Out of the Past - February 4, 1985

Family wins $20,437 on Family Feud

We have a winner! The Bruce Bader family of Elwood won $20, 437 on the daytime ABC television show “Family Feud,” a GoodsonTodman production. The programs aired from Monday, Jan. 28 to Monday, Feb. 4.

The family members that competed were Bruce Bader, 30, who works at New Holland at Lexington and also has his own small insulation and sandblasting business; his wife Patty, who is a registered nurse, housewife and mother of three; his sister Peggy (Bader) Marsh, a former employee of Becton Dickinson, a ranch wife and mother of four who lives on a ranch in south Cherry County north of Mullen; Marsh’s son Dean, age 13 who attends 7th grade at Mullen Public Schools; and Bader’s sisterin-law Mrs. Kenny (Jill) Bader, a rancher’s wife and mother of two who lives south of Mullen. Bader’s interest in being on the show led him to write to “Family Feud,” then he called to set up an appointment for the family to interview for the show in late November at the Goodson-Todman building in Hollywood, Calif. The Bader family of five, the Bob Marsh family of six and the Jill Bader flew to California for a family vacation to Disneyland, combined with the “Family Feud,” interview. While at the interview,they were told that three hundred families a week interview to be on the program, but only five are accepted.

Peggy Marsh said the family was very excited when they received a call for their second interview. They were then accepted. Five shows were taped in one afternoon at the ABC-TV Center in Hollywood. They played the third, fourth and fifth shows on that day and won. Returning to the studio the following day, they won their next two games but were defeated on the sixth game. The family vacation had proved to be profitable, winning $20,437 and sponsor prizes.

Marsh said the family was coached by Willard Keller of Broken Bow whose family had competed on the NBC nighttime Family Feud. The Baders are natives of Custer County and still have many relatives living in the area.