Season 1977

From the desk

How this season is filed

Filed by Rex Fontaine · Golden Age Dispatch

Gene Rayburn runs a blank-the-blank innuendo circus while Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers treat the panel like a chaotic marriage. Daytime raunch as sport, celebrity chemistry as the real contest. 1970s network television getting tipsy before dinner, and still sharper than modern panel filler.

TV Flash files Season 1977 of Match Game (1973–1979) on CBS as a mid listed season (1977; 5 of 7) — 255 listed hours, 1977-01-03–1977-12-30 from “Episode 1” (S1977E01) to “Episode 255” (S1977E255). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.

Desk essentials in this season

1. S1977E01 Episode 1

   A 1977 landmark in a thousand-plus-hour catalog. Innuendo still the sport; the host still the ringleader. Sharper than later clean-syndication smiles because nobody sanded the panel.