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Speaker 1: All right, Steve, this is our last break of the

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Speaker 1: day and everything. And before we get out of here,

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Speaker 1: we have a voicemail call for you. Are you ready.

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Speaker 1: This is a longtime fan of yours. He had a

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Speaker 1: question about your first TV show, Me and the Boys.

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Speaker 2: Take a listen.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, Steve Harvey. How do you do?

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Speaker 2: I hope all as well with y'all enjoying your show.

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Speaker 2: I have one question. You used to have a TV

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Speaker 2: show called Me and the Boys on Channel seven. I'd

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Speaker 2: just like to know what happened with that TV show.

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Speaker 2: It was a real good, inspirational show, encouraging for a

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Speaker 2: single black man.

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Speaker 3: Okay, talk bye bye. Wow.

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Speaker 4: That's a great question, because, man, nothing has ever happened

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Speaker 4: in television like what happened on Me and the Boys.

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Speaker 4: Me and the Boys was me Matt Sinclair Chash Shepherd

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Speaker 4: to other boys, and I was a single father of

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Speaker 4: three boys whose wife had deceased, and my mother in

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Speaker 4: law moved in with me to help me with the boys.

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Speaker 4: Great storyline. The show was a really really good show

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Speaker 4: and it finished the season at number twenty one, twenty one.

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Speaker 4: It was the top new show on ABC that year.

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Speaker 4: But ABC had cut a deal with this guy. I

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Speaker 4: think his name was Matt Williams. I think that's his name,

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Speaker 4: But he was the creative Home Improvement and the deal

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Speaker 4: that he had cut with ABC was if his show

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Speaker 4: finished in the top ten, he could have the time

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Speaker 4: slot either behind it or in front of it.

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Speaker 3: I don't remember which one it was.

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Speaker 4: And Home Improvement finished in the top ten that year

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Speaker 4: Tim Allen. Tim Allen and I were friends for back

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Speaker 4: in the Stand Up Day, so ABC honored that. But

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Speaker 4: the show that came on before Home Improvement was Me

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Speaker 4: and the Boys, so they took Me and the Boy

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Speaker 4: off the air to honor the commitment to Matt Williams.

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Speaker 4: It was the highest rated TV show to ever be

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Speaker 4: removed from national TV in the history of television. No

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Speaker 4: new show had finished ever twenty one and been canceled

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Speaker 4: for Me, so they canceled Me and the Boys. Me

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Speaker 4: and the Boys was off the air. I found out

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Speaker 4: on May tenth that we weren't coming back. I went

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Speaker 4: out to LA I met with Ted Herbert, who was

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Speaker 4: the president of ABC.

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Speaker 3: I walked into the office of having meeting. The lady

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Speaker 3: said he wasn't available.

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Speaker 4: I sat in the lobby for a hour and a

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Speaker 4: half two hours till I saw it. He looked up

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Speaker 4: the hallway and saw me. He said, see what's going on, man,

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Speaker 4: Come on back. I said, hey, man, y'all cancel the

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Speaker 4: show and that's cool. He said, hey, yeah, but we're

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Speaker 4: offering you a holding deal right now. I said, well,

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Speaker 4: I need a bigger holding deal. I said, man, it

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Speaker 4: was really I felt really unfair the way it was done,

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Speaker 4: and I would appreciate a bigger hold deal. So he said,

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Speaker 4: how much do you want at the time back in

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Speaker 4: ninety five, I asked for four hundred thousand dollars, which

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Speaker 4: is a really large holding deal for a newcomer. He said, Steve,

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Speaker 4: I'm gonna give you the four hundred thousand. Two days

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Speaker 4: later he gave me four hundred thousand. I flew back

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Speaker 4: to Texas bought my very first home I've ever owned

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Speaker 4: in Plano, Texas. The house was one point one million dollars.

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Speaker 4: I got it for nine hundred and forty two thousand.

