It was late. The sun was down. Gene Rayburn’s iconic long-thin microphone was out, and the double-entendres were getting significantly weirder than they were during the daytime. We're talking about the 1970s. Specifically, the syndicated nighttime version of the show that everyone remembers for being just a little more "adult" than its morning counterpart. The Match Game PM cast wasn't just a rotating door of celebrities; it was a tight-knit, arguably dysfunctional, and endlessly hilarious family that defined a decade of television.
You probably think you remember the whole lineup. Most people do. They think of the "Big Three"—Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Richard Dawson. But the reality of those taping sessions at CBS Television City was a lot more chaotic.
The Chemistry of the Core Match Game PM Cast
Gene Rayburn was the glue. If Gene didn't have that frantic, slightly manic energy, the show would have collapsed under the weight of its own silliness. He had this way of sprinting across the stage that felt genuinely unscripted. It was. He’d grab a camera operator’s headset or climb into the audience just because he felt like it.
Then you had the seating chart. It mattered.
The first three seats on the top row were the rotating slots, but by the time Match Game PM hit its stride in the mid-70s, the bottom row was solidified gold. Brett Somers sat in the middle. Charles Nelson Reilly was to her right. Richard Dawson held down the bottom left.
Brett and Charles were basically a bickering married couple, even though Charles was openly (for the time, mostly through subtext) gay and Brett was actually married to Jack Klugman for a while. Their banter wasn't written. They genuinely loved poking at each other. Brett would wear these massive, oversized glasses and Charles would wear ascots that looked like they were strangling him, and they would just go at it. Honestly, modern panel shows wish they had half of that organic friction.
Why Richard Dawson Was the Wild Card
Dawson was the MVP for the contestants. If you were a civilian sitting in that contestant chair, you wanted Richard to match you. He took it seriously. Too seriously? Maybe. While Brett and Charles were there for the laughs and the cocktails (which were rumored to be quite real behind the desks), Dawson was the strategist.
In the Match Game PM format, the stakes felt higher because it was once a week in syndication rather than every day. When Dawson left the show later on, the energy shifted. It became more about the jokes and less about the "game," which some fans loved and others hated. It's actually a huge point of contention among game show historians like those at the Paley Center for Media.
The "Lower Three" vs. The Rotating Top Row
While the bottom row was the foundation, the top row of the Match Game PM cast brought the variety that kept the show from getting stale. This is where the deep-cut names live.
Fannie Flagg was a staple. Before she was a famous author (writing Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe), she was the quirky, brilliant lady in seat one or two. Her humor was dry, southern, and perfectly contrasted with the New York energy of the regulars.
McLean Stevenson showed up a lot after he left MASH*. He always looked like he was having the time of his life, probably because he wasn't stuck in a swamp in Korea anymore.
Gary Burghoff, another MASH* alum, was a frequent face.
Patti Deutsch. You cannot talk about the nighttime cast without mentioning her. Her voice was unmistakable—nasal, deadpan, and completely absurd. She didn't give "normal" answers. If the question was about a cat, she’d answer "kumquat" just to see Gene’s reaction.
Nipsey Russell. The poet laureate of television. He would come on and drop rhyming couplets that were actually clever. He brought a rhythmic energy to the panel that broke up the chaotic shouting matches.
It’s easy to overlook how much work those rotating guests did. They had to walk into a room where the regulars had been drinking and joking for six hours (they taped five episodes a day) and try to fit in. Some guests, like Joyce Bulifant with her perpetually confused and innocent persona, became such favorites that they felt like regulars.
The Nighttime Difference: Why PM Felt Different
The syndicated Match Game PM started in 1975. The daytime version had been a hit since '73, but the nighttime version allowed for slightly more "blue" humor. The questions, written by the legendary Dick DeBartolo (who also wrote for MAD Magazine), were full of "Dumb Dora" and "Old Man Periwinkle."
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In the PM version, the double-entendres about "tinklers" or "bosoms" were leaned into heavily. Gene would often look directly at the camera with a "can you believe we're saying this?" expression. The cast felt looser. It felt like a cocktail party that happened to have a scoring system.
The Mechanics of the Taping
They didn't tape once a week. They would do a "tape day."
