Richard Dawson won the 1978 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host for “Family Feud”. The program had only been on the air for two years, and this was Dawson’s first career nomination — he would go on to have six more, losing to fellow game show legends Peter Marshall, Bob Barker, Dick Clark and Betty White.
“Family Feud” was a phenomenon in syndication and for ABC… and 50 years later, it still is, with the daytime version dominating the ratings and the “Celebrity” version making an impact in primetime, both with host Steve Harvey.
But Dawson’s run still lives on, in reruns on BUZZR and this holiday season, on the big screen. Memories of his role as “The Running Man” host Damon Killian in the 1987 version co-starring Arnold Schwarzenegger have flooded back with the recent release of the new version with Glen Powell and Colman Domingo.
And Dawson can be seen in not one but two new major December films. The first is “The Housemaid”. As director Paul Feig and the cast (including Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried) revealed to Harvey on the “Celebrity Family Feud” holiday special, there’s a scene in the suspense thriller in which Sweeney and Brandon Sklenar watch a Dawson “Feud” episode.
The second movie is “Song Sung Blue”, based on the true story and documentary of Milwaukee Neil Diamond tribute band couple Mike and Claire Sardina, played by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. I’ve already screened “SSB” — one of my favorite films of the year — and there are multiple scenes in which Claire is watching a particular year of Dawson’s “Feud”. Dawson originally left the show in 1985. Ray Combs took over a few years later. But Dawson returned for one more season (sporting white hair) from 1994 to 1995. Claire is watching episodes from that season, which is… “Survey Says!…”: Pretty Cool.