Marathon reactions

Spent a lot of time with GSN's Match Game marathon today. Naturally, I had to share some of my profound musings with the GSN Internet board, especially about two rarities, the Bert Convy pilot episode for Match Game 90 and the first ever episode of Match Game 98 on the network...

Other poster: Convy was a perfect host for this show as I expected, Match-Up was not missed, and even with Brett not there, they had an all-around hilarious panel with good chemistry.

Yeah, I liked the Convy MG90 pilot better than the matched-up version that finally made it to air. More humor, less gameplay. That's the best idea for Match Game.

And somewhere there should be a Match Game circle of hell for Judy Tenuta [on MG98]. I don't know how the rest of the panel didn't strangle her. Anyway, a very enjoyable marathon. Got to watching and couldn't stop.

Other poster: Michael Burger [on MG98] is a pretty good host (better than Ross Shafer IMO), and Vicki Lawrence and George Hamilton are good panelists, but Judy just casts a huge wave of annoyance on the whole show.

I've already consigned Judy to a circle of hell, so I can't disagree with this. I don't understand how the producers could have picked her, even if she worked for free. With a Tenuta-less panel, Berger would have had more control of the show and better interaction with far more tolerable panelists like Vicki and George. As it was, the show seemed out of Berger's (or anybody else's) control because Judy just would not shut up.

One bad choice really can kill a show. By the way, it didn't take long...somebody has already posted the Convy MG90 pilot from the marathon on YouTube.