document_title: A Song of Ice and Fire

question_text: how many pages in a song of ice and fire series

question_tokens: how many pages in a song of ice and fire series

root

text: A Song of Ice and Fire

text: Plot synopsis[edit]

text: A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional world in which seasons last for years and end unpredictably. Nearly three centuries before the events of the first novel (see backstory), the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros were united under the Targaryen dynasty by Aegon I and his sisters Visenya and Rhaenys, with Aegon Targaryen becoming the first king of the whole of the continent of Westeros, save for the southerly Dorne. At the beginning of A Game of Thrones, 15 peaceful years have passed since the rebellion led by Robert Baratheon deposed and killed the last Targaryen king, Aerys II, and proclaimed Robert king of the Seven Kingdoms, with a nine year long summer coming to an end.

tag: p

text: The principal story chronicles the power struggle for the Iron Throne among the great Houses of Westeros following the death of King Robert in A Game of Thrones. Robert's heir apparent, the 13-year old Joffrey, is immediately proclaimed king through the machinations of his mother, Queen Cersei Lannister. When Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark, Robert's chief advisor, discovers that Joffrey and his siblings are the product of incest between Cersei and her twin brother Ser Jaime "The Kingslayer" Lannister, Eddard is executed for treason. In response, Robert's brothers Stannis and Renly both lay separate claims to the throne. During this period of instability, two of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros attempt to become independent from the Iron Throne: Eddard's eldest son Robb is proclaimed King in the North, while Balon Greyjoy desires to recover the sovereignty of his region, the Iron Islands. The so-called "War of the Five Kings" is in full progress by the middle of the second book, A Clash of Kings.

text: The second story takes place in the far north of Westeros, where an 8,000-year-old wall of ice, simply called "the Wall", defends the Seven Kingdoms from the Others. The Wall's sentinels, the Sworn Brotherhood of the Night's Watch, also protect the realm from the incursions of the "wildlings" or "Free Folk", who are humans living north of the Wall. The Night's Watch story is told primarily through the point of view of Jon Snow, Eddard's bastard son.[8] Jon follows the footsteps of his uncle Benjen Stark and joins the Watch at a young age, rising quickly through the ranks, eventually becoming Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. In the third volume, A Storm of Swords, the Night's Watch storyline becomes increasingly entangled with the War of the Five Kings.

text: The third story follows Daenerys Targaryen, daughter of Aerys, the last Targaryen king. On the continent of Essos, east of Westeros across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys is married off by her elder brother Viserys Targaryen to a powerful warlord, but slowly becomes an independent and intelligent ruler in her own right. Her rise to power is aided by the historic birth of three dragons, hatched from eggs given to her as wedding gifts. The three dragons soon become not only a symbol of her bloodline and her legitimate claim to the throne, but also devastating weapons of war.

text: Publishing history[edit]

text: Overview[edit]

text: Books in the Ice and Fire series are first published in hardcover and are later re-released as paperback editions. In the UK, Harper Voyager publishes special slipcased editions.[9] The series has also been translated into more than 30 languages.[10] All page totals given below are for the US first editions.[why?]

text:
#
Title
Pages
Chapters
Words
Audio
US release

1
A Game of Thrones
694[11]
73
292,727[12]
33h 53m
August 1996[11]

2
A Clash of Kings
768[13]
70
318,903[14]
37h 17m
February 1999[13]

3
A Storm of Swords
973[15]
82
414,604[16]
47h 37m
November 2000[15]

4
A Feast for Crows
753[17]
46
295,032[18]
31h 10m
November 2005[17]

5
A Dance with Dragons
1040[19]
73
414,788[20]
48h 56m
July 2011[19]

6
The Winds of Winter
Forthcoming[21]

7
A Dream of Spring
Forthcoming[22]

Total
4,228
344
1,736,054
198h 53m

tag: table

text: First three novels (1991–2000) [edit]

text: George R. R. Martin was already a successful fantasy and sci-fi author and TV writer before writing his A Song of Ice and Fire book series.[23] Martin had published his first short story in 1971 and his first novel in 1977.[24] By the mid-1990s, he had won three Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards, and other awards for his short fiction.[25] Although his early books were well received within the fantasy fiction community, his readership remained relatively small and Martin took on jobs as a writer in Hollywood in the mid-1980s.[25] He worked principally on the revival of The Twilight Zone throughout 1986 and on Beauty and the Beast until 1990, but he also developed his own TV pilots and wrote feature film scripts. He grew frustrated that his pilots and screenplays were not getting made[25] and that TV-related production limitations like budgets and episode lengths were forcing him to cut characters and trim battle scenes.[26] This pushed Martin back towards writing books, where he did not have to worry about compromising the size of his imagination.[25] Admiring the works of J. R. R. Tolkien in his childhood, he wanted to write an epic fantasy, though he did not have any specific ideas.[27]

text: When Martin was between Hollywood projects in the summer of 1991, he started writing a new science fiction novel called Avalon. After three chapters, he had a vivid idea of a boy seeing a man's beheading and finding direwolves in the snow, which would eventually become the first non-prologue chapter of A Game of Thrones.[28] Putting Avalon aside, Martin finished this chapter in a few days and grew certain that it was part of a longer story.[29] After a few more chapters, Martin perceived his new book as a fantasy story[29] and started making maps and genealogies.[23] However, the writing of this book was interrupted for a few years when Martin returned to Hollywood to produce his TV series Doorways that ABC had ordered but ultimately never aired.[26]

text:
"The first scene...chapter one of the first book, the chapter where they find the direwolf pups...just came to me out of nowhere. I was...at work on a different novel, and suddenly I saw that scene. It didn't belong in the novel I was writing, but it came to me so vividly that I had to sit down and write it, and by the time I did, it led to a second chapter, and the second chapter was the Catelyn chapter where Ned has just come back."

—George R. R. Martin in 2014[30]

tag: div

text: In 1994, Martin gave to his agent, Kirby McCauley, the first 200 pages and a two-page story projection as part of a planned trilogy with the novels A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter intended to follow. When Martin had still not reached the novel's end at 1400 manuscript pages, he felt that the series needed to be four and eventually six books long,[26][31] which he imagined as two linked trilogies of one long story.[32] Martin chose A Song of Ice and Fire as the overall series title: Martin saw the struggle of the cold Others and the fiery dragons as one possible meaning for "Ice and Fire", whereas the word "song" had previously appeared in Martin's book titles A Song for Lya and Songs the Dead Men Sing, stemming from his obsessions with songs.[33] Martin also named Robert Frost's 1920 poem "Fire and Ice" and cultural associations such as passion versus betrayal as possible influences for the series' title.[34]

text: The revised finished manuscript for A Game of Thrones was 1088 pages long (without the appendices),[35] with the publication following in August 1996.[11] Wheel of Time author Robert Jordan had written a short endorsement for the cover that was influential in ensuring the book's and hence series' early success with fantasy readers.[36] Blood of the Dragon, a pre-release sample novella drawn from Daenerys's chapters, went on to win the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novella.[37]

text: The 300 pages removed from the A Game of Thrones manuscript served as the opening of the second book, entitled A Clash of Kings.[31] It was released in February 1999 in the United States,[13] with a manuscript length (without appendices) of 1184 pages.[35] A Clash of Kings was the first book of the Ice and Fire series to make the best-seller lists,[26] reaching 13 on The New York Times Best Seller list in 1999.[38] After the success of The Lord of the Rings films, Martin received his first inquiries to the rights of the Ice and Fire series from various producers and filmmakers.[26]

text: Martin was several months late turning in the third book, A Storm of Swords.[25] The last chapter he had written was about the "Red Wedding", a pivotal scene notable for its violence (see Themes: Violence and death).[39] A Storm of Swords was 1521 pages in manuscript (without appendices),[35] causing problems for many of Martin's publishers around the world. Bantam Books published A Storm of Swords in a single volume in the United States in November 2000,[15] whereas some other-language editions were divided into two, three, or even four volumes.[35] A Storm of Swords debuted at number 12 in the New York Times bestseller list.[37][40]

text: Bridging the timeline gap (2000–2011) [edit]

text: After A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords, Martin originally intended to write three more books.[25] The fourth book, tentatively titled A Dance with Dragons, was to focus on Daenerys Targaryen's return to Westeros and the associated conflicts.[32] Martin wanted to set this story five years after A Storm of Swords so that the younger characters could grow older and the dragons grow larger.[41] Agreeing with his publishers early on that the new book should be shorter than A Storm of Swords, Martin set out to write the novel closer in length to A Clash of Kings.[35] A long prologue was to establish what had happened in the meantime, initially just as one chapter of Aeron Damphair on the Iron Islands at the Kingsmoot. Since the events on the Iron Islands were to have an impact in the book and could not be told with existing POV characters, Martin eventually introduced three new viewpoints.[42]

text: In 2001, Martin was still optimistic that the fourth installment might be released in the last quarter of 2002.[33] However, the five-year gap did not work for all characters during writing. On one hand, Martin was unsatisfied with covering the events during the gap solely through flashbacks and internal retrospection. On the other hand, it was implausible to have nothing happen for five years.[41] After working on the book for about a year, Martin realized he needed an additional interim book, which he called A Feast for Crows.[41] The book would pick up the story immediately after the third book, and Martin scrapped the idea of a five-year gap.[33] The material of the written 250-page prologue was mixed in as new viewpoint characters from Dorne and the Iron Islands.[42] These expanded storylines and the resulting story interactions complicated the plot for Martin.[43]

