Season 1-3 Discussion - Page 20 - Match Game

I have to put this out here and this is the best spot I can think of.

   While the premise of the original Match Game was to coyly say as close to the 'naughty' thoughts everyone was thinking with to fill the  [Blank]in with, sometimes contestants managed to say answers so amazingly out of left field that there was no need to spin them into anything else.

    Case in point: Back in 1979,  a contestant was supposed to fill in the blank for the $5000 SuperMatch in which the contestant had to EXACTLY match the star to win the cash. Anyway, the clue was 'Cuckoo [BLANK]'. After a relatively lengthy wait for the star (in this case one Robert Walden then semi-hot playing one of Lou Grant's reporters), the contestant proudly gave her answer:

 

 "Cuckoo,[ Friend and Ollie]!"

 

This immediately sent all the stars and the entire studio audience into wild hysterics with Mr. Rayburn spinning the 'SuperMatch' wheel and urging folks backstage to run for their lives! It took some time for everyone to calm down with Elaine Joyce attempting to excuse the contestant by pondering if she'd misunderstood the question but Mr. Rayburn had SHOWN her the card from which he'd read the clue so there was no confusion on the contestant's part in that regard.  It was explained to the contestant that the name of the classic children's show had been Kukla, Fran and Ollie but evidently she had been too young to have learned the correct name when it was on, although Kukla and Ollie (worked by their puppeteer Burr Tillstrom) had been recent guest players on the show just weeks beforehand. Anyway, Mr. Walden was reluctant to give his reply by asking Mr. Rayburn if he HAD written ' Friend and Ollie' if that would prevent him from being asked to play on the show again, but after being assured that that wouldn't kill any future returns, he finally revealed his actual answer of  'Cuckoo[Clock]!

Edited December 10, 2018 by Blergh
bolding

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