''Blankety Blanks'' is an Australian

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...

based on the American game show '' Match Game''. It was hosted by

Graham Kennedy Graham Cyril Kennedy AO (15 February 1934 – 25 May 2005) was an Australian entertainer, comedian and variety performer, as well as a personality and star of radio, theatre, television and film. He often performed in the style of vaudevilli ...

on the

0-10 Network Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

from 1977–1978. Panelists were Ugly Dave Gray, Jon English, Noeline Brown,

Carol Raye Carol Raye (17 January 1923 – 18 June 2022 as Kathleen Mary Corkrey and also billed as Carole Raye) was a British-born Australian actress of film, television, radio, theatre and revue, comedian, singer, dancer, and radio and television prod ...

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Noel Ferrier Noel Ferrier AM (20 December 193016 October 1997) was an Australian television personality, comedian, stage and film actor, raconteur and theatrical producer. He was a regular panelist in Graham Kennedy's popular game show '' Blankety Blanks ( ...

Dawn Lake Dawn Alice Lake (20 January 1927 – 1 January 2006) was an Australian television comedian, singer, entertainer, and actor whose career spanned more than 50 years. She was particularly associated in show business with her husband Bobby Limb. ...

Barry Creyton Barry Creyton (born 1939, Brisbane, Queensland) is an Australian actor and playwright. Creyton began his professional career in radio and revue in Melbourne, Australia and became well known in Sydney starring in and writing popular comedy-melod ...

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, John Paul Young,

Peggy Toppano Peggy may refer to: People * Peggy (given name), people with the given name or nickname Arts and entertainment * ''Peggy'' (musical), a 1911 musical comedy by Stuart and Bovill * ''Peggy'' (album), a 1977 Peggy Lee album * ''Peggy'' (191 ...

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Peita Toppano Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal chart ...

, Belinda Giblin,

Abigail Abigail () was an Israelite woman in the Hebrew Bible married to Nabal; she married the future King David after Nabal's death ( 1 Samuel ). Abigail was David's second wife, after Saul and Ahinoam's daughter, Michal, whom Saul later ma ...

, Trevor White, Nick Tate, Tommy Hanlon Junior,

Wendy Blacklock Wendy Blacklock AM (born 20 January 1932) is an Australian-born retired theatre actress and theatrical entrepreneur, radio and television actress, comedienne, producer, writer, singer, dancer and choreographer who has appeared in numerous perfo ...

Delvene Delaney Delvene Delaney (born 26 August 1951) is an Australian actress of soap opera and film, television presenter and singer. Career Delaney was born in Mackay, Queensland, Australia, on 26 August 1951, the beauty pageant winner found fame on Austr ...

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, Gloria Dawn,

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, Col Joye,

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, Ros Speirs,

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, June Salter, Joe Martin,

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, Iain Finlay, Tony Bonner,

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, Joanne Samuel, Mike Preston, Johnny Pace, Harriet Pace,

Syd Heylen Harold Charles Sydney Heylen (25 May 1922 – 4 December 1996), credited variously as Syd Heylen, Sid Heylen and Sydney Heylen, was an Australian character actor of radio, stage, television and film, comedian, and variety performer and soldi ...

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Sheila Kennelly Sheila Kennelly (born 28 December 1936Willingham, Margot "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Australian Showbiz"Oram, James "Home and Away" Behind the Scene's'' published by Angus and Robertson also credited as Sheila Kenneally, is a British-born ...

, Megan Williams and Linda Kerridge. ''Blankety Blanks'' had a two-season run from 1977 to 1978. It was screened at a rate of five, thirty-minute episodes each week, stripped across an early evening timeslot. In Sydney and Melbourne, it was broadcast in the 7pm timeslot across both seasons. It was a ratings success, beating the flagship current affairs programs '' Willesee At Seven'' on the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

and '' A Current Affair'' on the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

, and on occasions achieving ratings in the low 40s. It was only after this ratings success that Network Ten revealed Kennedy was paid an unprecedented $1 million per season. In 1978, Kennedy won a TV Week Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television. When Kennedy had a bout with

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

, announcer Don Blake was forced to host the show for an episode.

Gameplay

Two contestants, including a returning champion, competed. The contestants were always a man and a woman – at no point during the series did two people of the same gender compete. The object was to match the answers of the six celebrity panelists to fill-in-the-blank statements. The main game was played in two rounds. The challenger was given a choice of two statements labeled either "A" or "B." Kennedy then read the statement. Many of the show's questions were designed as ''double entendres'', such as "Joan and Paul went to bed and Joan asked Paul to (BLANK) her". The celebrity panelists wrote their answers on cards, after which the contestant gave their answer. Kennedy then asked each celebrity in turn, beginning in the upper left hand corner, to reveal their response. The contestant earned one point for a matching answer (or reasonably similar as determined by the adjudicator – producer Tony Connelly who was dubbed by Kennedy "Tony the moustache twirler"). After completion of the round, Kennedy read the question on the other card for the returning champion and play was identical. The challenger again began Round 2, with two new questions, unless he/she matched everyone in the first round. Only panelists that a contestant didn't previously match played this round. If the players tied with the same score at the end of the round the scores were reset to 0–0. Play continued until there was a clear winner. The winner of the game went on to play the ''Super Match''. The contestant had to match a word in a fill-in-the-blank phrase with the most popular response given in an audience survey. The contestant could consult three panelists for suggestions. The most popular answer in the survey was worth $100, the second-most popular $50, and the third most popular $25. The contestant won the amount of the answer they matched with. If a contestant failed to match any of the three answers, the bonus round ended. If successful the contestant had the opportunity to win 10 times that amount in the "Head-To-Head Match". In this part of the game, they must match another fill-in-the-blank response with a celebrity panelist of his or her choice. If successful, he/she won the money accumulated in both parts of the round. Either way, the winning contestant could keep playing until defeated by another challenger.

