Has a game show ever seemed more fun to be a part of than '70s-era Match Game? The panel of six B-level celebrities (which often included Broadway actor Charles Nelson Reilly, TV actress Brett Somers, and future Family Feud host Richard Dawson) teased each other, laughed uproariously, and gave wild responses to the game's questions, all while host Gene Rayburn tried in vain to steer things back on course. That's because it's hard to corral half a dozen drunk people.
Like most game shows, a week's worth of Match Game episodes (five) were shot in one day: shoot two, take a break, shoot three more. "After the second show we went to lunch, and there was this big flask and there would be people who would imbibe," frequent panelist Jimmie Walker told The Los Angeles Times for a 2013 article on the show. "It was a vodka group," panelist Marcia Wallace added. Numerous Match Game staffers confirmed in the documentary The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank that the shows filmed after the meal break were a bit "looser" than the ones filmed before. In other words, on the Monday episodes of Match Game, the panelists are relatively straight-laced ... but on some of the Friday ones, they're hammered.
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