Family Feud - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

Discuss Family Feud Here!

[Kromm]

7 versions of the show to be exact--6 reboots, to be exact, and 6 hosts (since Dawson hosted twice).

 

There's also apparently currently an Australian version, although I don't know if that counts as a reboot.

[Milz]

I grew up watching Richard Dawson on The Feud. Love him.  The celebrity Family Feuds were always fun to watch.

[PrincessEnnui]

I admit it, I am not a true fan of game shows. I only started watching the Feud recently because of some of the Steve Harvey era answer madness. Even though I think some of the questions of clearly trolling, regardless of intent (heh), its interesting to watch. A week or two ago, I caught a rerun where the survey question was name an animal you wouldn't want to be described as (or similar). The number one answer was elephant. I would have thought, dog, rat, or pigeon would have been up there as number one, but neither rat or pigeon were even on the board.

 

Anyway, can I just say the editing on this show (Harvey era) is extremely weird. There have been times when two members are facing off at the podium and when one of them starts to say an answer, the buzzer sounds and appears. The person then answers and its a 50/50 split on whether the answer appears on the board or not. Sometimes its funny, but mostly I just wonder if this is sloppy editing or if a ruling was delivered by a judge or what.

 

One of my favorite families I've seen is the Pawlawks(sp?), who were all male and wore (hockey?) jerseys. Their first win was a curbstomp against another family (I don't think they even scored and they returning champs) and they also took home $20,000 that day. :)

 

Speaking of, it seems that in Harvey era Feud it is harder to win $20,000. The first question in fast money is almost always a between 1-10 rate question. WTH? I know rules were changed to make impossible to get all 200 pts in one go. I guess we won't see anymore joke fast money rounds where the host messes with the second contestant with oddball questions. :'(

[JTMacc99]

Speaking of, it seems that in Harvey era Feud it is harder to win $20,000. The first question in fast money is almost always a between 1-10 rate question. WTH? I know rules were changed to make impossible to get all 200 pts in one go. I guess we won't see anymore joke fast money rounds where the host messes with the second contestant with oddball questions. :'(

It appears to me that it is harder for a family to win $20,000 twice.  Somewhere in the first couple of tries they throw them a bone and give them a round that has a question like "What month do you use your air conditioner the most?" so that only panicky idiots don't come up with July and August and get 80-90 points from just that one question.  All of the other rounds are full of questions where the number one answer is only 25 points, which makes it really hard to win.

 

I think it's all set up for the best families to get $22,000 and the brand new cah.

[Janimo]

I like to watch the show just for goofy entertainment when nothing else is on. I actually recognized someone on the show that I used to work with here in Atlanta ten years ago. Pretty cool. I also recognized another woman (Ariane) as one of the contestants from Top Chef season five. I guess some folks like being in front of the camera (Ariane). Me,not so much, even for money. :)

[Maharincess]

What I've never understood about this show is why NOBODY ever passes. If the question is "name something you can do with your armpit"* and there are 7 answers, I'm passing that question.

I have never seen anybody pass.

*that was an actual question on the show aa while back.

Edited May 8, 2015 by Maharincess

[PrincessEnnui]

What I've never understood about this show is why NOBODY ever passes. If the question is "name something you can do with your armpit"* and there are 7 answers, I'm passing that question.

I have never seen anybody pass.

*that was an actual question on the show aa while back.

 

I have seen people in the Harvey era pass among others. I think the reason most players don't is the risk isn't worth taking, even if the question is totally bizarre. If the question is really out there (like your example) there's a chance that naming all the popular answers and striking out will suffice, because it's just as likely that the other family will not get the lesser known answers, which they'll need to actually win the round.

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

Can't even watch the show with him hosting. He's a closed-minded, hateful bigot.

For proof, I direct you to: http://www.isabigot.com/2009/06/new-steve-harvey-video-on-larry-king-where-he-calls-atheists-idiots/

[springtime]

Anyone else have the feeling that the surveys are completed  by elderly folks?

 

Keep this in mind as you watch- it really seems to make sense!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 21, 2015 by springtime

[spaceytraci1208]

Anyone else have the feeling that the surveys are completed by elderly folks?

Keep this in mind as you watch- it really seems to make sense!

Mostly, yes. There was one time I watched though, where the question was "Name something it takes 2 people to do" and one of the answers on the board was "Make a thing go right" lol. 80's babies definitely made their way onto the survey on that one.

