 |
 |
Broadcast History:
|
Three on a Match was a daytime game show that aired on NBC from 1971 to 1974. Bill Cullen handled the hosting duties while current Saturday Night Live announcer Don Pardo was the voice of the game.
In the game, three contestants competed in a question-and-answer game in order to earn a chance to match prizes (and later random pictures) on the Three on a Match board.
All questions in Three on a Match were of the true-or-false variety. In order to earn the right to answer questions, the three contestants had bid on how many they could answer correctly, with a minimum bid of one and a maximum bid of four. Whichever contestant had the highest bid got the first crack at the questions, and could choose from one of three categories to answer. If two players tied for the highest bid, their bids cancelled each other out and the third contestant would get the first shot at the questions. If all three players entered identical bids they would all have to bid again.
After a player had won a bid and earned the right to answer questions, all three bids were added together and multiplied by $10 to come up with the pot, which would be awarded to the contestant who was the first to fulfill their bid. The contestant could then choose one of three categories from which to answer questions. Some categories would contain special features, such as "Two Free Boxes", which would come into play if they were successful in answering all of their questions in the bid correctly.
After a contestant fulfilled their bid, they then took their money to the game board which was arranged with four rows and three columns. The columns were arranged by dollar amounts, with the leftmost costing $20, the middle costing $30, and the right costing $40, and each row was associated with a color - starting at the top with Red, then Green, Blue, and Yellow. In order to find a match, contestants would choose a color and a dollar amount to uncover (i.e., $40 on the Red). They continued to do so until they either found a match or had too little money left to continue.
The matches contestants looked for on the board went through to incarnations during the show's three-year run. In the first of the two formats, the board contained prizes which contestants would attempt to match. Once a contestant found three of one prize on the board, they won the game and became champion. If they matched on their first three picks, this would be deemed an "Instant Match" and the contestant would win a new car. Winning five games netted them an additional $5,000 in cash and they retired an undefeated champion. This format lasted from the show's 1971 debut until April 23, 1973.
The second format debuted on April 26, 1973 and tasked contestants with matching pictures of various figures, such as faces of presidents, hats, and faces of monsters. In order to become the champion, a contestant now had to make three matches, unless they were able to obtain an "Instant Match", in which case they won the game automatically. Upon obtaining three matches or an "Instant Match" the champion won a prize package worth at least $5,000, and won a $5,000 cash bonus and a new car if they were able to obtain seven consecutive matches. This format lasted until the show left the air in June 1974.
During the entirety of Three on a Match's run, if the category the contestant had answered questions from contained a feature such as the aforementioned "Two Free Boxes" then they would be allowed that many additional chances to find a match. Another special feature associated with some categories was "Double Pot", in which the pot would be multiplied by two for whichever contestant fulfilled their bid first.
Although the series had no bonus round, there was a special "Dollar Bill Game" that the contestants could participate in. Two halves of a $1,000 bill were hidden in two separate spaces on the board, and whichever contestant was able to match the two halves first would win $1,000 in cash. If a player was able to match each half on the first try, they would win $2,000.
In 1974, after a relatively successful 3-year run on weekday afternoons, NBC cancelled Three on a Match. Today, as is the case with most daytime TV of the era, only a handful of episodes survive. The series is notable as the only question-and-answer game ever created by producer Bob Stewart, whose best known creations are the various versions of Pyramid. After Three on a Match ended, nearly every game show created by Bob Stewart was some variation of a word game.
Game Show Museum Homepage