Soap Stars in Other Places: Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour

There is an episode online from the week where NBC soap stars appeared on the Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour. Celebrity cast members from Another World, Days or Our Lives, and Search for Tomorrow were on the panel.

Click here to view the YouTube video. This game show ran from the Fall of 1983 through the summer of 1984 on NBC against General Hospital and Guiding Light as it had the 3 pm time slot. The program last aired on July 27, 1984 as it was replaced by the soap opera Santa Barbara, the next Monday afternoon. The first half of the show was done in traditional "Match Game" style hosted by Gene Rayburn. The panel was made up of three Days stars: Leann Hunley (Anna), Deidre Hall (Marlena),and Wayne Northrop (Roman), the host of the "Hollywood Squares" portion Jon Bauman aka Bowser and Search for Tomorrow's Marcia McCabe (Sunny, who is married to former As the World Turns executive producer Chris Goutman) and David Forsyth (Hogan though the actor is better known for his later role as John on Another World). Like other versions of "Match Game" the questions are asked fill-in-the-blank style, though the winner of this gets to play in "Hollywood Squares". What was interesting was they really wanted soap opera fans to watch. They even had a phone match contest, where the grand price was you could appear on NBC daytime.

For the Hollywood Squares section, three more stars were added and Jon and Gene swapped places. An additional Days star John DeLancie (Eugene, who is well-known for science fiction roles like Q on "Star Trek the Next Generation")and two stars from Another World, Nancy Frangione (Cecile) and Christopher Rich (Sandy, who is now best known as Brock from Reba) filled up the squares. At the time, Frangione and Rich were married, but they are no longer together.

At the end of the show, the winner of Hollywood Squares played Super Match. The clue was blank panther. Of course, Pink Panther after the movie series was the $1000 match and the contestant got it right. Each person had a number in front of them, which we couldn't see. The contestant got the 20 multiplier, so they were playing for $20,000. Unfortunately they didn't match, so the contestant didn't get the big prize.

This was a weird amalgam of two thirty minute games shows. It wasn't awful, but it lacks the entertainment value of the original shows, which I've only seen in reruns. The lack of regular panelists except for the hosts hurts the flow of the program as the comedy isn't as free-flowing. If someone is a fan of 80s games shows, NBC soaps or is curious to see what some actors looked like back then this is a fun way to spend approximately 45 minutes of one's time.