air dates: 10/31/83-7/24/84 on NBC daytime
hosts: Gene Rayburn (MG & Super Match) and Jon Bauman (HS)
announcer: Gene Wood
sub-announcers: Johnny Olson, Rich Jeffries, Bob Hilton
Each day on the only game show hybrid ever in television history, two new players would play Match Game. Gene Rayburn hosted and Jon Bauman, best known as "Bowzer" of the musical group Sha Na Na, sat with five other stars. Each player would have three chances to match answers with the stars. The player who matched the most stars after three rounds of play would face off against the returning champ in the Squares half. If there was a tie, a blank statement was read and the players were shown four possible answers. Each player selected an answer. Then, each star, one at a time, gave an answer. The first player to score a match won.
The MG winner played Hollywood Squares against the returning champ. Three more celebs joined the other six but Gene and Jon swapped places. All of the questions were either multiple-choice, true/false, or yes/no. Each square earned was worth $25. The first game paid $100 to the winner, $200 for the second, $300 for the third, etc. There were no "secret squares", and an incorrect (dis)agreement always gave the opponent the square, even if it meant a win. Whoever won the most money when time was called played Super Match.
After Gene and Jon once again switched positions, the champ was shown a blank phrase which had been posed to a recent studio audience. Matching that audience's top answer netted $1,000. The second most popular answer was worth $500, while the third best answer paid $250. If the champ's answer wasn't among the top 3, (s)he won $100. The player was allowed help from three of the nine stars, including Jon.
After that, the champ had a chance to multiply those winnings by 10, 20, or 30. Four celebs each hid a 10, 4 others each hid a 20, and one star hid the 30. The star who was chosen for the head-to-head match revealed his or her multiplier. A blank statement was read and the star secretly wrote down his/her response. If the champ's answer matched the star's answer, the Audience Match winnings were multiplied by the revealed #. Matching the $1,000 answer and picking the star with the 30 meant the player could win $30,000! Each champion was limited to a 5-day reign.
OTHER TIDBITS:
Today, the theme music is used on The Price Is Right. The main theme is one of TPIR's car cues, while the commercial cue is now TPIR's gym equipment cue.
Upon the show's cancellation, it was replaced the following Monday by the soap opera Santa Barbara.
Jon "Bowzer" Bauman's group, Sha Na Na, appeared in the '78 flick Grease.