Running gags

Many questions were quotations of a fictional character named Cyril, and would begin "Cyril said..." with the quotation recited by Kennedy in a stereotypical gay male voice (Cyril was Kennedy's middle name). Another recurring character in the questions was Dumb Dora – a joke borrowed from ''Match Game''. A recurring comedy skit between Kennedy and Gray involved discussion about a man named "Dick", leading to "Did Dick?", "Dick did!" exchanges between Kennedy and Ugly Dave Gray. Kennedy's risque brand of humour often nudged the boundaries of contemporary Australian broadcasting standards. Peter Hough was the crew member behind the show's sets pulling the lever that uncovered the correct answers on the board. In one running gag he was dubbed "Peter the Phantom Puller" by Kennedy. To reveal each answer in turn, Kennedy would call out "Peter could you have a pull", "Pull it Peter!", etc. In one episode Kennedy came on with a prepared list of "rude" words which were deemed acceptable to be spoken on-air. Throughout the episode, he would suddenly launch into a chant of "wee poo bum, wee poo bum!"

History

The series was a Reg Grundy production based on the long-running American game show '' Match Game'', which had been created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Indeed, the ''Blankety Blanks'' set looked almost identical to its American counterpart. The series also used a similarly stylised logo. One of the conditions Kennedy requested when he started ''Blankety Blanks'' was the right to choose the members of the panel. If they worked well they would be retained, but if they didn't, they wouldn't be asked back. The first episode aired on TEN-10 Sydney on Monday, 24 January 1977 at 7:30pm, where it was telecast Monday to Friday. After six weeks of broadcasting at 7:30pm the show was moved into the 7pm slot, where it remained through to the end of its first season on Friday 2 December 1977. After summer break, the show returned to TEN-10 on Monday 9 January 1978 and remained at 7pm Monday to Friday for its entire second season. In October 1978 the series came up for renewal, and Ten was keen to renew the series. Kennedy consulted key panelist Ugly Dave Gray about the potential renewal. Gray felt he had used every joke he had done in his career and exhausted the comic potential of the formula and expressed a desire to not continue with the series. Kennedy observed that the ratings were down from earlier figures; although earlier figures were unusually high (ratings in the 40s), recent figures in the 30s range were still extremely high. In any event, Kennedy informed Ten that he would not be continuing with the series, and the show ended its run on TEN-10 Sydney on Friday 3 November 1978. The series has been repeated many times since its original run. It was shown on all four Network Ten stations, particularly ATV-10 Melbourne, numerous times between January 1985 and January 1987. In the 2000s it aired on

Foxtel Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...

's TV1. In January 2009,

The Comedy Channel The Comedy Channel (promoted on air as comedy) is a defunct Australian subscription television channel available on Foxtel, and Optus Television. The channel ceased broadcasting on 1 September 2020. History A joint venture between Artist Serv ...

began screening back-to-back episodes on Friday nights. A DVD set of 30 episodes was released in late 2005.

Revivals

The game show has been revived twice in Australia since the Graham Kennedy series. The first of these, a 1985-1986 version hosted by Daryl Somers on the

, had moderate success. A second revival hosted by Shane Bourne followed in 1996–97, again on the

. Its regular panelists included

Marty Fields Marty Fields (born 18 December 1961) is an Australian comedian, host/mc, actor, writer, musician, singer, and radio presenter from Melbourne. Professional career The son of Australian actors Maurie Fields and Val Jellay, Fields has had long ...

Rhonda Burchmore Rhonda Suzanne Burchmore OAM (born 15 May 1960) is an Australian entertainer. Career Burchmore appeared as Kate in the 1982 film, ''The Pirate Movie''. Burchmore gave her first Australian theatre performance in the 1988 production of '' Sugar ...

Tim Smith Tim, Timothy or Timmy Smith may refer to: Musicians *T. V. Smith (born 1956), British singer and songwriter *Tim Smith (Cardiacs) (1961–2020), English singer-songwriter and frontman of Cardiacs * Timmy Trumpet (born 1982), Australian DJ and prod ...

, Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Nicky Buckley,

Ian "Molly" Meldrum Ian Alexander "Molly" Meldrum AM (born 29 January 1943) is an Australian music critic, journalist, record producer and musical entrepreneur. He was the talent co-ordinator, on-air interviewer, and music news presenter on the former popular mus ...

, Jane Turner and Sam Newman. This had slightly more success than the 80s revival, lasting two seasons. Both of these versions followed the same format as the Kennedy version, but with a top prize of $5,000 (Audience Match amounts were $500–$250–$100, equaling those from the 1973–1982 American versions of ''Match Game''). In the second round of the 1990s revival, both players and the panel wrote their answers to the same statement and the player who played second in the first round chose whether to play with the top or bottom row and each match scored 2 points.

References

External links