Richard Dawson, the sarcastic British comedian best remembered for his stint as the host of TV’s Family Feud, being a regular on the WWII sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, and playing a dark, sadistic game show host in the sci-fi vehicle The Running Man, died yesterday at the age of 79 from complications stemming from esophageal cancer.
Dawson found his first success as the slick character Newkirk on Hogan’s Heroes, the long running CBS-TV sitcom which starred Bob Crane and ran from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. Afterwards, he found greater success as a regular panelist on the long-running 1970s game show Match Game, also airing on CBS. His irascible style, jack of all trades Groucho Marx-esque wit and lovable charm made him a fan and contestant favorite. He used those traits when he became the host of the original version of Family Feud, a stint that lasted from 1976 to 1985 and was a show that won him a Daytime Emmy Award for his work in 1978. He’s best remembered for especially two things from that program: notoriously kissing every female contestant he encountered on the show (something which he once said he did “for love and luck”) and his bombastic, over the top catchphrase of Survey Said!, which became part of the American pop culture lexicon soon after he did it. On Feud, he parlayed a very decidedly English style and swagger, and the program was watched and beloved by millions of stalwart viewers of daytime television.
Schwarzenegger Collector’s Set Directors: Walter Hill, Paul Michael Glaser, James Cameron, Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Belushi, Laurence Fishburne, Peter Boyle, Maria Conchita Alonso, Jim Brown, Jesse Ventura, Richard Dawson, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick
Lionsgate Home Video
You could make a case for Arnold Schwarzenegger as the greatest action movie superstars of all time. This is a case you would win every single time, because there is no one that tops this man when it comes to the genre. Regardless of what you think of him as a Governor, there is no arguing that his presence in movies has been missed for some years now; and thus, we retreat back to his best works to get our Schwarzenegger fix.
On the bright side, there’s sets like this one being released from time-to-time to help your binging needs. This particular set includes Red Heat, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Running Man, and Total Recall.
When I got the chance to review this new four-movie collector’s set of Schwarzenegger flicks, I jumped at the chance for a couple of reasons: One was because I shockingly had not seen two of them; and also because I even-more shockingly didn’t own any of them.
There’s obviously a good chance that you’ve seen all of the movies reviewed here and know whether you would jump all over this set or pass it by. For this, think of these reviews as more of a recap and my own personal opinion of these intense flicks that likely hold a great deal of nostalgia for many of us.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press