I'll get my one Bob Barker story out of the way first: It was I-don't-know-how-long-ago-it-was…maybe not even in this century. It was after January of 1983. I was at a car wash that is no longer on Highland Avenue in Hollywood, a few blocks south of Sunset. My car had just gone through the gantlet of sudsers and sprayers and it was now out in the area where a bunch of sweaty, underpaid men dried it off with blue cloths.
Bob Barker's car — which was bigger and more expensive than mine, of course — had gone through the same process and was next to mine, being dried off by other sweaty, underpaid men with blue cloths. Bob Barker in casual sportswear was standing next to me, watching them dry his car, waiting for them to be done with it. I recognized him and felt I oughta say something to him. So I said, "You know, they don't like it when you tip them with Plinko chips."
I was hoping for a laugh…or at least a smile. Instead, I got a look that clearly said, "Why are you talking to me?" And without uttering a syllable in my direction, he turned away, waited until they signaled his car was done and then he walked over, handed a sweaty, underpaid man a buck or two and drove off.
That's my Bob Barker story and it had to be after January of '83 because that's when they introduced Plinko to America's longest-running and still-on-the-air game show. I was kind of a fan of The Price is Right for a while, not so much of its host but I sometimes enjoyed watching that well-oiled machine operate. As I wrote here once before, "If that show had never existed and you walked into a network today and pitched it, describing what they are able to accomplish taping two a day, you'd be told it was utterly impossible to mount a show that gives away so many prizes and that it would take three days to tape one hour of what you're describing."
As you may have heard, The Price is Right has left Stage 33 (aka "The Bob Barker Stage") at CBS Television City in Hollywood and is presently relocating to a new facility in Glendale. It was amazing that they could do it at all at CBS but especially in a studio that was not built for that kind of show and where there was little room to house all the cars and living room sets and boats they had on display each tape date. A few times, I got to prowl around backstage and was impressed by how terrific the stage crew was. I also couldn't help but note how terrified they seemed to be of doing even the teensiest thing that might upset Mr. Barker.
My pal Stu Shostak and I have an occasional (but friendly) argument based on my belief that what Bob Barker did hosting that show forever (it felt) was impressive but nowhere near as impressive as what, say, Johnny Carson or even Jay Leno or David Letterman did. Talk show hosts have to do all-new shows with mostly-new material on a daily basis. Game show hosts go out and do essentially the same show over and over and over. Even that's not the easiest thing in the world but being on so long is a matter of endurance, not creativity. In a sense, Barker's job was to not "keep it fresh," just reliable.
And yes, I think Drew Carey is just as good in the job…maybe a little better because he understands that the games and the contestants are the stars of the show, not the guy with the microphone. Barker, especially in his later years, had a little too much self-adoration for me. There was also the fact that my favorite models on the show all went away suing Bob and/or the program.
I respected the endurance. It takes a certain talent to do anything for that long…and I also admired him for his stands on Animal Rights. But I guess I never really liked him that much. Then again, I may be projecting from his previous long-running game show, Truth or Consequences, which I thought was one of the more detestable shows ever on TV. It was all about bringing contestants on stage to be embarrassed and have the audience laugh at (not with) them. I thought Barker, who acted as the ringleader of all that, was a pretty slimy on-screen presence.
Yeah, I think I may be blaming him unfairly for that because to then do a hit show as long as he did is, no matter what you think of the guy, an astounding achievement. Or maybe I'm still pissed that he didn't laugh at my Plinko chip joke.