This was a fun game show. I used to watch it all the time.

So, apparently, his wife, Diana Dors, divorced him and went crazy, and when she died she gave his son a coded message, promising him two million pounds hidden in various banks throughout Europe. The catch was he wasn't supposed to tell Dawson about it.

It took the kid twenty years and the assistance of a small army of volunteers with computers to crack the code, and the accounts existed but they had been empty for decades. This leads to one of three possible situations:

1) Dawson cracked the code first and took the money. And then did "Running Man" out of the kindness of his heart and dedication to mankind's highest artistic goals. (My personal preferred option.)

2) The money never existed and Diana Dors did it because she was crazy, but was inexplicably a brilliant code and puzzle maker.

3) Rupert Murdoch gave Diana Dors the code, and set it up as a last ditch publicity stunt to squeeze a bit more drama out of the woman once known as the "British Marilyn Monroe". This is probably the most likely, given she was under contract to Newscorp as she was dying, and she would have done anything to prolong the limelight even slightly.

MFW I learn that Richard Dawson was married to someone who is mentioned in a New York Dolls song.

The song is "It's Too Late".

Dunno if I would call that a meltdown... That was pretty tame by Match Game standards.