Syndication: (May 29, 1994)

Ray Combs got the hosting job for Family Feud in 1988, when it was revived for both CBS and Syndication.  While the show was still really good, the landscape for daytime TV and syndication was changing.  Out were game shows and in were Court shows, Talk Shows involving the lesser aspects of society, more Soap Operas and other shows.  In 1994, The Price is Right was on CBS and Caesar's Challenge was finishing up its run on NBC.  Family Feud was still going on in Syndication, but with sagging ratings, the producers had to make a drastic change in order to keep interest in the show up.  Sadly, that meant Ray would be fired and in his place...

Richard Dawson would be returning to the helm.  Now, while this was being announced, Ray was still filming his run of Family Feud.  Personally, I'd have done all of this afterwards.  Have Ray complete his season, then we'd get Richard back.  So, knowing this, Ray had to put on a great facade and do the rest of his shows.  When the last show was airing, it seemed like a normal show.  But then Fast Money came along, and we got some problems.

Let's meet The Tran Family.  Now while they stunk on Bullseye, not getting any additional money to their bank of $5,000, they played the main game really well.  They won handedly and were feeling that they were going to end the show on a high note and win $5,000.  So they send up their two players, who's names are hard to pronounce or spell, so I'll just call them player 1 and player 2.  Player one starts off and gets these questions.

Name something specific a Bricklayer uses.....Cement
The best place to people watch......................The Zoo (Dumb.  You go to watch the animals, and not the people)
A type of fly..................................................PASS
Something mothers and daughters fight over...Boyfriends
Something that's built to last...........................Truck (BUZZZZZZ)

Ok, aside from the Zoo answer, that's actually a pretty decent go.  And with only 15 seconds instead of the 20 we're used to seeing nowadays, that's not bad.  Cement does really well and gets 35, but then we get to....

The Zoo for the best place to people watch.  I know when I go to the zoo, I always look at the animal trainers and think that they are well trained.  But then again, I'm not this member of the Tran family and I'm not under the bright lights and have the big pressure.  Ray quips that the person wearing no pants is actually a baboon, but then again, he'd rather be the baboon in the cage instead of being replaced by the guy who hosted the show before he did.  Survey Said?!

ZERO!  He also passed on a type of fly for zero.  However, he did get a big 42 on the Boyfriends answer, and while Trucks are truly built to last, that netted him another zero.  So, two great answers that scored, one good answer that got zero, a dumb answer in Zoo and a pass for a total of 77.  Time for player two to come up and I'm hoping that with all the answers left up there, he could get the 123 needed to win the $5,000 and end this show on the highest note possible.

Name something specific a Bricklayer uses.....PASS
The best place to people watch......................T.V.
A type of fly..................................................PASS
Something mothers and daughters fight over...Husbands
Something that's built to last....................................................(BUZZZZZZ)

Apparently, I was wrong.

Ray also thinks that they're aiming for $5 a point, and that they'll have to write them a check when it's all said and done.  Sadly, that sounds about right.  The bricklayer pass gets Zero and he's probably dimmer than everyone else because he didn't know that a bricklayer uses....BRICKS!  He probably has bricks in his head that prevented him from coming out with an answer.  However, this is going to be a trend here, I have a sad feeling. 

His answer for the best place to people watch was TV.  Ray originally thought that he didn't get one in, but then again a TV really isn't a place to People Watch.  I mean, you watch people on TV, that's true, but you don't go to TV to People watch.

And the Survey concurred with a big fat zero.  Apparently instead of going out with a bang, they are going out on the lowest note possible.  So, with the type of Fly being passed yet again, with a score of zero.    Apparently neither one of them knew about shopping malls being a place to people watch or knowing about a horsefly or house fly.  So we get to his final answer, saying that....

Mothers and daughters fight over Husbands.  Ok, maybe in some weird twisted world.  They need 123 points....

And they get zero.  So, now that the formalities are over, Ray says it better than I ever did.

Well said Ray.

It all ends with them getting $385, one of the lowest amounts ever for Fast Money.

So with this being Ray's fast money, he goes away and will come back on TV in the form of Family Challenge, an original show for Family Channel before committing suicide in his hospital room in 1996. 

Yes, the playing in this Fast Money was bad, but the further storyline that continues was that while this show was airing, Richard Dawson was already taping his 2nd Go-Round of Family Feud with a jazzed up set, families with only 4 members, a smaller budget, and more emphasis on the game and interaction between host and contestant instead of everything being rushed with Bullseye.  Maybe I should talk about Bullseye more down the road. 

Either way, the family would come back, about one month into Richard's run when the gimmick of old returning Feud Families wore thin, although we did get to relieve the Trejo Family September blooper again.  I don't know if they won or not, but they are forever engrained into the show's history as being the worst family ever in fast money, in the amount of zeroes with 8.  There's nothing else for me to say about this.