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Players bid against each
other to answer true-false questions and accumulate money. The money was
used on the game board, where they "bought" boxes and tried to match items
in three columns. The rules for the main game changed in the final few
months (around March, 1974), plus producer Bob Stewart was constantly adding
bonuses and extra features, but the game stayed essentially the same.
As he did earlier with Eye Guess, Bill held the reins loosely. He could often be found joking around with the unseen stagehand operating the category board. Knocking on the wall behind him appeared to be a good luck standard at the start of each show as well. Bill earned the first of his three Emmy nominations for Three On A Match, though many reference books (including the EOTVGS) fail to mention it. The nomination came for the 1972-73 season, one year before the television academy established a separate Daytime Emmy Awards.
Three on a Match aired for the last time on a Friday. The following Monday, Bill could be seen hosting a new Bob Stewart game, Winning Streak. VIDEO
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Game
show fans who are old enough remember this show fondly, but at the time
it was about as insignificant a game as ever enjoyed a three year run.
The repetitive play did lend itself to familiar catch phrases. To
a fan, "That's true, Bill" or "I'll take $40 on the red" were as identifiable
then as "I'd like to buy a vowel" is today.
At
that time, the academy recognized a wide variety of programming -- including
daytime, sports and childrens shows -- in a group of categories called
"The Areas". Programs and individuals received nominations in various
"areas", and there was the possibility of multiple winners, or no winner
at all, in each category. Bill was nominated, along with Peter Marshall
and Paul Lynde of Hollywood Squares, for "Achievement by Individuals
in Daytime Programming", which the academy defined as "an award for individual
achievements which do not qualify in daytime drama." None of the
performers received an award that year. Bill would later be nominated for
Emmy Awards for his work on