Editing Ray Combs (section)

==Career==
Combs began performing comedy at [[Cincinnati]]'s Red Dog Saloon, where he developed his best-known [[shtick]] of audience sing-alongs of [[sitcom]] theme songs. In 1979, Combs sent a letter to [[David Letterman]], asking for advice; Letterman encouraged him to continue in comedy. In 1982, convinced that he was better than the comedians whose acts he saw on ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson|The Tonight Show]]'', Combs left his job as an [[Indianapolis]] furniture salesman and moved with his family to [[Los Angeles]]. He did well in a competition with more than 200 other young comedians, and began doing audience warm-ups for NBC sitcoms such as ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', ''[[The Facts of Life (TV series)|The Facts of Life]]'' and ''[[Amen (TV series)|Amen]]''. He became so popular that other sitcoms changed their production schedules just so they could have him warm up their audiences.<ref>{{cite book| last=Baber| first=David| title=Television Game Show Hosts| publisher=McFarland| location=Jefferson, North Carolina| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u7fwCQAAQBAJ&q=Television+Game+Show+Hosts| date=August 11, 2009| page= 39| isbn=978-0-7864-4573-8}}</ref> [[Johnny Carson]] heard the audience's laughter and then invited Combs to perform on ''The Tonight Show'' in October 1986; the audience gave him a standing ovation.{{r|armstrong198802}}<ref name="people">{{Cite web|date=June 17, 1996|title=Game Over|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20141533,00.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110316170624/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20141533,00.html|archive-date=March 16, 2011|access-date=June 8, 2021|website=[[People (magazine)|People]]}}</ref>

In 1985, he appeared on an episode of ''[[The Facts of Life (TV series)|The Facts of Life]]'' as a background character. Around this time, he also guest-starred on an episode of ''The Golden Girls''.  In 1987, he appeared as a celebrity panelist on the [[John Davidson (entertainer)|John Davidson]] version of ''[[Hollywood Squares]]'', and had a small role in the comedy film ''[[Overboard (1987 film)|Overboard]]'' starring [[Kurt Russell]] and [[Goldie Hawn]] (he was the local cop in the beginning hospital sequence).

===''Family Feud''===
In 1988, game-show producers [[Mark Goodson]] and [[Howard Felsher]] gave Combs a seven-year contract to host a new version of ''Family Feud''.{{r|armstrong198802}} The program premiered on July 4, 1988, on CBS's daytime lineup, and a syndicated version was launched  on September 19. According to ''Family Feud'' announcer [[Gene Wood]], Combs also toured extensively around the United States to promote the show, and made guest appearances on ''[[Card Sharks]]'' and ''[[The Price Is Right (U.S. game show)|The Price Is Right]]'' to discuss the new version of ''Family Feud'' with respective hosts [[Bob Eubanks]] and [[Bob Barker]].

On June 29, 1992, CBS expanded the daytime show from 30 minutes to one hour. A new "Bullseye" round was added and the show was retitled ''The New Family Feud Challenge''. On September 14, 1992, the Bullseye round was integrated into the syndicated run, which remained 30 minutes in length, but was renamed as ''The New Family Feud''. Combs was one of the most seen hosts on television during the 1992–93 season, with an hour and a half of ''Family Feud'' airing five days a week.

While Combs enjoyed hosting ''Family Feud'', he grew increasingly frustrated by the rigid formula of the show. He pressured his agent to find new opportunities for him in acting and comedy.{{cn|date=April 2022}}

Midway through the 1992–93 season, ratings for the show began to plummet. CBS cancelled the daytime version in early 1993, with the final new episode airing March 26 (reruns aired through September 10), as many CBS affiliates had dropped the show entirely by that time. The syndicated version was also on the verge of cancellation (as many stations had also dropped that or moved it into overnight time slots). [[Jonathan Goodson]], who had become chairman of Mark Goodson Productions after the death of his father, Mark Goodson, in 1992, decided to replace Combs with original host [[Richard Dawson]] in the hopes of spiking ratings (Dawson's return season initially drew good ratings, but was unable to sustain this strength long-term, and ''Family Feud''{{'}}s second incarnation ended after the 1994–95 season). By all accounts, Combs was hurt by his dismissal from the show.<ref>{{cite video| series=E! True Hollywood Story| title=Ray Combs| date=November 16, 1997| work=E!}}</ref>

===Other appearances===
Combs also made an appearance for the [[WWE|World Wrestling Federation]] (WWF) as a guest ring announcer at [[WrestleMania VIII]], where he amused the capacity crowd at Indianapolis' [[Hoosier Dome]] by lashing into the team of [[the Nasty Boys]], [[Jacques Rougeau|The Mountie]], and [[Barry Darsow|Repo Man]] with various scathing insults before being ultimately chased out of the ring. He later served as a guest commentator alongside [[Vince McMahon]] and [[Bobby Heenan]] at [[Survivor Series (1993)|Survivor Series 1993]] in a match of the Hart Family against [[Shawn Michaels]] and his Knights.

In addition to these two appearances, he appeared in various WWF/[[World Bodybuilding Federation|WBF]] celebrity editions of ''Family Feud''. Heenan and Combs also struck up a friendship, which Heenan recounted in his autobiography, noting that he believed Combs felt pigeonholed by being a game-show host.<ref>{{cite book| last1=Heenan| first1=Bobby| last2=Anderson| first2=Steve| title=Bobby the Brain: Wrestling's Bad Boy Tells All| year=2004| publisher=Triumph Books| isbn=978-1-5724-3668-8| pages=137–138| url-access=subscription| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z7YKAAAACAAJ&q=Bobby+the+Brain:+Wrestling%27s+Bad+Boy+Tells+All}}</ref>

Combs portrayed himself in episodes of ''[[In Living Color]]'' and ''[[227 (TV series)|227]]'' in ''Family Feud'' sketches and made an appearance on the [[The Nashville Network|TNN]] television series ''The Statler Brothers Show'', where he did a stand-up comedy routine. In October 1993, a ''Family Feud'' video game featuring Combs's likeness was released for both the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super NES]] and the [[Sega Genesis]].

Combs was master of ceremonies of the annual [[StarGaze]] charity events produced by [[Jim Kelly]] from 1993 to 1995.