On Monday, April 6th, 1981, Richard Dawson met a contestant and after the taping, he invited her to his house for a home cooked meal. Shortly after this event, began their long term romance.
There were some objections to Richard kissing strange women on national television. ABC tried to influence the kissing to stop, but Dawson rebelled and said he was going to do it. Mark Goodson asked people to write in and say in favor of kissing or not, the responses were overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the kissing on.
During vacation in Hawaii, Richard's manager called up Howard Felsher and telling him Richard really wants to have his contract reopened and would be mentally incapable from coming back from Hawaii to continue with the show unless the contract would be reopened. Howard advised Mark Goodson to not open the contract and if Dawson decides to quit the show, take the chance and let him quit because the show could stand on its own without Richard Dawson. However, the contract was reopened and Richard received an enormous salary of over $2,000,000 a year. Big bucks for a game show host in the '80s.
The theme song is titled "The Feud". It was originally part of the 1976 music package for The New Price Is Right (1972) and often played as music for new cars; it was remixed with banjos added in for a banjo-picking, hillbilly-type theme song.
The first time Richard Dawson kissed a contestant was to calm her down because she was very nervous. Richard told her he was going to do what his mother did for people who were nervous: give them a kiss on the cheek.