Family Feud - All-Star Specials

All-Star Specials

During the week of Valentine's Day in February 1978, the Dawson daytime version ran its first all-celebrity week, which featured ABC soap stars competing. The success of this special week not only caused the show's ratings to peak, but also caused declining ratings of the network's soaps to increase. As a result, ABC created hour-long All-Star Family Feud Specials, which were played between cast members of hit prime time and, on rare occasions, daytime series for charity. The first installment aired on May 8, 1978 and did so well in the ratings that new specials continued to air as a semi-regular sweeps event on the network until May 25, 1984.

In the first half of the special, two teams played until one reached $200 or more. That team went on to play Fast Money for $5,000 and competed in the finals against the team that won in the second half, which was played the same way. The two winning teams then faced each other in a one-question showdown, with the team that won the pot going on to play Fast Money for an additional $10,000.

Originally, only the cast members of ABC series competed in the All-Star Specials, but when high ratings made it apparent that continuing to do so would soon exhaust the network's stable of celebrities, an agreement was reached with CBS, NBC and the production companies and stars of series from all three networks began appearing in the fall of 1979, similar to ABC's Battle of the Network Stars concept. At the time, networks did not own their own programming and had to rely on programming from the studios, who dealt with all three networks and often, the battles were between shows from two different networks, even if it was the same production company. Among the series represented were:

• Barney Miller
• Dallas
• The Dukes of Hazzard
• Dynasty
• Eight Is Enough
• Family
• The Jeffersons
• Real People
• Soap
• Three's Company
• WKRP in Cincinnati
• The Waltons
• Welcome Back, Kotter

Underlying themes to the series' casts were occasionally featured, such as Nighttime vs. Daytime, featuring daytime soap stars competing against prime time TV stars, and some specials even removed the "TV series cast" format in favor of a single unifying theme among the four teams competing, such as Mutiny On The Love Boat, in which the cast of that show competed alongside such past guest stars as Robert Goulet, Jill St. John, Bert Parks and Rhonda Fleming.