The long microphone was clearly an homage to the one used by Gene Rayburn on the original show. And I kind of liked the remake. One thing I somewhat disliked was when Rosie O’Donnell volunteered to give the contestant the New Kids On The Block cruise that she would have taken, had she won the big prize. That seems to remove an element of the competition, that if you don’t win, you don’t get whatever is at stake.
That’s another holdover from the Gene Rayburn days. Second questions were generally easier.
Revival, not reboot. There’s a big difference.
And it’s awful, not awesome.
I remember Ed Asner actually giving “Blanked” as his answer. I guess he was trying to be funny and didn’t care about screwing over the contestant.
MHO, it’s okay on its own merits. The problem I have with it is that it’s trying to recreate the borderline anarchy of the 70s-80s version, which developed naturally from the participants (especially Brett and Charles). As usually happens with such attempts, it feels forced and artificial.
Maybe the panel needs more alcohol. 
Come to think of it, we never did find out what Charles had in his pipe.
Of the three rebooted shows, I’d say Match Game is the worst. $100,000 Pyramid holds up very well, and Steve Harvey makes Family Feud a hoot and a half no matter who is playing.
They did seem to all have a drink with them. Whether it was alcoholic or not, I don’t know.
I thought the panelists did a decent job of replicating the atmosphere of the original - they’re not Charles and Brett, but give a while, chemistry doesn’t happen overnight - but I thought Alec Baldwin seemed way too stiff. Still, I’m happy to see the show back, and Pyramid as well.
omg, I’m watching the new “To Tell the Truth” right now…and it’s horrible.
Everything feels superficial and forced.
Someone brought up Trump and Rosie O’Donnell has to go off on an anti-Trump spiel. Shut it Rosie! No one cares.
Nothing can replace the drunken chemistry of Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly.
Although I thought Alec Baldwin did a good job, why does he appear to stand/walk hunched over like he’s got a bad back or something stuck up his backside?
I’ll give it a chance. I hope it gets better.
The audience could use some, too.
I did a search and there are a couple of Match Game threads but this one had the most replies so I’m going to bump this one.
I was watching one of the new episodes that had Wayne Brady, Ice T, Cheryl Hines, Caroline Rhea, Jason Alexander and Ellie someone I don’t recognize.
As always it was a fun romp and the contestants and the panelist were having fun and being goofy and Alex was in his usual fine form as host and comedic facilitator.
And the panelists were cracking jokes as usual but I was surprised by Ice T. That dude had some really funny one liners that had me laughing.
I only know him from his music career and Law and Order where he always seemed so serious but the dude is funny. Maybe it was the juxtaposition of my thinking of him being a serious person and his funniness that made his lines more funny to me but the dude was great.
I hope they bring him back on the show for more episodes.
It was kind of like the thing with Jack McBrayer where he played such an innocent ignorant guy on 30 Rock but on the episodes he was on with Match Game he was almost, but not really but enough, opposite of that character so whatever silly thing he said just made it more funny to me.
Uh, I meant Alec, not Alex. Nobody pay attention to the idiot behind the curtain. Don’t upset Dorothy.
It certainly won’t be worse than the reboot of To Tell The Truth. TTTT2 seems to be all about “hey look at us! We’re urban! We’re edgy! We’re hip!”
At one point on the original MG they had to resort to a wheel to pick the celeb for the final match, since everybody always picked Richard Dawson. I look for Baldwin to revise some of the lines: “Dumb Donald (not Dora) was SO DUMB…”. The Ty-D-Bowl man will be retired since nobody under 50 remembers him.
Ellie Kemper. She was in The Office and now is the star of a Neflix series called Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
You apparently haven’t seen the Ice-T Geico commercial.
I hope they do because I’m sure the panelists answers would be funny as they usually are.
Ah, ok. Thank you. I haven’t gotten around to watching UKS yet. I did watch The Office but I don’t remember her in it.
Now that you mention it I have seen that commercial, and love it. I just didn’t think of it last night. I love celebrities that have a sense of humor about themselves.
Contestant says, “Tequila opens up your pores.”
Ice T: “That’s not all it opens!”
Damn! That was funny!
I was bored and threw this on and I really liked it. While I think I’m old enough to have been around for the original, I don’t remember watching it. I probably didn’t if all the jokes went over my head. So maybe I can enjoy it because I have nothing to compare it to except small glimpses from GSN while channel surfing?
It’s not perfect. I wonder if Neil Patrick Harris might have been a better host, or maybe Alec really is a good choice because he dials it back and isn’t making it all about dialing it up to 11. I like the variety of guests in general and it’s just nice fluff. I watch too much that’s serious or important or deep. It’s nice to play in the shallow end with cheesy double entendres from time to time.