Bob Barker’s Legacy Of Television Greatness
Television icon and legitimate American legend Bob Barker retired from hosting ‘The Price is Right’ in the summer of 2007, but he will always serve as a paragon of excellence, an icon of television history and an admirable role model for young men. In the Internet era, where any clown with a video camera and a broadband connection can get his few minutes of fame, there may never again be a celebrity that comes close to Barker’s longevity and excellence.
Barker hosted nearly 6000 episode of ‘The Price is Right’ before retiring. While the format of the game existed since the early days of television, Barker rendered the previous hosts as irrelevant footnotes when he took over hosting ‘TPIR’ in September, 1972. During the following 35 years, “The Silver Fox” made his show a ratings fixture for CBS.
To put Barkers downright iconic status into an even clearer perspective”hes held a daily gig hosting a game show on network television since 1956 when he became permanent host of Truth or Consequences. TPIRs formula was simple, but it worked”the Silver Fox, rode herd over a retinue of sexy spokesmodels (Barkers Beauties) and gave away prizes to a bunch of hyperventilating contestants. To win these prizes the contestants didnt answer trivia questions, they competed in sometimes demeaning, always amusing pricing games. Basically, the show served as a vehicle for the pulchritudinous pleasures of Barkers Beauties and the charm, wit and cool of the Silver Fox himself. It many ways, it was similar in form to Dean Martin’s long running NBC television show.
Barker certainly doesn’t look and act like an 85 year old man. He’s got legendary vigor and is still sought after by women a third his age. His heroes are Winston Churchill and Dizzy Dean, and always ended ‘The Price Is Right’ with a ‘strong suggestion’ that viewers do the right thing and spay or neuter their pets. In a more civilized era, when a comely female contestant won a bonus $100 prize for getting the price right they’d have to dig around in his suit pocket to retrieve the c-note. Unfortunately, after some sensitive souls raised a stink about it they no longer gave out the money in this way.
This may have been the only compromise on an issue of symbolic importance that Barker made in his career. A tireless advocate for animal welfare, he walked away from a lucrative gig as host of the Miss USA Pageant after pageant officials refused his demand to quit showcasing fur coats. The producers of his own show knew better, and agreed to Barkers insistence that they not give out fur coats as prizes. At one point, a CBS executive requested that Barker not close the show with his trademark insistence to viewers that they be responsible and spay or neuter your pets. Barker essentially said that it was ‘his way or the highway’ and knowing on which side their bread was buttered, CBS suits never again crossed ‘The Silver Fox’ on this important matter.
‘The Price Is Right’ was filmed on Stage 33 at CBS’ Hollywood studios, which had previously served as the television home for a number of other icons including Jack Benny and Jackie Gleason. Barker continued their legacy of excellence amid the timelessly tacky decor more apropos for a mid-1970′s Las Vegas casino complete with garish colors and the CBS ‘eye’ logo. CBS was smart enough to not mess with success, not wanting to incur the wrath of Barker and the 6.1 million people a day tuned in.
Bob Barker is an inspiration to all American men, a paragon of virility, style and graceful aging. More importantly, hes achieved success in show business without compromising his integrity and forgetting about the things that are really important.
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