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Bob Barker dies at 99
- Thread starter Don CT
- Start date
Probably some amazing stories, Kelly. Was this during the Rod days or the Rich days? I assume you weren't at CBS when Johnny Olson was alive.
Was there a 'favorite moment' from your time at Price that you will always remember?
Some people may not know that he was born in a logging camp (I think) in Darrington WA, 12-12-1923. That was just 40 miles from where I grew up. Very isolated town, close to where the deadly Oso mudslides occurred in 2014. His family would move to various camps whenever it was time. Did anyone in that small town think that he would go on to become an American TV icon?
Was there a 'favorite moment' from your time at Price that you will always remember?
Some people may not know that he was born in a logging camp (I think) in Darrington WA, 12-12-1923. That was just 40 miles from where I grew up. Very isolated town, close to where the deadly Oso mudslides occurred in 2014. His family would move to various camps whenever it was time. Did anyone in that small town think that he would go on to become an American TV icon?
Rich Fields isn't coming back. Nor Dobkowitz. And there's no reason to pre-empt shows. A simple title card in his memory is plenty. Run that for a week or two. Pluto already runs his episodes non-stop, and he got a heck of a good send-off when he retired.
Johnny Olson was the announcer when I was there, I left about six months prior to Rod taking over the next season.
Wow, that's a tough one. Lot's of memories during shooting that included crazy audience behavior, game/set pieces that would fall apart or fail during a game, Johnny mispronouncing and cracking up while reading a product script, wardrobe malfunctions, you name it. Lot's of editing.
Folks who might well have included Bob Barker, circa 1990s.Couldn't do that today.....Folks would be screaming "Animal cruelty!!!"
RIP. Mr. B........
That's a big surprise! Didn't realize you were on there so long ago. I'm sure you were at a few tapings where the "Samoans" tried to knock Bob down. I loved whenever a game fell apart, like the moment when Bob kicked the Squeeze Play game because the actual retail price was stuck in the mechanism! He had to ad-lib sometimes...but it was worth it.
I'm sure there were a few names that Johnny Olson had trouble pronouncing! Was there a pricing game in your time as a page that you personally loved? I'll guess Plinko, even though it had just come out at the end of Johnny's run as announcer. I mean, out of any pricing game, that's the one that contestants would love to play if they had a choice...
I'm sure there were a few names that Johnny Olson had trouble pronouncing! Was there a pricing game in your time as a page that you personally loved? I'll guess Plinko, even though it had just come out at the end of Johnny's run as announcer. I mean, out of any pricing game, that's the one that contestants would love to play if they had a choice...
They ran a title card on Mondays episode.
Do you remember Johnny Olson as the announcer from the premiere to the mid-80s, when he passed away? They would use him dressed up as a character for the last showcase as time went on. Legendary voice of game shows from the 50s onward.I've been dreading this day for a long time. It might be long, but I need to put this out there.
Like many of us, I also grew up with Bob Barker, even when I was in diapers. Sick day from school? Summer vacation? Spring break? Christmas break? If it was 10AM (PT), the TV was on KIRO, always spent watching Bob Barker and Rod Roddy, then Rich Fields on Price. The excitement in the air lasted from the first minute to the last minute.
He had a professionalism to his hosting that no one could match. It didn't matter whether it was a housewife playing Any Number, a college girl screaming over hitting the $10K slot on Plinko, or a lucky guy going on a trip on 'the Goooolden road!', Bob treated his contestants in a special way. In the olden days when the show had a slightly longer running time, he would quib about contestants' shirts, military branches, or the strange ways they came on down. Far more than his 'have your pets spayed or neutered' speech at the end of his show, I remember when an Item Up for Bids had not only the prize but also a dog or cat waiting for adoption. And he would tell us the name of the animal, age, and encourage the audience to adopt this cute animal from the Los Angeles SPCA. I have no doubt many dogs and cats were waiting for Barker's arrival into Heaven today.
