Steve Harvey has been the host of Family Feud for so long, it can be easy to forget just how many others took the game show stage before him. As such, it can also be easy (or perhaps altogether preferable) to forget about past emcee Richard Dawson’s penchant for kissing the lips of all of the female contestants he crossed paths with. That behavior pattern remains a polarizing TV quirk, and while most conversations about the topic over the years included Dawson himself, a new book covering more than a century of pop culture outrage shines a disturbing light on that point in Family Feud’s history, which includes the claim that contestants were given herpes tests.
Author Kliph Nesteroff released the new book Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars (now available for purchase) on November 28 with positive blurbs from such comedy icons as Steve Martin, Bob Odenkirk and Judd Apatow. Less than positive, however, is the notion that female Family Feud hopefuls were required to “undergo a mouth test” involving the show’s medical staffers before appearing opposite Dawson. Here’s how Nesteroff put it (via EW):
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, 'Okay, everybody line up for your herpes test.'
Is it possible that this was more of a limited-scope affair, and not every woman who showed up with her family members was required to get swabbed? That’s presumably the case when it comes to the earliest contestants, but without further contextual details, it’s hard to know when the herpes tests started, or how widespread they were. Is it more disturbing to think that only certain people were given the test, while others weren’t? Probably?
Whatever the nitty gritty details, the show implemented that practice at one point, and watching just about any single episode from Richard Dawson’s 1976-1985 run arguably features more lip-smacking and shoulder-rubbing than the past two decades of game shows. And it turns out the medical exams came after viewers wrote in complaints and concerns about just how many germs were being passed around.
Kliph Nesteroff shared one of the more nit-picky viewer complaints (pun intended), saying:
Several game show fans were repulsed. One viewer complained, 'Richard Dawson spreads more bugs every week than a flu epidemic.'
What's more, another letter was shared that was reportedly sent to the Philadelphia Daily News from a physician saying they've "wondered about the risks" that the Family Feud host took on each time he instinctively reached over to plant one on any and all women trying to nail the survey answers. The fan also questioned whether Dawson or anyone involved behind the scenes of the show took any sort of precautions to ward off the myriad diseases that could potentially be spread from all the pecking.
Dawson, a co-star of Hogan's Heroes and The Running Man, passed away in 2012 due to esophageal cancer complications, but always defended his kissing habits, saying it was initially a move to help calm down nervous contestants, while also claiming some fans were very much supportive of it all. Whatever one's own feelings may be, I think we can all probably agree it's good that herpes tests (presumably) aren't required for current contestants on Family Feud or any other game shows.
