Family Feud

[Don Howard]

Because of an errand I had to run this morning, I stopped off at home for a few minutes just after 10am EST and decided to catch a round of Family Feud. It was seven minutes past ten when Richard finally stopped schmoozin' with the special celebrity players and got to the first survey. Seven minutes!! For those of you with ledgers, stopwatches and official record books, does any contestant intro segement top seven doggone minutes?
Granted, this is a week with gorgeous gals at all of the contestant microphones, but STILL!! can't some of the flirting be saved for the dinner break?

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jan 20 2006, 10:21 AM\']Granted, this is a week with gorgeous gals at all of the contestant microphones, but STILL!! can't some of the flirting be saved for the dinner break?

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Not to mention a pre-$otC(but post her WOF audition stint) Summer Bartholomew and pre-BtB85 Julie Hayek. but yeah, all the  celeb weeks of Dawson Feud seemed to have an extra long player intro segment, as he often greets all the members of the team before the game(which, admittedly, he did with contestants in the earliest days of ABC/Syndie Feud and in 1994). FWIW, the ABC Dawson shows with celebs, daytime and primetime, didn't have end of show fee plugs, while the Syndie Dawson celeb shows did.

[alfonzos]

Speaking of FF, I remember one episode where Dawnson feigned illness and let a female staff member host the rest of the show. Does anybody else remember the episode? If so, who was she and is that episode in rotation at GSN?

[Steve McClellan]

[quote name=\'alfonzos\' date=\'Jan 20 2006, 01:33 PM\']Speaking of FF, I remember one episode where Dawnson feigned illness and let a female staff member host the rest of the show. Does anybody else remember the episode? If so, who was she and is that episode in rotation at GSN?[/quote]
He didn't feign anything. He had injured his ribs and his brace was slipping. He asked contestant coordinator Caryn Lucas to sub for two questions. It has been seen on GSN. Caryn is now an executive producer and writer on the WB's What I Like About You.

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'Steve McClellan\' date=\'Jan 20 2006, 04:46 PM\']He didn't feign anything. He had injured his ribs and his brace was slipping. He asked contestant coordinator Caryn Lucas to sub for two questions. It has been seen on GSN. Caryn is now an executive producer and writer on the WB's What I Like About You.

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Okay.....

I haven't seen the ep in question, but I have to ask:

WHO APPROVED THAT?

I'm sure Caryn is/was a fine sub, but what EP allowed a behind the scenes contestant coordinator to take the reins of a network show?

Part B : Why didn't Gene Wood, who (albeit admittedly had less than a lot) had prior tv exposure, step in??

[Steve Gavazzi]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jan 20 2006, 10:21 AM\']Seven minutes!! For those of you with ledgers, stopwatches and official record books, does any contestant intro segement top seven doggone minutes?

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Matter of fact, I can equal that -- the Portuguese version of The Price Is Right.  I'm sure that's not what you had in mind...but seriously, on the one episode of this that I've seen, the host just will not shut the hell up.  The show is 45 minutes; the first IUFB is displayed at about seven minutes and 20 seconds.

Maybe it's not as annoying if you speak Portuguese...but I doubt it.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' date=\'Jan 20 2006, 03:52 PM\'][quote name=\'Steve McClellan\' date=\'Jan 20 2006, 04:46 PM\']He didn't feign anything. He had injured his ribs and his brace was slipping. He asked contestant coordinator Caryn Lucas to sub for two questions. It has been seen on GSN. Caryn is now an executive producer and writer on the WB's What I Like About You.

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[/quote]

Okay.....

I haven't seen the ep in question, but I have to ask:

WHO APPROVED THAT?

I'm sure Caryn is/was a fine sub, but what EP allowed a behind the scenes contestant coordinator to take the reins of a network show?

Part B : Why didn't Gene Wood, who (albeit admittedly had less than a lot) had prior tv exposure, step in??

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CONJECTURE:

Sounds to me like Felsher had already had one too many arguments with Dawson that day and said to himself, "oh, hell, why not?  If she screws up, I'll tell Goodson that Dawson was responsible and he can fire Dawson."

