Stars And Money

Stars & Money is a story written by Daniel in which he finds a strange videotape in his home, on which is six episodes of a rather bizarre enigma – the girls of Azumanga Daioh on Match Game.

Like the original Azumanga Who, the story is told in "script" form with narration by Daniel. So far, only one "episode" has been "transcribed" along with the first "segment" of the second, but it is currently on an indefinite hiatus.

In September 2011, the story was placed into DBE Unbound: Series 1.

Match Game Format
Two contestants, one usually a returning champion, competed in two rounds of answering questions presented as "fill-in-the-blank" situations. Each celebrity matched earned one point, with six being the maximum. The highest score after two rounds won $100 and played the Super-Match. (In the event of a tie after Round 2, a tiebreaker was played until one contestant scored more points.)

The Super-Match was played in two parts. First, the contestant asked three celebrities for help to fill in a phrase that was polled to "a recent studio audience". Matching the top answer in the Audience Match earned $500, the second-most popular $250, and the third-most popular $100; Not matching any of the three answers ended the Super-Match.

The amount won in the Audience Match was then multiplied by 10 for the Head-To-Head Match. Matching one celebrity of the contestant's choice won the big money, for a maximum of $5,000.

On PM, two Audience Match rounds were played with the top prize being $10,000. Should a contestant lose on both boards, they played a normal question with the stars for $100 per match.

Champions stayed on until they either lost or reached the CBS winnings limit of $25,000. As PM was syndicated at a time when episodes usually aired out of taping sequence in most markets that carried it, two new contestants played on each show. Each celebrity panel taped five daytime shows and one PM, although some nighttime episodes did not have a corresponding daytime panel and vice-versa.

The Show
As the author explains, the episodes are "genuine" and he has been transcribing them solely because nobody believed him. The era seen is that of the CBS run hosted by Gene Rayburn, and each episode is preceded by a production slate read by announcer Johnny Olson. The slate uses "#000X-T", the "X" being a number and "T" standing for "Test" – with the first five shows possessing tapedates of September 25, 1975.

Also appearing are Earl (the Super-Match board operator), Roger Dobkowitz (the cue card boy), Ira Skutch (the Judge), and Jay Wolpert (the Producer). Mark Goodson (the creator) has also been said to appear "later in the (first) week".

(In reality, Ira Skutch was both Judge and Producer; as stipulated later, Wolpert may have been hired as Producer for just the "Test" episodes. In addition, Marc Breslow is directing the show throughout.)

Substitute Host
"And now here's the star of Match Game...CHIYOOOOOO MIHAMA!"

After the first episode finished taping, Gene begins to explain something but is hindered by Tomo. A punch by Yomi directed towards Tomo ends up breaking Gene's nose, landing him in the hospital.

Chiyo, not wanting the folks who showed up for the second taping to be turned away, volunteers to guest-host the show until Gene is able to return. Hence, Episode #0002-T has Sakaki sitting in Chiyo's seat (how she appeared is not certain) and Chiyo being introduced by Johnny.

"Hi, everybody! Hi Olson-san! Welcome to Match Game!"

Daniel notes how comfortable Chiyo looked, despite being an eleven-year-old hosting her first game show.

Experiment
Left unclear during the anarchy is what kind of experiment these episodes are – whether it was for Daily Syndication, to drop the year from the logo, or something deeper.

Fueling this is the fact that, although there are numerous mentions of CBS (and the fact that Johnny asks viewers to "Stay tuned for Tattletales next over most of these CBS stations" at the end of #0001-T), the numbering system for the episodes is completely different than that used on any version.

Numbering System
The 1973-79 run used a basic numbering system (an episode taped in 1979 had #1416), while the following three years in Syndication used a system according to the season (79-80-81), week (01-35), and day (1-5).

The 1975 Match Game episodes instead used a unique "-T" system, which was increased as episodes were recorded.

Clues
Strangely, there are no mentions of the year except on the slates; Gene and Johnny refer to the girls as "our special panel" several times during #0001-T, and it seems that the entire Goodson-Todman staff knew of the experiment (or, at the very least, the Match Game staff and Mark Goodson himself).

As to the point of the episodes, the only clues come from Johnny himself while he took questions from the audience during a stopdown just before the Super-Match on #0001-T. First, he was asked up-front just why there was a "special panel" and no year on the logo. According to the author, "Johnny simply responded that it was "an experiment" and left it at that."

Shortly after, he was asked to explain what the markings on the production slate meant. Through using the slate itself, he talked about the tapedate and what "TBA" meant (To Be Announced), then said that the "T" in "#0001-T" stands for "Test"...however went no further as to what the "Test" is.

Future Episodes
According to comments by the author during the first segment of #0002-T, there are a total of 42 "special panel" episodes on seven tapes – 35 episodes of Match Game (numbered #0001-T to #0035-T) and seven (apparently early) episodes of Match Game PM (numbered #001-PM-T to #007-PM-T).

Shelving
Likely due to it being an "experiment" of unknown origin or purpose, none of the 42 episodes were aired on CBS or Game Show Network (henceforth known as GSN). While this may have been due to editing concerns and broadcast standards, it may also be due to the possibility that the episodes were recorded for a purpose frowned upon by the Standards & Practices of 1975.

It is possible that CBS or GSN gave the episodes to a staff member for the purpose of hiding or burning (it is unknown as to how they survived); they may have been placed on a burn order by CBS and/or Jim Victory Television (which distributed PM), although this would only be plausible if the episodes did something illegal, or the purpose for the "Test" was not disclosed to CBS prior to taping #0001-T.

In the segments the author had transcribed, though, there was no evidence that anything illegal had been done with the possible exception of breaking child-labor laws with Chiyo hosting (although she admitted to volunteering).

Johnny said during the first stopdown of #0002-T that "It doesn't feel all that different without Gene". The author agrees, adding that the shelving of these episodes was one of the game-show fandom's greatest losses.

Mark Goodson
The author thinks that Goodson knew about the circumstances of the "Test" prior to the tapings, and may have even approved the beginning of production, but did not know that Chiyo took over hosting until sometime during the production of #0002-T. Further, he believes that Goodson did not place a burn order on the episodes (as he presumably approved of the whole matter), but may have simply prohibited them from airing.

He also stipulates that it may have been his partner, Bill Todman, that strongly objected to this matter and hence snitched, telling CBS and Jim Victory about the whole matter to force production to cease.

The author also states that no more than 42 episodes were recorded prior to the ceasing of production, and believes that all contestants who appeared during this period were paid their winnings as compensation.