Three on a Match (game show)

Infobox Television
show_name = Three on a Match


genre = Game show
creator = Bob Stewart
starring = Bill Cullen
Don Pardo (announcer)
country = USA
language = English
location = New York City
channel = NBC
first_aired = August 2, 1971
last_aired = June 28, 1974
imdb_id = 0197183
tv_com_id = 8632

"Three on a Match" was an American television game show, created by Bob Stewart, that ran from August 2, 1971 to June 28, 1974 on the daytime schedule of NBC. The host was Bill Cullen. The series was produced at NBC's Rockefeller Center in New York City. Don Pardo served as announcer on most episodes of the show, with Bob Clayton and NBC staffers Wayne Howell and Roger Tuttle substituting at times.

Gameplay

In the game, three contestants competed to determine who could answer the most true-or-false questions in one of three categories. After Cullen announced the categories, each contestant would bid on how many questions he or she could answer on that turn. The minimum bid was one question; the maximum bid was four questions.

The highest bidder got the first shot at the categories, but if two players tied, they canceled each other out. The third contestant, regardless of number of questions bid, would then get a chance at the questions. If all three tied, they bid again and keep bidding until the tie is broken. Then the pot for the round is calculated by totaling the number of questions bid by the three contestants and multiplying by $10 (for example: 4, 3 and 2 totals 9, which then becomes $90.)

When a contestant won the right to answer questions, he/she selected one of the categories. If a contestant failed to correctly answer as many questions as his/her bid, control would go to the next highest bidder, then the lowest bidder if the second player was unsuccessful. If the two contestants matched bids and canceled each other out, and the remaining contestant failed to fulfill his/her bid, the "canceled" players were given a chance to re-bid, with the highest bidder having a chance to answer questions from the two remaining categories. If they canceled each other out again, the game moved on to a new set of categories. When a contestant fulfilled the bid, he/she would win the pot.

Some categories would have a special feature hidden behind them, which was revealed when it was selected. The most frequent was "Double Pot," which doubled the value of the pot the contestant was playing for; another was "One Free Box," "Two Free Boxes," and "Three Free Boxes," which gave the contestant extra free selections on the game board. However, the contestant could only take the free boxes after buying as many boxes as possible with their money. Packager Stewart devised these to help speed up the pace of the game, by enabling a lucky contestant to more easily win.

After winning a pot, the contestant could keep the money and continue playing, or could use his/her accumulated money to try to win the game at the bonus board. If he/she won any free boxes in the previous round, they had to be used immediately after winning them, or they would lose the free boxes. The minimum amount required in a contestant's bank to play the board was $90, unless the contestant had earned free boxes during that category.

The Prize Board

The board consisted of three columns — the first worth $20 each, the second worth $30, and the third worth $40 — with four rows of boxes in colored rows (red, green, yellow, and blue) in each column. Originally, each box would conceal a prize. Three prizes appeared in each column, and two (or three) others appeared in some columns but not others. One box on the board contained a "No Match" sign.

The contestant would use his or her money to spend on the boxes, in an effort to reveal three like prizes in each column. A contestant would select a box by saying, for example, "I'll take 20 on the blue" and would continue until revealing three identical prize cards, in which case the prize and the game were won or ran out of money and/or free boxes before matching a prize. If one did not match, the game would continue with more question rounds. At least $90 was mathematically required for a chance to win, unless free boxes were involved. One other rule is that a contestant could only pick three out of the four boxes in any one column. This prevents winning by revealing everything in sight.

Instant Match

A contestant who made a match on his/her first three picks after winning a question series won the Instant Match, which entitled the contestant to more prizes, usually a new car. In the later format where contestants needed three matches to remain champion, the Instant Match won the whole game automatically and that person faced two new challengers. The Instant Match however did not apply if someone was going for their third match and would therefore win the game anyway.

Other Notes

A contestant who won five games was awarded an additional $5000 and retired undefeated. In 1973, the format changed; instead of prizes, the boxes contained images (e.g., slot machine symbols, celebrity faces, even humorously altered photos of host Cullen). A player who got three matching symbols won that round; the first player to score three matches, or to get an Instant Match, won the game and a prize package worth at least $5,000.

Other bonuses and features were added and removed throughout the run.

Because Cullen suffered from polio as a boy, he had a fairly pronounced limp. In order to conceal this from the viewing audience, the producers had him remain seated at his podium throughout each episode. Likewise, the contestants were not shown walking away from, or toward, their seats. Stewart and other packagers afforded Cullen this courtesy on most, if not all, the shows he hosted.

Ratings/Scheduling

"Three on a Match" had the unenviable position of being the sixth show NBC had aired in the 1:30 p.m./12:30 Central timeslot since December 30, 1968, when the network lost "Let's Make a Deal" to rival ABC, which placed it in the same slot it had aired in on NBC. A soap opera, several games, and a comeback attempt by Art Linkletter were among the shows that failed over a two-and-a-half-year period. The immediate predecessor was a Joe Garagiola vehicle titled "Memory Game."

"Three on a Match" was not only the first show since the "Deal" defection to run for more than a year against the ABC version and CBS' top-rated "As the World Turns" (then a half-hour soap opera); it also brought several affiliates that had pre-empted the slot back to the network feed for that half-hour, something that pleasantly surprised NBC executives. Although finishing solidly in third place, Bill Cullen's perennial popularity drove the appeal of "Three on a Match," which, typical for NBC games in that era (and especially those staged in New York), emphasized game play over large prizes and ostentatious sets. (However, April 1973 saw the show become NBC's only game to receive an exemption from the network's five-game limit for a champion contestant.)

However, by early 1974, daytime head Lin Bolen, who had overseen the cancellation of several games started before her arrival a year and a half earlier, asked Stewart to reformat "Three on a Match;" the two decided instead to start from scratch with a new game, titled "Winning Streak." The new show, replacing "Three on a Match," swapped timeslots with "Jeopardy!," a decision that would prove fatal to the venerable quiz; both of the shows were cancelled six months later.

Home version of the show

Milton Bradley made only one edition in 1972, which followed the first Prize Board version.

International Versions

Reg Grundy bought the rights to produce an Australian version hosted by Bob Moore. It was also dubbed as "Australia's first colour game show." However, Australian TV was still in black and white during that time. The game was played exactly the same, except all money amounts were divided by ten (the pot was $1 times the number of questions), and no cars were offered.

Episode Status

The entire series has been wiped (as was NBC's normal practice with daytime shows from the 1950s through around 1981), save for six episodes - a studio master copy taped February 14, 1973 and five consecutive episodes from February 1974 - circulating amongst videotape traders. Six more episodes from March and April 1973 survive in the UCLA film and television archive.

External links

* [http://userdata.acd.net/ottinger/cullen/shows/threemat.html Three on a Match description] by Matt Ottinger
* [http://www.tv.com/three-on-a-match/show/8632/summary.html&full_summary=1 TV.com "Three on a Match" page]
* [http://www.gameshowutopia.net/3onamatch/3onamatch.htm The Three on a Match Page @gameshowutopia.net]