I know there was no pilot, but does anyone have details about the aborted '85 'Match Game' project that's mentioned on both the 'Game Shows '75' site and the 'GS Pilot Light' sites?

I remember seeing ads in "Broadcasting" magazine for MG around NATPE time with Gene's picture, but I am not sure it was 1985, as Gene was already committed to BTB.

I thought it might have been later after Mary Hart mentioned just how many candles Gene had on his birthday cake that sent station managers into apoplexy.

For what it's worth, I just looked on Lexis/Nexis and Dow Jones Factiva -- a search of "Match Game" and "Rayburn" from 6-1-84 to 1-1-86 turned up nothing. And a search of just "Match Game" for that same time frame showed primarily reports of Johnny Olson's death and a 1985 rant about game shows from some writer for The Globe and Mail in Canada.

The show was pitched for Fall 1987. In December 1986, ET did indeed botch any plans of a show hosted by Gene being picked up. I forget his age at the time, but it was really close to 70. No doubt that's why ABC didn't want him hosting the 1990 revival. Dummies.
I'm rather curious about the '87 format myself. The familiar logo appears with Gene in the trade magazine ads from a few months before the show would've launched.
Could you imagine if it'd been a hit and paired with Family Feud the next year? That could've ruled.

If my math is correct, 69* when MG87 went on the air, 70 later that fall.

*Heh. I said 69, W00t!!! r0xx0rs!!! 420!! D0UBL3 TH3 P01NTS!!!

Remember offhand who the syndicator was? Victory, LBS or someone else?

This reeks of urban legend. Anyone could figure out Gene's approximate age from watching MG/HS Hour or even CBS MG without ET spelling it out for them.

Wasn't MG/HS the writing on the proverbial wall for the format of Match Game? It peaked with the syndie 79-82 run. Gene looked a little out of it in the 83-84 MG/HS run...and by my own admission he seemed bored even in the syndicated 79-82 Match Game run. He would have legitimately been Old Man Periwinkle had he hosted a late '80s Match Game.

I take nothing away from the efforts of Ross Shafer and Michael Burger in their hosting duties of the revivals, for they really weren't at fault with the revivals of the show. And if it's been said on these boards once, it'll be said a hundred more times by someone with the exception of The Price is Right when it comes to game shows, what worked 30-35 years ago generally doesn't work today. And Match Game is the antithesis of it. Double entendres are ho hum...they don't impress people as much as they once did. And, perhaps it's because we are both more educated (some of us at least) and we're a cruder society (you know you watch Skinnamax at night).

I agree. If it had sold without Gene it probably would not have been much different from the Ross Shafer show.

However if Gene had done it and was not up to par we'd be left with a sort of 'Feud '94' version with its share of critcs that GSN would probably just air intermitently today.

Wasn't there an MG pilot in the early to mid-90s with Charlene ("Dallas") Tilton as the host? (Stranger things have happened ...) I remember seeing a photo and/or ad in the trades at the time. The set was different, maybe like one of the British versions -- or like Betty White's "Just Men," where they were staggered instead of being on two panels.

Was that the missing pilot???

From what I've read above, that pilot was another unsuccesful one, and IIRC, was made around the same time the Dolly Parton Feud was.

That, and a failed Card Sharks pilot with Tom Green (not the MTV has-been/never-was).

The one hook was that the celebrities actually showed their answers first.
Some more info on "MG2", courtesy of Michi-Matt, and David Hammett.

Then there were probably a lot of perfect scores.

But rather, the former host of ESPN's underrated GS-in-a-bar, Sports On Tap, who now does local sports coverage somewhere.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

Last I heard he was at FSN Rocky Mtn or something.