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: