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Gene Rayburn (December 22, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an Emmy-nominated American radio and television personality. Born Eugene Rubessa (IPA pronunciation: [ru'beʃɑ]) and an only child of Croatian immigrants, he graduated from Knox College. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links GeneRayburn1979. ... For the song by the Smashing Pumpkins, see 1979 (song). ... December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ... Christopher is a city in Franklin County, Illinois, United States. ... November 29 is the 333rd (in leap years the 334th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Settled: 1623 â€“ Incorporated: 1642 Zip Code(s): 01930 â€“ Area Code(s): 351 / 978 Official website: http://www. ... December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ... November 29 is the 333rd (in leap years the 334th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... An Emmy Award. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Knox College is a four-year coeducational private liberal arts college located in Galesburg, Illinois. ...

Rayburn was married to Helen Ticknor from 1940 until her death in October 1996. They had one child, a daughter, Lynn. After the birth of their child, Rayburn was drafted into the U.S. Air Force. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Seal of the Air Force. ...

Rayburn chose his stage name by randomly pointing at a page in the telephone book, after being told Rubessa sounded "too Italian". He became a popular radio personality in New York City on WNEW-AM. He was half of the first two-man team in morning radio, partnering with Jack Lescoulie and later Dee Finch. a Radio Personality is the modern incarnation of the disk jockey, or DJ. In the 1990s, successful radio stations began to focus less on the musical expertise of their hosts and more on the individual hosts personalities. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... WBBR is a radio station, broadcasting at 1130 AM in New York City. ... Jack Lescoulie (b. ...

Television career

Before appearing in television, Rayburn was a very successful actor and radio performer. He had the drivetime New York radio show with Dee Finch called "Rayburn & Finch," which was enormously successful. He also landed the lead in the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie. Bye Bye Birdie is a Broadway musical satire on American society written by Michael Stewart (book), Lee Adams (lyrics), and Charles Strouse (music). ...

Breaking into television as the original announcer on The Tonight Show, he eventually appeared as a panelist on the quiz show The Name's the Same. In 1955, he took over as host of the summer replacement game show, Make the Connection, from original host, Jim McKay. From there he hosted shows such as Choose Up Sides, Dough Re Mi, and Tic Tac Dough. On radio, Rayburn became one of the many hosts of the popular NBC program Monitor in 1961 and remained with the show until 1973. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Names the Same was a gameshow produced in the black and white era, whose premise was simliar to Whats My Line?, but the panelists here had to guess the name of the person, which also described something (e. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Make the Connection was an American game show that ran during the summer of 1955. ... James Kenneth McManus, better known by his professional name of Jim McKay (born September 24, 1921 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), is an American television sports journalist. ... Choose Up Sides was a childrens television game show that aired on NBC Saturday mornings from 01/07/1956 to 03/31/1956. ... 70s & 80s Tic Tac Dough Logo Wink Martindale hosting Tic Tac Dough in 1980 Tic-Tac-Dough was an American television game show based on the pen-and-paper game tic-tac-toe. ... Monitor host Dave Garroway NBC Monitor was a weekend radio program broadcast from June 12, 1955 to January 26, 1975. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

During the 1960s, he occasionally substituted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. In 1967, Carson would make a surprise appearance on the original black-and-white version of The Match Game during the same week that Tonight announcer Ed McMahon was a guest celebrity. In 1973, Rayburn recalled his guest-hosting duties as "the hardest job" he ever had. The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... For other persons named John Carson, see John Carson (disambiguation). ... The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was the full name of NBCs The Tonight Show during the years that Johnny Carson hosted from 1962 to 1992. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Ed McMahon During One of Johnny Carsons Monologues on the Tonight Show Ed McMahon (born Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

The Match Game

In 1962 Rayburn first hosted The Match Game. The original version, which aired on NBC, lasted until 1969. The show returned to CBS in 1973 with a new format in which contestants had to match celebrity answers to humorous "fill-in-the-blank" questions. Millions tuned in and it soon became the highest-rated daytime TV show. From 1973 to 1977, it was #1 among all game shows, fueled mostly by the zany questions and Rayburn's witty style. His interaction with the panel and contestants and his antics, including breaking through the entrance doors, roller-skating on stage and climbing the audience, made the show a classic. The daytime revival of Match Game, which featured regular panelists Richard Dawson, Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly, ran until 1979 on CBS and another three years in first-run syndication until 1982, with a concurrent night-time version, Match Game PM, airing from 1975 to 1981. Rayburn was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Host or Hostess in a Game or Audience Participation Show. 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... The Match Game was an American television game show, most often hosted by Gene Rayburn. ... NBC (a former acronym for National Broadcasting Company) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... Richard Dawson, a panelist on Match Game, seen here in 1977 during the infamous School Riot episode. ... Brett Somers (born Audrey Sommers on July 11, 1924) is an actress, singer, and comedienne. ... Charles Nelson Reilly (born January 13, 1931) is an American actor, director and drama teacher known for his comedic roles in movies, childrens television, animated cartoons, and as a panelist on the game show Match Game. ... For the song by the Smashing Pumpkins, see 1979 (song). ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York- based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming. ...

During the years when Match Game was taped in Los Angeles, Rayburn lived in Osterville, Massachusetts on Cape Cod, and would commute to California every two weeks to tape 12 shows over the course of a weekend (five daytime shows and one nighttime show per taping day). Osterville is a village in the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts. ... Cape Cod (or simply the Cape) is an arm-shaped peninsula nearly coextensive with Barnstable County, Massachusetts and forming the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States. ...

In 1983, a year after the syndicated Match Game disappeared, the show was revived as part of the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, with Rayburn hosting the Match Game segment and sitting on the panel of the Hollywood Squares segment. The show lasted nine months on NBC. 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour was a short-lived American television game show that combined two long-running formats of the 1970s — Match Game and Hollywood Squares — into an hour-long format. ... The Hollywood Squares title screen The Hollywood Squares was an American television comedy and game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win money and prizes. ...

Other game shows

During and between his Match Game years, Rayburn served as guest panelist on two other Goodson-Todman shows, What's My Line? and To Tell the Truth, where he exhibited the same inquisitiveness on serious subjects he showed on Monitor. Three years after the original Match Game was cancelled, Rayburn hosted the short-lived Heatter-Quigley Productions show, The Amateur's Guide to Love (1972). He also hosted a pilot for Reg Grundy Productions in 1983 called Party Line, which later became Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak (which first aired in 1986 and was cancelled after 13 weeks). Mark Goodson (January 14, 1915 – December 18, 1992) was an accomplished American television producer who specialized in game shows. ... Bill Todman (July 31, 1916-July 29, 1979) was an American television producer born in New York City. ... Whats My Line? was a weekly panel game show originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. ... Nipsey Russell, Peggy Cass, Bill Cullen and Kitty Carlisle from the 1969-78 version. ... Heatter-Quigley Productions is an American television production company that was launched in 1960 by two former television writers, Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Reg Grundy Productions was the American wing of the worldwide television production company Grundy Worldwide, which was founded by Australian television producer Reg Grundy. ... Bruce Forsyths Hot Streak was a short-lived ABC game aired from January 6, 1986 to April 4, 1986. ...

The final game shows Rayburn emceed were: a 1985 revival of Break the Bank, where Rayburn was fired after 13 weeks and replaced by Joe Farago, and The Movie Masters, an AMC cable game show that ran from 1989 to 1990. 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Break the Bank is a title that has been used for three entirely separate American game shows throughout television history. ... The Movie Masters was a short-lived American television game show which ran from 1989 to 1990. ... AMC was originally a basic cable channel that aired classic movies, largely pre-1950s, in a commercial-free, generally unedited format. ... 6 or 15cm outside diameter, oil-cooled cables, traversing the Grand Coulee Dam throughout. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ...

Rayburn's final television appearance, in 1998 on Access Hollywood. This special was also shown on Sunday, February 4, 2007 on the Game Show Network.

Right before production was to begin on a new Rayburn-emceed Match Game revival in 1985, an Entertainment Tonight reporter publicly disclosed his age, which was much older than many people believed. Rayburn had trouble finding jobs after that, blaming the reporter for disclosing his age and subjecting him to age discrimination. Image File history File links 3gene2. ... Image File history File links 3gene2. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean by UNESCO. [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... Access Hollywood logo used 2001-2005 Access Hollywood is a weekday television entertainment news program covering events and celebrities in the entertainment industry. ... The Game Show Network logo (1997-2004) The Game Show Network Logo (1994-1997) GSN (formerly known on-air as Game Show Network) is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows, casino game shows, interactive television games, and reality shows. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Entertainment Tonight is a daily television entertainment news show that is syndicated by CBS Paramount Domestic Television throughout the United States, Canada, on the Nine Network in Australia and on UBC Inside in Thailand. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · The Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Blood libel · Black Legend Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Ku Klux Klan National Party (South Africa) American Nazi Party Kahanism · Supremacism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism...

Death

Rayburn's last TV appearance was a 1998 interview with Access Hollywood intended to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the CBS Match Game. Portions of the interview have been re-shown on the Game Show Network which in 2001 showed portions of another previously unaired interview during the first airing of its Match Game Blankathon. 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean by UNESCO. [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... The Game Show Network logo (1997-2004) The Game Show Network Logo (1994-1997) GSN (formerly known on-air as Game Show Network) is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows, casino game shows, interactive television games, and reality shows. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Rayburn died at his daughter's home of congestive heart failure in 1999, one month after receiving a Lifetime Achievement award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Congestive heart failure (CHF), also called congestive cardiac failure (CCF) or just heart failure, is a condition that can result from any structural or functional cardiac disorder that impairs the ability of the heart to fill with or pump a sufficient amount of blood throughout the body. ... The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) is the organization which awards the Emmys. ...

Trivia

• During a taping of Match Game '74 he unintentionally told a contestant that she had "pretty nipples", meaning to say "dimples." The incident was cut from the original CBS episode and is not shown in GSN reruns either. Nonetheless, it has come to be known as possibly the most embarrassing "host screw-up" in game show history. The moment has been aired on several present-day TV specials regarding game show mishaps.

• From 1978 up until Rayburn's death, he never spoke with Match Game regular panelist Richard Dawson. Dawson was a popular celebrity panel member who enjoyed joking around with the rest of the crew, yet in late 1977 until the summer of 1978, he appeared less interested in the game, probably due to the fact that he was hosting his own new hit game show, Family Feud. Years later, Rayburn recalled that Dawson was in later years, a "loner...with a monumental ego" who was "trying to kill the show."

• He knitted socks as a publicity stunt during his time on Rayburn and Finch and later became avid in needlepoint, so much to the point that he would constantly do some in plane rides from New York to Match Game tapings in Hollywood. In a 1974 Match Game episode, Match Game creator Mark Goodson made a surprise visit to congratulate the host on making the show #1 among daytime television programs and Goodson gave Rayburn a needlepoint bag as a gift in turn. In a later episode that year, panelist Richard Dawson showed off a picture of Gene knitting socks as part of the aforementioned publicity stunt.

• Rayburn once hosted a local New York City-based show on WNEW-TV (now WNYW), Helluva Town.

• Rayburn was of Croatian ancestry and he could also speak the language. On Match Game, when a contestant with the same ancestry would appear on the show, Rayburn would exchange a few words in Croatian with them.

• On one occasion on Match Game (CBS), the name of William F. Buckley Jr. (a famous conservative) was brought up. Rayburn said that Buckley was "...always wrong!" At one point, tabloids circulated that Rayburn supported North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, however this turned out be a falsified and fictional story.

• Rayburn appeared as a contestant during the Game Show Hosts Week of Card Sharks. Planned Parenthood was the charity to where his winnings went.

