Felsher Facts

[The Pyramids]

Does anyone have any biographical or career information on G/T producer Howard Felsher? Sure he didn't do himself any favors on the 'E! True Hollywood Story' but wouldn't you like it if he were running or consulting on 'Family Feud' today?

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'PaulD\' date=\'Mar 5 2006, 09:07 PM\']Does anyone have any biographical or career information on G/T producer Howard Felsher? Sure he didn't do himself any favors on the 'E! True Hollywood Story' but wouldn't you like it if he were running or consulting on 'Family Feud' today?

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Would have done Fremantle some good to use him as a consultant for Feud, I wonder if they actually did. Gaby Johnson, who was a producer of some sorts on Combs Feud, is associated with Karn Feud, no?

[cmjb13]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Mar 5 2006, 09:15 PM\']Would have done Fremantle some good to use him as a consultant for Feud, I wonder if they actually did. Gaby Johnson, who was a producer of some sorts on Combs Feud, is associated with Karn Feud, no?

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Yes.

Very Nice too.

[sshuffield70]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Mar 5 2006, 08:15 PM\'][quote name=\'PaulD\' date=\'Mar 5 2006, 09:07 PM\']Does anyone have any biographical or career information on G/T producer Howard Felsher? Sure he didn't do himself any favors on the 'E! True Hollywood Story' but wouldn't you like it if he were running or consulting on 'Family Feud' today?

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Would have done Fremantle some good to use him as a consultant for Feud, I wonder if they actually did. Gaby Johnson, who was a producer of some sorts on Combs Feud, is associated with Karn Feud, no?

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You mean even the great and wonderful Zach didn't know Gaby was on the show?  That her name heads the credits?  Wonders never cease, do they?

[chris319]

I've known Howard for over 25 years. What do you want to know?

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'sshuffield70\' date=\'Mar 5 2006, 08:55 PM\'][quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Mar 5 2006, 08:15 PM\'][quote name=\'PaulD\' date=\'Mar 5 2006, 09:07 PM\']Does anyone have any biographical or career information on G/T producer Howard Felsher? Sure he didn't do himself any favors on the 'E! True Hollywood Story' but wouldn't you like it if he were running or consulting on 'Family Feud' today?

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Would have done Fremantle some good to use him as a consultant for Feud, I wonder if they actually did. Gaby Johnson, who was a producer of some sorts on Combs Feud, is associated with Karn Feud, no?

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You mean even the great and wonderful Zach didn't know Gaby was on the show?  That her name heads the credits?  Wonders never cease, do they?

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If it's any defense of Horan (not that I'm wild about doing this), her name had not appeared on the credits for whatever reason until either this current season or last.  However, I do believe that she has been a Pearson/Fremantle employee for all or most of the current run of the series and has been involved with the show during that time.

[chris319]

I don't know about her involvement with FF, but I think she's been with Goodson Productions continuously through all of the ownership changes, and that includes Goodson's buyout of the Todmans in the '80s. She is perhaps the only non-TPIR staffer who can make that claim. I don't know if Andy Felsher has been with the company continuously.

Frank Wayne was with the company for roughly 40 years, starting with Winner Take All until he died in the saddle in 1988. If Roger can hang on until 2012 he'll exceed Frank's seniority, with Gaby and other TPIR folks not far behind.

[The Pyramids]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Mar 6 2006, 10:19 AM\']I've known Howard for over 25 years. What do you want to know?

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How did he begin his career with Goodson/Todman?

[cmjb13]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Mar 6 2006, 04:36 PM\']Frank Wayne was with the company for roughly 40 years, starting with Winner Take All until he died in the saddle in 1988. If Roger can hang on until 2012 he'll exceed Frank's seniority, with Gaby and other TPIR folks not far behind.

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Wouldn't Phil be up there in tenure starting with 60's Password (did he start earlier?) until 2004?

[chris319]

I'm not sure Phil was with the company continuously, but he'd be up there.

I can't give you a better answer than Howard needed a job and Goodson hired him. One delves delicately into Howard's past because he became embroiled in the '50s quiz scandal as the producer of the rigged Tic Tac Dough for Barry and Enright. He testified before a New York grand jury and later before a congressional subcommittee. I never had the courage to discuss the quiz scandal with him as I didn't know whether it would be a sore subject.

