Former Family Feud host Richard Dawson’s propensity for kissing female contestants on the mouth — which would be frowned upon these days, to say the least — led to a pretty unusual practice.
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According to a new book, Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars, the contestants allegedly had to take a herpes test during Dawson’s time as host from 1976-1985 and again in 1994-95, reported Entertainment Weekly.
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“A contestant revealed that before her appearance, a Family Feud production assistant entered the dressing room with a magnifying glass and a cotton swab and said, ‘OK, everybody line up for your herpes test,’” it says in the book.
The test came because both viewers and doctors were concerned.
“One viewer complained, ‘Richard Dawson spreads more bugs every week than a flu epidemic,’” says the book.
Outrageous also recounts a letter sent by a doctor to Philadelphia Daily News: “The diseases that could be transmitted by promiscuous kissing are too long and too loathsome to recount here. Does Dawson or the producers take any caution to prevent infection?”
Dawson, who died in 2012 from esophageal cancer complications at the age of 79, told the Television Academy in 2010 that he started doing it to help calm contestants’ nerves, recalling a woman so nervous she couldn’t name a green vegetable.
“I said, ‘I’m gonna do something that my mom would do to me whenever I had a problem of any kind,” he recalled. “And I kissed her on the cheek, and I said, ‘That’s for luck.’ And she said, ‘Asparagus.’”
Although ABC told Dawson to quit the kissing because of complaints, he said thousands of letters poured in support of them.
woodenman22 on December 1st, 2023 at 20:46 UTC »
Were they given the tests before or after he kissed them? 😬
joeyGibson on December 1st, 2023 at 18:27 UTC »
I used to love watching FF in the 70s, but I remember my grandmother always complaining about Dawson kissing the ladies. Recently I watched a few episodes of the Dawson era on PlutoTV... and it was cringey. I didn't remember how egregious it was. There was a great parody of Dawson in National Lampoon's European Vacation that captures it pretty well.
dfj3xxx on December 1st, 2023 at 15:45 UTC »
I can believe that.
Kissing the ladies was a big thing on the show.