The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blanks

The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank (2006)

*** (out of 4)

Fans of the game show Match Game are certainly going to enjoy this 43-minute documentary and there's no question that they're going to want to watch it but at the same time one wishes more had been done with it. If you know about the history of the show then you know it really came into its own starting in 1973 when Gene Rayburn, Richard Dawson, Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly made it the number one show on daytime television. Even though the thing was off the air before I was born, it's hard not to love this show just because it seems like everything was being made up on the spot and the four stars were just so priceless in the ways they were willing to entertain those watching. As it's touched on in the documentary, part of the fun was that the viewer could answer the questions and then see which celebrity they would match. The documentary features interview segments from Rayburn who was deceased by the time this was released. Somers gets to answer a few questions and Dawson is also seen in brief interviews. The problem is that the film is just too short and there's just so many panelist who are not interviewed. This includes Reilly and countless others who were alive when this was made. Even Dawson, a major force on the show, is just briefly featured. It's really too bad more people weren't interviewed but with that said, if you're a fan of the show then this is still a must see.

Maybe it's my own personal bias after being a fan of Match Game since 1975, but this retrospective, while a nice effort, needed MORE. Perhaps because it was only about 42 minutes (after commercials), or because there were no interviews with Fannie Flagg or Joyce Bulifant or Patti Deutsch, the semi-regulars who had their own special rapport with the cast. The most glaring omission interview-wise is Charles Nelson Reilly, who provided that inimitable manic lunacy with on-screen cohort Brett Somers, who was terrific in the interviews. I'm not sure why Reilly was not interviewed, though there are rumors he's in ill health. But then again, there were rumors he died several years ago, (which he took great offense at), so who knows.

Also, the brief interview clips of Richard Dawson were not recent. You can tell because his hair still has some brown in it, and the last time Dawson appeared on a Family Feud special on GSN, his hair was snow-white. (This was at least six years ago.) On the plus side, the interview with Gene Rayburn's daughter Lynn was very touching, and kind of sad when she talked about her father's last years. And of course, a vintage interview with the man himself from the early 1990's was quite charming.

The choice of clips were appropriate; as were most of the interviewees (except for Louie Anderson). Let's hope a DVD version is released with much more material.