- Be nice to each other. You can make a whole day a different day for everybody.
- [When the male hunks thought they'd won the game] It's wonderful to win, but don't get cocky about it!
- I'm a hustler. I'm a smartass, but I love people.
- They kept us on the air probably a year more than they should have. We were burying them. [in 1985, on ABC's cancellation of Family Feud (1976)].
- It's important to me that on 'Family Feud' I could kiss all the people. It sounds crazy but when I first came here Petula Clark was on a show with Nat King Cole and he kissed her on the cheek and eighty-one stations in the South canceled him. I kissed black women daily and nightly on 'Family Feud' and the world didn't come to an end, did it?
- There were people I know that got upset that I kissed people; I kissed them for luck and love, that's all. That's what my mother did to me. There were people upset that I would embrace or hug someone of another color.
- [When he was in the Family Feud (1976)'s dressing room]: Well we got into that about the second or third week. I got to the end of the line and here was the rather darling lady about 50 or so and she was so nervous, she was a basket case. She didn't want to let her family down but she had no idea at all what to say and I said. 'I'll do what my mom used to do,' and I kissed her on the check, and she gave an answer and it was there on the board. Then I went over to the other family and a woman said. 'Don't I get a kiss, too?' and after that there was no stopping it.'
- [When he wanted to do Family Feud (1976) all over again]: I have a daughter, she's 4 years old (Shannon Nicole) and I've been off, almost 9 years, and she never seen me do an honest day work. I thought it would be fun to do something and let her see me; and do what I do best.
- [on offering the job as host of Family Feud (1976)]: I've been in Hawaii and came back and they said, 'They got a new show (Family Feud),' you should audition for.
- When contestants doze off, that's the thing that really ticks me off, and I tell them about it. But (Bob) Barker or those other guys won't do it because they all want to be Charlie Charming. They never really listen anyway. All those hosts. They'll say, 'Name a country in South America,' and the guy will say, 'Asia,' and they'll say, 'Very good try, but not correct.' Well, you've got to lock the man up, don't you? I'll do sarcastic lines just to make the contestants angry enough so they'll forget they're on television and say, 'I'll show this (so-and-so),' and come up with an answer.
- [When he was hired to comeback to replace Ray Combs as original host of Family Feud (1976)]: I'm generally on the side of the contestant, and I don't mind being blatant about it. People think I'm being a smart-ass, a cynic, but I've always rooted for the underdog. I've bet on everyone who ever fought Mike Tyson. I kept losing until he was knocked out by Buster Douglas in Japan. Then I raked it in!
- [on his divorce from Diana Dors]: When Diana told me she was leaving, I went into a 14-month funk. I absolutely wallowed in self-pity.
- I should be beaten. I said right there, it's time to retire. If I'm missing clues like Adolph Hitler, I'm all washed up.
- The thing that I loved about 'Feud,' we froze a moment in time for these families that had never occurred before. That's magic.
- [Who said, in 1966, about getting his very 1st job as a British repertory, where he was paid $9 a week]: Then, I read somewhere that comics can go on forever. So I told some of the top agents in England I was a Canadian comic vacationing in England and I wouldn't mind some work. They sent me a contract for six weeks' work. I went out on the stage with a medley of popular jokes and died.
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