Author Topic: Family Feud (Read 19952 times)

Jeremy Nelson · « **on:** November 03, 2005, 10:21:39 AM »

Was it originally supposed to be a straddling format? Originally, Gene Wood DID introduce the new challengers at the end of the show. Maybe if a family won the game in 3 rounds, Family Feud could have been a show with a straddling format....

zachhoran · « **Reply #1 on:** November 03, 2005, 10:32:56 AM »

[quote name=\'rollercoaster87\' date=\'Nov 3 2005, 10:21 AM\']Was it originally supposed to be a straddling format? Originally, Gene Wood DID introduce the new challengers at the end of the show. Maybe if a family won the game in 3 rounds, Family Feud could have been a show with a straddling format....

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That's a question of debate on these boards over the years. SOme have said straddling Feud would have been fairer than some of the scoring systems they have used over the years. Straddling to best of five questions with no point score is one way to do it, another way is to play single valued questions to 200 points.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #2 on:** November 03, 2005, 11:07:41 AM »

[quote name=\'rollercoaster87\' date=\'Nov 3 2005, 11:21 AM\']Was it originally supposed to be a straddling format? Originally, Gene Wood DID introduce the new challengers at the end of the show. Maybe if a family won the game in 3 rounds, Family Feud could have been a show with a straddling format....[/quote]
Having watched the series from day one, it's my considered opinion that the show was originally not intended to be self-contained, and it just occurred to them after doing it for a little while that it could be. Naturally, I wasn't there to know for sure, and there are people here who disagree with me, but I still maintain that realizing the shows could be self-contained was a happy accident rather than a considered plan.

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 03, 2005, 11:31:43 AM »

Early episodes featured Richard introducing the next family before "time ran out". IF Richard hadn't spent 7 minutes fooling around; they easily could have straddled.

uncamark · « **Reply #4 on:** November 03, 2005, 12:53:22 PM »

[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Nov 3 2005, 11:31 AM\']Early episodes featured Richard introducing the next family before "time ran out". IF Richard hadn't spent 7 minutes fooling around; they easily could have straddled.

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On the other hand, since the show was meant to be a comedy show, it didn't hurt anything (and one of the reasons for the current version's inferiority was/is Anderson and Karn's inability to ad lib and do the give-and-take with the contestants). Little did anyone know that Dawson was going to turn into the holy terror success made him.

As for Matt's comment, I also have the feeling that "Pyramid" was also meant to straddle and that the fact that two self-contained games could be played in a half-hour--or 25 minutes in its CBS days--was also a happy accident.

JasonA1 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 03, 2005, 01:02:39 PM »

I can agree with Mr. Jeffries on Pyramid, especially since the contestants were treated very in-and-out at the beginning. As for Matt, I'm not so sure. I saw scattered episodes from the very beginning of the run and on one the intro of the next family occured at the end. It looked to me like just a way to fill time. If they were really there to straddle, it would've functioned like many other shows where the host says something like, "welcome to our show, we'll have time to talk tomorrow, but right now, heads of families - it's time for the first faceoff" and go right into a question.

-Jason

clemon79 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 03, 2005, 01:09:47 PM »

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Nov 3 2005, 09:53 AM\']As for Matt's comment, I also have the feeling that "Pyramid" was also meant to straddle and that the fact that two self-contained games could be played in a half-hour--or 25 minutes in its CBS days--was also a happy accident.

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Maybe with the ABC run, but on the CBS run, it was quite intentional, mainly because of the mechanism used to decide who came back the next day. I also remember from VERY early on in the run of the show, Dick would say during his "This is the Winner's Circle" rattle specifically they they played two games a day.

uncamark · « **Reply #7 on:** November 03, 2005, 01:21:33 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Nov 3 2005, 01:09 PM\'][quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Nov 3 2005, 09:53 AM\']As for Matt's comment, I also have the feeling that "Pyramid" was also meant to straddle and that the fact that two self-contained games could be played in a half-hour--or 25 minutes in its CBS days--was also a happy accident.

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Maybe with the ABC run, but on the CBS run, it was quite intentional, mainly because of the mechanism used to decide who came back the next day. I also remember from VERY early on in the run of the show, Dick would say during his "This is the Winner's Circle" rattle specifically they they played two games a day.

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I was referring to the first CBS run as "The $10,000 Pyramid." Of course by the 80s it was self-contained and designed to remain so.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #8 on:** November 03, 2005, 01:39:47 PM »

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Nov 3 2005, 01:53 PM\']As for Matt's comment, I also have the feeling that "Pyramid" was also meant to straddle and that the fact that two self-contained games could be played in a half-hour--or 25 minutes in its CBS days--was also a happy accident.[/quote]
See, you'd think I'd be a good boy and appreciate the support, but my gut instinct was just the opposite for Pyramid. Maybe I'm giving Bob Stewart too much credit as a game designer, but I always felt like Pyramid was designed from day one to have two matches per show. I realize that before they solved the problem of the interminable tiebreakers, they'd occasionally have three Winner's Circles in one program. Still, I always saw that as a cool little quirk of necessity, and they always moved a little faster on those episodes to get back on track.

As long as I'm drumming up support for my position on Feud, keep in mind that similar Goodson-Todman games from that period frequently straddled. Match Game, the Passwords, Card Sharks, even obscurities like The Better Sex were more concerned about their rounds of play than they were in how long those rounds took. The original structure of Feud -- the idea that you couldn't be sure whether the game would end in three or four or even five rounds -- certainly suggests to me that they weren't originally thinking about wrapping everything up neatly in half an hour.

mmb5 · « **Reply #9 on:** November 03, 2005, 04:12:05 PM »

Based on one early $10,000 Pyramid episode I've seen from the first year, it was definitely meant to straddle. They stopped a main game with only four of the six categories played at the end of the show. Plus they had an opening (since this episode was starting with the Winner's Circle) that would have made Brent Musburger blush.

--Mike

Robert Hutchinson · « **Reply #10 on:** November 03, 2005, 10:14:33 PM »

I remember a couple of the $20KP episodes during the Dark Period bumped a Winner's Circle to the next episode. Beyond the good reasons for not straddling the show later on, it just looked distracting to have the champion sitting in the middle of the stage while the celebrities were being introduced.

HYHYBT · « **Reply #11 on:** November 05, 2005, 04:29:49 AM »

Well, that would have been easy enough to fix by seating the contestant after the show opened.

The Pyramids · « **Reply #12 on:** November 05, 2005, 11:54:53 AM »

Does anyone have an opinion of how 'H2' was straddled in its last season? I liked it. It made you less aware of the usual short 19 minute show time.

NickintheATL · « **Reply #13 on:** November 05, 2005, 12:18:59 PM »

[quote name=\'PaulD\' date=\'Nov 5 2005, 12:54 PM\']Does anyone have an opinion of how 'H2' was straddled in its last season? I liked it. It made you less aware of the usual short 19 minute show time.
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I liked the straddling that last season, it made the game refreshing to watch and took pressure off of everyone (more than likely) to fit the game into a self-contained half-hour.

If I were to bring a show on the air, straddling would be the way to go.

BrandonFG · « **Reply #14 on:** November 05, 2005, 12:31:52 PM »

[quote name=\'PaulD\' date=\'Nov 5 2005, 11:54 AM\']Does anyone have an opinion of how 'H2' was straddled in its last season? I liked it. It made you less aware of the usual short 19 minute show time.

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Liked it much better, made the game more relaxed, and allowed for more spontaniety. The self-contained format made it seem like they were struggling to fill the main game, and most of the time, it was just anti-climatic by the third round, the same problem that the Marshall nighttime episodes had.