It's time for.. The
<Insert celebrities names> and the stars of the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour..
and
Broadcast History
Hosts: Gene Rayburn and Jon ("Bowzer") Bauman
Announcer: Gene Wood (Johnny Olson and Rich Jefferies have been said to have subbed)
Airdates: October 31, 1983-July 27, 1984
Studio: NBC Studios, Burbank
Production company: Mark Goodson Productions in association with Orion Television
Match Game
Two challengers met on the first
part, the Match Game. Squares host Bauman sat on the bottom
left side of the panel during the game. The player who won the toss got to choose question A 
or B. This part was played very similarly to the Match Game of the '70s. Gene Rayburn would read a question with a blank in it. The object was for the player
to matches many celebrities as he/she
could (match each only once). After three rounds the player with the most matches won the game and went on
to the Hollywood Squares to play the returning champ. In case of a
tie, Gene read a Super Match-esque phrase and the players were given
four choices to fill the blank.
The players called the choices by
number and the first player to have their answer called by a
celebrity won the game.
Hollywood Squares
The second part was the Hollywood
Squares part. A extra panel swung around from backstage
to make the Hollywood Squares board. Jon and Gene switched places and Jon hosted
the Hollywood 
Squares part, with Gene sitting on the bottom left side
of the board. The game was played basically the same as the '67-'80
run with a few changes. All the questions asked were multiple choice
(Mark Goodson 
refused to write bluffs for the celebrities), you could
win by default (the X or O would go up on a
wrong answer even if it
meant a win), and there was no Secret Square. $25 were awarded for
every symbol on the board, and a Tic-Tac-Toe or a 5 star win won $100
in
game 1, $200 in game 2, $300 in game 3 and so on and so forth. A
times up bell rang at the end of the game and the person with the
most money earned in the Hollywood Squares portion went on to play the "Super Match."
Super Match
Gene
and Jon switched places again for the "Super Match." The "Super Match" was played pretty
much the same way as on Match Game in the '70s. The first part was
the "Audience Match" in which a fill-in response had been given to a
studio audience. The player could call on 3 celebrities for help and
could use one of their answers or one of their
own. The most popular
answer was worth $1,000, second $500, and
the third $250. The second
part was the "Head to Head Match" which could be worth $30,000.
Each
celebrity (and Jon Bauman) had a card, 4 had 10's, 4 had 20's, and 1 had a 30. The
celebrity the contestant picked revealed their card and the amount won in the Audience
Match was multiplied by the number making the total
amount possible
in the Head to Head Match. Another fill-in phrase was read and the
celebrity wrote down his/her response and the contestant gave theirs
verbally. If they matched the player won the amount playing for.
Regardless of winning or losing the bonus round, the player came back
to be the returning champ on the Hollywood Squares segment the next
day.
Facts
-Gene Rayburn also hosted "Dough Re Mi," "Tic Tac Dough," "Choose Up Sides," and "Make the Connection" early in his career. Gene later hosted "The Match Game" from 1962-1969 on NBC. He later hosted "Amateur's Guide to Love" in 1972, and a more revised version (that we all know) called "Match Game '73" (with yearly updates) on CBS from 1973-1979. He also hosted a weekly version known as "Match Game PM" and a daily syndicated version from 1975-1982. Gene later would host a NBC pilot for Reg Grundy Productions known as "Party Line" in 1983 (later sold to ABC as "Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak" with said host) and would go on to host one more series, "Break the Bank" in 1985.
-Match Game nearly made a comeback in 1985 with Gene as host. Unfortunately it was scrapped after TV executives found out Gene's age. Match Game would later make a comeback in 1990 on ABC with Ross Shafer as host, and later in syndication in 1998 with Michael Berger as host.
-Hollywood Squares ran from 1966-1981 on NBC and syndication with Peter Marshall as host. Later after Match Game-Hollywood Squares, the Squares would come back in 1986 with John Davidson as host and again in 1998 with Tom Bergeron as host, with movie star Whoopi Goldberg in the center square.
-Gene Rayburn is said to have been a big critic of "The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour" It's said he didn't like working with Jon Bauman at all. Gene Wood, the announcer, even said in an interview "Gene was dragged kicking and screaming into the hour."
-Gene Rayburn passed away on November 29, 1999. For more info on him go to Matt Kaiser's Gene Rayburn Page.
-Jon Bauman is more famous for being "Bowzer" in the band "Sha-Na-Na." He also hosted "The Pop 'N Rocker Game," a weekly syndicated rock 'n roll game show shortly after Match Game-Hollywood Squares.