I might have said this before on the blog, but one
of the things on my bucket list is to be a contestant on a quiz or game
show. I don’t even necessarily have to
win all of the fabulous cash and prizes that are up for grabs. I’d even take home my corn popper and board
game as a consolation prize. I think
that the experience alone would be something worth talking about. Alas, Canada isn’t the biggest producer of
game shows, so I fear that I may have to wait a while yet.
It’s easy to watch a game show from the comfort of
your own living room. But when you’re
underneath those hot studio lights as a contestant, there is always the threat
of losing a turn, losing all your hard-earned cash and prizes, or making a
complete fool out of yourself in front of a live studio audience. It’s easy for me to say that I would do quite
well on a game show as a contestant, but until I’m actually on that stage, I
can only speculate. For all I know, I
could get up on that soundstage and give off some of the dumbest answers that
anybody has ever heard, and end up having my blunders being featured on one of
those blooper shows.
(Although, I have to admit that I get easily
entertained by ridiculous game show answers.)
I certainly hope that all of you are entertained
by game show bloopers as well, because today’s blog subject happens to be about
a game show that has had hundreds of them.
Let’s take a look at an example from the 1970s to see what I mean.
Well...I imagine SOME pregnant women start showing
in September.
Today we’re going to look back on the classic
television game show “Family Feud”. It’s
a show that has aired on and off over the last thirty-six years, and has been
presented by six different hosts. Just
who are/were the hosts of Family Feud?
Survey says...
If you click on each of the names, you can see the
hosts in action during their run on the show.
I’ve seen all six hosts in action, and I have my personal
favourites. Dawson is probably the host
that is the most recognizable of all the hosts, and is probably most people’s
favourite host. I grew up watching Combs
version myself, and I found him to be a great host too. I also liked O’Hurley’s stint as host. Steve Harvey I’m kind of indifferent to. Karn was better on “Home Improvement”, and
Louie Anderson...well, I like that he tried his best, and that he brought the
show back after a four year hiatus...but he’s not my favourite host.
TRIVIA: When Louie Anderson was picked to host “Family
Feud” in the 1999 revival, the other candidate up for the job was reportedly
country singer Dolly Parton! Could you
imagine Dolly Parton hosting “Family Feud”?
I think she would’ve been a hoot!
Many of the hosts found personal success with
hosting the program. Richard Dawson
ended up marrying a former contestant who appeared on “Family Feud” in 1981,
while Richard Karn and John O’Hurley have moved onto other television
projects. Other hosts hit a downward
spiral, and in the case of Ray Combs, his downward spiral was
irreversible. He ended up committing
suicide in 1996 following a severe car accident two years earlier and reported
marital problems.
Now, even though the show seemed to go through a
revolving door of hosts and producers, the rules of the game stayed the
same. Two competing families (or two
teams of celebrities raising money for charity) would face off against each
other in a battle of wits. Each team
would have five players (four in the 1994/95 season) on it. Each team would send a player to the podium
for the face-off round. There would be a
board with a list of hidden answers corresponding with a survey question asked
to one hundred random people. The job
was to try and get the most popular answer, as the higher your answer was, the
more points you scored. Whoever won the
face-off would decide whether their team would continue playing that round, or
pass to the other team.
From there, the family would then try to get all
of the answers revealed off the board.
If they ended up revealing an answer, they would add points to their
total. If they missed an answer, well,
they would get one of these.
And just like the game of baseball, three strikes,
and you were out. From there, the other
family could attempt to steal all of the other team’s hard-earned points that
they had earned by successfully guessing an answer they couldn’t. If they were right, they won the round. If they missed, the other team kept their
points.
Needless to say, some of the answers that were
given during these first few rounds were rather...unusual.
In some cases, the contestants get a little too
eager to win the face-off round that they buzz in a little too soon.
Sometimes, the contestants completely
misunderstand the question.
And, sometimes the answers given make one want to
bash their head repeatedly into a wall.
But that was part of the fun of “Family Feud”. You never knew what people were going to say!
In the earliest incarnations of the game, the
family that reached 300 points first would win the chance to go onto the bonus
round, but the rule has since changed in that the team with the highest total
after four rounds wins the chance to go to the bonus.
The bonus round was given the affectionate name of
“Fast Money”.
And, when they say “Fast Money”, they mean fast. Each winning team would choose two people to
play the bonus round for the chance at a huge cash prize. The first team member would get five
questions asked to 100 random people, and their job was to get as many of the
top answers as possible in fifteen seconds (it was changed to twenty in the
1994/95 season). The total points they
received were added up, and from there, the second teammate (who was in
seclusion) would try to get additional points.
Because teammates were not allowed to repeat answers, they were given an
additional five seconds to come up with alternate answers for the game. If both players accumulated a total of 200
points or more, they would win “Fast Money”.
The “Fast Money” bonus round was always my
favourite part of the show. People
really had to think quickly on their feet to come up with appropriate answers
at lightning speed if they stood a chance. And, the suspense that came from the round was
quite thrilling.
But the real reason why I enjoyed “Fast Money” so
much was because the majority of dumb answers could be witnessed during this
round. You already saw an example of
this in action with Richard Dawson and the “September” lady, but I have so many
more examples to show to all of you, just for you to see what I mean.
I mean, just watching this family in action, is it
any wonder why they ended up losing the game?
Yikes. That
was awful.
Then there are those answers that make absolute
sense, but the humour surrounding the answer can make people lose all their
composure, such as this moment from the Steve Harvey version.
Have you ever had the moment where you’re watching
“Family Feud” and you hear an answer that you think is absolutely ridiculous,
and yet the answer still scores some points?
Watch this clip from the John O’Hurley version, and you’ll see what I
mean in the first part.
It’s not just the American version that bloopers
occur. Did you know that the show “Family
Feud” is also quite popular in the United Kingdom? The only difference is that the game there is
referred to as “Family Fortunes”, but the rules are more or less exactly the
same.
And one thing that I have learned from watching
the international version is that British people can give rather odd answers as
well. The last three clips in this
package is proof of that, and I’ve already cued this LINK to start at the “Family
Fortunes” moments.
One of the most memorable contestants of the UK
version involves a very nice gentleman who sadly had a one track mind.
And to conclude this look back on “Funny Family
Feud Answers”, one more post from the UK version involving a new type of
bean...
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