[mattie0808]

Lol. Just saw this now on GSN for the first time...besides learning about woodchucks and groundhogs, I got to see Steve actually lose it on the judges, complete with bleeped out cursing. You got to figure they could have just jumped in and corrected the original mistake, no?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsybC3SJAyM

 

Edited July 18, 2015 by mattie0808

[Kromm]

Anyone else have the feeling that the surveys are completed  by elderly folks?

 

Keep this in mind as you watch- it really seems to make sense!

I always thought it was their captive studio audience that did the surveys (for future episodes).

 

If not I'd imagine the logical choice would be people stopped at Malls.  Which (still depent on the mall and time of day) would more often mean very young people and very old typically (and probably somewhat female skewed over male).

[springtime]

I always thought it was their captive studio audience that did the surveys (for future episodes).

 

If not I'd imagine the logical choice would be people stopped at Malls.  Which (still depent on the mall and time of day) would more often mean very young people and very old typically (and probably somewhat female skewed over male).

Looked online- Completed by folks that answer their phone for unknown callers and answer strange questions! I would not answer or hang up!

 

“In the show’s early years, surveys were taken among viewers who volunteered to be on the show’s mailing list — a self-selected group whose collective opinion was swag.

Today, the show employs a polling firm, Applied Research-West, to conduct the surveys by telephone. The company’s operators follows standard survey practices: They use random-digit dialing; try to ensure their sample is representative of the U.S. population, according to Census data; and dial cellphones to reach the growing landline-free population. The surveyers don’t disclose that the questions are for ‘Family Feud.’ A typical phone survey includes 30 or 40 questions, culled from 100 submitted to Ms. Johnston daily by writers and consultants for the show. Topical questions may air as soon as three weeks after the survey responses have been collected and compiled.”

[Kromm]

Looked online- Completed by folks that answer their phone for unknown callers and answer strange questions! I would not answer or hang up!

 

“In the show’s early years, surveys were taken among viewers who volunteered to be on the show’s mailing list — a self-selected group whose collective opinion was swag.

Today, the show employs a polling firm, Applied Research-West, to conduct the surveys by telephone. The company’s operators follows standard survey practices: They use random-digit dialing; try to ensure their sample is representative of the U.S. population, according to Census data; and dial cellphones to reach the growing landline-free population. The surveyers don’t disclose that the questions are for ‘Family Feud.’ A typical phone survey includes 30 or 40 questions, culled from 100 submitted to Ms. Johnston daily by writers and consultants for the show. Topical questions may air as soon as three weeks after the survey responses have been collected and compiled.”

The reason this is inane these days is this.

 

I'd argue that "typical" people no longer pick up calls from unlisted/unfamiliar phone numbers. We joked about old folks being the ones questioned, and frankly that's where this leads. (Much) older folks are the ones who either don't have, or don't live by, Caller ID,  Also, while they might random dial to reach cellphones, they're still going to MOSTLY be calling traditional marketing lists (which means landlines--which again means mostly older folks).

[Demented Daisy]

I saw an episode today that was heartbreaking.  Not sure when it was originally shown, but anyway....  In the final round, the first guy got 182 points.  Then his daughter (I think) came out and got 0.  Every single question, she got a 0.  It was terrible.

[raiderred1]

I saw an episode today that one of the questions was,"If you could learn a language in 24 hours, what would it be?"  Guy said, "MEXICAN!"  LMAO  But they decided to put it up on the board as Spanish, which to me, he answered incorrectly on the first try. Boo!

[twoods]

Some of the answers are so ridiculous that Steve can't help but roll his eyes. Today I saw an episode that had the top 8 answers for "another name for rear end" and bootie and behind weren't even on the list. And then the fast money were a lot of hard ones "what starts with 'bird' was one of them and "another name for a zit (drew blanks after pimple). Another episode had a fast money question that asked 100 women who taught them to drive and the number one answer was "dad" with only 25 and "mom" only got 7. You're telling me 68 other people put down someone else other than a parent? Who is answering these surveys? (Echoing what was said above).

[BubblingKettle]

I love Richard Dawson, and I watch two episodes of the old Feud every day on Antenna TV.  But, I have to say that he has been making me cringe lately ---- there recently have been some families/family members of Indian descent, and Richard insisted on imitating their stereotypical accent. It also didn't help that he could hardly understand what they said to him, so we get the awkward, "what??" Today, a contestant said that he was born in Bombay. It was obvious that Richard had no clue, he questioned the guy, "BumBee???"  Thankfully, someone must have set him straight on the commercial break -- he later referred to the guy as "our friend from Bombay." I can't lie -- I do laugh at the 70's dedication to political incorrectness!

