Gene Rayburn, four years removed from a nasty departure from Break the Bank, was tapped to host, and it was clear that Gene just didn't have it anymore, having to be escorted onto the stage by a young model. The panelists were Clive Barnes, long time movie critic for The New York Times, and To Tell The Truth alums Peggy Cass and Kitty Carlisle Hart. The series bowed in August 1989, but was cancelled 5 months later. Why? AMC didn't have the subscriber base it has now, and the network was still in a feeling out process, 5 years into its existence.
Let's scope out a sample episode.
Edit, 9/5/22: The video has been deleted. Instead, we have a screen cap of Gene Rayburn.
The intros were a call back to What's My Line?, poetry aside (Where was Nipsey Russell when you really needed him?), and the puzzles recalled Concentration, but Mark Goodson had nothing to do with this show, despite the alumni gathering.
No rating.
Gene seemed to be at his usual best...at least to me. Your line that he "had to be escorted on stage" makes it appear that he couldn't walk by himself but in reality the escorting is something that became popular on every game show that featured a main host and a hostess (such as Pat and Vanna from "Wheel of Fortune", for example). If one is only accustomed to seeing Gene in his 1970s "Match Game" persona and presiding over that kind of game-play then seeing him emcee anything else is going to look awkward or out of place but it doesn't necessarily mean it's bad or inferior...it means that it just isn't "Match Game".
ReplyDeleteI just didn't get the whole idea of Gene needing an escort, save for the theme of the show being what it was. If there was a red carpet to lead him to the stage, then you can justify it.
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