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Family Feud is a television game show that pits two families against each other in a contest to name the most popular responses to a survey-type question posed of 100 people. The format, which originated in the United States, has been exported to many countries. See Family Fortunes for the UK version of the show. With The Star Of Family Feud. Richard Dawson! (1976-1985) The original version of Family Feud with host Richard Dawson debuted on ABC on July 12, 1976 at 1:30 P.M. EST, replacing Bob Eubanks's Rhyme and Reason. When it premiered, its ratings were low and ABC wanted to make a decision as far as the popularity of the show is concerned, therefore, Feud moved the show at 11:30 A.M. EST, beginning in January 1977, competing against a couple of game shows, such as Bob Barker's The Price is Right and Chuck Woolery's Wheel of Fortune, and it would remain in that same time slot until June 1980, when it was moved to 12:00 P.M. EST., until October 1984. It was then moved back to 11:30 A.M. EST, where it remained until its June 1985 cancellation. A nighttime syndicated version debuted in September 1977; it originally aired as a weekly series before expanding to two nights a week in January 1979 and to five nights a week in September 1980. Goodson originated the idea for Feud from one of his other game shows, CBS's Match Game. The first half of the "Super Match" round of Match Game included the results of a studio audience survey where audience members gave their answers to a fill-in-the-blank phrase. The top three responses to that phrase were concealed on the board, and the contestant won more money by choosing a more popular answer. Family Feud was spun off from this very same survey concept, although fill-in-the-blanks were not used in "Feud". Rather, questions like "name a popular brand of cereal" were incorporated instead. It was hosted by British comedian Richard Dawson, who co-starred in Hogan's Heroes and was a panelist on Match Game. Family Feud was the highest-rated daytime game show for two seasons (1977-78 and 1978-79) until CBS's The Price Is Right surpassed it. It was also the highest-rated syndicated game show from 1978 until 1984, when Wheel of Fortune took over the top spot. In May 1978, during the height of the show's popularity, ABC aired the first in a series of All-Star Family Feud prime time specials where teams of celebrities -— often the cast members of a television show — played the game to raise money for various charities. The show won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Game Show in 1977, while Dawson won the Daytime Emmy for Best Host in a television Game Show in 1978. Richard Dawson's hosting style was seen as very unusual: for example, he kissed the female players (for luck), and gave some of the people in the audience lollipops from a special "lollipop tree" (introduced during the 1982-83 season) at the end of each family podium. The lollipop tree also served as a bonus tree for the fifth contestant at the podium- if a player picked a lollipop with a black stem, they would win $100 for themselves. Dawson's sense of humor could be at times quite biting and sarcastic or viewed by some as downright inappropriate at times. If a "dumb answer" was given, Dawson was always quick to let the family memeber and the audience know about it by poking fun at it with sarcasm, usually resulting in laughter from the audience and or Dawson himself. On one particular show during the Fast Money round, the first question was "During what month of pregnancy does a woman begin to look pregnant?" and the contestant answered "September" resulting in thunderous laughter from the audience and Dawson losing his composure for a good three or four minutes. On another show, an Asian family was not ready to answer a question when Dawson asked, so he yelled gibberish Chinese at the family until they turned around and answered. This personable style made him very popular with fans of the show. In later episodes, Dawson (not a fan of the show's strike buzzer sound) had the sound effect duration reduced from about a half a second to sometimes just a split second. During the Fast Money round, he would sometimes shorten the "our survey said" in Fast Money to just "Survey!?". Dawson was beloved by millions of fans and the contestants, but was known behind the scenes as a control freak, having an inflated ego and frequently clashing with and, finally, barring Feud producer Howard Felsher from the set. The last ABC daytime episode aired on June 14, 1985. An episode with Dawson delivering an emotional farewell speech at the end of the show was to be the finale, but the run was cut short prematurely. This show wasn't aired until December 31, 1999; as part of a marathon on Game Show Network. The syndicated nighttime edition of Feud continued for three months afterwards, before wrapping up in September after eight years. (Viacom, the show's syndicator, offered reruns to stations, including WOR-TV in New York, for one year after that, packaged as The Best of Family Feud. Due to WOR's status as a superstation, those markets where a local station did not pick up the reruns still got the show.) In its nine-year existence, 2,311 network daytime shows, 976 syndicated evening half-hour shows, and 17 ABC primetime hour-long specials (1978-1984) had been produced, with $1,557,150 given away to charity on 170 celebrity specials on the daytime and nighttime shows, and $14,833,000 won by contestants. With The Star of Family Feud. Ray Combs! (1988-1994)
