Blank This! (The Match Game)

Michael and I have this current obsession with watching the 70's game show Match Game. It is one of our nightly rituals now to watch episodes that out TiVo records for us during the day while we are out and about. The whole point of the game is for the contestant to try to come up with an answer that best fits a blank part of a statement and then must match that answer with a panel of celebrity guest.

I first was exposed to Match Game one summer while I was staying at my sister's house in Califorina. They had satellite t.v. at the time and with that came a gross amount of channels to choose from. One day instead of being outside enjoying the Califorina sunshine I was flipping through channels I came upon a game show with a horrible tacky set all decked out with orange shag carpet, namely the Match Game. (let me reiterate the 70's era here) I watched an episode or two and found them to be very ammusing in a quirky way. Most of the celebrities I was oblivious to except for a few rare ones that I could recall from programming on Nick-at-Night or from 80's sitcoms like the adorable Betty White.

After my brief exposure to Match Game that summer it slipped to the recesses of my mind until another fateful summer. This time around I ran into the game show at Hampton beach where I was staying with my then high school bff Ina and her family. We're staying in tiny little efficientce (that is what it was called), when to my delight Match Game was once again on the telly. We watched the show every night after coming in from swimming and walking the boardwalk and it was the perfect end to the day. So, nine years later when we got a notice that our cable provider was offering the Game Show Network I searched for airings of Match Game.

Now it is the way that Michael and I relax, watching the show and laughing because every match as the possibility to end up in the gutter. It has to be something to do with saying the word blank, your mind naturally wanders there. Charles Nelson Riley is one of my favorite celebs, I think it has to do with the fact that a lot of his jokes have subtle gay undertones which almost have the feel of a private inside joke. Needless to say watching Match Game has become our new ritual. To bad they don't have a modern verison of it now because as a side note Michael and I would kick ass at it. We always tend to come up with something to help fill those blanks :)