Everyone has a favorite Family Feud host. I mean, the show has been on for more than 40 years, and every five years or so, we're introduced to a new host, each bringing a unique personality to our beloved game show. But like a great song or movie, no one can beat the original Family Feud host: Richard Dawson.
Already known as a frequent panelist on Match Game, Dawson dominated television screens across America when he began hosting Family Feud in 1976. His good looks and wisecracker sense of humor won the hearts of viewers, but it was his unconventional style of greeting female contestants that would make him famous.
Dawson started kissing female contestants on the cheeks and hands and even the lips within the first few weeks of the show. It all started when he came across a woman who seemed quite nervous, unable to 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. ... And I kissed her on the cheek, and I said, 'That's for luck.' And she said, 'Asparagus.' ... They went on to win," he told the Archive of American Television in a 2010 interview.
After a month or so, executives tried to put an end to the kissing, according to Dawson, by claiming the sponsors felt kissing women without knowing their martial status or getting their permission was uncomely. In the interview below, Dawson insinuates that it actually had to do with him kissing two non-white female contestants.
"It's very important to me that on Family Feud I could kiss all people. I kissed black women daily and nightly on Family Feud for 11 years, and the world didn't come to an end, did it?" Dawson said, according to the New York Times.
He allegedly asked viewers to vote on whether or not they would like him to stop. The votes came in 14,600 to 704 in favor of kissing, according to Hogan's Heroes: The Unofficial Company. The book also reveals that contestants filled out a questionnaire before each game including, "Do you mind if Richard Dawson greets you with a kiss?" Apparently, not many declined.
As controversial as the kissing was, in 1981, Dawson planted a peck on a woman who would eventually become his second wife. Forty-nine-year-old Dawson met 24-year-old Gretchen Johnson when she was a contestant on the show. In the video below, it is so painfully obvious that he was smitten.
During that taping, Dawson ends up kissing Johnson on the lips a total of four times — which is a lot, even for him. He can also be heard asking her if she's married, to which she replied "no." Dawson later revealed that after the show, he asked Johnson if he could call her.
"I just knew there was something about this young lady and myself," he said. She agreed, but after calling her multiple times with no answer, Dawson admittedly thought the college student had given him a fake number. He eventually got a hold of her and learned that she'd just had her wisdom teeth removed. Johnson agreed to let Dawson cook dinner for her a couple of weeks later. That meeting didn't go exactly as planned, since Johnson hardly ate a thing. Apparently, she hated anything starting with the letter "A," including the asparagus side dish Dawson on the menu. Still, a love connection was made.
While many people, especially fans, weren't fond of their beloved host dating someone so young, Dawson continued dating Johnson even after his first stint on Family Feud came to an end in 1985.
The couple had a daughter, Shannon Nicole, in 1990, and were married in 1991, just three years before Dawson would return to host Family Feud for a second time. After being invited back to host the now hour-long show in 1994, Dawson made it clear to the first female contestant that he was was giving up his signature greeting. The reason is actually really sweet.
"I met someone on the show about 13 years ago and we're married, and now we have a little daughter. Her name is Shannon Nicole .... And I can't kiss any of the ladies because I promised my daughter I would only kiss Mom."
There were a lot of "awws," but I think people were mostly disappointed. Regardless, it's fair to say he made the right decision. Dawson and Johnson remained together until his death in 2012. In one of his last interviews, he said, "I've had been 30 and 40 years with Gretchen — the best years of my life — I am the luckiest man alive, truly."
