What Might've Been: To Say The Least (1977)

Tom Kennedy was the most in-demand game show host in the 70's and 80's. During 1977 alone, Kennedy hosted three shows on NBC. 50 Grand Slam had premiered at the end of 1976, but didn't get past the start of spring. Name That Tune had a 6 1/2 month daytime run. And, then, there's To Say The Least.

In a way, Least was a Heatter-Quigley variation on a game that Kennedy was already well familiar with, You Don't Say, which had aired on NBC in the 60's, and was revived on ABC just a couple of years before Least.

Here, you had two contestants, each with two celebrity partners, which was the same format as the original Match Game 15 years earlier. This time, after a clue has been given and puzzle solved, the players begin deconstructing said puzzle to see if either their partners or the opponents can solve it. Some say the game may actually have been too easy, and that would explain its cancellation.

In this sample from January 1978, Susan Seaforth (Days of Our Lives) and Jo Ann Pflug are matched against Jamie Farr (M*A*S*H, The Gong Show) and Paul Sylvan.



In the first block of commercials, it looks like that's Don Galloway (ex-Ironside) as a pitchman for Pillsbury. 

Rating: B.