Shakespeare's Feud

Been watching a lot of John O'Hurley's Family Feud on GSN lately. I can see what Roger Dobkowitz meant when he said that O'Hurley's audition to succeed Bob Barker on The Price is Right was the Shakespeare version of the show. Perfect diction, faultless grammar, patrician style.

You might call O'Hurley the anti-Harvey. The current Feud incumbent is clownish, loud, rubber-faced, camera-hogging...adjectives that don't remotely apply to O'Hurley. The ratings say that folks like Steve's down and dirty treatment better than John's highfalutin approach, though O'Hurley kept Feud's numbers profitable.

John always did seem a little out of place on grubby, low-rent entertainment like game shows. But he was super-competent and plenty telegenic, not to mention quick with a quip. So he got a fair number of gigs in our little genre.

My initial reaction to O'Hurley on Feud was a little impatience with his high-flown airs, especially because he replaced Mr. Everyman on the show, Richard Karn. But John's style is growing on me. He never got really snooty and always seemed to have a sense of humor about himself.

UPDATE: Looks like I jinxed John. He's losing his 5:00PM weekday afternoon slot on GSN to Minute To Win It.