This is a crucial bit of trivia: the cast wore different clothes for every episode to pretend it was a different day, but by the third or fourth taping of the afternoon, the "refreshments" provided in the green room began to take effect. If you watch old episodes of Match Game PM back-to-back, you can actually see the cast getting progressively more giggly and less focused as the "week" goes on.
Charles Nelson Reilly once famously joked about how long the days were, and you could see the genuine exhaustion behind his giant glasses. But that exhaustion led to some of the best unscripted moments in TV history. Like the time a contestant's answer was so weird that the entire cast got up and walked off the set.
The Mystery of the Missing Cast Members
People often ask about the "lost" regulars. There were people who did long stints but aren't always mentioned in the same breath as Dawson or Somers.
Take Scoey Mitchell. He was an integral part of the early years. Or Betty White. Before she was Rose Nylund or Sue Ann Nivens, she was a fierce Match Game competitor. She was sharp as a tack. She didn't just play for laughs; she played to win. Her chemistry with Gene Rayburn was fantastic because she could go toe-to-toe with his flirtatious energy and shut him down with a single look.
And then there’s the Sarah Kennedy era later on, but purists usually stick to the '75-'81 run for the definitive Match Game PM cast experience.
The Cultural Legacy of the Panel
What made this group work wasn't just that they were funny. It was that they represented a cross-section of 1970s entertainment culture. You had the Broadway veteran (Reilly), the singer/actress (Somers), the British star (Dawson), and the comedians.
They weren't "influencers" or "content creators." They were seasoned pros who knew how to "yes-and" each other before improv was a mainstream term. When a contestant failed to match, the cast didn't just say "too bad." They turned it into a three-minute bit.
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Genuine Conflict on Set
It wasn't all sunshine. Richard Dawson eventually grew tired of the format. He felt the show was becoming too much of a joke and not enough of a game. He also famously stopped smiling as much toward the end of his run. This tension is visible in the later years of the PM version.
When he finally left to host Family Feud full-time, the show lost its "straight man." Bill Daily (of I Dream of Jeannie fame) and others tried to fill the void, and while they were funny, the specific chemistry of the original trio was impossible to replicate.
Analyzing the Winning Strategy (If There Was One)
If you’re watching old episodes on Buzzr or YouTube, you’ll notice a pattern. The contestants who won the big money in the "Super Match" almost always went for the most obvious, boring answer.
But the Match Game PM cast hated boring answers.
They wanted "Boobs." They wanted "Tinkle." They wanted something that would make Gene Rayburn do his weird little dance. The tension between the contestant wanting to win money and the celebrities wanting to get a laugh is what created the show's best moments.
Actionable Insights for Retro TV Fans
If you're looking to dive back into the world of 1970s game shows, don't just watch the clips. Watch a full episode of Match Game PM from 1977 or 1978. Look at the background. Look at the way the cast interacts during the commercial breaks (which you can sometimes find in "unpaged" studio footage).
- Notice the seating: The person in the top-right (Seat 3) was often the "newbie" guest.
- Watch the eyes: See how often the guests look at Brett Somers for approval. She was the unofficial queen of the set.
- Listen for the "slop": The late-night syndication meant the editors were lazier. You’ll hear more off-mic comments and stray laughs than in the daytime version.
The Match Game PM cast wasn't just a group of people playing a game. They were a weekly escape into a world where everything was a joke, everyone had a drink in their hand, and the only thing that mattered was finding a word that rhymed with "blank."
To truly appreciate the show today, one has to recognize that it was a product of a very specific time in television history—before everything was hyper-polished and focus-tested. It was raw, it was often inappropriate, and it was entirely human. That's why, fifty years later, we're still talking about it.
To keep your retro TV knowledge sharp, pay attention to the production credits on these old episodes. You'll see the names Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. They were the architects of this era, and understanding their "formula" for casting—always having a "ditsy" one, a "smart" one, and a "grumpy" one—explains why the Match Game PM cast felt so balanced despite the madness. Check out the archives at the Game Show Network or streaming platforms like Pluto TV to see these specific cast dynamics in action. There is no better way to learn the rhythm of 70s comedy than watching Charles Nelson Reilly try to explain a "blank" to a confused contestant from Ohio.