• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, May 12, 2017

The TV Blog stands behind Steve Harvey and his internal memo 110 percent.

This position stands in stark contrast to the way Harvey has been convicted almost everywhere else this week of high crimes against underlings, and then sentenced to mean tweets, in that great court of international justice -- the all-knowing, all-judging people’s tribunal known as social media.

What a jerk, went the consensus of thousands of people who made Steve Harvey’s business their business. Who does he think he is? Trying to keep members of his staff from thoughtlessly disturbing him when he is busy. For shame!

In fact, he’s “busy” doing the work on which the livelihoods of hundreds of people depend. And yet, some of these people who work for him think it’s OK to expect idle chit-chat from him when he’s running from place to place or sitting in his dressing room or makeup chair gathering his thoughts to go before the cameras.

In case you haven’t yet heard this story, Harvey is in hot water this week over a leaked memo he circulated at the production offices of his Chicago-based afternoon talk show last year at the outset of his fifth season. The memo laid down some strict rules for staff members who want to make contact with him.

The story broke on Thursday as his talk show was wrapping its season -- its final season in Chicago. He’s moving to L.A. and relaunching the show with various changes in September.

As many as 80 Chicago production staffers are now reportedly without jobs, and one of them may have been disgruntled enough to leak this memo to Chicago media reporter Robert Feder.

The memo includes directives such as: “There will be no meetings in my dressing room. No stopping by or popping in. NO ONE. Do not come to my dressing room unless invited.”

And: “Do not approach me while I'm in the makeup chair unless I ask to speak with you directly. Either knock or use the doorbell.”

In an effort at damage control, Harvey gave an interview to “Entertainment Tonight” later on Thursday in which he tried to explain how staff members tended to waylay him more or less constantly whenever they encountered him.

They would expect him to give them a quip, or even provide autographs or pictures for family members. “I promise you I will not entertain you in the hallway, and do not attempt to walk with me,” he said in the memo, sounding exasperated, and probably rightly so.

He is a very busy man, holding down multiple gigs -- the talk show, “Family Feud,” his NBC show “Little Big Shots” and heaven knows what else.

For him, these “ambushes” had gotten out of hand. He explained this in portions of the memo that were under-reported, if they were reported at all. “I want all the ambushing to stop now,” he said. 

“I have been taken advantage of by my lenient policy in the past. This ends now. NO MORE,” he wrote. “Do not wait in any hallway to speak to me. I hate being ambushed. Please make an appointment.”

Naturally, the know-nothing chorus registered their dismay at what they saw as imperious behavior on the part of this entertainer. They are likening it to royalty who commands that courtiers refrain from making eye contact with His Majesty. 

That's not what this was about at all. Instead, it was this: A performer begging for consideration and in the process, taking a direct approach in this interoffice communique to ensure that he is understood.

My reading of this memo is that Harvey is trying to make the people who work for him understand that he has a lot of balls in the air and that his work requires a great deal of concentration. 

Outsiders never seem to appreciate this about the entertainment business -- even, apparently, some members of Steve Harvey's own staff whose jobs should have put them in prime position to observe that entertaining people is hard work.

The fact that some underlings apparently took this directive as some sort of personal affront is an indication of their lack of professionalism.

And really, is it that big a news story that behind the scenes and off-camera, Steve Harvey is not always the dimple-cheeked nice guy who chats with cute kiddies on “Little Big Shots” and jokes good-naturedly with the families on “Family Feud”?

In his interview with “E.T.,” even Harvey conceded with 20-20 hindsight that maybe he could have worded parts of the memo differently. Here’s a suggestion: “Dear staff, Don't bother me unless I ask you to. Signed, Steve Harvey, your boss.”