The Bullseye Round (1992-1994) On June 29, 1992, the CBS daytime version became known as Family Feud Challenge, and expanded to one hour. The new format used a "challenge" format where two challengers played a round for the right to face the champion from the previous show, a preliminary "Bullseye" round was added in which contestants tried to build up the amount of money they could win in Fast Money from an initial bank. One at a time and starting with the team captain, the players were asked a series of five Family Feud-type questions; only the number one answer was accepted. During the first half of the Family Feud Challenge, families started with a $2,500 bank. The first question was worth $500, the second $1,000 and so on up to $2,500 for the fifth question; thus, the maximum jackpot for any one team was $10,000. During the second half of Challenge, question values were doubled and families built on a $5,000 bank for a possible jackpot of $20,000. The Bullseye was played prior to the first question. The Bullseye was added to the half-hour syndicated version in the fall of that year, when it became known as The New Family Feud. The dollar values were the same as in the second half of the CBS Challenge format. The CBS Family Feud Challenge aired repeat episodes from March 29, 1993 until it left the air on September 10 of that year. It was the last CBS network show to air in its time slot; the network then returned that hour to its affiliates for local or syndicated programming. The syndicated version continued for one more season with Ray Combs as host. At the end of the 1993-1994 season, Jonathan Goodson (who became chairman of Mark Goodson Productions following his father’s death in 1992) replaced Combs with original Feud host Richard Dawson, in an effort to boost the syndicated version's declining ratings. (Combs' replacement would be one of the many factors that resulted in his 1996 suicide.) On Combs’ last show (aired on May 27, 1994), the winning family got 77 points in Fast Money (with the second player not getting any points), and Combs himself walked out of the set during the credits of his last episode. Pucker Up Ladies, Richard Dawson Is Back (1994-1995)
Louie Anderson And A Feud With A New Attitude (1999-2002)
The Lord Of The Board. Richard Karn! (2002-2006) For Richard Karn's debut in the fall of 2002, slight revisions to the set were made. While retaining the overall design of Anderson's set, they dispensed with the mechanical blue and silver color scheme and it was given a warmer, wood/brown color scheme with brighter lighting and a revised backdrop that changed colors and larger family name screens. To the pleasant surprise of die-hard 'Feud fans, they briefly revived the 1988 remix of the original theme music (albeit edited) during the middle of the 2002-2003 season. The original face-off cue also returned remixed with a techno beat. In the fall of 2003, (Karn's second season) a remixed version of the Anderson era party theme music was brought back. This was met with mixed feelings. Many people felt the Combs era theme did not fit in with the current set design and direction of the show while the many die-hard fans were once again disappointed. During the Karn years, the set saw slight revisions each season (mostly changes in carpet/floor colors including a black and white checkerboard floor color used for NASCAR week and for sometime after) until his last season in 2005-2006 when the most visible changes occurred. The backdrop was changed again using square blocks surrounding the game screen with the changing colors background. The family name screens and backdrops were also revised. The wood/brown color scheme remained with slight revisions. As host, Richard Karn was the first 'Feud emcee to dress less formally (not wearing a coat or tie sometimes) appearing in more modern business-casual wardrobe. Karn's hosting style has been described as bland, but has been described as superior to that of Louie Anderson's. Though Karn would rarely poke fun at the "dumb" answers given by some family members (sometimes just ignoring them) against the "tradition" of the show's past hosts. Richard Karn became known for phrases like "take first blood" at the end of the first round and adding drama to the double and triple rounds by shouting "I'M GONNA DOUBLE/TRIPLE THE POINTS!!!" followed by a roar, cheering and applause from the audience. Heres The Star Of Our Show. John OHurley! (2006-Present)