[Snow Apple]

I've been watching reruns and there's an episode that drives me insane every time it's shown. A person gave an answer of "french fries" and Steve rejected it saying it's the same as baked potato which is already on the board. Then after the third strike, the other family said "french fries" and it was up on the board so they won! I can't believe the first family didn't protest.

[Primetimer]

Second prize is TWO pairs of those shoulderpads! ...Sorry: two MORE pairs besides the two she's already wearing! Oh, eighties.

View the full article

[Jeffurry]

I loved 227 back in the day and I still love Jackée, but I hadn't seen a Countess Vaughn episode until this summer. She definitely nailed being unlikable.

[justjen]

The 227 theme song is a mainstay in my shower singing set list and I purposefully became best friends with a woman named Mary just so that I would be able to say "Maaaaaary" on a regular basis (and I tried to talk my boyfriend into finding an apartment with a stoop so I can be Pearl). Family Feud currently films close to my office and I was telling someone the other day about this episode and how much I wanted Jackée's dress as my prom dress.

I swear sometimes Previously TV has my life bugged. :)

[zxy556575]

Filed under The Inexplicable: To this day, my sister sews shoulder pads into her sweaters and jackets.

WE CAN ALL CLEARLY SEE THEIR OUTLINE, SUE!

[withanaich]

Filed under The Inexplicable: To this day, my sister sews shoulder pads into her sweaters and jackets.

WE CAN ALL CLEARLY SEE THEIR OUTLINE, SUE!

But ... where is she even BUYING them?

[shapeshifter]

On June 21, 2015 at 9:07 AM, springtime said:

Anyone else have the feeling that the surveys are completed  by elderly folks?

Keep this in mind as you watch- it really seems to make sense!

On July 20, 2015 at 7:47 AM, springtime said:

Looked online- Completed by folks that answer their phone for unknown callers and answer strange questions! I would not answer or hang up!

 

“In the show’s early years, surveys were taken among viewers who volunteered to be on the show’s mailing list — a self-selected group whose collective opinion was swag.

Today, the show employs a polling firm, Applied Research-West, to conduct the surveys by telephone. The company’s operators follows standard survey practices: They use random-digit dialing; try to ensure their sample is representative of the U.S. population, according to Census data; and dial cellphones to reach the growing landline-free population. The surveyers don’t disclose that the questions are for ‘Family Feud.’ A typical phone survey includes 30 or 40 questions, culled from 100 submitted to Ms. Johnston daily by writers and consultants for the show. Topical questions may air as soon as three weeks after the survey responses have been collected and compiled.”

Thank you for this. I started watching a few weeks ago while I'm home from work with my last few rounds of chemo because I like Steve Harvey on the show—not because the questions and answers make much sense.

Recently the question was to name something you would like to inherit from Steve Harvey, and they answered "his hair." He joked and then the result was XX (not an answer). But then when they showed the un-guessed answers, one was "his bald head." The camera then showed the annoyed faces of the family that had said "his hair." I guess the camera crew and editors get to express their outrage with the judge's decisions; I've seen it more than once.

[shapeshifter]

I cannot bear to watch the old versions with Dawson (I guess?) kissing the women on the lips. Gross.

[shapeshifter]

  On September 22, 2016 at 4:10 PM, lordonia said:

Filed under The Inexplicable: To this day, my sister sews shoulder pads into her sweaters and jackets.

WE CAN ALL CLEARLY SEE THEIR OUTLINE, SUE!

But ... where is she even BUYING them?

Maybe she rummages in my garbage can after I cut them out of my old blazers.

[DrSpaceman73]

I just don't think he is the least bit funny and see nothing special about him as a host.  Has nothing to do with anything else with him

No idea how he gets hired for so many jobs. 

[DrSpaceman73]

The appeal of Steve Harvey will forever elude me.  I don't get it

[hoosier80]

For a show that is titled 'Celebrity Family Feud', the celebrities are definitely trending downward.  When you have to have your own family on as contestants, the celebrity should just be dropped.

[shapeshifter]

I hope the family that lost in one of today's reruns gets to come back "due to technical difficulties" as they like to say on the Feud.

It was the final chance at the final question. The family who had the opportunity to "play" had used up all of their strikes. If the other family correctly guessed one of the two remaining answers, they would win the game, but if not, the family who got to "play" would win. 

