BIOGRAPHY
Gene Rayburn was born in Christopher, Il. on 12/22/1917.
At age 18,Gene moved to New York, hoping for a chance to take voice lessons and become an opera singer. Lack of money made him look for something else, and Gene eventually got a job as one of the first NBC pages. (He was in the same page-training class as future "Today Show" host Dave Garroway.) As an NBC page, Gene's duties included escorting Madame Touscanini backstage to see her husband during intermission and after the show.
During World War II, Gene spent three years in the Air Force but never saw
action because he was asked to stay behind to train other recruits. He
actually was called to duty, but the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima
just days before he was scheduled to leave.
In 1946 WNEW teamed Gene up with Jack Lescoulie, and then Dee Finch, on what
is considered to have been the first "morning-drive" radio show.
Gene's biggest break came in 1953,when he was hired as announcer-sidekick
position on Steve Allen's local variety show. One year later, the show went
national on NBC, titled "The Steve Allen Tonight! Show". The show aired live
for 105 minutes five nights a week ,during which Gene particpated in skits,
interviews, and doing a news report every night at 12:30 am.
NBC was quick to recognize Gene's talents and, after Steve Allen left the
show in 1956,the network tapped Gene to host a number of game shows,
including "Make The Connection", "Choose Up Sides","Tic-Tac-Dough", "Musical
Chairs" and "Dough-Re-Mi", where Gene showed off his comedic talents by
performing a monologue at the beginning of each show.
He was also a frequent substitute emcee for "To Tell The Truth" and "Play
Your Hunch".
In 1961 he began a four year run as host of the Miss Universe Pageant.
December 31, 1962 would mark the beginning of Gene's greatest success. "The
Match Game" made its debut and aired at each weekday for the next 6 years
and 9 months. Although it was a fairly quiet show,Gene found a number of
openings for humor, especially when the show added "Telephone Match" in
1967,requiring Gene to call & chat with a home viewer on each show. In 1969 the show was cancelled and Gene
wouldn't host another show for three years. In 1972 Gene hosted "The
Amateur's Guide to Love" for CBS. The show flopped, but CBS would unveil a
brand new lineup that fall that would lead to a new chance.
CBS hadn't forgotten the success of "The Match
Game" on NBC during the sixties and called Goodson-Todman Productions about
producing a new version. In response to the huge success of "The Hollywood
Squares", the show was reformatted to involve more celebrities (six instead
of the original two).
Gene was asked to host the new version,and at his request, the "name
something" line of questioning was dumped after 6 weeks in favor of
double-entendre style questions written by professional comedy writers. It
took only a few weeks for the new version, "Match Game '73", to become the
number-one show on daytime television, a distinction it held for four
seasons.
In 1975, Gene and the panel headed to prime-time with a once-a-week
syndicated version, entitled "Match Game PM", which enjoyed a six-year run.
After CBS's boneheaded move of changing the show's time slot twice in seven
weeks,the audience eroded, not knowing when the show would be on or assuming
it had been cancelled, which it was in 1979.
Audience demand,however,prompted a new daily version to air in syndication
for another three years."Match Game" was gone for good in 1982.
But not for long...
NBC introduced "The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour" (to date the only
hybrid game show) in 1983.The show flopped,lasting only 39 weeks.The
cancellation can be blamed on a number of reasons:no regular panelists;a
different panel for the "Match Game" half each day; and "Hollywood Squares"
host Jon "Bowzer" Bauman's lack of experience.
1985 brought another disaster for Gene:"Break the Bank", from which Gene was
fired after 13 weeks when the producers believed Gene was at fault for the
show's poor ratings(which,as any game show purist could tell you,was
actually the fault of an awful front game and a poorly-planned bonus round).
Gene's final game was cable network AMC's "The Movie Masters" which aired
for five months in late 1989/early 1990.Plans were made for a new version of
"Match Game" on ABC,but Gene was rejected for the host role because of the
network executive belief that anyone over the age of 70 will definitely have
a heart attack and die on the air.Gene was officially retired.
He continued to make appearances on game-show topic days for talk shows,and
he also made frequent appearances on Game Show Network during its first few
months on the air.
Gene's wife of 56 years,Helen,died in October 1996,and Gene never recovered
from the loss.He died of heart failure on 11/29/1999.
WHAT MAKES THIS GUY SO GREAT?
Gene knew what was funny and loved seizing every humorous opprotunity, like
doing a Roberto Benigni-like climb over the entire audience; joking around
with stagehands like Earl(the guy who operated the SuperMatch board) and
Roger (the cue-card guy); arguments with the show's judge, Ira; his plugs
for the obligatory home game ("It'll come to you in a month in a plain brown
wrapper with no return address"); and his announcement of the losing
contestant's lovely parting gifts ("We're sorry you didn't win any money but
you will be receiving a broken clavicle and a jar of olives courtesy of
Match Game.")
He saw himself as the host of the world's best party, and he wanted everyone
to have a good time. He also had the winning trait of complete lack of ego.
His show was number one, but he obviously didn't care.
Screen grab taken with permission from Chris Lambert.
MEMORIES OF GENE
I first watched "Match Game" at the end of 1998 when I got GSN. I had heard
of the show referred to as "classic" before, but had never seen it. Little
did I know what I was in for. It was a circus cleverly disguised as a game
show, with Gene as the goofy, sometimes hyperactive ringmaster. Although I
had never seen the show before, I was now making it a point to watch it
nightly, and it's always great for a laugh, because of the good time that
Gene made sure was had by all.