Gameshow Marathon In 2006, Family Feud was the last of the seven game shows used in the CBS series Gameshow Marathon. Ricki Lake served as host and Rich Fields was the announcer for the entire seven-episode program. The Family Feud episode--which was the "Championship Game" for the series' tournament--used a set modeled after the original Dawson-era set. However, the giant trilon was replaced by a huge plasma screen showing a replica of the Dawson era survey board (the person responsible, Todd Robinson, once ran Game Show Presentation Software and created games based on the Dawson and Combs Feuds). Even the Dawson era strike "font" style was replicated although the current sound effect was used. Host contenders In addition to the four regular hosts, there were additional contenders for the hosting spot as well. Substitute hosts include Sammy Davis, Jr., who guest hosted one round during the Richard Dawson era, and Caryn Lucas, the show's contestant coordinator, who temporarily replaced Dawson for part of one episode when he suffered broken ribs. Producer Howard Felsher also hosted one round due to a judging disagreement between him and Dawson. Announcers Gene Wood was the original announcer of Family Feud. Johnny Olson announced the pilot, Johnny Gilbert substituted once during the Dawson era in the spring of 1981 (including one episode when Richard met his second and current wife as a contestant). Rod Roddy filled in during the Combs era during the summer of 1991, and Art James also served as a fill-in announcer during the Combs era during November 1989. Burton Richardson has been the show's regular announcer since 1999. Episode status The recordings of all episodes are believed to still exist. The Game Show Network currently airs the '70s Dawson and the pre-Bullseye Combs syndicated version. At least one of the Richard Dawson pilots is also known to exist. The Family Feud Challenge was aired for a short time on GSN, as was the 1994 Dawson version (GSN is currently not allowed to air this version on account of a special Goodson-Todman contract). The i network (formerly PAX) rerun the 1999 Anderson version until 2004, when it began showing episodes of the 2002 Karn version. On September 4, 2006, the i network dropped the Feud from its lineup. Theme song The original theme song for the Family Feud, simply named "The Feud", was a more elaborate version of a hillbilly-type prize cue heard on The Price Is Right. Composed by Robert Israel for Score Productions, the theme was at a higher tempo for the first two years and finally slowed down in 1978. It was re-recorded (with synthesized drums) in 1988 for the Ray Combs version, and for Dawson's 1994 return (the opening to which can frequently be heard as a Showcase cue on The Price Is Right) the theme was revamped with jazz instruments. In 1999, John Lewis Parker orchestrated the current "party" theme, complete with a portion of the original Robert Israel theme in the opening. This theme was remixed in 2002 and again in 2006 - these versions do not feature the sample from the original theme. The 1988-1994 Feud theme from the Combs version was brought back for the latter part of Richard Karn's first season (2002-2003). It was remixed by Score Productions in 2003 to have a techno beat similar to the current theme, but this version was never used on the air except in its face-off incarnations. Recording locations In the Dawson version from 1976-85, Family Feud was originally taped at the Vine Street Theater, and later at the ABC Television Center in Los Angeles. From 1988-95 in the Combs version (CBS/Syndicated) and Dawson version (1994-1995), it was taped at CBS Television City. On the syndicated Combs version in 1993, it was taped in Opryland. The current version initially taped at CBS Television City, then at NBC Studios in Burbank, California, and finally at Tribune Studios, in the fall of 2003. Rules Representatives of the family (a total of five members on each team; in 1994 there were only four members) are posed questions that have already been answered by 100 people. An answer is considered correct if it is one of the concealed answers on the game board. The game board originally had 12 spaces, but usually three to ten answers were used per question. Since 1994, only up to eight answers (six in double or triple value rounds starting in 1999) were used since the game was played on the electronic display board; in 1994, audience members simply saw the game played on the board used during Fast Money, but since 1999, a monitor was integrated into the studio, and the game board appears on the monitor. (From 1999-2003, the entire game board was raised to allow the host to appear through the board for his entrance. Large video monitors for the family names and the game board since 2003, with the 2006 version having the family name screens lowered only after the family moved downstage.) More points are given for answers that had been given by more people in the survey (one point per person); answers must have been given by at least two of the 100 people in order to be included on the board. Since 1992, when the Bullseye round was introduced on the Combs version, matches are played for points instead of money. Examples of questions might be "Name a famous George", "Tell me a popular family vacation spot", or "Name something you do