As for Family Feud, Howard's role, like just about all game show producers, was to choose questions and contestants. The production values were handled by others at G-T. Whether Howard's presence on FF today would make a difference would depend on how much authority he had. Certainly he (nor you nor I nor any rational person) would have hired Richard Karn nor had the audio track so grossly oversweetened. You would likely see better material on the show.

Sorry I can't be more illuminating.

[Jay Temple]

As for Family Feud, Howard's role, like just about all game show producers, was to choose questions and contestants

I find it interesting that he was responsible for both. I know that at J!, those functions are handled not merely by different people but by people who have no contact with one another, just to be absolutely certain that the material didn't favor any contestant. Granted, that's probably less of a concern for a show like FF.

I'm curious about how they chose the questions. If you know any of the following, I'd like to hear it; if not, it's interesting to discuss.
1. Did they try to create certain situations and avoid others concerning the total value of the answers in the survey? I'd be pissed if, during the $200 era, my team had a clean sweep of the first two questions, not adding to $200, and the other team swept the first double-value question to win the game with exactly $200.
2. Did they put together complete games, as with J!, or just randomly pull questions, making sure not to have two similar questions in one game? (e.g., Don't follow "Name a famous Franklin" with "Name a famous Washington," and especially don't follow it with "Name a famous Benjamin.")
3. For celebrity events, did they deliberately choose questions with a large value for the #1 answer, as it appears to me?

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Mar 7 2006, 02:54 PM\']3. For celebrity events, did they deliberately choose questions with a large value for the #1 answer, as it appears to me?

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I of course don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me, and here's why: higher #1's means higher banks, means the game is over quicker, which means there is extra time to do schtick with the celebrities.

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Mar 7 2006, 05:54 PM\']1. Did they try to create certain situations and avoid others concerning the total value of the answers in the survey? I'd be pissed if, during the $200 era, my team had a clean sweep of the first two questions, not adding to $200, and the other team swept the first double-value question to win the game with exactly $200.
2. Did they put together complete games, as with J!, or just randomly pull questions, making sure not to have two similar questions in one game? (e.g., Don't follow "Name a famous Franklin" with "Name a famous Washington," and especially don't follow it with "Name a famous Benjamin.")
3. For celebrity events, did they deliberately choose questions with a large value for the #1 answer, as it appears to me?

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I believe it would be a reasonable assumption in the G/T Dawson-Combs era that they took all the "survey" results, looked at the number of answers where at least 2 people said the same answer, and put those particular surveys into 4 piles:

•  Early Game Surveys (ones with the most different answers yielding the fewest points)
•  Mid-Game Surveys (more points/fewer answers -- used for Double Point Rounds)
•  Triple Point questions (3 or 4 answers with high points that should determine a winner)
•  Fast Money Surveys (Simple Questions that get quick answers from Fast Money players).

Then I would assume that they would assemble the main-game surveys to make sure that a family cannot sweep and win the game too quickly, which would mean only having enough points to win after n-rounds.

And I concur with Chris L that probably in the special 'celebrity' games, they would just use mid-game questions and above not only to create faster games and more chit chat with the players, but to make them look more intelligent!


Did Feud, like Card Sharks, ever ask for specific demographics in their home-viewer participation surveys?  ("If you have been married for less than a year, send us a post-card and mail it to Card Sharks, Newlyweds, 6430 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood CA, 90028" -- How exactly *did* Gene Wood set up those survey spiels)

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Mar 7 2006, 07:32 PM\']

Did Feud, like Card Sharks, ever ask for specific demographics in their home-viewer participation surveys? 

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Combs Feud did ask for bartenders as a specific demographic on-air one time.

[JasonA1]

• Fast Money Surveys (Simple Questions that get quick answers from Fast Money players).

And of course, reserve questions like "name a day..." or questions with all numerical answers for this as well. The old NES "Feud" didn't have such a filter, and you'd frequently see stuff like "name the time people get up in the morning" in the main game.

And it seems pretty obvious that they're deliberately leaving answers off the board on Karn "Feud" so Richard doesn't have to stretch through a fourth round's worth of time.

-Jason