Gene RAYBURN - Match Game. Really, this is about seeing things differently in old age [View all]

[UTUSN]

So, with Roku and a cheap package from Dish, there is a channel called Buzzr, of old game shows. I've had about a month long binge going on of The Match Game.

Back when I was young there wasn't time or inclination to watch stuff - too busy working on survival, plus the *times*. In the '70s having gone through the assassinations and Vietnam, with Tricky Dick's Watergate about to come, with the cultural changes not digested yet, we saw things differently. Now Mary Tyler MOORE is touted as a role model for women. I don't remember any women I knew back then who saw her that way. We were in the age of Disco and alternate spiritualism or pop psych.

As for RAYBURN, without seeing more than a sampling once or twice, my image of him was of a sleazy game show host, with that job being barely more than a carnival barker. Before this binge stint, I had seen a few more and couldn't fathom who/why Brett SOMER and Charles Nelson REILLY were considered celebrities. I had no memory of Richard DAWSON on it.

Well, I've been hooked for a month. I've done the bit of "research" (Wiki), and it turns out Match was the single highest rated game show. RAYBURN was of Croatian heritage. SOMER was married to Jack KLUGMAN, who appeared some few times. Betty WHITE took lots of barbs from SOMER for being married to Alan LUDDEN and for being "dumb." DAWSON frequently (acted?) worse than curmudgeon, more like a rude and bitter dude. I have been *shocked* to see big stars like Ethel MERMAN and Raymond BURR on it.

But in binge mode I have been impressed with RAYBURN's smoothness in navigating the show along, and himself toggling running jokes of tangling with the crew, developing the characters of the panel, and being very comfortable with himself. There's a YouTube of a talkshow where he says, "It was a weak format that took a special talent to make it work, and I had that talent."

I'm sure this binge will be over for me in the next few weeks.