The question was: If you don't tip a waiter, where are you likely to be seated in the restaurant? The challenging family guessed: In a tight space. This answer was met with the buzz and XXX; the other family won the game.

But then the unguessed answers were revealed, including: In a corner.

Given all of the times the judges stretch the answers meanings to match the guesses' meanings, I don't see how being seated in a tight space of a restaurant is any different than being seated in a corner.

The only reason I can imagine for the ruling is that the "winning" team was culturally more closely matched with the survey population, and so more likely to win the Fast Money round (which they did), and Steve Harvey seems to really want the contestants to win the money. Or maybe the judges were just distracted in the moment.

[TheLastKidPicked]

On 11/2/2016 at 4:14 AM, shapeshifter said:

I cannot bear to watch the old versions with Dawson (I guess?) kissing the women on the lips. Gross.

It's kind of icky, but there is one thing that might make you forgive him.  Richard Dawson recieved a lot of criticisim for kissing black women.  He stood right up and said,  "Who are we to question how God made us or what color He made us?  I kiss black women because I kiss white women."  I will forgive a few things since he was willing to stand up and say that.

 

On 4/3/2015 at 11:32 AM, Kromm said:

7 versions of the show to be exact--6 reboots, to be exact, and 6 hosts (since Dawson hosted twice).

It's hard to watch the episodes where Ray Combs hosts, knowing his tragic end.  And he was a pretty solid host, too.

Edited February 1, 2018 by TheLastKidPicked

[shapeshifter]

9 hours ago, TheLastKidPicked said:

It's kind of icky, but there is one thing that might make you forgive him.  Richard Dawson recieved a lot of criticisim for kissing black women.  He stood right up and said,  "Who are we to question how God made us or what color He made us?  I kiss black women because I kiss white women."  I will forgive a few things since he was willing to stand up and say that.

I'v been watching more of his shows and now see him as a good guy—even if he may have single handedly (or would that be double lippedly?) started more epidemics than any Typhoid Mary. But I still close my eyes when he kisses anyone.

 

9 hours ago, TheLastKidPicked said:

It's hard to watch the episodes where Ray Combs hosts, knowing his tragic end.  And he was a pretty solid host, too.

I was reading Wikipedia about the show and about him. It seems he was replaced by Dawson because the ratings were down, but the network also changed the rules at that time to make it harder to win—and that's got to be a ratings cooler. But I also saw a later Ray Combs episode in which he was losing patience with the contestants, which was really hard to watch in and of itself, but also knowing his ultimate fate.

[shapeshifter]

I happened to catch an old episode yesterday? —either with Richard Dawson or Ray Combs—and the question was "How do you know a girl is a tomboy?" Each answer was more cringe-worthy than the last, down to the last one: "She's dirty." At least none of the contestants thought of that.

[TheLastKidPicked]

On 6/17/2018 at 4:46 PM, shapeshifter said:

The question was "How do you know a girl is a tomboy?" Each answer was more cringe-worthy than the last, down to the last one: "She's dirty." At least none of the contestants thought of that.

This is one thing that jumps right out at you watching the game shows of the 70's and 80's.

They were very progressive when it came to race relations, and very careful with the questions and answers.

But when it came to women and women's issues-- not so much.

[shapeshifter]

49 minutes ago, TheLastKidPicked said:

This is one thing that jumps right out at you watching the game shows of the 70's and 80's.

They were very progressive when it came to race relations, and very careful with the questions and answers.

But when it came to women and women's issues-- not so much.

I was going to add, "Or gender issues in general," but, even though the 70s Match Game episodes made fun of gay men nearly every time, and the joking today would be considered offensive or even bullying, at the time the jesting served to publically acknowledge that the world population included a lot of non-heterosexuals.

On The' Feud, there was a lot less gay ridiculing, but, what fun-poking there was, felt more mean spirited, perhaps because there were no gay celebrity regulars.

Edited July 3, 2018 by shapeshifter

[theatremouse]

I'm pretty sure there's a rule about the general vs the specific. If the answer up there is a specific (ie corner) and you give the general (tight space) that's not correct. If the answer had been tight space and they said corner....it might, but I still think it's a stretch. Also a lot of times the answer is really a clumping of similar-but-not-identical answers in the survey. So sometimes when the answer seems kinda sorta not really what's displayed up there, it's because whatever they said is a literal match for some of the survey answers for that one which had already been lumped together for the display answer. Or so I'm led to believe.

