"Get ready to match the stars!..."

"As we play the star-studded, big-money..."

Proving that you can’t keep a great game show down, Gene and “Match Game” went back into business mere months after CBS’ cancellation.

Two contestants competed with the help of a six celebrity panel. The game was played just the same as the network version, for the most part, but with the following changes:

There were no longer returning champions. Two contestants competed against each other in two games. Regardless of the outcome, both contestants retired after those two games.

Without returning champions, the A or B decision was based on a coin toss for Round 1, and the contestant in the lead selected for Round 2.

Winning the game no longer awarded $100, only the right to play Super Match. It may not seem like a big deal, but on several occasions it did create the bizarre situation of Gene sending a winner home with consolation prizes because they didn’t have any cash to show for coming out on top.

The show alternated their tiebreakers. The version used on the CBS series was usually played Monday-Wednesday, while the version used on “Match Game PM” was usually brought out for Thursday & Friday. The reason why would take a long time to explain and bore most of you reading this, but the short version was they needed to play the Super Match exactly six times during each week of shows and alternating the tiebreakers kept them from having to alternate between rushing and stretching for time as the week went on.

An audience participation game was sometimes played during the first season. Gene would read a simple blank phrase and one panelist would write an answer. Gene would then pick audience members at random, and the first one to match received $50.

With Richard Dawson long gone, his seat was open for alternating guest panelists until 1981. McLean Stevenson joined the show as a regular panelist and fit in rather nicely. His run as a regular produced some of this author’s favorite episodes of the series.

Probably the biggest change was the one that wasn’t obvious at first. The double-entendre gags that put the series on the map were very gradually phased out in favor of “wacky mental pictures” such as “Irving Bricklemeyer crossed a construction worker’s picket line and got a (_____) shoved up his nose”, as well as more poems and pop culture references than before. The simple feeling was that “naughty” questions didn’t get the laughs they used to and the change was necessary in changing times.