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Speaker 4: I gave the man the whole four hundred thousand as

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Speaker 4: a down payment because I didn't have no credit. You know,

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Speaker 4: I had been homeless and starving, and I gave a

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Speaker 4: man four hundred thousand, and he financed the house myself.

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Speaker 4: That's how I got my very first house, and was

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Speaker 4: when I gave him the money. All I had left

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Speaker 4: was one thousand dollars, but my house note was two

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Speaker 4: thousand and six hundred. But I was a stand up

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Speaker 4: and I knew I could make twenty six hundred out

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Speaker 4: on the road.

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Speaker 3: So I just went out on the road and start doing.

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Speaker 4: In the meantime, the WB got for him, and they

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Speaker 4: bought my four hundred thousand dollars contract from ABC, and

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Speaker 4: so now I belonged to the WB. And the WB

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Speaker 4: came to me and said, we have a show idea

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Speaker 4: for you. We're gonna be a school teacher and we're

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Speaker 4: gonna put you in a Chicago school setting, and you

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Speaker 4: have a best friend, and your best friend we decided

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Speaker 4: it's going to be George Winn from Cheers. That was

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Speaker 4: Norman the mailman. Yeah, he said he gonna be your

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Speaker 4: best friend. I said, well, I don't even know him.

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Speaker 4: I said, I met this guy one time. Name said

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Speaker 4: you to entertainer. Y'all should try him. They said, we've

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Speaker 4: never heard of him. I said, well, bring him out

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Speaker 4: and let him read. So they got hold of said,

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Speaker 4: just to appease me. They said, no, we like George

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Speaker 4: went better. He's famous and all this. I said, now

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Speaker 4: I'd rather do it with, said the entertainer.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 4: So now I put my foot down for the first

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Speaker 4: time and said you either get me. Said I don't

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Speaker 4: want to do the show.

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Speaker 3: So he gave me. Said that was the birth of

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Speaker 3: the Steve Harvey Show. Wow.

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Speaker 4: Wow, that's the story behind men boys. That's how the

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Speaker 4: Steve Harvey Show got started because I had met said

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Speaker 4: in eighty nine at my comedy club, Steve Harvey's caravan

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Speaker 4: of funny funky friends at Vu koua nightclub, and said

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Speaker 4: was performing at a punt at a funny Bone and

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Speaker 4: they canceled him when he got in town because they

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Speaker 4: had two blacks on the show, and back then you

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Speaker 4: couldn't have two blacks on the show. So dude named

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Speaker 4: Percy Cruse called me up and said, hey man, my

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Speaker 4: buddy said is in town. He got to go home.

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Speaker 4: Can he come over and do a set for you?

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Speaker 4: So I said yeah, so say it, came over. I

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Speaker 4: met him. I said, hey man, I'm gonna let you

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Speaker 4: do five minutes. If you do good, I'll bring you

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Speaker 4: back sometime said went up there and killed. So I

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Speaker 4: bought him back the next night gave him one hundred

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Speaker 4: and fifty dollars. He made one hundred and fifty. I

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Speaker 4: bought him back two weeks later gave him a headline

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Speaker 4: gig for one thousand dollars he had never headlined. That's

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Speaker 4: how me and said met. We've been tight every since.

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Speaker 3: Sweet news.

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Speaker 4: Those are my closes remarks today. Hope you enjoyed that story.

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Speaker 4: It was facts, though all facts in the life of

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Speaker 4: Steve Harvey. God be good to me man, Thank you

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Speaker 4: helping father.

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Speaker 3: I show appreciate it. Hey, y'all talk to God today.

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Speaker 3: Love to hear from you.

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Speaker 1: For all Steve Harvey contests, no purchase necessary void We're prohibited.

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Speaker 1: Participants must be legal US residents at least eighteen years old,

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Speaker 1: unless otherwise stated. For complete contest rules. Visit Steve Harvey

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Speaker 1: FM dot com. You're listening Steve Harvey Morning Show