thehattrickrabbit
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Bob Barker, the longest serving game show host has retired at the ripe age of 84, the last telecast of "The Price Is Right" Game Show was on wednesday
http://www.google.com.au/url?q=http...t&cd=1&usg=AFQjCNEq0-OHdZBF8_HQhk7j14kdjRFYtw
Bob Barker went out Friday morning the same way he rose to fame - as a consummate television pro doing his job without drawing attention to himself.
His last original episode hosting CBS' daytime game show "The Price Is Right" after 35 seasons unreeled like any other, except for Barker's closing statement "I want to thank you very, very much for inviting me into your homes for the last 50 years. I am deeply grateful." Then the renowned animal activist exhorted viewers to "have your pets spayed or neutered."
Some things never change.
Barker and "The Price Is Right" certainly didn't, their retro-cheesiness being their continuing charm in an era when other network game shows have gone the way of dodos. The host's finale included all the usual elements: the Plinko game where contestants drop chips down a maze, rooting for them to land in the highest-money slots at the bottom. The range game where they have to stop a thermometer gadget's rising mercury within $600 of an item's price. The grocery game of buying products whose costs add up to a specified amount. The showcase showdown, with wanna-bes spinning a wheel hoping it'll stop on the right sum to get them into the big-prize finals.
All this is well known to Barker's devoted cult, though those unfamiliar might be forgiven for thinking they've stumbled into an alien world. Newbies won't have a clue why all the contestants exhorted to "Come on down!" from the studio audience are running, screaming, weeping and hyperventilating at the prospect of winning $7.31 (one poor guy's prize).
"The Price Is Right" remains a bastion of gown-clad pretties ("Barker's beauties") sitting atop prize cars and waving, the way they did on "Let's Make a Deal" 40 years ago. The CBS Television City studio named for Barker still is filled with flashing lights, beeping sounds and cut-out $$$ signs.
The showcase winner did take home more than $140,000 in cash and prizes, enough to make anybody scream. But no more than at the prospect of playing "The Price Is Right" with Barker, 83, before this last exponent of network game-hosting geniality retires. His replacement has yet to be named, but whomever it is, the game won't be the same.
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http://www.google.com.au/url?q=http...t&cd=1&usg=AFQjCNEq0-OHdZBF8_HQhk7j14kdjRFYtw
Bob Barker went out Friday morning the same way he rose to fame - as a consummate television pro doing his job without drawing attention to himself.
His last original episode hosting CBS' daytime game show "The Price Is Right" after 35 seasons unreeled like any other, except for Barker's closing statement "I want to thank you very, very much for inviting me into your homes for the last 50 years. I am deeply grateful." Then the renowned animal activist exhorted viewers to "have your pets spayed or neutered."
Some things never change.
Barker and "The Price Is Right" certainly didn't, their retro-cheesiness being their continuing charm in an era when other network game shows have gone the way of dodos. The host's finale included all the usual elements: the Plinko game where contestants drop chips down a maze, rooting for them to land in the highest-money slots at the bottom. The range game where they have to stop a thermometer gadget's rising mercury within $600 of an item's price. The grocery game of buying products whose costs add up to a specified amount. The showcase showdown, with wanna-bes spinning a wheel hoping it'll stop on the right sum to get them into the big-prize finals.
All this is well known to Barker's devoted cult, though those unfamiliar might be forgiven for thinking they've stumbled into an alien world. Newbies won't have a clue why all the contestants exhorted to "Come on down!" from the studio audience are running, screaming, weeping and hyperventilating at the prospect of winning $7.31 (one poor guy's prize).
"The Price Is Right" remains a bastion of gown-clad pretties ("Barker's beauties") sitting atop prize cars and waving, the way they did on "Let's Make a Deal" 40 years ago. The CBS Television City studio named for Barker still is filled with flashing lights, beeping sounds and cut-out $$$ signs.
The showcase winner did take home more than $140,000 in cash and prizes, enough to make anybody scream. But no more than at the prospect of playing "The Price Is Right" with Barker, 83, before this last exponent of network game-hosting geniality retires. His replacement has yet to be named, but whomever it is, the game won't be the same.
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