at school." The participants aren't asked questions about what is true or how things really are. They are asked questions about what other people think are true. As thus, a perfectly logical answer may be considered incorrect because it failed to make the survey (e.g.: for the question about Georges, George Jones was a popular country singer, but if his name was given by less than two people, it would be considered "wrong"). However, the questions often result in funny distortions by contestants, who give off-the-wall answers. A classic example is (as mentioned earlier): "Name the month a pregnant woman begins to look pregnant," to which one contestant replied "September" (which resulted in Dawson completely losing his composure for a good three minutes). Another example was when contestants were asked, "Name a question, such as, 'How old are you?', that you might answer with a lie." The contestants didn't pay attention to the second half of the question and instead 3 contestants answered, "18, 50, and 39", respectively. Yet another example was during a fast money round, the first question was "Besides tuna, name a type of canned sea food," to which the woman, after much stumbling, finally blurted out, "Chicken of the Sea"! During an episode of the 1988-94 edition, the host, Ray Combs, asked the question, "Name a word you'd use to describe your wife," to which a contestant answered, "Wet." The humor didn't even sink in for Combs until he repeated it for the audience and the entire crowd broke into loud laughter. Another instance involved the question, "Name one of the miracles of Jesus Christ," when one of the competing families was demonstrably Jewish.(The male competitors in the family were all wearing yarmulkes.) In the Karn version, a contestant was asked to "name something you feel before you buy it," and answered "Excited." In the British version of the show, a question was "Something you wouldn't try, not even once," to which a contestant replied "Sex on a train!" In a 2003 episode, a question asked contestants to name characters on The Andy Griffith Show; it was clear that one family — through their answers — had never seen the show. Main game Two family members face off to see which family will gain control of that particular question. Traditionally, they greet each other with a handshake before the question is read. Whoever guesses the more popular answer in the survey has the option to play the question or pass it to the other family (except during the 1988-1995 version, when they were automatically given control of the board). If neither player gives a valid answer, the next member of each family gets a chance to answer with control again going to the family giving the most popular answer. If both answers are worth the same amount of points, control goes to the player that buzzed in first. The family in control then attempts to give all the remaining answers on the board. Starting with the next family member in line, each gets a chance to give one answer. The family gets a "strike" if they give an answer that is not on the board or fail to respond (following of which the host says "Three seconds"). Three strikes cause the family to relinquish control of the board and the other family then gets the chance to steal the cash in the bank if they correctly guess one of the remaining answers. Except in the 1988-1994 version, the entire family may confer before the answer is given. (In that version, each of the four members of the family were asked their opinion, and the head of household was then told, similar to a Super Match on Match Game, to either select one of those four or their own.) Any remaining answers are then revealed; per tradition, the audience yells each unrevealed answer in a choral response. From 1992 until 1995, and from 1999 until 2003, if the family steals the cash in the bank by guessing one of the remaining answers, the value of an answer that "stole" would also be added to the bank. Scoring format Questions are played for double and triple points toward the end of the game. The number of double and triple-point questions in the game has varied over the years: Daytime Version ----
Syndicated Version ----
Fast Money round The winning family goes on to play Fast Money and chooses two family members to play the round. One family member leaves the stage and is placed in an isolation booth, while the other is given 20 seconds (15 seconds prior to 1994) to answer five questions. If he or she can't think up an answer to a question, he or she may pass and come back to the question at the end, time permitting. The number of people giving each answer is revealed once all five answers are given or time has expired (whichever comes first). The player earns one point for each person that gave the same answer; at least two people must have given that answer for it to score. When revealing the number of people giving the same response, the host often gives says the familiar phrase, "Survey said!..." or "Survey says!...". Once all the points for the first player are tallied, the second family member comes back on stage and is given 25 seconds (20 seconds prior to 1994) to answer the same five questions. The host will ask for another response should a duplicate answer be made. If one or both family members accumulate a total of 200 points or more, the family wins the top prize; if they score less than 200, they earn $5 for every point (Example: 198 x $5 = $990). From the show's beginning until 1992, the top prize a family could win in Fast Money was $5,000 on both the ABC and CBS daytime versions, $10,000 on the syndicated versions, or the amount accumulated in the Bullseye or Bankroll round. The top prize has been $20,000 since 2001. It was increased to $50,000 for a lucky home viewer for Gameshow Marathon. Returning champions From 1976 until 1985, on the ABC daytime show, champions could stay until defeated or reach the limit of $25,000, per the limits imposed by ABC (this was raised to $30,000 in 1984). On the syndicated nighttime version of the era and the Louie Anderson version from 1999-2002, there were no returning champions; two new families appeared on the show nightly and daily, From 1988 until 1995, and again since 2002, all versions featured returning champions (for a limit of 5 times, which is similar to Jeopardy! until 2002; limit was lifted in 1992 on the syndicated run), which resulted in returning for a tournament of champions, see below. During the 1988-1994 edition, there was a winnings limit of $50,000. During Richard Karn & John O'Hurley's tenure as host, this limit was increased to $100,000. 1988-94 version The 1988-94 version carried special tournament for the four highest winning families from certain periods of time returning for a Winner-Take-All Tournament of Champions. These were held rarely at first for both the CBS and the syndicated versions. The main game rules applied, but if a family reached 200 points in Fast Money, $5,000 went into a jackpot that started at $25,000, and went up to potentially $55,000 on the CBS version. Likewise, on the sydnicated version, the jackpot started at $50,000 and went up $10,000 for each time Fast Money was won, up to a possible $110,000. If the score was less than 200, nothing was added to the jackpot as the $5 a point rule was discarded for the tournament. Each semifinal was best-of-three games, with the first family in each one to win two games advancing to the finals, which was also best-of-three. There was no Fast Money round played during the finals. The scoring was similar to the 1984-1985 season (1-1-1-1-2-3) or the Combs' regular CBS/Syndicated version from late 1989-1990 (1-1-1-2-3) in the finals, with the first family to reach $400 winning the game instead of $300. The first family to win two out of three games won everything in the jackpot in addition to what they won in the regular game. No more of these were done on the sydnicated version after the second season. The CBS version, however, continued doing them, but in mid-1990 started doing them every month, with the top four money-winning families of the previous month returning. The maingame point goals for winning a semifinal and a final game were the same, but the match format was changed from best-of-three to a one-game match for both the semifinals and the finals. Thus, the potential maximum was lowered to $35,000. Current version The current syndicated version began doing tournaments in 2002. The first occurred in May 2002 with the Family Circle Tournament of Champions, with eight winning families returning in a single-elimination tournament. The jackpot started at $50,000, and went up $20,000 for each time Fast Money was won, up to a possible $170,000. For this particular tournament only, if Fast Money wasn't won, $5 a point was added to the jackpot. Each game was played to 300 points except for the finals, which required 500 points to win the game and the jackpot. The winning team for this tournament won a trip to Charleston, South Carolina, and tickets to the Family Circle Cup women's tennis tournament in nearby Daniel Island, in addition to the money. The runners-up for this tournament won a trip to Jamaica. This version, however, did not do tournaments on an occasional basis again until three years later, May 2005. Again, eight families were brought back, but this time consisted of either families who previously lost their first game (for the tournament that was held in May 2005 and May 2006), or previously winning families but not necessarily focusing on the higher winning families of the past (for the Tournament held in February 2006). The differences at this point for the tournaments were that the jackpot started with nothing (except for the February 2006 Tournament of Champions, which started at $10,000), losses in Fast Money don't add anything to the jackpot (like the 1988-1995 version), and the championship game was played to 400 points. Trips were sometimes also awarded to the jackpot-winning family, like Hawaii during the February 2006 tournament and Mexico during the May 2006 tournament. Again, no Fast Money was played in the finals. Special weeks Special-themed weeks have been prominent during "sweeps" weeks during the show's long history, through