text: The manuscript length of A Feast for Crows eventually surpassed A Storm of Swords.[41] Martin was reluctant to make the necessary deep cuts to get the book down to publishable length, as that would have compromised the story he had in mind. Printing the book in "microtype on onion skin paper and giving each reader a magnifying glass" was also not an option for him.[35] On the other hand, Martin rejected the publishers' idea of splitting the narrative chronologically into A Feast for Crows, Parts One and Two.[7] Being already late with the book, Martin had not even started writing all characters' stories[44] and also objected to ending the first book without any resolution for its many viewpoint characters as in previous books.[41]

text: With the characters spread out across the world,[21] a friend suggested that Martin divide the story geographically into two volumes, of which A Feast for Crows would be the first.[7] This approach would give Martin the room to complete his commenced story arcs as he had originally intended,[35] which he still felt was the best approach years later.[21] Martin moved the unfinished characters' stories set in the east (Essos) and north (Winterfell and the Wall) into the next book, A Dance with Dragons,[45] and left A Feast for Crows to cover the events on Westeros, King's Landing, the Riverlands, Dorne, and the Iron Islands.[35] Both books begin immediately after the end of A Storm of Swords,[21] running in parallel instead of sequentially, and involve different casts of characters with only little overlap.[35] Martin split Arya's chapters into both books after having already moved the three other most popular characters (Jon Snow, Tyrion, and Daenerys) into A Dance with Dragons.[45]

text: Upon its release in October 2005 in the UK[46] and November 2005 in the US,[17] A Feast for Crows went straight to the top of The New York Times bestseller list.[47] Among the positive reviewers was Lev Grossman of Time, who dubbed Martin "the American Tolkien".[48] However, fans and critics alike were disappointed with the story split that left the fates of several popular characters unresolved after A Storm of Swords' cliffhanger ending.[49][50] With A Dance with Dragons said to be half-finished,[49] Martin mentioned in the epilogue of A Feast for Crows that the next volume would be released by the next year.[51] However, planned release dates were repeatedly pushed back. Meanwhile, HBO acquired the rights to turn Ice and Fire into a dramatic series in 2007[52] and aired the first of ten episodes covering A Game of Thrones in April 2011.[53]

text: With around 1600 pages in manuscript length,[1] A Dance with Dragons was eventually published in July 2011 after six years of writing,[26] longer in page count and writing time than any of the preceding four novels.[23][49] The story of A Dance with Dragons catches up and goes beyond A Feast for Crows around two-thirds into the book,[44] but nevertheless covers less story than Martin had intended, omitting at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliff-hangers.[23] Martin attributed the delay mainly to his untangling "the Meereenese knot", which the interviewer understood as "making the chronology and characters mesh up as various threads converged on [Daenerys]".[50] Martin also acknowledged spending too much time on rewriting and perfecting the story, but soundly rejected the theories of some of his critics that he had lost interest in the series or would bide his time to make more money.[49]

text: Planned novels and future[edit]

text: Martin believes the last two volumes of the series will be big books of 1500 manuscript pages each.[54] The sixth book will be called The Winds of Winter,[55] taking the title of the last book of the originally planned trilogy.[21] Displeased with the provisional title A Time for Wolves for the final volume, Martin ultimately announced A Dream of Spring as the title for the seventh book in 2006.[22] Martin said in March 2012 that the final two novels will take readers farther north than any of the previous books, and that the Others will appear in the book.[56]

text: The Winds of Winter[edit]

text: The Winds of Winter will resolve the Dance with Dragons cliffhangers early on and "will open with the two big battles that [the fifth book] was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle [...] of Slaver's Bay. And then take it from there."[56] By the middle of 2010, Martin had already finished five chapters of The Winds of Winter from the viewpoints of Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Arianne Martell, and Aeron Greyjoy, accumulating to around 100 completed pages.[55][57] After the publication of A Dance with Dragons in 2011, Martin announced he would return to writing in January 2012.[23] He spent the meantime on book tours, conventions, and continued working on his The World of Ice & Fire companion guide and a new Tales of Dunk and Egg novella.[58][59]

text: In December 2011, Martin posted a chapter from The Winds of Winter from the viewpoint of Theon Greyjoy;[60] several other chapters have been made public since. Four hundred pages of the sixth novel have been written as of October 2012, although Martin considers only 200 as "really finished"; the rest needs revising.[34] In 2011, Martin gave three years as a realistic estimate for finishing the sixth book at a good pace,[1] but said ultimately the book "will be done when it's done",[21] acknowledging that his publication estimates had been too optimistic in the past.[23] Martin did not intend to separate the characters geographically again.[27]

text: In 2015 there were indications that the book would be published before the sixth season of the HBO show[61][62][63][64][65][66] but in early January 2016 Martin confirmed that he had not met an end-of-year deadline that he had established with his publisher for release of the book before the sixth season. He added that there was "a lot still left to write" and that completion of the book was "months away still...if the writing goes well." Martin also revealed there had been a previous deadline of October 2015 that he had considered achievable in May 2015, and that in September 2015 he had still considered the end-of-year deadline achievable. He further confirmed that some of the plot of the book might be revealed in the upcoming season of Game of Thrones.[67] In February 2016, Martin stated that he dropped all his editing projects except for Wild Cards, and that he would not be writing any teleplays, screenplays, short stories, introductions or forewords before delivering The Winds of Winter.[68]

text: During the Guadalajara International Book Fair in Mexico in early December 2016, Martin offered the following hint as to the tone of this book:

text: There are a lot of dark chapters right now ... I've been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters [are] in very dark places.[69]

text: A Dream of Spring[edit]

text: Martin is firm about ending the series with the seventh novel "until I decide not to be firm".[23] With his stated goal of telling the story from beginning to end, he will not truncate the story to fit into an arbitrary number of volumes.[39] He knows the ending in broad strokes as well as the future of the main characters,[27] and will finish the series with bittersweet elements where not everyone will live happily ever after.[37] Martin hopes to write an ending similar to The Lord of the Rings that he felt gave the story a satisfying depth and resonance. On the other hand, Martin noted the challenge to avoid a situation like the finale of the TV series Lost, which left some fans disappointed by deviating too far from their own theories and desires.[21] In 2015, Martin said that he was not writing A Dream of Spring together with The Winds of Winter,[70] and in early 2016, he said he did not believe A Dream of Spring would be published before the last season of the HBO show.[71]

text: Martin offered the following hint as to how the series would conclude during a Q&A at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. "I'm not going to tell you how I'm going to end my book, but I suspect the overall flavor is going to be as much bittersweet as it is happy."[69]

text: TV series and other writings[edit]

text: Early during the development of the TV series, Martin told major plot points to producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.[27] (The New York Times reported in 2011 that, at age 62, Martin was by all accounts in robust health.)[72] Martin was confident he would have published at least The Winds of Winter before the TV series overtook him.[27] Nevertheless, there was general concern about whether Martin would be able to stay ahead of the show.[73] As a result, head writers Benioff and Weiss learned more future plot points from Martin in 2013 to help them set up the show's new possible seasons. This included the end stories for all the core characters. Deviations from the books' storylines are also being considered, but a two-year show hiatus to wait for new books is not an option for them as the child actors continue to grow and the show's popularity would wane.[74] Martin indicated he would not permit another writer to finish the book series.[49] On January 2, 2016, Martin confirmed that the sixth volume would not be published before the start of the sixth season of the HBO series.[75]

text: Regarding A Song of Ice and Fire as his magnum opus, Martin is certain never to write anything on this scale again and would only return to this fictional universe in the context of stand-alone novels.[42] He prefers to write stories about characters from other Ice and Fire periods of history such as his Tales of Dunk and Egg project, instead of continuing the series directly.[42][76] A possible future side project is a prequel set during Aegon's conquest of Westeros.[77] Martin said he would love to return to writing short stories, novellas, novelettes, and stand-alone novels from diverse genres such as science fiction, horror, fantasy, or even a murder mystery. However, he will see if his audience follows him after publishing his next project.[29][36]

text: Inspiration and writing[edit]

text: Genre[edit]

text: George R. R. Martin believes the most profound influences to be the ones experienced in childhood.[78] Having read H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Robert A. Heinlein, Eric Frank Russell, Andre Norton,[29] Isaac Asimov,[33] Fritz Leiber, and Mervyn Peake[79] in his youth, Martin never categorized these authors' literature into science fiction, fantasy, or horror and will write from any genre as a result.[78] Martin classified A Song of Ice and Fire as "epic fantasy",[1] and specifically named Tad Williams as very influential for the writing of the series.[33][79] One of his favorite authors is Jack Vance,[33] although Martin considered the series not particularly Vancean.[32]

text:
"[Martin's Ice and Fire series] was groundbreaking (at least for me) in all kinds of ways. Above all, the books were extremely unpredictable, especially in a genre where readers have come to expect the intensely predictable. [...] A Game of Thrones was profoundly shocking when I first read it, and fundamentally changed my notions about what could be done with epic fantasy."

—Fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie in 2008[80]

text: The medieval setting has been the traditional background for epic fantasy. However, where historical fiction leaves versed readers knowing the historical outcome,[79] original characters may increase suspense and empathy for the readers.[78] Yet Martin felt historical fiction, particularly when set during the Middle Ages, had an excitement, grittiness, and a realness to it that was absent in fantasy with a similar backdrop.[81] Thus, he wanted to combine the realism of historical fiction with the magic appeal of the best fantasies,[82] subduing magic in favor of battles and political intrigue.[25] He also decided to avoid the conventional good versus evil setting typical for the genre, using the fight between Achilles and Hector in Homer's Iliad, where no one stands out as either a hero or a villain, as an example of what he wants to achieve with his books.[83]

text: Martin is widely credited with broadening the fantasy fiction genre for adult content, including incest, paedophilia, and adultery.[49] For The Washington Post's Writing for The Atlantic, Amber Taylor assessed the novels as hard fantasy with vulnerable characters to which readers become emotionally attached.[84] CNN found in 2000 that Martin's mature descriptions were "far more frank than those found in the works of other fantasy authors",[85] although Martin assessed the fantasy genre to have become rougher-edged a decade later and that some writers' work was going beyond the mature themes of his novels.[39] Adam Roberts called Martin's series the most successful and popular example of the emerging subgenre of grimdark fantasy,[86] influencing other writers associated with that style, such as Joe Abercrombie.

text: Writing process[edit]

text: Setting out to write something on an epic scale,[85] Martin projected to write three books of 800 manuscript pages in the very early stages of the series.[79] His original 1990s contract specified one-year deadlines for his previous literary works, but Martin only realized later that his new books were longer and hence required more writing time.[41] In 2000, Martin planned to take 18 months to two years for each volume and projected the last of the planned six books to be released five or six years later.[37] However, with the Ice and Fire series evolving into the biggest and most ambitious story he has ever attempted writing,[45] he still has two more books to write as of 2016. Martin said he needed to be in his own office in Santa Fe, New Mexico to immerse himself in the fictional world and write.[25] As of 2011, Martin was still typing his fiction on a DOS computer with WordStar 4.0 software.[87] He begins each day at 10 am with rewriting and polishing the previous day's work,[78] and may write all day or struggle to write anything.[25] Excised material and previous old versions are saved to be possibly re-inserted at a later time.[45]

text: Martin set the Ice and Fire story in a secondary world inspired by Tolkien's writing.[27] Unlike Tolkien, who created entire languages, mythologies, and histories for Middle-earth long before writing The Lord of the Rings, Martin usually starts with a rough sketch of an imaginary world that he improvises into a workable fictional setting along the way.[49] He described his writing as coming from a subconscious level in "almost a daydreaming process",[88] and his stories, which have a mythic rather than a scientific core, draw from emotion instead of rationality.[29] Martin employs maps[25] and a cast list topping 60 pages in the fourth volume,[7] but keeps most information in his mind.[1] His imagined backstory remains subject to change until published, and only the novels count as canon.[45] Martin does not intend to publish his private notes after the series is finished.[25]

text: Martin drew much inspiration from actual history for the series,[78] having several bookcases filled with medieval history for research[89] and visiting historic European landmarks.[43] For an American who speaks only English, the history of England proved the easiest source of medieval history for him, giving the series a British rather than a German or Spanish historic flavor.[90] For example, Ned and Robb Stark resemble Richard, 3rd Duke of York and his son Edward IV, and Queen Cersei resembles both Margaret of Anjou[91] and Elizabeth Woodville.[92] Martin immersed himself in many diverse medieval topics such as clothing, food, feasting, and tournaments, to have the facts at hand if needed during writing.[37] The series was in particular influenced by the Hundred Years' War, the Crusades, the Albigensian Crusade, and the Wars of the Roses,[78][89] although Martin refrained from making any direct adaptations.[78] Martin was also inspired by the French historical novels The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon, which are about the French monarchy in the 13th and 14th centuries.[2][3]

text: The story is written to follow principal landmarks with an ultimate destination, but leaves Martin room for improvisation. On occasion, improvised details significantly affected the planned story.[93] By the fourth book, Martin kept more private notes than ever before to keep track of the many subplots,[33] which became so detailed and sprawling by the fifth book as to be unwieldy.[23] Martin's editors, copy editors, and readers monitor for accidental mistakes,[33] although some errors have slipped into publication. For instance, Martin has inconsistently referred to certain characters' eye colors, and has described a horse as being of one sex and then another.[49]

text: Narrative structure[edit]

text:
Number of chapters per point-of-view character

[show]POV character
Game
Clash
Storm
Feast
Dance
(Winds)
Sum

Bran Stark
7
7
4
–
3

21

Catelyn Stark
11
7
7
–
–

25

Daenerys Targaryen
10
5
6
–
10

31

Eddard Stark
15
–
–
–
–

15

Jon Snow
9
8
12
–
13

42

Arya Stark
5
10
13
3
2
≥1[55]
33

Tyrion Lannister
9
15
11
–
12
≥2[94]
47

Sansa Stark
6
8
7
3
–
≥1[55]
24

Davos Seaworth
–
3
6
–
4

13

Theon Greyjoy
–
6
–
–
7
≥1[60]
13

Jaime Lannister
–
–
9
7
1

17

Samwell Tarly
–
–
5
5
–

10

Cersei Lannister
–
–
–
10
2

12

Brienne of Tarth
–
–
–
8
–

8

Aeron Greyjoy
–
–
–
2
–
≥1[57]
2

Areo Hotah
–
–
–
1
1
≥1[95]
2

Asha Greyjoy
–
–
–
1
3

4

Arys Oakheart
–
–
–
1
–

1

Victarion Greyjoy
–
–
–
2
2
≥1[94]
4

Arianne Martell
–
–
–
2
–
≥2[55]
2

Quentyn Martell
–
–
–
–
4

4

Jon Connington
–
–
–
–
2

2

Melisandre
–
–
–
–
1

1

Barristan Selmy
–
–
–
–
4
≥2[96][97]
4

Prologue/Epilogue
1/–
1/–
1/1
1/–
1/1
1/
7

Total (characters)
73 (9)
70 (10)
82 (12)
46 (13)
73 (18)
TBD
344 (31)

text: The books are divided into chapters, each one narrated in the third person limited through the eyes of a point of view character,[49] an approach Martin learned himself as a young journalism student.[98] Beginning with nine POV characters in A Game of Thrones, the number of POV characters grows to a total of 31 in A Dance with Dragons (see table). The short-lived one-time POV characters are mostly restricted to the prologue and epilogue.[37] David Orr of The New York Times noted the story importance of "the Starks (good guys), the Targaryens (at least one good guy, or girl), the Lannisters (conniving), the Greyjoys (mostly conniving), the Baratheons (mixed bag), the Tyrells (unclear) and the Martells (ditto), most of whom are feverishly endeavoring to advance their ambitions and ruin their enemies, preferably unto death".[99] However, as Time's Lev Grossman noted, readers "experience the struggle for Westeros from all sides at once", such that "every fight is both triumph and tragedy [...] and everybody is both hero and villain at the same time".[100]

text: Modeled on The Lord of the Rings, the Ice and Fire story begins with a tight focus on a small group (with everyone in Winterfell, except Daenerys) and then splits into separate stories. The storylines are to converge again, but finding the turning point in this complex series has been difficult for Martin and has slowed down his writing.[21] Depending on the interview, Martin is said to have reached the turning point in A Dance with Dragons,[21] or to not quite have reached it yet in the books.[101] The series' structure of multiple POVs and interwoven storylines was inspired by Wild Cards, a multi-authored shared universe book series edited by Martin since 1985.[102] As the sole author, Martin begins each new book with an outline of the chapter order and may write a few successive chapters from a single character's viewpoint instead of working chronologically. The chapters are later rearranged to optimize character intercutting, chronology, and suspense.[37]

text: Influenced by his television and film scripting background, Martin tries to keep readers engrossed by ending each Ice and Fire chapter with a tense or revelational moment, a twist or a cliffhanger, similar to a TV act break.[103] Scriptwriting has also taught him the technique of "cutting out the fat and leaving the muscle", which is the final stage of completing a book, a technique that brought the page count in A Dance with Dragons down almost eighty pages.[104] Dividing the continuous Ice and Fire story into books is much harder for Martin. Each book shall represent a phase of the journey that ends in closure for most characters. A smaller portion of characters is left with clear-cut cliffhangers to make sure readers come back for the next installment, although A Dance with Dragons had more cliffhangers than Martin originally intended.[27][37] Both one-time and regular POV characters are designed to have full character arcs ending in tragedy or triumph,[37] and are written to hold the readers' interest and not be skipped in reading.[79] Main characters are killed off so that the reader will not rely on the hero to come through unscathed and will instead feel the character's fear with each page turn.[36]

text: The unresolved larger narrative arc encourages speculation about future story events.[49] According to Martin, much of the key to Ice and Fire's future lies over a dozen years in the fictional past, of which each volume reveals more.[25] Events planned from the beginning are foreshadowed, although Martin is careful not to make the story predictable.[101] The viewpoint characters, who serve as unreliable narrators,[21] may clarify or provide different perspectives on past events.[105] Therefore, what the readers believe to be true may not necessarily be true.[25]

text: Character development[edit]

text: Regarding the characters as the heart of the story,[106] Martin planned the epic Ice and Fire fantasy to have a large cast of characters and many different settings from the beginning.[21] A Feast for Crows has a 63-page list of characters,[7] with many of the thousands of characters mentioned only in passing[49] or disappearing from view for long stretches.[107] When Martin adds a new family to the ever-growing number of genealogies in the appendices, he devises a secret about the personality or fate of the family members. However, their backstory remains subject to change until written down in the story.[45] Martin drew most character inspiration from history (without directly translating historical figures)[25] and his own experiences, but also from the manners of his friends, acquaintances, and people of public interest.[33] Martin aims to "make my characters real and to make them human, characters who have good and bad, noble and selfish well-mixed in their natures".[37] Jeff VanderMeer of the Los Angeles Times remarked that "Martin's devotion to fully inhabiting his characters, for better or worse, creates the unstoppable momentum in his novels and contains an implied criticism of Tolkien's moral simplicity"[108] (see Themes: Moral ambiguity).

