Family Feud in popular culture

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The American gameshow Family Feud, in all its incarnations, has had an influence in US popular culture. Some of the examples are noted here.

[edit] Before-they-were-stars

Kathy Najimy, before becoming an actress and voice artist (as Peggy Hill on King Of The Hill), played with her family on a 1981 episode of Richard Dawson's Feud. Her family returned on June 29, 2006 to play the Feud finale on Gameshow Marathon, playing against Brande Roderick's family (she appeared on the Feud in 2000 along with her Baywatch Hawaii co-stars). Najimy won the tournament and won $100,000 for her charity.

The 1981 clip featuring the Najimy family revealed that they needed three of the second player's five answers to win the Fast Money round. It also points out that Najimys recorded 230 points; in the Gameshow Marathon episode, the same result occurred as before, but their total was 202 points, 28 points fewer than they scored with in 1981.

Current host, John O'Hurley, was in fact a contestant on the original Family Feud with Richard Dawson in a special "Guys and Dolls" celebrity week in 1981.

Former New York Yankees catcher and current Oakland Athletics manager Bob Geren appeared on the show with the Geren family in 1989 while still in the minor leagues.

[edit] References in popular culture

Saturday Night Live has featured several sketches parodying Family Feud. The earliest known sketch, from 1978, featured the Coneheads as one of the families and Bill Murray in the role of Richard Dawson. Later sketches featured Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman as Ray Combs with Dysfunctional Family Feud.
National Lampoon's European Vacation featured the Griswold family competing on a game show called "Pig in a Poke", which was an obvious parody of Family Feud (only, the competing families had to wear pig costumes) and it featured John Astin as the Richard Dawson-like host who kissed female contestants.
In Living Color featured a Family Feud parody in which the Jackson Family played against the English Royal Family. The parody also included Ray Combs who portrayed himself.
Episodes of Mama's Family (with Dawson) and 227 (with Combs) have featured characters appearing as contestants on Feud.
In the stop motion animated series Robot Chicken, the Bloopers segment shows a quick blooper clip from Family Feud in which the host, kisses the two female contestants and offers the one male contestant a handshake, only to be pulled into a kiss with the man, which he weakly struggles to get out of. At the end of the clip, the blooper host jokingly comments, "A later host of the Family Feud would hang himself."
Sesame Street once featured Dawson as host of a Feud parody, "Family Food."
Another PBS series, Square One TV, featured its own parody called "Piece of the Pie" which used a pie chart and taught percentages.
A television commercial for Old Navy clothing stores in 2002 featured another Feud parody, "Family Fleece". The commercial, notable for including an almost-exact replica of the 1988 Ray Combs set and a custom version of the theme, starred actress Morgan Fairchild, and was the main reason for producers bringing back the original theme for a brief time on the actual series in 2002.
An episode of The Jetsons had the Jetsons face the Spacelys on "Family Fallout." The Jetsons won, but out of fear of getting fired, George trade prizes. The Jetsons won a washer/dryer set (which Jane wanted anyway), and the Spacelys won a lifetime supply of Cogswell's Cogs (the rival company of Spacely's Sprockets).
On the British satirical gameshow Have I Got News For You, team captain Paul Merton made a mocking reference to the perceived stupidity of many contestants on the UK version Family Fortunes. Also, the "uh-oh" sound heard on the British show when contestants gave an answer which was not among the answers given by the "hundred people surveyed" has become a common reference point in British popular culture.
A November 1979 episode of ABC-TV's Angie starring Donna Pescow featured Richard Dawson playing himself on the popular game show. The set featured on the episode was not the original Family Feud set at ABC studios but a mock-up created for the sitcom.
A May 2003 episode of NBC-TV's Watching Ellie featured Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Ellie trying to win a vacation by booking a faux family with her to appear on the show. Richard Karn played himself.
The Family Guy DVD of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story shows a cutaway of Peter portraying a version of Richard Dawson. The cutaway shows him greeting with a contestant named Betsie, after he kisses on her cheek, he puts his hand under Betsie's shirt and touches her right breast, then the left one, then asking her something you shop for in a mall.
In the "Da Boom" episode of Family Guy, a group of highway people, upon finding the family doesn't have any food, and in fact, is looking for some themselves, refuses to let them pass until answering a Feud-style question ("Something one takes on a picnic"). The family's answer: potato salad. As the highway people look at a cloud (presumably waiting for a bell or buzzer), the family backs away and leaves.
In the beginning of the film Airplane II: The Sequel, every time a passenger goes through the security checkpoint, either the trademark bell, buzzer or ring-in sound from Family Feud can be heard.
Several episodes of the sketch comedy show MADtv featured cast member Will Sasso spoofing the Louie Anderson-era Feud, portraying the host as a miserably hopeless compulsive overeater, who often berated himself or the contestants during the game. Another sketch spoofed the Richard Karn-era Feud, pitting Lord of the Rings against Cold Mountain. The skit played off of the skeptical fans by having everyone in the room be completely clueless as to who Karn was exactly.
The Showtime sketch comedy Bizarre made numerous references to Feud and Richard Dawson's constant kissing of contestants. In one sketch, host John Byner played Dawson as he was about to be married; the "I dos" were posted on a survey answer board. The sketch ended with Byner walking out of the Bizarre studio -- still in character as Dawson -- kissing practically everyone on his way out, including the camera and a stray dog sitting outside the studio door. In another sketch, Byner played a medical expert who showed the audience the "number one cause of herpes" -- a picture of Dawson.
One of the Homestar Runner cartoons (specifically, one of Strong Bad's E-Mails), Strong Bad is watching TV when the familiar buzzer is heard. He comments, "Survey says...you're an idiot."
The familiar "Strike" buzzer is used on other various TV and radio programs, particularly talk shows and the NFL pregame shows. The buzzer can also be heard on the new talent search program America's Got Talent, whenever all three judges have decided not to let a contestant go further in the competition.
In the first movie of the Lethal Weapon series starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, while Gibson is watching TV, you can hear Gene Wood reading the ticket plug from the Dawson version on the TV. In a deleted scene set shortly after, Gibson's character throws a beer bottle at his television screen while watching a happy family celebrate a Fast Money win.
In the movie Mallrats, Brodie (Jason Lee) refers to the game show host as Richard Dawson and tells him to go back to his podium until it's time to play The Feud.
The Australian television series Fast Forward spoofed that country's version of Family Feud in 1991. Steve Vizard portrayed host Rob Brough.
The early-1980s variety show Barbara Mandrell & the Mandrell Sisters spoofed the Feud in an episode. Barbara Mandrell and her sisters fought against special guest stars The Statler Brothers. Statler Harold Reid portrayed host "Richie Kissie," an obvious riff on Richard Dawson. (The Mandrells and the Statlers would later fight against each other on the real Feud during the special week at Opryland in 1993.)