• In an episode of the syndicated version of the show, he asked a contestant if a yellow star on her shoulder were a symbol of "communism." She denied it, and the show continued.

• In an uncredited role (he reportedly did not want his name to appear), Rayburn played a TV interviewer in the 1959 movie, It Happened to Jane starring Doris Day. His involvement was mentioned on an episode of Match Game '77.

• Rayburn took over for Dick Van Dyke in the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie.

• Rayburn appeared on Fantasy Island as a game-show host -- he and another host were game show rivals who wanted to do the ultimate game show to win the woman they both loved; Roarke accommodated them with a game-show set, but the host's chair was more like a throne, and death was a real possibility. In the end, the two men, in a dead heat, were offered a final tie-breaker, a "sudden death" round.

• In between game show stints in 1982-83, Rayburn hosted a weekly local talk/lifestyles show seen live on WNEW-TV in New York City called Saturday Morning Live. His tenure was brief when he ultimately accepted the hosting assignment for The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour.

• Rayburn portrayed himself on a Saturday Night Live sketch in 1990, which featured Susan Lucci (as her character from All My Children, Erica Kane. Rayburn returned as one of Kane's previous husbands (alluding to Erica Kane's many marriages during her stint on that show), stopping another marriage with the host of a game show portrayed by Phil Hartman.

The Game Show Network logo (1997-2004) The Game Show Network Logo (1994-1997) GSN (formerly known on-air as Game Show Network) is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows, casino game shows, interactive television games, and reality shows. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Richard Dawson, a panelist on Match Game, seen here in 1977 during the infamous School Riot episode. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... It has been suggested that Family Feud Broadcast History (United States), Family Feud rules and production, Family Feud around the world be merged into this article or section. ... NY redirects here. ... ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Mark Goodson (January 14, 1915 – December 18, 1992) was an accomplished American television producer who specialized in game shows. ... WNYW, FOX5 is the flagship TV station of the Fox Broadcasting Company. ... William Frank Buckley Jr. ... The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN), or less commonly, Vietnamese Democratic Republic (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cá»™ng Hòa), also known as North Vietnam, was proclaimed by Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, September 2nd1945 and was recognized by the Peoples Republic of China and the... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... Card Sharks was an American television game show in which contestants guessed whether a playing card was higher or lower than the card that preceded it. ... Planned Parenthoods Logo Planned Parenthood is the collective name of organizations worldwide who are members of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... It Happened to Jane is a 1959 romantic comedy film starring Doris Day, Jack Lemmon and Ernie Kovacs directed by Richard Quine and written by Norman Katkov and Max Wilk. ... Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff (born April 3, 1924) is an American singer, actress, and animal welfare advocate known as Doris Day. ... Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an Emmy-Award winning American television and movie actor, comedian and dancer. ... Bye Bye Birdie is a Broadway musical satire on American society written by Michael Stewart (book), Lee Adams (lyrics), and Charles Strouse (music). ... Fantasy Island refers to two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network. ... WNYW, FOX5 is the flagship TV station of the Fox Broadcasting Company. ... Nickname: Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1625 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area  - City  468. ... The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour was an American television game show that combined two long-running formats of the 1970s — Match Game and Hollywood Squares — into an hour-long format. ... Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a weekly late night 90-minute American comedy-variety show based in New York City which has been broadcast live by NBC on Saturday nights since October 11, 1975. ... MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ... Susan Victoria Lucci (born December 23, 1946) is a Daytime Emmy Award winning actress. ... All My Children (AMC) is an American soap opera that has been broadcast Monday through Friday on the ABC TV network since January 5, 1970. ... Erica Kane, from a picture first seen in All My Childrens opening credits in January 1990. ... Phil Hartman (born as Philip Edward Hartmann) (September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was an Emmy-winning Canadian/American graphic artist, writer, actor, voice artist, and comedian. ...

External links

• Gene Rayburn at the Internet Movie Database
• Gene Rayburn bio on the Match Game Homepage