text: Martin deliberately ignored the writing rule of never giving two characters names starting with the same letter.[45] Instead, character names reflect the naming systems in various European family histories, where particular names were associated with specific royal houses and where even the secondary families assigned the same names repeatedly.[45] The Ice and Fire story therefore has children called "Robert" in honor of King Robert of House Baratheon, a "Brandon" in every other generation of the Starks in commemoration of Brandon the Builder (of the Wall), and the syllable "Ty" commonly occurring in given names of House Lannister.[31] Confident that readers would pay attention, Martin distinguished people sharing a given name[45] by adding numbers or locations to their given names (e.g. Henry V of England).[31] The family names were designed in association with ethnic groups (see backstory): the First Men in the North of Westeros had very simply descriptive names like Stark and Strong, whereas the descendants of the Andal invaders in the South have more elaborate, undescriptive house names like Lannister or Arryn, and the Targaryens and Valyrians from the Eastern continent have the most exotic names with the letter Y.[31]

text: All characters are designed to speak with their own internal voices to capture their views of the world.[37] The Atlantic pondered whether Martin ultimately intended the readers to sympathize with characters on both sides of the Lannister–Stark feud long before plot developments force them to make their emotional choices.[109] Contrary to most conventional epic fantasies, the Ice and Fire characters are vulnerable so that, according to The Atlantic, the reader "cannot be sure that good shall triumph, which makes those instances where it does all the more exulting."[84] Martin gets emotionally involved in the characters' lives during writing, which makes the chapters with dreadful events sometimes very difficult to write.[37] Seeing the world through the characters' eyes requires a certain amount of empathy with them, including the villains,[78] all of whom he has said he loves as if they were his own children.[79][106] Martin found that some characters had minds of their own and took his writing in different directions. He returns to the intended story if it does not work out, but these detours sometimes prove more rewarding for him.[45]

text: Arya Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, and Daenerys Targaryen generate the most feedback from readers.[110] Martin has stated that Tyrion is his personal favorite, as the grayest of the gray characters, with his cunning and wit making him the most fun to write.[79] Martin has also said that Bran Stark is the hardest character to write. As the character most deeply involved in magic, Bran's story needs to be handled carefully within the supernatural aspects of the books. Bran is also the youngest viewpoint character,[37] and has to deal with the series' adult themes like grief, loneliness, and anger.[103] Martin set out to have the young characters grow up faster between chapters, but, as it was implausible for a character to take two months to respond, a finished book represents very little time passed. Martin hoped the planned five-year break would ease the situation and age the children to almost adults in terms of the Seven Kingdoms, but he later dropped the five-year gap (see section Bridging the timeline gap).[27][37]

text: Themes[edit]

text: Although modern fantasy may often embrace strangeness, the Ice and Fire series is generally praised for what is perceived as a sort of medieval realism.[99] Believing that magic should be used moderately in the epic fantasy genre,[26] Martin set out to make the story feel more like historical fiction than contemporary fantasy, with less emphasis on magic and sorcery and more on battles, political intrigue, and the characters.[25] Though the amount of magic has gradually increased throughout the story, the series is still to end with less overt magic than most contemporary fantasies.[37] In Martin's eyes, literary effective magic needs to represent strange and dangerous forces beyond human comprehension,[59] not advanced alien technologies or formulaic spells.[111] As such, the characters understand only the natural aspects of their world, but not the magical elements like the Others.[99]

text: Since Martin drew on historical sources to build the Ice and Fire world,[78] Damien G. Walter of The Guardian saw a strong resemblance between Westeros and England in the period of the Wars of the Roses.[112] The Atlantic's Adam Serwer regarded A Song of Ice and Fire as "more a story of politics than one of heroism, a story about humanity wrestling with its baser obsessions than fulfilling its glorious potential", where the emergent power struggle stems from the feudal system's repression and not from the fight between good and evil.[109] Martin not only wanted to reflect the frictions of the medieval class structures in the novels, but also explore the consequences of the leaders' decisions, as general goodness does not automatically make competent leaders and vice versa.[82]

text: A common theme in the fantasy genre is the battle between good and evil,[82] which Martin rejects for not mirroring the real world.[32] Attracted to gray characters,[113] Martin instead endorses William Faulkner's view that only the human heart in conflict with itself was worth writing about.[82] Martin explores the questions of redemption and character change in the Ice and Fire series.[114] The multiple viewpoint structure allows characters to be explored from many sides, such that the supposed villains can provide their viewpoint.[85][42]

text: Although fantasy comes from an imaginative realm, Martin sees an honest necessity to reflect the real world where people die sometimes ugly deaths, even beloved people.[37] Main characters are killed off so that the reader will not expect the supposed hero to survive, and instead will feel the same tension and fear that the characters might.[36] The novels also reflect the substantial death rates in war.[79] The deaths of supernumerary extras or orcs have no major effect on readers, whereas a friend's death has much more emotional impact.[101] Martin prefers a hero's sacrifice to say something profound about human nature.[27]

text: According to Martin, the fantasy genre rarely focuses on sex and sexuality,[37] instead often treating sexuality in a juvenile way or neglecting it completely.[78] Martin, however, considers sexuality an important driving force in human life that should not be excluded from the narrative.[114] Providing sensory detail for an immersive experience is more important than plot advancement for Martin,[21] who aims to let the readers experience the novels' sex scenes, "whether it's a great transcendent, exciting, mind blowing sex, or whether it's disturbing, twisted, dark sex, or disappointing perfunctory sex."[114] Martin was fascinated by medieval contrasts where knights venerated their ladies with poems and wore their favors in tournaments while their armies mindlessly raped women in wartime.[37] The non-existent concept of adolescence in the Middle Ages served as a model for Daenerys' sexual activity at the age of 13 in the books.[103] The novels also allude to the incestuous practices in the Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt to keep their bloodlines pure.[115]

text: Martin provides a variety of female characters to explore the place of women in a patriarchal society.[101] Writing all characters as human beings with the same basic needs, dreams, and influences,[24] his female characters are to cover the same wide spectrum of human traits as the males.[101][24]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: Science Fiction Weekly stated in 2000 that "few would dispute that Martin's most monumental achievement to date has been the groundbreaking A Song of Ice and Fire historical fantasy series",[37] for which reviews have been "orders of magnitude better" than for his previous works, as Martin described to The New Yorker.[49] In 2007, Weird Tales magazine described the series as a "superb fantasy saga" that "raised Martin to a whole new level of success".[29] Shortly before the release of A Dance with Dragons in 2011, Bill Sheehan of The Washington Post was sure that "no work of fantasy has generated such anticipation since Harry Potter's final duel with Voldemort",[107] and Ethan Sacks of Daily News saw the series turning Martin into a darling of literary critics as well as mainstream readers, which was "rare for a fantasy genre that's often dismissed as garbage not fit to line the bottom of a dragon's cage".[60] Salon.com's Andrew Leonard stated:

text: The success is all the more remarkable because [the series debuted] without mass market publicity or any kind of buzz in the fantasy/SF scene. George R. R. Martin earned his following the hard way, by word of mouth, by hooking his characters into the psyche of his readers to an extent that most writers of fantasy only dream of.[116]

text: Publishers Weekly noted in 2000 that "Martin may not rival Tolkien or Robert Jordan, but he ranks with such accomplished medievalists of fantasy as Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson."[15] After the fourth volume came out in 2005, Time's Lev Grossman considered Martin a "major force for evolution in fantasy" and proclaimed him "the American Tolkien", explaining that, although Martin was "[not] the best known of America's straight-up fantasy writers" at the time and would "never win a Pulitzer or a National Book Award ... his skill as a crafter of narrative exceeds that of almost any literary novelist writing today".[48] As Grossman said in 2011, the phrase American Tolkien "has stuck to [Martin], as it was meant to",[100] being picked up by the media including The New York Times ("He's much better than that"),[117] the New Yorker,[49] Entertainment Weekly ("an acclaim that borders on fantasy blasphemy"),[23] The Globe and Mail,[51] and USA Today.[113] Time magazine named Martin one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2011,[51] and USA Today named George R.R. Martin their Author of the Year 2011.[118]

