Series Description

The Dating Game TV show was a 30 minute game show on ABC where a contestant would ask questions that were typically funny or sensual in nature of three other contestants of the opposite sex. Then one of the three would be chosen to go out on a date. The questioner could not see their three potential dates so appearance did not factor into the decision.

The Dating Game Cast

Jim Lange .... Host (1965-1973)
Chuck Woolery .... Host (1973-1974 / 1977-1980 / 1997)
Elaine Joyce .... Host (1986-1987)
Jeff MacGregor .... Host (1987-1989)
Brad Sherwood .... Host (1996-1997)
Chuck Barris .... Producer

The Dating Game Trivia:

In the beginning, the dates provided by the Dating Game were typically just a local night on the town but later the show began opening its pockets for luxurious dates to exotic locations.

Occasionally there would be an episode of the Dating Game where they told about the dates that were successful and had developed into relationships. Viewers might have been skeptical, however, about the permanent nature of those relationships because the follow-ups usually just said that the couple had a great first date and went out again. There were a few dates, however, that resulted in marriage.

The Dating Game TV show began as a daytime game show. Then in October of 1966, ABC moved the series to their Thursday night prime-time schedule at 8:30PM to replace "The Tammy Grimes Show" that only survived a few episodes. It had some pretty strong competition from "My Three Sons" on CBS and "Star Trek" on NBC but it was a "fun" show and audiences loved it! It managed to survive in prime-time (a rarety for a game show) for another three years! It then returned to daytime only until 1973 on CBS. After that, the Dating Game returned for the Fall of 1973 season in syndication with Chuck Woolery as a new host. After three seasons off the air, Chuck returned, again in syndication, with more episodes from 1977-1980! In 1986, "The New Dating Game" appeared with Elaine Joyce as host. The name was changed after one season to "The All New Dating Game" because the format was slightly changed. In addition to the old questioning and choosing a date segments, some previous daters would return to tell viewers how their date turned out. That version lasted through 1989 and was hosted by Jeff MacGregor. In the fall of 1996, Brad Sherwood became the host of another new version where the potential dates were ranked on on both looks and personality. Then the chooser would decide how important those two traits were to them and that would determine who became the date. Unfortunately, looks almost always won and that probably didn't make viewers (who mostly didn't look like fashion models) very happy so the show died an early death. Even bringing back Chuck Woolery for a third try at host didn't help!

In total, the Dating Game TV show has had 2035 episodes!

The questions asked on the Dating Game were masterfull inuendos, often with sexual undertones. For example, a question might be, "After we enjoy a delicious gourmet meal on our date, what would you want for dessert?" and the answer might be, "I won't say what the dessert would be but it will involve whipped cream" or something like that.

For its final three seasons in prime-time, the Dating Game was followed by "The Newlywed Game" which was also produced by Chuck Barris and the sexual inuendos were even more flagrant. It was probably more acceptable on that show because the contestants were married. Questions like, "What does your husband do that's most likely to result in you and he making whoopee". Answers like, "I'm most likely to want to make whoopee when my husband dresses up in my baby doll nightie" caused many an embarrasing moments on that show! Some things just really need to be kept private from a nationwide television audience!