Among classic game shows, Family Feud is one of the most well-known and longest-running institutions. Though it went off the air for a few moments in the '80s and '90s, the 100-people surveys and familial showdowns have remained a touchstone of syndicated TV for the better part of the last generation. Now, as comedian Steve Harvey takes the reins from John O'Hurley, Movieline advises the newest "Number One Answer" man with lessons learned from each host in the show's history. Fear not, Mr. Harvey, we tell you exactly what to retain and what to throw away. Kiss this, Richard Dawson!
Richard Dawson
Retain: The woman-charming panache! You can earn a scandalous, wife-wooing reputation and -- well, though you're already married -- a wife. Dawson met his current wife (of 19 years) when she was a contestant in 1981. Keep a look out for Gretchen in the clip below.
Throw Away: The woman-charming overkill. Let's leave cute remarks to 13-year-old girls about taking a treat from the lollipop tree out of the new millennium, Steve.
Ray Combs
Retain: His vaudevillian emcee skills, as evidenced in the following clip. When one contestant wins the Fast Money round and scores 200 in just her turn, Combs has fun with the on-deck family member. This jocular flair made him the (unironically) greatest Feud host, and one of the few stand-up comics Johnny Carson invited over to sit at the Tonight Show desk with him.
Throw Away: The grimmest post-Feud life story of them all. If the Family Channel comes back and wants you to host a family-oriented game show, don't do it, Steve!
Louie Anderson
Retain: A level of detached game-running. Louie Anderson has a dubious reputation, but he was probably the wryest host of this Hatfields/McCoys schmaltzfest. If anyone's going to host a circus like a WCW/Playboy match-up, it should be somebody as weird and droll as he is.
Throw Away: The exhaustion. After only two years on Family Feud, Anderson became bored with his job and ostensibly didn't try to make the show fun anymore. These Feud gigs usually go at least four years -- keep up the keeping up, Steve.
Richard Karn
Retain: The avuncular trustfulness.
Throw Away: Everything else. Karn looked so uncomfortable during his four-year run that many thought every season was his last. Louie Anderson once predicted on an E! True Hollywood Story that Karn's role as host would mean the death of the show. He was figuratively right, even if the Feud kept plugging along. (Click this clip for vast discomfort; that pre-show banter is rough.)
John O'Hurley
Retain: The vaguely suave air of this campy Seinfeld vet. I said "vaguely." He's as suave as game show hosts get without becoming patronizing. In the clip below, he answers Richard Dawson's legacy with a kiss of his own. (He also used to host a stellar reboot of To Tell the Truth with panelists Meschach Taylor and Paula Poundstone, and with the same J. Peterman finesse.)
Throw Away: The impersonal, Guy Smiley-esque treatment of every guest. In the end, spewing with Dawson-like romantic come-ons is better than seeming like a put-on.
Steve Harvey Takes Over on Family Feud [PopCrunch]