text: According to The Globe and Mail's John Barber, Martin manages simultaneously to master and transcend the genre so that "Critics applaud the depth of his characterizations and lack of cliché in books that are nonetheless replete with dwarves and dragons".[51] Publishers Weekly gave favorable reviews to the first three Ice and Fire novels at their points of release, saying that A Game of Thrones had "superbly developed characters, accomplished prose and sheer bloody-mindedness",[11] that A Clash of Kings was "notable particularly for the lived-in quality of [their fictional world and] for the comparatively modest role of magic",[13] and that A Storm of Swords was one "of the more rewarding examples of gigantism in contemporary fantasy".[15] However, they found that A Feast For Crows as the fourth installment "sorely misses its other half. The slim pickings here are tasty, but in no way satisfying."[17] Their review for A Dance with Dragons repeated points of criticism for the fourth volume, and said that, although "The new volume has a similar feel to Feast", "Martin keeps it fresh by focusing on popular characters [who were] notably absent from the previous book."[19]

text: According to the Los Angeles Times, "Martin's brilliance in evoking atmosphere through description is an enduring hallmark of his fiction, the settings much more than just props on a painted stage", and the novels captivate readers with "complex storylines, fascinating characters, great dialogue, perfect pacing, and the willingness to kill off even his major characters".[108] CNN remarked that "the story weaves through differing points of view in a skillful mix of observation, narration and well-crafted dialogue that illuminates both character and plot with fascinating style",[85] and David Orr of The New York Times found that "All of his hundreds of characters have grace notes of history and personality that advance a plot line. Every town has an elaborately recalled series of triumphs and troubles."[99] Salon.com's Andrew Leonard "couldn't stop reading Martin because my desire to know what was going to happen combined with my absolute inability to guess what would happen and left me helpless before his sorcery. At the end, I felt shaken and exhausted."[119] The Christian Science Monitor advised reading the novels with an A Song of Ice and Fire encyclopedia at hand to "catch all the layered, subtle hints and details that [Martin] leaves throughout his books. If you pay attention, you will be rewarded and questions will be answered."[120]

text: Among the most critical voices were Sam Jordison and Michael Hann, both of The Guardian. Jordison detailed his misgivings about A Game of Thrones in a 2009 review and summarized "It's daft. It's unsophisticated. It's cartoonish. And yet, I couldn't stop reading .... Archaic absurdity aside, Martin's writing is excellent. His dialogue is snappy and frequently funny. His descriptive prose is immediate and atmospheric, especially when it comes to building a sense of deliciously dark foreboding [of the long impending winter]."[121] Hann did not consider the novels to stand out from the general fantasy genre, despite Martin's alterations to fantasy convention, although he rediscovered his childhood's views:

text: That when things are, on the whole, pretty crappy [in the real world], it's a deep joy to dive headfirst into something so completely immersive, something from which there is no need to surface from hours at a time. And if that immersion involves dragons, magic, wraiths from beyond death, shapeshifting wolves and banished princes, so be it.[122]

text: Sales[edit]

text: The reported overall sales figures of the A Song of Ice and Fire series vary. The New Yorker said in April 2011 (before the publication of A Dance with Dragons) that more than 15 million Ice and Fire books had been sold worldwide,[49] a figure repeated by The Globe and Mail in July 2011.[51] Reuters reported in September 2013 that the books including print, digital and audio versions have sold more than 24 million copies in North America.[124] The Wall Street Journal reported more than six million sold copies in North America by May 2011.[125] USA Today reported 8.5 million copies in print and digital overall in July 2011,[126] and over 12 million sold copies in print in December 2011.[118] The series has been translated into more than 20 languages;[10] USA Today reported the fifth book to be translated into over 40 languages.[113] Forbes estimated that Martin was the 12th highest-earning author worldwide in 2011 at $15 million.[127]

text: Martin's publishers initially expected A Game of Thrones to be a best-seller,[23] but the first installment did not even reach any lower positions in bestseller list.[58] This left Martin unsurprised, as it is "a fool's game to think anything is going to be successful or to count on it".[106] However, the book slowly won the passionate advocacy of independent booksellers and the book's popularity grew by word of mouth.[49] The series' popularity skyrocketed in subsequent volumes,[23] with the second and third volume making The New York Times Best Seller lists in 1999[38] and 2000,[40] respectively. The series gained Martin's old writings new attention, and Martin's American publisher Bantam Spectra was to reprint his out-of-print solo novels.[37]

text: The fourth installment, A Feast for Crows, was an immediate best-seller at its 2005 release,[23] hitting number one on "The New York Times" hardcover fiction bestseller list November 27, 2005, which for a fantasy novel suggested that Martin's books were attracting mainstream readers.[1] The paperback edition of A Game of Thrones reached its 34th printing in 2010, surpassing the one million mark.[128] Before it even premiered, the TV series had boosted sales of the book series, with Ice and Fire approaching triple-digit growth in year-on-year sales. Bantam was looking forward to seeing the tie-ins boost sales further,[53] and Martin's British publisher Harper Voyager expected readers to rediscover their other epic fantasy literature.[129] With a reported 4.5 million copies of the first four volumes in print in early 2011,[53] the four volumes re-appeared on the paperback fiction bestseller lists in the second quarter of 2011.[123][130]

text: At its point of publication in July 2011, A Dance with Dragons was in its sixth print with more than 650,000 hardbacks in print.[131] It also had the highest single and first-day sales of any new fiction title published in 2011 at that point, with 170,000 hardcovers, 110,000 e-books, and 18,000 audio books reportedly sold on the first day.[126] A Dance with Dragons reached the top of The New York Times bestseller list on July 31, 2011.[7] Unlike most other big titles, the fifth volume sold more physical than digital copies early on,[72] but nevertheless, Martin became the tenth author to sell 1 million Amazon Kindle e-books.[132] All five volumes and the four-volume boxed set were among the top 100 best-selling books in the United States in 2011 and 2012.[133]

text: The TV series has contributed significantly boosting sales of both the books and collectibles like box-sets, merchandise, and other items. The TV series also contributed in increasing the geographic coverage of the books, introducing new customers in emerging countries like India and Brazil to the book series. All this has significantly increased the overall book sales.

text: Fandom[edit]

text: During the 1980s and early 1990s, Martin's novels had slowly earned him a reputation in science fiction circles,[134] although he said to only have received a few fans' letters a year in the pre-internet days.[78] The publication of A Game of Thrones caused Martin's following to grow, with fan sites springing up and a Trekkie-like society of followers evolving that meet regularly.[134] Westeros.org, one of the main Ice and Fire fansites with about seventeen thousand registered members as of 2011, was established in 1999 by a Swedish-based fan of Cuban-American descent, Elio M. García, Jr., and his girlfriend; their involvement with Martin's work has now become semi-professional.[49] The Brotherhood Without Banners, an unofficial fan club operating globally, was formed in 2001. Their founders and other longtime members are among Martin's good friends.[49]

text: Martin runs an official website[7] and administers a lively blog with the assistance of Ty Franck.[49] He also interacts with fandom by answering emails and letters, although he stated in 2005 that their sheer numbers might leave them unanswered for years.[78] Since there are different types of conventions nowadays, he tends to go to three or four science-fiction conventions a year simply to go back to his roots and meet friends.[135] He does not read message boards anymore, so that his writing will not be influenced by fans foreseeing twists and interpreting characters differently from what he intended.[135]

text:
"After all, as some of you like to point out in your emails, I am sixty years old and fat, and you don't want me to 'pull a Robert Jordan' on you and deny you your book. Okay, I've got the message. You don't want me doing anything except A Song of Ice and Fire. Ever. (Well, maybe it's okay if I take a leak once in a while?)"

—George R. R. Martin on his blog in 2009[136]

text: While Martin calls the majority of his fans "great", and enjoys interacting with them,[27] some of them turned against him because of the six years it took to release A Dance with Dragons.[49] A movement of disaffected fans called GRRuMblers formed in 2009, creating sites such as Finish the Book, George and Is Winter Coming?.[49][51] When fans' vocal impatience for A Dance with Dragons peaked shortly after, Martin issued a statement called "To My Detractors"[136] on his blog that received media attention.[49][121][137] The New York Times noted that it was not uncommon for Martin to be mobbed at book signings either.[134] The New Yorker called this "an astonishing amount of effort to devote to denouncing the author of books one professes to love. Few contemporary authors can claim to have inspired such passion."[49]

