohe 3 years ago 2
@jdohe And Jerry Van Dyke was originally offered the role of Gilligan (he turned it down, and later accepted the lead on "My Mother, the Car"). Plus Dabney Coleman was originally offered the part of The Professor (I learned the latter from a "Jeopardy" question).
disneyfan81 3 months ago
Amazing to see Jayne Mansfield (Mariska Hargitay's mother) here!
AlbieGray 4 years ago 4
Wow, Jayne is so cute and warm in this, I love it!
tjbnyc76 4 years ago 2
nobody even mentions the dog.
shoofirbin 4 years ago 2
when i was about 3 or 4 years old, i seem to remember mickey mantle being one of the celebrities on the original "match game"
kes1963 4 years ago
How in the world do you even HAVE this video? The common wisdom was that every tape and every kinney was bulked by the networks YEARS ago!
litlgrey 4 years ago
head topper? and cars...
irish89055 4 years ago
WOW....i wasnt born till 30-something years later :P
JessyGirl002 4 years ago
JANE MANSFIELD HAD SOME NICE TITS
richyrollins 4 years ago
Now could u fine the whole theme song the long version....i heard on radio
Lehnerd57 4 years ago
It's called "Swingin' Safari" by Billy Vaughn.
EarleYetter 4 years ago
I listen to this song on the following radio stations KSAZ, KCEE, KGVY, and KTUC in Tucson Arizona. and great seeing Jane Mansfield.
frankd1965 4 years ago
You mean Bert Kaempfert, don't you?
MrGeneKim 4 years ago
I believe Vaughn wrote it; both Kaempfert and Vaughn recorded it; both versions are quite similar. I have the Vaughn version as a 45 RPM single. Kaempfert's version is longer - has a second solo.
rdcuff 4 years ago
Gene was far more subdued in the 60s wasn't he? Short hair - and no mention of Dumb Dora!
Jeff98177 4 years ago
I was in the Match Game audience in February 1968. The guests were Morey Amsterdam and Phyllis Newman. Both game show regulars. The set then had Indian red panels, with gold and wood trim.
This show had some guests you'd now never believe would have gone near game shows. Dustin Hoffman and Ali Macgraw come to mind. They only appeared for a week. They got Lauren Bacall too.
The show ran a short 25 minutes to accommodate a five-minute news show that NBC aired at the end.
prchristman 4 years ago 2
I heard that before this version of Match Game was canceled, it was in color for one year or one season.
Tazzman 4 years ago
The original New York NBC Match Game premiered the last day of 1962, went to color sometime in 1965, had its set changed from natural woodstain with orange and purple accents to various shades of blue in 1966, got a different theme song in 1968 or 1969, and was taken off at the end of September 1969.
retrotvluver 4 years ago
Be nice if someone had those on videotape to put up here on youtube!
Tazzman 3 years ago
Only 11 kniescopes exsist of this show
secondchance1977 3 years ago
I watched the original Match Game constantly and was in the audience in February 1968 when Phyllis Newman and Morey Amsterdam were guests. The set then was a combination of deep red panels with gold and wood trim.
The show had some actors you'd never think of as game show guests. But it was early in their careers. Ali Macgraw and Dustin Hoffman made one-time showings and played well.
The show was 25 minutes long because NBC aired a five-minute news show from 4:25 to 4:30 (eastern time).
prchristman 4 years ago
I remember the 25 minute length, and the whistle that signaled they had to end the game for the day.
rdcuff 4 years ago
Not only was Jayne Mansfield so cute but she also had a cute little doggie that she brought with her on the show.
JohnMacaluso 4 years ago
Great Scot!!! Jayne Mansfield = Anna Nicole Smith!
slivnok 4 years ago
please....mansfield had big boobs, but she also had talent...the dumb blonde thing was just an affectation...and god, i remember this theme too
brabon 4 years ago 2
@brabon Yeah, you should compare both Anna Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton to Mamie Van Doren.
disneyfan81 3 months ago
WOW! You are right!
Tazzman 4 years ago
that is so f*cking wierd. i came to your page to request the episode with jayne mansfield. but i decided to wach an episode first. i'm strange. i'm 15 and know who she is. RIP Charles Nelson Reilly
crissray 4 years ago
Before "Dumb Dora was so dumb?"
MrBennetzen 4 years ago
"If you would like to receive tickets to attend one of our broadcasts, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:
TICKETS
The Match Game
NBC-TV
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, New York 10024
and be sure to write the word "Tickets" on the envelope."
GoulashFor10 4 years ago
In 1968, "Swingin' Safari" was dropped as the theme music for "The Match Game", probably to save money on licensing fees. It was replaced by a Score Productions original theme occasionally used as a voice-over cue on other G-T games from New York at the time.
GoulashFor10 4 years ago
I still remember this theme song! I was sorry to see it go. Sheesh. I was 11 then, and I still remember the tune?
Thanks for posting!
ghostfanX2 4 years ago
It is something how our minds absorb certain songs.
Tazzman 4 years ago
My family and I used to have arguments over what was the original Match Game theme. I knew this was it. Thank you, YouTube, for vindication!
