Family Feud (partially found unaired pilot of Pearson game show; 1998-1999)

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Louie2.png

Promo picture for the revival.

Status: Partially Found

Family Feud is an American game show that was created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman and first premiered on ABC on June 12th, 1976, and was first hosted by Hogan's Heroes actor Richard Dawson. The show was based on the bonus round of another show Goodson and Todman made called "Match Game" and has families go head to head as they give answers to survey questions and the winning family goes on to play for $20,000. The show was an immediate success on ABC and the show continues to air on television in syndication with comedian Steve Harvey as host since 2010. The show has been cancelled and revived several times throughout the years with the current version having aired since 1999.

Background

The show ended its second run on September 8, 1995, due to low ratings and the return of original host Richard Dawson wasn't improving the show's ratings. A year after the show's cancellation, the then-current rights holders "All American Television" were looking to bring back the show along with two other Goodson-Todman shows, Match Game and Card Sharks[1]. However, development was delayed after the pilots for Card Sharks and Match Game were made and got rejected by the syndicator Tribune Entertainment and a host for Family Feud was not selected[2]. During its development, names like Gordon Elliot, Doug Davidson[3], Dolly Parton[4][5][6] and even Richard Dawson[7][8] were considered to host the show. Ultimately, the late comedian and actor Louie Anderson was chosen to host the show[9], having been a fan of the show during its prior runs.

Pilot

Photo of Louie Anderson on the set of the pilot

After Louie was selected for the host, Pearson (who bought All American Television in October 1997[10]) opted to film a pilot to pitch the show. Anderson declined to film a pilot stating that "Anybody in show business know if they actually shoot a pilot, that's a chance for them [the stations] to say no"[11]. Anderson then revealed that his family was coming to see one of his upcoming stand-up sets in Las Vegas (exact date is unknown) and asked Pearson to film him and his family playing the game after his stand-up set. Pearson agreed to Louie's request. The set for the pilot was very homemade with the logo from the previous run being used for the taping. Whether or not the format from Louie's tenure was used in the pilot is unknown. Pearson was happy with the results of the pilot and signed Louie on as the host of the revival and started filming not long after. The revival premiered on September 20th, 1999, and the rest is history.

Availability

Since it was recorded, the pilot has never been seen and it's unknown if Fremantle (the current rights owners) still has the footage. A photo of Louie behind the face-off podium during the pilot's taping was used for the revival's promotion. During an interview with Anderson on The Donny & Marie Osmond Show on May 26, 1999, some short clips of the pilot were shown. This is the only footage of the pilot that has been released and it's unknown if the rest of the pilot will ever surface.

Gallery

Donny & Marie interview with Louie Anderson (pilot footage at 1:59).

See Also

Pilots

Television

Miscellaneous

References

  1. ↑ https://variety.com/1996/scene/vpage/all-american-mulling-a-new-feud-1117466088/
  2. ↑ https://variety.com/1997/tv/news/let-the-games-begin-1116678387/
  3. ↑ https://variety.com/1997/scene/vpage/all-american-spikes-games-1117435590/
  4. ↑ https://familyfeudforum.proboards.com/thread/46/dolly-parton-candidate-feud-gig
  5. ↑ https://markgoodson.fandom.com/wiki/File:New_Feud_May_Sign_Dolly_Parton_as_Host.png
  6. ↑ https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1998/BC-1998-04-06.pdf
  7. ↑ http://gameshowforum.org/index.php?topic=6450.0
  8. ↑ https://markgoodson.fandom.com/wiki/Family_Feud_(1996_proposed_revival)
  9. ↑ https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1998/BC-1998-09-14.pdf
  10. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20000902080204/http://www.pearsontv.com/pages/aanews.htm
  11. ↑ https://youtu.be/Y_EE9F_3M1I
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