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text:
A Game of Thrones (1996) – Locus Award winner,[138] World Fantasy Award[139] and Nebula Award nominee, 1997[140]
A Clash of Kings (1998) – Locus Award winner,[138] Nebula Award nominee, 1999[140]
A Storm of Swords (2000) – Locus Award winner,[138] Hugo Award[141] and Nebula Awards nominee, 2001[142]
A Feast for Crows (2005) – Hugo,[143] Locus,[138] and British Fantasy Awards nominee, 2006[144]
A Dance with Dragons (2011) – Locus Award winner,[145] Hugo Award[146] and World Fantasy Award nominee, 2012[147]

tag: ul

text: Derived works[edit]

text: Novellas[edit]

text: Martin has written several prequel novellas. The Tales of Dunk and Egg series, three novellas set ninety years before the events of the novel series, feature the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire "Egg", the later King Aegon V Targaryen. The stories have no direct connection to the plot of A Song of Ice and Fire, although both characters are mentioned in A Storm of Swords and A Feast For Crows, respectively. The first installment, The Hedge Knight, was published in the 1998 anthology Legends. The Sworn Sword followed in 2003, published in Legends II.[42] Both were later adapted into graphic novels.[148] The third novella, titled The Mystery Knight, was first published in the 2010 anthology Warriors,[149] and is planned to be adapted as a graphic novel as well.[150] Martin planned to release the first three novellas as one collection in 2014.[151] Up to eight further Dunk and Egg installments are planned.[39]

text: The novella The Princess and the Queen or, the Blacks and the Greens appeared in Tor Books's 2013 anthology Dangerous Women, and explains some of the Targaryen backstory two centuries before the events of the novels.[152][153] The Rogue Prince, or, the King's Brother, published in the 2014 anthology Rogues, is itself a prequel to the events of The Princess and the Queen.[154]

text: Chapter sets from the novels were also compiled into three novellas that were released between 1996 and 2003 by Asimov's Science Fiction and Dragon:

text:
Blood of the Dragon (July 1996),[155] taken from the Daenerys chapters in A Game of Thrones.
Path of the Dragon (December 2000),[156] taken from the Daenerys chapters in A Storm of Swords.
Arms of the Kraken (March 2003),[157] based on the Iron Islands chapters from A Feast for Crows.

text: TV series[edit]

text: With the popularity of the series growing, HBO optioned A Song of Ice and Fire for a television adaptation in 2007.[52] A pilot episode was produced in late 2009, and a series commitment for nine further episodes was made in March 2010.[158] The series, titled Game of Thrones, premiered in April 2011 to great acclaim and ratings (see Game of Thrones: Reception). The network picked up the show for a second season covering A Clash of Kings two days later.[159] Shortly after the conclusion of the first season, the show received 13 Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series, winning Outstanding Main Title Design and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Peter Dinklage's portrayal of Tyrion Lannister.[160] HBO announced a renewal for a third season in April 2012, ten days after the season 2 premiere.[161] Due to the length of the corresponding book, the third season only covered roughly the first half of A Storm of Swords.[162]

text: Shortly after the season 3 premiere in March 2013, the network announced that Game of Thrones would be returning for a fourth season, which would cover the second half of A Storm of Swords along with the beginnings of A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons.[163] Game of Thrones was nominated for 15 Emmy Awards for season 3.[164] Two days after the fourth season premiered in April 2014, HBO renewed Game of Thrones for a fifth and sixth season.[165] Season 5 premiered on April 12, 2015 and set a Guinness World Records for winning the highest number of Emmy Awards for a series in a single season and year, winning 12 out of 24 nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series.[166][167] These episodes were watched by 8 million viewers, setting a record number for the series.[168] The sixth season premiered on April 24, 2016.[169] These episodes received the most nominations for the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards with 23, winning 12, including the award for Outstanding Drama Series.[170]

text: Other works[edit]

text: A Song of Ice and Fire spawned an industry of spin-off products. Fantasy Flight Games released a collectible card game, a board game, and two collections of artwork inspired by the Ice and Fire series.[171][172] Various roleplaying game products were released by Guardians of Order and Green Ronin.[173][174] Dynamite Entertainment adapted A Game of Thrones into a same-titled monthly comic in 2011.[175] Several video games are available or in production, including A Game of Thrones: Genesis (2011) and Game of Thrones (2012) by Cyanide;[176][177] both received mediocre ratings from critics.[178] A social network game titled Game of Thrones Ascent (2013) by Disruptor Beam allows players to live the life of a noble during the series' period setting.[179] Random House released an official map book called The Lands of Ice and Fire, which includes old and new maps of the Ice and Fire world.[180] The companion book The World of Ice & Fire by Martin and the Westeros.org owners Elio M. García Jr. and Linda Antonsson was published in October 2014.[49] Other licensed products include full-sized weapon reproductions,[181] a range of collectable figures,[182][183] Westeros coinage reproductions,[184] and a large number of gift and collectible items based on the HBO television series.[185] The popularity of the HBO series has made its version of the Iron Throne an icon of the entire media franchise.[186][187][188][189]


document_title: An Affair to Remember

question_text: who sang for debra kerr in an affair to remember

text: An Affair to Remember

text: Plot[edit]

text: Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant), a well-known playboy and dilettante in the arts, meets Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) aboard the Transatlantic ocean liner SS Constitution en route from Europe to New York. Each is involved with someone else. After a series of chance meetings aboard the ship, they establish a friendship. When Terry joins Nickie on a brief visit to his grandmother when the ship anchors near her home at Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean coast, she sees Nickie with new eyes and their feelings blossom into love. During their visit, it is revealed that Nickie has had a talent for painting, but has dropped said trait due to his critical attitude towards his own art. As the ship returns to New York City, they agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months' time, if they have succeeded in ending their relationships and starting new careers.

text: On the day of their rendezvous, Terry, in her haste to reach the Empire State Building, is struck down by a car while crossing a street. Gravely injured, she is rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, Nickie, waiting for her at the observation deck at the top of the building, is unaware of the accident and, after many hours, finally concedes at midnight that she will not arrive, believing that she has rejected him.

text: After the accident Terry, now unable to walk, refuses to contact Nickie, wanting to conceal her disability. Instead, she finds work as a music teacher. Nickie has pursued his talent as a painter and has his work displayed by an old friend, an art shop owner. Six months after the accident, she sees Nickie with his former fiancée at the ballet, which she herself is attending with her former boyfriend. Nickie does not notice her condition because she is seated and only says hello as he passes her.

text: Nickie finally learns Terry's address and, on Christmas Eve, makes a surprise visit to her. Although he steers the conversation to make her explain her actions, Terry merely dodges the subject, never leaving the couch on which she sits. He gives her a shawl that his grandmother left for Terry after she died. As he is leaving, Nickie mentions a painting that he had been working on when they originally met, and that it was just given away at the art shop to a woman who liked it but had no money. He is about to say that the woman was in a wheelchair when he pauses, suddenly suspecting why Terry has been sitting unmoving on the couch. He walks into her bedroom and sees his painting hanging on the wall, and a wheelchair concealed there. He now knows why she did not keep their appointment. The film ends with the two in a tight embrace, each realizing that the other's love endures. In closing, Terry says, "If you can paint, I can walk; anything can happen, don't you think?"

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Cary Grant as Nicolò (Nickie) Ferrante
Deborah Kerr as Terry McKay
Richard Denning as Kenneth Bradley
Neva Patterson as Lois Clark
Cathleen Nesbitt as Grandmother Janou
Robert Q. Lewis as Himself (announcer)
Charles Watts as Ned Hathaway
Fortunio Bonanova as Courbet
Marni Nixon as Terry McKay (singing voice)

text: Production[edit]

text: The film was a remake of McCarey's 1939 film Love Affair, starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. An Affair to Remember was almost identical to Love Affair on a scene-to-scene basis.[4] McCarey used the same screenplay as the original film, which was penned by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart. Also, the character name "Terry McKay" appears in both films.

text: Contributing to the success of the 1957 film is its theme song, "An Affair to Remember (Our Love Affair)", composed by Harry Warren and with lyrics by Leo McCarey and Harold Adamson, which has since become a jazz standard. Sung by Vic Damone over opening credits.

text: Soundtracks[edit]

text:
Continué

Sung by Marni Nixon (dubbing for Deborah Kerr)

The Tiny Scout (He Knows You Inside Out)
Tomorrow Land
You Make It Easy To Be True

text: Critical reaction[edit]

text: The film currently holds a 64% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 28 reviews, despite receiving four Oscar nominations.[5]

text: Awards and honors[edit]

text: The film was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Original Song and Best Original Score at the 30th Academy Awards.

text:
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:

"Oh, it was nobody's fault but my own. I was looking up. It was the nearest thing to heaven. You were there."—Nominated

text: Legacy[edit]

text:
Nora Ephron's 1993 film Sleepless in Seattle, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, was partly inspired by An Affair to Remember, particularly the ending. References, clips and the theme song from the earlier film are used throughout.
A 1994 remake, reverting to the original title of Love Affair, starred Warren Beatty (who also wrote and produced) and his wife Annette Bening. The film also featured Katharine Hepburn in her last screen appearance, portraying the male protagonist's aunt; this character replaces the grandmother from the original film.
Mann, a 1999 Bollywood film starring Aamir Khan and Manisha Koirala, was almost a scene-by-scene copy of this film.
In 2009, the HBO film Grey Gardens licensed an aerial shot of The Pierre Hotel from this film.[6]
The Climax of 1980 Bollywood movie Ek Baar Kaho is inspired by the movie's climax.
A sound clip from this film, was used on Basement's 2011 album I Wish I Could Stay Here in the Song "Fading".
The teen drama TV series Gossip Girl features an episode in season three titled, "Last Tango, Then Paris" where the characters Chuck and Blair decide to rekindle their love and agree to meet on top of the Empire State Building at 7:01pm, just like the movie. However, Blair is unable to meet Chuck because her maid goes into labor on their way there. This results in their "final break-up".
In the TV series 30 Rock, the character Tracy Jordan claims to have starred in a remake of An Affair to Remember called "A Blaffair to Rememblack".
In the TV series Family Guy, there is a cutaway gag of what the movie would be like with cell phones. When she tells him she's paralyzed he abruptly ends the call and tosses the phone off the observation deck.

