Biography

Mark Goodson

Jump to

Mark Goodson was born on January 14, 1915 in Sacramento, California, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Family Feud (1976), Tattletales (1974) and Password (1973). He was married to Suzanne Russell Waddell, Virginia McDavid and Bluma Neveleff. He died on December 18, 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Revamped original game shows to make them better
Game shows whose questions contained either insinuation, provocative or surveys
Used a six-point asterisk. It is featured primarily on many set pieces from The Price Is Right (1972).
Calm, reasonable voice.

Met former radio disc jockey and college student, Bill Cullen, who gave him his first job Winner Take All (1948) on radio, before transferring to television. The friendship would last for more than 35 years, before Cullen stepped down Goodson's company.
Blacklisted popular game show host Richard Dawson from ever hosting a show produced by him again, after Family Feud (1976) ended because of Dawson's massive ego and hard-to-work-with personality. Dawson was brought back to host "Family Feud" in 1994, but by then, Goodson had passed away.
Was very close friends with Betty White, who met Allen Ludden, through him, before Ludden married her in 1963. Ludden had hosted three incarnations of Password (1961), before his death of cancer, in 1981.
Alongside Bill Todman, he was involved with the pilot of The Joker's Wild (1972) in 1969 with Jack Barry, but severed ties afterwards.
Was known for taking his original concepts and changing them drastically for even better results ("The Price is Right", "Match Game", "Password", "Concentration", etc.).

My occupation as a game show creator/producer is a strange calling in life. However, I had visions of creating radio and television games, and so did Bill Todman, so we teamed up and took on the challenge together. We had a love-hate business partnership. If I loved an idea, he hated it, and vice-versa. If we agreed, one of us wasn't doing his job.
If I could do it over again, I would probably not have gotten into television. I likely would have done stage theater. I never watch television myself, and when I do, it's usually PBS.
Creating a new game show is not like creating a new film or television show. With those, you have things to work with. For a new game show, you have a completely blank piece of paper. A completely new concept comes out as often as a new sport, and think of how many new sports have been invented in time. Not many.

Suggest an edit or add missing content