[Hellga]

I used to love this show and watched it quite a bit until he became the host.  I think I made it through one or two of his episodes and I have never watched it since.  He is incredibly annoying, his voice and his manner both, and not the least bit funny.  

[shapeshifter]

I became addicted to this show with Steve Harvey hosting while on 12 rounds of high dose chemotherapy interrupted by 2 months of surgery and morphine over a 10 month period. I'm fine now and don't need to be shouted at in short sentences, but I still tune in from time to time out of habit.

[KWalkerInc]

I'm getting tired of every other episode having a category that either has to do with Steve Harvey or is something "naughty" about Santa Claus.  Some are funny, but they are going to that well way too often.

[shapeshifter]

I just caught part of a rerun from January 20 of this year. The question was something about an angry wife telling her husband to get out "and take his your dirt [blank] with you!" The losing side's (the Bliefnick family) first guess was "personality," which the judges Xed, but after all the guessing was done, one of the un-guessed answers was "mind."  On this show, shouldn't "mind" = "personality"?
Anyway, I just switched back to that channel and it turns out the Bliefnick's won the game anyway.

Stupid question. I am over this show, especially since better reruns now air at that time on my over-the-air channels.

[KWalkerInc]

I don't know when they normally film episodes of this show or how many are supposed to be in a season, but it looks like they are rationing new episodes now.  When they started having new ones again, I think they had a full week, then last Friday was a rerun.  Now they are down to two new shows a week.  According to the listings, there are supposed to be two different episodes on our local channel each night; but a few months into the season (long before things were shut down), they started just showing one per night (whether new or rerun) in both slots.

The other day when there were eight answers on the board, the #8 answer had a zero for the number of people who said it.  Does that mean the writers just made something up to fill out the board?  It was really weird.

Edited May 1, 2020 by KWalkerInc
Added thought on #8 answer.

[shapeshifter]

9 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

The other day when there were eight answers on the board, the #8 answer had a zero for the number of people who said it.  Does that mean the writers just made something up to fill out the board?  It was really weird.

Do you recall the question and the zero answer? I'm wondering if the writers just thought they were more clever than the audience.

Edited May 1, 2020 by shapeshifter

[KWalkerInc]

No, unfortunately, I can't even remember what day it happened!

[shapeshifter]

Or maybe it means that the numbers (n out of 100) were taken from, say, 300 people and only 1 voted for anchovies (or whatever). 

[VartanFan]

My pet peeve of the day (besides Steve Harvey - there's nobody in the world who loves him as much as he loves himself) - On fast money, when they determine that Steve has flubbed the question and they get a little longer than the buzzer....they just let the person sit there and think.  You should get a second more and if y ou still can't think of something...bzzzz!  Steve barely - barely - flubbed the question and then she got seconds more after the buzzer to give an answer.  They wouldn't have won the money without that answer...and answer she shouldn't have had counted.  

[KWalkerInc]

Family Feud to resume filming.

I wonder if Steve won't notice that they don't have an audience and go into his usual "Thank you, I appreciate it" that he says when they all cheer for him.  Maybe they will have to pipe in some applause so that he doesn't feel neglected!

[shapeshifter]

6 minutes ago, KWalkerInc said:

Family Feud to resume filming.

I wonder if Steve won't notice that they don't have an audience and go into his usual "Thank you, I appreciate it" that he says when they all cheer for him.  Maybe they will have to pipe in some applause so that he doesn't feel neglected!

Jimmy Fallon is now in a studio with similarly few numbers of crew present who do chuckle in the background. It helps. 
 

From the Deadline article, wondering about

Quote

Production on season 22 has been split between LA and Atlanta with early episodes, some of which were filmed behind closed doors, shot in California before the crew moved back to Georgia

Does this mean that there are still some unaired shows shot in LA before the pandemic shutdown that have the audience and handshakes?

[Carey]

It might be worth the laugh if they did pump in crowd noise (laughs & applause) to best fit Steve's routine.  IMO, it'll be even funnier if they accidentally filmed where the audience sits.

To be serious, I think a handful of people, specifically family members should be allowed.  Or could be allowed.  Not too much, but if there are restrictions and guidelines, then there's nothing anyone can do about it

Family Feud did not begin its 22nd season in my area.  Unless it did in other parts of the country, maybe those episodes are being held back a week or two, if not indefinitely.  There could be a local argument that it didn’t start on 09/14 due to football, but I checked my listings and I did not see mention of the new season.  In fact, I’m getting 2019 episodes (albeit rather great episodes)