text: Home media[edit]

text: The film has been released in various formats including VHS, Laserdisc, VCD, DVD, and Blu-ray.


document_title: Family Feud

question_text: where is the game show family feud located

text: Family Feud

text: Gameplay[edit]

text: Two family teams of five contestants each compete to win cash and prizes. The original version of the show began with the families being introduced, seated opposite each other as if posing for family portraits, after which the host interviewed them.[1]

text: Each round begins with a "face-off" question that serves as a toss-up between two opposing contestants. The host asks a survey question that was previously posed to a group of 100 people (e.g., "Name the hour that you get up on Sunday mornings.").[2] A certain number of answers are concealed on the board, ranked by popularity of the survey's responses. Only answers that receive two or more responses can appear on the board. The first contestant to buzz-in gives an answer; if it is the most popular, his/her family immediately wins the face-off. Otherwise, the opponent responds and the family member providing the higher-ranked answer wins. Ties are broken in favor of the contestant who buzzes-in first. If neither contestant's answer is on the board, the other eight contestants have a chance to respond, one at a time from alternating sides, until an answer is found. The family that wins the face-off may choose to play the question or pass control to their opponents (except on the Combs version, when the family who won the face-off automatically gained control of the question).[2]

text: The family with control of the question then tries to win the round by guessing all of the remaining concealed answers, with each member giving one answer in sequence. Giving an answer not on the board, or failing to respond within the allotted time, earns one strike. If the family earns three strikes, their opponents are given one chance to steal the points for the round by guessing any still-concealed answer; failing to do so awards the points to the family that originally had control.[2] Any answers on the board that have not been guessed are then revealed.

text: While a family has control of a question, the members are not allowed to discuss possible answers with one another; each person must respond individually. However, the opposing family may confer in preparation for an attempt to steal, and their captain must respond for them when such an attempt is made.

text: Answers are worth one point for every person in the 100-member survey who gave them. The winning family in each round scores the total points for all revealed answers to that question, including those given during the face-off but excluding the one used to steal (if applicable). The number of answers on the board decreases from round to round, and as the game progresses, certain rounds are played for double or triple value. The first family to score 300 points wins the game and advances to the Fast Money bonus round for a chance to win a cash bonus. Until 1992, both teams received $1 per point scored.[1]

text: Prior to 1999, the game continued as normal until one family reached the necessary total to win. Since then, if neither team reaches the goal after four rounds (or, from 1999 to 2002, if both teams were tied with the same score after the final round), one last question is played for triple value with only the #1 answer displayed.

text: The goal of 300 points has been in place in almost every version of the rules. However, when the program premiered in 1976, the goal was 200 points. For the 1984–85 season of both the daytime and syndicated program, the goal was increased to 400 points.[3] For several seasons after the 1999 return to syndication, there was no specific point goal. Instead, four rounds were played, with the last for triple points and only one strike. The family with the most points after the fourth round won the game.

text: Fast Money[edit]

text: Two members of the winning family play Fast Money for a chance to win a cash bonus. One contestant is onstage with the host, while the other is sequestered backstage so that he/she cannot hear the first portion of the round. The first contestant is asked five rapid-fire survey questions and has a set time limit in which to answer them (originally 15 seconds, extended to 20 in 1994). The clock begins to run only after the first question is asked, and the first contestant may pass on a question and return to it after all five have been asked, if time remains.

text: After the first contestant has either answered all five questions or run out of time, the host reveals how many people in the survey matched each of his/her answers. The board is then cleared except for the total score, and the second contestant is then brought out to answer the same five questions. The same rules are followed, but the time limit is extended by five seconds (originally 20, then extended to 25); in addition, if the second contestant duplicates an answer given by the first, a buzzer sounds and he/she must answer again. If the two contestants reach a combined total of 200 points or more, the family wins the bonus. If not, they are given $5 per point scored as a consolation prize.[2]

text: The grand prize for winning Fast Money has varied. When the program aired in daytime, families played for $5,000.[4][5] The grand prize for syndicated episodes was $10,000 for much of its existence. In 2001, the prize was doubled to $20,000 at the request of then-host Louie Anderson.[6]

text: Returning champions[edit]

text: When Family Feud premiered on ABC, network rules dictated how much a family could win. Once any family reached $25,000, they were retired as champions.[7] The accompanying syndicated series that premiered in 1977 featured two new families each episode because of tape bicycling (a practice then common in syndicated television).

text: The CBS daytime and syndicated versions which began airing in 1988 also featured returning champions, who could appear for a maximum of five days.[8] For a brief period in the 1994–95 season which aired in syndication, there were no returning champions. For these episodes, two new families competed in this first half of each episode. The second half featured former champion families who appeared on Family Feud between 1975 and 1985, with the winner of the first half of the show playing one of these families in the second half.[9]

text: From 1999 to 2002, two new families appeared on each episode. The returning champions rule was reinstated with the same five-day limit starting with the 2002–03 season.[10] Starting with the 2009–10 season, a family that wins five matches also wins a new car.

text: Bullseye game[edit]

text: In June 1992, the CBS daytime edition of Feud expanded from thirty to sixty minutes and became known as Family Feud Challenge. As part of the change, a new round was added at the start of each game called "Bullseye". This round determined the potential Fast Money stake for each team.[11] Each team was given a starting value for their bank and attempted to come up with the top answer to a survey question to add to it. The Bullseye round was added to the syndicated edition in September 1992.

text: The first two members of each family appeared at the face-off podium and were asked a question to which only the number-one answer was available. Giving the top answer added the value for that question to the family's bank. The process then repeated with the four remaining members from each family. On the first half of the daytime version, families were staked with $2,500. The first question was worth $500, with each succeeding question worth $500 more than the previous, with the final question worth $2,500. This allowed for a potential maximum bank of $10,000. For the second half of the daytime version, and also on the syndicated version, all values were doubled, making the maximum potential bank $20,000. The team that eventually won the game played for their bank in Fast Money.

text: When Richard Dawson returned as host of the program in 1994, the round's name was changed to the "Bankroll" round.[12] Although the goal remained of giving only the number-one answer, the format was modified to three questions from five, with only one member of each family participating for all three questions. The initial stake for each family remained the same ($2,500 in the first half of the hour and $5,000 in the second). However, the value for each question was $500, $1,500 and $2,500 in the first half, with values doubling for the second half. This meant a potential maximum bank of $7,000 in the first half and $14,000 in the second.[12]

text: The Bullseye round temporarily returned during the 2009–10 season. It was played similarly as the format used from 1992 to 1994 on the syndicated version, with five questions worth from $1,000 to $5,000. However, each family was given a $15,000 starting stake, which meant a potential maximum of a $30,000 bank.

text: Hosts and announcers[edit]

text: The ABC and first syndicated versions of Family Feud were hosted by Richard Dawson. As writer David Marc put it, Dawson's on-air personality "fell somewhere between the brainless sincerity of Wink Martindale and the raunchy cynicism of Chuck Barris".[13] Dawson showed himself to have insistent affections for all of the female members of each family that competed on the show, regardless of age.[13] Writers Tim Brooks, Jon Ellowitz, and Earle F. Marsh owed Family Feud's popularity to Dawson's "glib familiarity" (he had previously played Newkirk on Hogan's Heroes) and "ready wit" (from his tenure as a panelist on Match Game).[1] The show's original announcer was Gene Wood,[14] with Johnny Gilbert and Rod Roddy serving as occasional substitutes.[15]

text: In 1988, Ray Combs took over Dawson's role as host on CBS and in syndication with Wood returning as announcer and Roddy, Art James, and Charlie O'Donnell serving in that role when Wood was not available.[15] Combs hosted the program until the daytime version's cancellation in 1993 and the syndicated version until the end of the 1993–94 season. Dawson returned to the show at the request of Mark Goodson Productions for the 1994–95 season.[16]

text: When Feud returned to syndication in 1999, it was initially hosted by Louie Anderson,[1] with Burton Richardson as the new announcer.[17] Richard Karn was selected to take over for Anderson when season four premiered in 2002,[1] and when season eight premiered in 2006, Karn was replaced by John O'Hurley.[1] In 2010, both O'Hurley and Richardson departed from the show; comedian Steve Harvey was named the new host for season twelve,[18] and a pre-recorded track of former 'N Sync member Joey Fatone's voice was used until 2015,[19] when Rubin Ervin, who has been a member of the production staff as the warmup man for the audience since Harvey took over, became the announcer. (Richardson still announces for Celebrity Family Feud.)

