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This Day in Pop Culture

This Day in Pop Culture for July 12

The death of disco and one of the most successful game shows of all time.

July 12, 2020

2–3 minutes

1979: The Day the [Disco] Music Died

On the day in 1979, disco music had a death blow as DJ’s Steve Dahl and Garry Meier from Chicago’s WLUP FM created the “Disco Demolition Night” at Comiskey Park for the purpose of “the eradication and elimination of the dreaded musical disease.” During the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers double header, the organizers offered 98-cent discount tickets to any fan who arrived with disco album. The plan was to place all of the records in an explosive-rigged dumpster in center field.

Over 40,000 people stormed the park with as many outside the stadium. Many of the records were not collected, thousands of fans stormed the field lighting vinyl bonfires and throwing the discs while the scoreboard begged the crowd to go back to their seats. In the end, 39 people were arrested, at least nine were injured and the second game was cancelled. The Detroit Tigers were awarded a win by forfeit. (Image: Wikimedia)

1976: Families Start Feuding

After his time on the sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, Richard Dawson appeared as a regular panelist on the game show, Match Game. During this time, he had an unofficial agreement that when the next Goodson-Todman game came along, he would receive an invitation to audition to host it. A little while later Dawson read in a trade publication that Family Feud was in the works and William Shatner was to host it. Angered, Dawson sent his agent to demand that they give Dawson a chance or he would not be the same likeable, funny guy on Match Game. Dawson auditioned and got the job.

The first episode of Family Feud appeared on ABC in 1976. Dawson hosted the show through 1985 when it was cancelled. Ray Combs jumped in the saddle when the show was revived for CBS from 1988-1994. Dawson did a repeat performance for the syndicated version of the show from 1994-1995. Another syndicated version appeared four years later with Louie Anderson hosting from 1999-2002 followed by Richard Karn from 2002-2006 and John O’Hurley from 2006-2010. Steve Harvey has hosted both syndicated and “celebrity” versions of the show since 2010.