all eras. Among them were soap opera stars playing against each other; pro wrestlers also played for a week (with a special "Beauties Vs. Beasts" opening in which Gene Wood would imitate a referee going out onstage); stars from Baywatch; and even a week of game show hosts competing against each other in 1983, featuring on one team, Jim Perry, Bob Eubanks, Nipsey Russell, Betty White and Bill Cullen; and on the other team, Bert Parks, Jim Lange, Tom Kennedy, Leslie Uggams and Peter Marshall. In 1980, members of the Kansas City Royals and the Philadelphia Phillies squared off against each other in a 6-show series, to reflect the teams' 6-game World Series that was held shortly before taping (ABC held Major League Baseball rights, and aired Feud.). There was a week of The Price is Right vs. The Young and the Restless, (both aired back to back in CBS daytime, some stations only) played for charity in November 1991. In September 1993, a special week of shows was also filmed in Nashville, Tennessee, using certain set/game elements that would later be seen on the syndicated 1994-95 version. RTL, which produces Feud (through FremantleMedia), has featured in recent years as sweeps weeks cast members of Survivor, even though they weren't allowed to use the name in the US (RTL holds international rights to the show, but not US rights, which is also the case with many Mark Burnett shows), figure skaters from the Stars on Ice Tour, and NASCAR, with Feuds "NASCAR week," taped during Pop Secret 500 weekend in late August 2004, airing in the week leading to NASCAR Championship Weekend in Homestead, Florida, featuring teams from all three national series. During the NASCAR themed week, a Nextel Cup show car appeared on the stage, and NASCAR's own theme music played instead of the usual music as the teams lined up for the face-off. Home versions Milton Bradley made eight editions of the ABC version after 1976. Pressman Games created two editions (similar to the MB editions) based on the CBS version: one from 1990 and one from 1993 with the Bullseye round called "The New Family Feud." Endless Games created three editions since 1998 (two from the current version of the show and one with the Bullseye round) with dry-erase boards to put answers on unlike the MB and Pressman versions in which players can slide out the answers to view. The first computer version of Feud was released in 1983 for the Coleco Adam. Sharedata released versions for MS-DOS, Commodore 64 and Apple II computers in 1987 that were similar to the Adam version and based on the Richard Dawson era. A 1989 sequel, "The All New Family Feud," was based on the syndicated version of the Ray Combs era. GameTek released versions in 1990 for NES (similar to Dawson even though the package shows the Combs set), 1993 for SNES and Sega Genesis, 1994 for Panasonic 3DO and 1995 on CD-ROM (based on the 1992-1994 version, although the host resembles Dawson). Hasbro Interactive released a version from 2000 (featuring Louie Anderson) for the PC and Sony PlayStation. In 2003, Imagination Entertainment released a DVD game of Feud with Richard Karn. Uproar.com has an online version of the show from 1999 (which includes the double round even though the show did not have it from 1999 to 2003). The most current version (released in 2005) was created by IWin.com and can be bought online or downloaded for a free trial from www.IWin.com; it is based on the Karn version and can be played by single or team players. IWin.com also released a Holiday Edition of the game that was made available on a limited basis. The success of the games prompted iWin.com to produce a Hollywood Edition and Online Party version. The Family Feud Online Party edition allows multiple players to play on a team against other players. Seattle-based Mobliss Inc. also released a mobile version of Family Feud that is available on Sprint, Verizon, and Cingular. International versions
Before-they-were-stars Kathy Najimy, before becoming an actress and voice artist (as Peggy Hill on King Of The Hill), played with her family on a 1981 episode of Richard Dawson's Feud. Her family returned on June 29, 2006 to play the Feud finale on Game Show Marathon, playing against Brande Roderick's family (she appeared on the Feud in 2000 along with her Baywatch Hawaii co-stars). Najimy won the tournament and won $100,000 for her charity. The 1981 clip featuring the Najimy family revealed that they needed three of the second player's five answers to win the Fast Money round. It also points out that Najimys recorded 230 points; in the Gameshow Marathon episode, the same result occurred as before, but their total was 202 points, 28 points fewer than they scored with in 1981. Current host, John O'Hurley, was in fact a contestant on the original Family Feud with Richard Dawson in a special "Guys and Dolls" celebrity week. Former New York Yankees catcher and current Oakland Athletics bench coach Bob Geren appeared on the show with the Geren family in 1989 while still in the minor leagues. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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