Some good things must come to an end. The “Family Feud” game show franchise is one of them. After Richard Dawson and Ray Combs gave the legendary game show its best 18 years as its first two hosts, the integrity and interest of the show sank drastically thereafter. Low ratings with successive hosts Louie Anderson, Richard Karn and John O’Hurley forced the show to leave the coveted daytime slots and prime time slots it once had into various times on syndicated networks, after shifting from ABC and CBS.
Now, legendary Black comedian Steve Harvey will begin hosting duties for “Feud” inSeptember 2010. After watching Anderson losing interest as a host, which caused him to get fired from the show after three seasons, I gave up watching the show regularly despite being an game show fanatic. I tried to regain interest with the successors Karn and O’Hurley. Karn seemed to be the most clueless host who often failed to give the number one answers during the bonus round. That was awful for people who like to guess the answers at home like me. O’Hurley’s presence brought life and energy back into the show, but the show format seemed to become corny and my long disinterest with the show was eventually realized.
I will admit this. I have never been a fan of Steve Harvey because he is the second most hating comedian whose voice I loathe to hear, second to Paul Mooney. No matter the mainstream opportunities he has received with TV shows such as “Oprah” and “Good Morning America,” I still find Harvey to be very much of a chiltin’-circuit celebrity. The stints he has worked on with cable station BET and Black radio suits his personality and entertaining flair perfectly. Knowing that he is the next of a family-friendly, mainstream middle-America show turns me off in the worst way. I wonder if the family-oriented show’s producers are aware that Mr. Harvey is a wife-beater.
Nonetheless, I am a fan of the syndicated sitcom “The Steve Harvey Show.” I enjoy watching all the characters, especially seeing that Harvey as the main character is quite toned down from Harvey the chitlin’-circuit celebrity.
I do not have to be a fan of Harvey to enjoy watching the “Feud.” The Game Show Network (GSN) run the “golden years” plus Karn’s and O’Hurley’s era on their network every weekday.
Check out this clip below from the Combs’ era that was spoofed on the iconic sketch comedy show “In Living Color” featuring a mocked version of the Jackson music family versus the royal family of Great Britian.
Rest in peace, Mr. Combs.
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