text: Production[edit]

text: The first four versions of the show were directed by Paul Alter and produced by Howard Felsher and Cathy Dawson. For the 1988 versions, Gary Dawson worked with the show as a third producer, and Alter was joined by two other directors, Marc Breslow and Andy Felsher.[15] The 1999 version's main staff include executive producer Gabrielle Johnston, supervising producers Kristin Bjorklund and Brian Hawley, and director Ken Fuchs; Johnston and Bjorklund previously worked as associate producers of the 1980s version.[20] The show's classic theme tune was written by an uncredited Walt Levinsky for Score Productions. The themes used from 1999 to 2008 were written by John Lewis Parker.[20] The production rights to the show were originally owned by the production company Goodson shared with his partner Bill Todman, but were sold to their current holder, FremantleMedia, when it acquired all of Goodson and Todman's works in 2002.[20]

text: Broadcast history[edit]

text: Mark Goodson created Family Feud during the increasing popularity of his earlier game show Match Game, which set daytime ratings records in 1976, and on which Dawson had previously appeared as one of its most popular panelists. Match Game aired on CBS, and by 1976, CBS vice president Fred Silverman (who had originally commissioned Match Game) had moved to a new position as President of ABC. The show premiered on ABC's daytime lineup on July 12, 1976, and although it was not an immediate hit, before long it became a ratings winner and eventually surpassed Match Game to become the No. 1 game show in daytime.[21] It remained the most popular daytime game show until Merv Griffin's game show Wheel of Fortune surpassed it in 1984.[2] From 1978 until 1984, ABC periodically broadcast hour-long primetime "All-Star Specials", in which celebrity casts from various primetime lineup TV series competed instead of ordinary families.[1] The popularity of the program inspired Goodson to consider producing a nighttime edition, which launched in syndication on September 18, 1977. Like many other game shows at the time, the nighttime Feud aired once a week; it expanded to twice a week in January 1979,[2] and finally to five nights a week (Monday through Friday) in the fall of 1980. However, the viewing habits of both daytime and syndicated audiences were changing.[2] When Griffin launched Wheel's syndicated version, starring Pat Sajak and Vanna White, in 1983, that show climbed the ratings to the point where it unseated Feud as the highest-rated syndicated show;[22] the syndicated premiere of Wheel's sister show Jeopardy! with Alex Trebek as host also siphoned ratings from Feud with its early success.

text: Despite the ratings decline, there was some interest in keeping the show in production. In a 2011 interview, Dawson recalled a meeting with executives from Viacom Enterprises about keeping the show for one more season. Dawson was growing tired of the grueling taping schedule and initially wanted to stop altogether. After discussing the situation with ABC and Viacom, Dawson said that he would return for a final syndicated season of thirty-nine weeks of episodes but would not continue doing the daytime series. After this, Dawson did not hear from Viacom for approximately a week and once they contacted him again, Dawson was told that Viacom was no longer interested in continuing the syndicated Feud beyond the 1984–85 season.[23] Viacom made this official in January 1985 ahead of that year's NATPE convention, and within a few weeks, ABC decided that it too would not renew Feud for the 1985–86 season.[24] The daytime version came to an end on June 14, 1985.[2] The syndicated version aired its last new episode on May 17, 1985, and continued to air in reruns after that until September 6, 1985.[2]

text: Family Feud moved to CBS with Combs hosting on July 4, 1988, replacing The $25,000 Pyramid. Like its predecessor, this version also had an accompanying syndicated edition which launched in September of that year.[1] In June 1992, the network version expanded from its original half-hour format to a full hour, and was retitled The Family Feud Challenge;[1] this new format featured three families per episode, which included two new families competing in the first half-hour for the right to play the returning champions in the second half. The Family Feud Challenge aired its final new episode on March 26, 1993, with reruns airing until September 10.[25] The syndicated Feud, meanwhile, remained in production and entered its sixth season in the fall of 1993.

text: However, the ratings picture was not particularly good for the syndicated edition. For much of its run to this point, the syndicated Feud had to deal with stations dropping the series or moving it to undesirable time slots such as overnights. By 1992, the ratings had hit a low point and by the time the sixth season premiered, distributor All American Television was threatening to cancel the series unless ratings improved and changes were made. The responsibility for this fell on Jonathan Goodson, who had taken over his father's company when Mark Goodson died in 1992. One of the options considered was a host change.[16]

text: When the revival launched in 1988, Mark Goodson had not even considered former host Richard Dawson to return due to lingering bad feelings between Dawson and the production team. After hiring Ray Combs, Goodson threw his loyalties behind him and refused to consider changing hosts despite the slipping ratings. However, the younger Goodson did not have the ties to Combs that his father did and felt that a change would at least require consideration. After meeting with his staff, Goodson offered Dawson a contract to return as host of the syndicated Feud and the semi-retired Dawson agreed to return. Combs finished out the remainder of the season but, upset by the decision to replace him, he departed from the studio as soon as he signed off on the final episode of his tenure.[16]

text: A revamped Family Feud returned for a seventh season in September 1994 with Dawson in his role as host. The show expanded from thirty to sixty minutes, reinstated the Family Feud Challenge format, and did various other things to try to improve the ratings of the show such as build a more modern-looking set, feature families that had previously been champions on the original Feud, and have more themed weeks. Although Dawson did bring a brief ratings surge when he came back, the show could not sustain it long term and Feud came to a conclusion at the end of the 1994–95 season.

text: Family Feud returned in syndication on September 20, 1999, with comedian Louie Anderson as host.[26] After Richard Karn took over the show, the format was changed to reintroduce returning champions, allowing them to appear for up to five days. However, even after Karn's takeover, Anderson-hosted episodes continued in reruns that aired on PAX Network.[1] In John O'Hurley's later days, the show's Nielsen ratings were at 1.5 (putting it in danger of cancellation), but when comedian Steve Harvey took over, ratings increased by as much as 40%,[27] and within two short years, the show was rated at 4.0, and had become the fifth most popular syndicated program.[28] Fox News' Paulette Cohn argued that Harvey's "relatability," or "understanding of what the people at home want to know," is what saved the show from cancellation;[29] Harvey himself argued, "If someone said an answer that was so ridiculous, I knew that the people at home behind the camera had to be going, 'What did they just say?' … They gave this answer that doesn't have a shot in hell of being up there. The fact that I recognize that, that's comedic genius to me. I think that's [made] the difference."[29]

text: Since Harvey became host, Family Feud has regularly ranked among the top 10 highest-rated programs in all of daytime television programming and third among game shows (behind Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!); in February 2014, the show achieved a 6.0 share in the Nielsen ratings, with approximately 8.8 million viewers.[30] In June 2015, Family Feud eclipsed Wheel of Fortune as the most-watched syndicated game show on television.[31]

text: Reruns of the Dawson and Combs hosted episodes have been included among Buzzr's acquisitions since its launch on June 1, 2015.[32] On June 13, 2016, American episodes hosted by Harvey began airing on the UK digital terrestrial and satellite channel Challenge.[33]

text: Production of Family Feud was shifted from Universal Orlando to Harvey's hometown of Atlanta in 2011, primarily at the Atlanta Civic Center. Harvey was also originating a syndicated radio show from Atlanta, and the state of Georgia also issued tax credits for the production. In 2017, production moved to Los Angeles Center Studios in Los Angeles to accommodate Harvey's new syndicated talk show Steve.[34][35][36][37]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Family Feud won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show in 1977, and the show has twice won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host, once with Dawson (1978) and again with Harvey (2014) and (2017).[38][39] Feud ranked number 3 on Game Show Network (GSN)'s 2006 list of the 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time,[40] and also on TV Guide's 2013 list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.[41]

text: Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting, founders of the website Television Without Pity, wrote that they hated the 1999 syndicated version, saying "Give us classic Feud every time", citing both Dawson and Combs as hosts. Additionally, they called Anderson an "alleged sexual harasser and full-time sphere".[42]

text: It was reported that the public responded negatively to several videos posted on the official Family Feud web site in September 2015 in which contestants on the current version gave sexually explicit answers to survey questions.[43] Dan Gainor of the Media Research Center suggested that the responses are in line with sexual content becoming more commonplace on television.[43]

text: The popularity of Family Feud in the United States has led it to become a worldwide franchise, with over 50 adaptations outside the United States. Countries that have aired their own versions of the show include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam, among others.

text: Merchandise[edit]

text: Since the show's premiere in 1976, many home versions of Family Feud have been released in various formats. Milton Bradley, Pressman Games, and Endless Games have all released traditional board games based on the show,[44][45] while Imagination Entertainment released the program in a DVD game format.[46]

text: The game has been released in other formats by multiple companies; Coleco Adam released the first computer version of the show in 1983, and Sharedata followed in 1987 with versions for MS-DOS, Commodore 64, and Apple II computers.[47] GameTek released versions for Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Genesis, 3DO, and PC (on CD-ROM) between 1990 and 1995.[48] Hasbro Interactive released a version in 2000 for the PC and PlayStation.[49] In 2006, versions were released for PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and PC.[50] Seattle-based Mobliss Inc. also released a mobile version of Family Feud that was available on Sprint, Verizon, and Cingular.[51][52][53] Glu Mobile later released a newer mobile version of Family Feud for other carriers.[54]

text: Most recently, in conjunction with Ludia, Ubisoft has video games for multiple platforms. The first of these was entitled Family Feud: 2010 Edition and was released for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and PC in September 2009.[55] Ubisoft then released Family Feud Decades the next year, which featured sets and survey questions from television versions of all four decades the show has been on air.[56] A third game, entitled Family Feud: 2012 Edition was released for the Wii and Xbox 360 in 2011.[57]

text: In addition to the home games, a DVD set titled All-Star Family Feud was released on January 8, 2008 and featured a total of 15 celebrity episodes from the original ABC/syndicated versions on its four discs.[58] It was re-issued as The Best of All-Star Family Feud on February 2, 2010.[59]