Bob had a sense of humor too, cracking up jokes when appropriate for the circumstance and one thing I always remember, whenever a contestant was one car away on Triple Play, or about ready to reveal the missing number on Golden Road's fabulous prize...he would walk away at the last millisecond and ask a silly question to the contestant. MORE than once! (BTW, you *KNEW* it was one of those special days when Bob came out of the audience with his long microphone in his hand. Has Drew ever done that since?)
Who can forget those "historic moments" too? He made a point of making it big news. The one I will always remember is when there was a double overbid and the poor second woman went over by $1. You could tell that Bob felt sorrow for that woman.
And he was as excited as the contestants, at least in a professional, calm demeanor. The thrill when someone hit the $10K space on Plinko. Winning Grocery Game by 10 or 20 cents. Double showcase winners. $10K winners on the Big Wheel, $10K winners on Punch-a-Bunch. Need I say more? Bob was a household institution, with ages 2-102. My grandmother (deceased last spring) also watched Price, more because she was waiting for The Young and the Restless to come on. But she played along at home, whenever she wasn't tending to the sheep and chickens, and made comments about those wacky contestants bidding crazy amounts, or thinking that a trip to Spain with airfare and hotel was only worth $1,500.
I hope that CBS preempts Monday's Price rerun and shows Barker highlights with Drew, George, and especially Rich Fields (if they can snag him out). Maybe even Roger Dobkowitz. Or that they do a primetime tribute special. Perhaps a couple of weeks of 'best of' Barker episodes leading to the S52 premiere from the new studios.
There will never be another host, or TV personality, like Bob Barker. Just as much as there won't be another female comedian like Betty White, or a late-night personality like Johnny Carson. Millions of Americans are mourning this weekend, young and old.
May he forever rest in peace. Say hi to Mark Goodson, Rod Roddy, and Johnny Olson for us. And remember to have your pets spayed or neutered.
Johnny Olson was great, and he was on a few other game shows as well. TPIR also featured Rod Roddy a lot in the first few years and he was always wearing loud suits he had custom made while visiting Thailand and would often appear in showcases. I also appreciated that, if Rod blew a line or his voice cracked, they wouldn't go back and re-tape and edit, they'd just leave it in, would often joke about it and it actually made the show more fun! After Rod stopped appearing on camera almost completely, I heard 2 possible explanations: 1) He and Bob had a falling out when they planned to do the nighttime TPIR shows, Bob wanted to pay Rod scale for those, they argued and Roddy held out until he got what he thought he was worth but that also drew Barker's ire, or 2) Once it became apparent Rod led an "alternative lifestyle", because attitudes were quite different and more conservative in general back then especially among the blue hairs that watch daytime TV, Bob curbed back on Rod's on-camera work.
Everyone hated Plinko. It was made up of several large set pieces. Some larger parts on wheels, some just big painted plywood chunks. We had to stop taping for what seemed like a long time for the studio crew and carpenters to get Plinko set up. Then the union lighting guys had to come out and re-light the upper section of that part of the stage/set so cameras could see the contestant standing up on the sketchy platform. The newer version doesn't look that much easier to set up.
Sure, while they were standing outside in line, the audience used to ask what games were featured in the taping they would be (hopefully) attending. I'd always tell them I wasn't sure, which was true because I wasn't always in the production meetings where they talked about what games were on which days that week.
I was going to say; there's a reason Rod used to dress that way. Not that there's anything wrong with it, just during those times, people were less accepting of the more flamboyant on-camera look. The studio got lots of letters about it. Not all of them were friendly.
Did you ever get to meet any of the prize models?
I seem to recall he got his clothes in Chaing Mai, Thailand.
This is sad. I hoped he'd make it to 100. I watched a number of episodes of the show.
I have to wonder if his movie appearance with Adam Sandler had any relation to the fact that was also the name of his director, or did that Sandler come later.
Oh yes, of course.
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