A new edition of Match Game could be as gay as BLANK

Posted by

on February 5, 2008

For the moment, at least, I'm pretty excited about the news that a new edition of The Match Game is in the works. Like many a game show with a panel of celebrities, The Match Game is at its best when it has a gay sensibility at work: the definitive 70's edition had Charles Nelson Reilly as a frequent panelist, along with gay faves like Betty White, Marcia Wallace and Reilly's verbal sparring partner, Brett Somers.

Reilly often stole the show I'm particularly fond of this clip where host Gene Rayburn gets tired of Reilly's one-liners and hands him the emcee mike:

When the GSN revived I've Got a Secret in 2006, they played up the show's gay sensibility by using an all-gay panel made up of Billy Bean, Suzanne Westenhoefer, Jermaine Taylor and Frank DeCaro. The results were pretty great. I'll keep my fingers crossed that this new Match Game tries something similar.

Back in the 70s all that innuendo flying around was still a little bit naughty and shocking. Still, part of the fun was that the panel knew how to play off of each other:

Later versions had a hard time capturing the magic. Sexual double entendres alone make for a pretty cheesy show (remember how quickly we tired of the innuendos on Studs?) so you need the right mix of panelists and emcee.

Last summer, CBS gave us a glimpse of how fabulous The Match Game could be today on Game Show Marathon. (I'll understand if you didn't stick around after the show debuted with its awkward remake of The Price is Right.) Their panel brought Betty White back while adding Bruce Vilanch and Kathy Griffin. As if that weren't gay enough, Ricki Lake hosted a game between Kathy Najimy and a still-closeted Lance Bass.

The Gameshow Marathon edition of The Match Game nicely captured the show at its peak. Years of managing a rowdy talk show audience turned out to leave Ricki well-suited for bantering with a Match Game panel and it was no surprise Kathy could deliver some hilarious one-liners ... I hope they drive a dump truck full of money to Kathy's house to get her on the panel, she's so perfectly suited for it. Who else would you like to see in a new Match Game?