[whewfan]

Moments like that, you don't really see on game shows anymore. I'm sure if Bob Barker, Richard Karn, or any host on the air today were to have some injury in the middle of a taping, they'd probably stop tape and resume on the next scheduled taping day. Richard did wait until the round was over to suggest (or in his case INSIST) to stop tape, just to make a smooth edit in case they did decide to halt taping.

Richard had let Howard host one question when Howard made a questionable judgment call, while Richard mocked him in the "executive producer" seat. Not long after that, of course, he let Sammy Davis Jr. host one question.

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'whewfan\' date=\'Jan 26 2006, 05:36 AM\']Moments like that, you don't really see on game shows anymore.

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IMHO, it's moments like that you SHOULDN'T see on game shows anymore. Your host is the skipper, and the (only) permanent recognizable face on a show. It's bad producing to put a fill in there, even if it's (Jamie Farr for Tom K on Wordplay, or Geoff Edwards for Bill C on Chain Reaction, or Jim Peck for Jack B on Joker's Wild) temporary. To me, Richard putting a behindthescenes staffer in there was his way of displaying clout...almost like "Ha, take a look at how bad this show would run without  me." Of course, were I Felcher, I would have said "Ha. Let's see who else can do this show other than Richard.  Again , this is IMHO.

Don't confuse the viewers. Ever.

[Mike Tennant]

[quote name=\'tvwxman\' date=\'Jan 31 2006, 07:58 AM\']IMHO, it's moments like that you SHOULDN'T see on game shows anymore. Your host is the skipper, and the (only) permanent recognizable face on a show. It's bad producing to put a fill in there, even if it's (Jamie Farr for Tom K on Wordplay, or Geoff Edwards for Bill C on Chain Reaction, or Jim Peck for Jack B on Joker's Wild) temporary.

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Substitute hosts were absolute necessities back in the days of live TV, but by now they have completely gone by the wayside.  It was kind of strange how they still appeared during the 1970s and '80s even though no game shows were done live by then.  (Then again, Jack Barry was still asking contestants if they could come back tomorrow, which was all of 15 minutes away in real time.)  I suppose it made budgetary sense, especially if a host suddenly became ill or otherwise unable to appear.  You've got the studio rented and all personnel and contestants lined up to be there on certain days; you don't want to blow a lot of money and annoy a lot of people by canceling a taping.

On the other hand, as a viewer I always hated when a substitute host showed up and frequently would turn to another channel when that happened.  No matter how good the sub, he was never as comfortable with the format as the regular host.  It was like having a substitute teacher.  Even if the sub had a good lesson plan prepared by the regular teacher and delivered it well, something just didn't feel right.

[Jimmy Owen]

A sub host never bothered me, of course I grew up in the days of live daytime shows, so it happened more often.  Sometimes I found it a nice change of pace (Peck on TJW).  

Having said that, the examples cited regarding FF do smack of a power play.

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'Mike Tennant\' date=\'Jan 31 2006, 08:46 AM\']On the other hand, as a viewer I always hated when a substitute host showed up and frequently would turn to another channel when that happened.  No matter how good the sub, he was never as comfortable with the format as the regular host.  It was like having a substitute teacher.  Even if the sub had a good lesson plan prepared by the regular teacher and delivered it well, something just didn't feel right.

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On the contrary, when it happened on TJW, I enjoyed the show more - when you're six years old, Jim Peck is less of a scary face to see than Jack Barry.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'Mike Tennant\' date=\'Jan 31 2006, 07:46 AM\'](Then again, Jack Barry was still asking contestants if they could come back tomorrow, which was all of 15 minutes away in real time.)

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Didn't somebody actually say "No"?  For some reason that image jumps out at me.

Doug -- and the countdown to 1800 continues

[Ian Wallis]

On the contrary, when it happened on TJW, I enjoyed the show more - when you're six years old, Jim Peck is less of a scary face to see than Jack Barry.

Point taken...but since it was Jack's show, if he wanted some time off in the middle of a season why wouldn't they have just built that into the taping schedule?  It's not as if the show was live or anything!

[Mike Tennant]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Jan 31 2006, 09:19 AM\']On the contrary, when it happened on TJW, I enjoyed the show more - when you're six years old, Jim Peck is less of a scary face to see than Jack Barry.

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Good point.  As a young'un I thought that Jack had served as the model for the devil on the bonus round wheels.