Itunes has a great version of Swingin' Safari that sounds like the theme here.
thegamesthatrate 4 years ago
Too bad all of these were erased... but I'm glad some still exist. GSN has aired the Mansfield-Bean episode and an all star one (with the Swingin'Safari theme. The one at The Paley Ctr has the later Score theme (which to me is VERY similar to Swingin Safari.) It could be why many people dsont remember the theme WAS "Swingin Safari" ... The Score theme was the last one used.
thegameshowguy 4 years ago
I remembered the Swingin' Safari theme as a kid and always liked it better than the '70s theme. The day Gene Rayburn died, on CBS News, it was the Swingin' Safari theme they played. Most people can't remember this as the original theme, making clips like this invaluable. It is inexcusable that NBC erased them without auctioning them off first. Someone would have paid.
thegamesthatrate 4 years ago
One of the original game's funniest team captains was Michael Landon. One time in 1967, they came back on air from a break to an empty podium ready for the Telephone Match and Landon and Rayburn were typically caught flipping the used question cards like baseball cards, and it was usually Landon who started a rash of delighfully ridiculous answers.
GoulashFor10 5 years ago
I always remember Betty White being a lot of fun and vividly recall Judy Carne playing this version too... one time petite Judy was partnered with a VERY tall gentleman as one of her two teammates and when she walked out and passed him to her seat she looked up and said WOW!
thegameshowguy 4 years ago
Very nice information, GoulashFor10. Thanks for sharing your memories of The Match Game with us. It's quite a shame that nearly all of the episodes were indeed destroyed. I would love to have seen the later years of this program.
SuperPAC 5 years ago
I should mention that almost the entire production staff of "The Match Game" remained intact for "Match Game 7x" and "Match Game PM" of the 70s.
GoulashFor10 5 years ago
Do you have these shows on VHS or DVD! I'd kill to be able to download them, too!
pbatommy 4 years ago
There is a 1969 episode at The Paley Ctr (formerly Museum Of TV and Radio) in color- with guests Peggy Cass & Tony Randall, and the home game...
thegameshowguy 4 years ago
The episodes wernt destroyed; they were done live
secondchance1977 3 years ago 2
On a few occasions, the electronics would break down, so Gene would signal the matches with a school bell and Johnny would keep score with pegs on a home version of the game. When the "John and Mary" questions came up, a little "double entendre" was inevitable.
GoulashFor10 5 years ago
Since taped shows in New York were still treated like live theatre and television, it often happened that Gene was hanging around with us in the audience. Then, they'd come back to air on an empty podium. Gene then leaped down almost the entire flight of stairs, jump behind the podium and say, "Hi-ya! Where were we?" A couple of times he "quit" right on the air and got Johnny Olsen to host the rest of the show when players gave some totally ridiculous answers...and MATCHED across the board.
GoulashFor10 5 years ago
In 1964, it was still a very conservative show. From 1965 til its cancellation in 1969 (not for ratings, which were higher than ever, but the tase of NBC's new programming director), the show ascended to a good deal of delightful spontaneous madness.
GoulashFor10 5 years ago
Thanks so much for these clips; I used to attend tapings of "The Match Game" at Studio 8H with the Boy Scouts 1966-89 when it was also known as "The Peacock Theatre." (The original figures from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" were in a display case just down the hall.) It's a tragedy that NBC destroyed all the tapes of "The Match Game."
GoulashFor10 5 years ago
Thanks for showing these original Match Game clips PAC!!!
davesharon5747 5 years ago
Lame theme? "Swingin' Safari" by Bert Kaempfert and Orchestra is the BEST!
bumpyjeans 5 years ago
This is the first time that I have seen the 60's version of Match Game. Does anybody know how many episodes GSN aired of the original Match Game?
drummerbraves 5 years ago
This is more of what I remember. And that lame theme. Also a star and 2 average Joes/Janes. I couldn't remember the scoring though. I can't recall a star ever having brought a dog on a game show before though. Maybe one of the Gabor's?
nascarmad 5 years ago
How many game show contestants today would know who Nikita Khruschev is? I think the general population was brighter back then.
Lava1964 5 years ago
Amazing!!! I love Jayne!
algabal 5 years ago
Thank you Super Pac for airing the Original Match Game 60's and that was my child hood memory . Have you noticed Gene's hairstyle and if you look at him in future 70's & Syndi Episodes he went back to that style in which he did looked like himself , what do you think ?
rlrshepherdstown 5 years ago
This is totally different from the Match Game that we all know and love. Thanks for sharing.
foxygirl1977 5 years ago
Also, of course, Paris Hilton wasn't the first one to carry around a stupid dog everywhere.
spuzzlightyear 5 years ago
Yes. But unlike Ms. Hilton, Ms. Mansfield didn't have the IQ of a brick. Quite the opposite in fact.
SuperPAC 5 years ago
I never realized how old this show was, thanks PAC.
dikdikvondik 5 years ago
This is so COOL
XRayX4416 5 years ago
this is wonderful!! i've never seen this particular episode ... thank you pac! : )
elscottro 5 years ago