At the time, Shatner had been married to the daughter of TV executive Perry Lafferty, who was head of West Coast programming at CBS when Goodson and Todman were developing “Family Feud.‘Euphoria’ Star Dominic Fike Reveals He Was Almost Fired for Drug Use During Filming The way Dawson tells it, however, the job was Shatner’s to lose. In his book, Shatner added that Goodson and Todman “really liked me,” but stopped short of revealing whether he was in the running to host “Family Feud.” (In a statement provided to Nexstar, Shatner - via his assistant - confirmed he was never formally contacted about the job.) And finally, by any ordinary standards the money was good.”Īmong others, Shatner made appearances as a celebrity guest on “Tattletales,” “To Tell the Truth,” “Hollywood Squares” and “The $20,000 Pyramid,” once famously throwing his chair during an episode of the latter, after accidentally ruining a contestant’s chances at the top prize. “They provided great exposure - it was very good publicity for whatever project I was doing - but mostly for me. “Game shows were fun and I enjoyed doing them,” Shatner wrote in “Up Till Now,” his 2008 autobiography. “Suddenly we hear they’re going to do a new pilot called ‘Family Feud.’ They’re interviewing people, and it looks as though … Shatner … he was on the leading edge of getting it,” Dawson remembered. “I had a deal with Mark Goodson, that the next pilot they went - whatever it was - they would have to offer me,” said Dawson in a 2010 interview with the Television Academy. During that time, he became good friends with “Match Game” co-producer Mark Goodson, one-half of the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production team.ĭawson, who became quite popular with both viewers and contestants, said Goodson took notice and offered him a job hosting whichever game show he produced next. game shows for years before “Family Feud” debuted in 1976, most notably as a regular panelist on CBS’s revival of “Match Game” between 19.

Instead, he said, they wanted to boldly go with another popular actor of the era.ĭawson had been a fixture on U.S. (NEXSTAR) – Richard Dawson, the kiss-happy original host of “Family Feud,” wasn’t the producers’ first choice for the job.

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