Trivia / Tattletales

• Keep Circulating the Tapes: For decades, the 1977-78 syndicated version had only one clip circulating- a few seconds of end credits. While GSN never touched it, Buzzr aired two episodes of the nighttime show in 2020 as part of a block of romantic-themed shows for Valentine's Day. It's been said that Bob Newhart specifically vetoed rerunning his Tattletales episodes; all other shows were OK. Since he appeared on the bulk of the syndicated run, it made rerunning it unfeasible. Notably, he was not on either of the two episodes Buzzr aired.
• Screwed by the Network: Somewhat. Tattletales airing at 4:00 PM was the companion show to Match Game on CBS, airing at 3:30. In June 1975, CBS moved Tattletales to 11:00 where it gained a number of affiliates that blacked it out at 4:00, but it followed Gambit and viewers were rather lost on the chemistry. Eight weeks later, Tattletales was moved back to the afternoon, this time at 3:30 (with Match Game at 3:00) and it became the second highest rated daytime show. By December, both shows were back at the original times (Tattletales was displaced by Musical Chairs, and would displace Give-n-Take, which was shoved to the later afternoon so The Price Is Right could expand to an hour). During its last three months of its original run (December 1977 - March 1978), Tattletales was aired at 10 AM which by that time had low clearances from CBS affiliates.
• What Could Have Been: Gene Rayburn hosted the pilot in 1972. By the time the series was picked up, Rayburn was already hosting the Match Game revival on CBS. Bert Convy was tapped to host instead, but Gene did sit in for him while he and his wife Anne played for a week.
• Working Title: The pilot was called Celebrity Match Mates (not to be confused with Matchmates, an Australian puzzle game show with married couples which had a pilot for NBC in 1985}.