The game show host has left the building

August 26, 2023 3:05 PM

Bob Barker the host of "Truth or Consequences, "The Price is Right" and animal activist has passed away, at age 99. A constant figure on TV for 50 years. Always mostly seemed like a good guy. Had some #metoo things in that timeframe, but, one of the folks I remember growing up watching TV.
posted by Windopaene (52 comments total)

get your pets spayed or neutered.

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posted by fizzix at 3:11 PM on August 26, 2023 [20 favorites]

Fitting that he made it nearest to 100 without going over
posted by thecjm at 3:13 PM on August 26, 2023 [175 favorites]

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posted by riruro at 3:23 PM on August 26, 2023

Never really liked Bob Barker, but he was the soundtrack of being home sick on a school day. As I got older, I grew to really admire at how he kept things moving forward for a show that could easily drag and drag. He was always helpful and kind to guests, trying to help them win without helping them cheat and when things really went haywire, either for the positive or negative, he always handled it completely in stride.

The dominant attitudes toward women were on full display during his time, and he did evolve across the years, I believe requiring less and less physical contact with the Barker's Beauties [icky name], now known as the Price Is Right Models. I have distinct memories of being a grade schooler and they all had to kiss him on the cheek somehow? Maybe? But that was sort of Benny Hill era of popular culture, and it wasn't remarked upon. I don't remember that from him later.

When he decided to stop dying his hair was actually a major pop culture moment.

Anyway, he's deeply lodged in my brain. I wasn't a Happy Gilmore fan, but his part in that is Pure Legend. I sort of wish he'd done a Richard Dawson turn and played a game show host in a movie, but I can't recall him doing that.

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posted by hippybear at 3:25 PM on August 26, 2023 [13 favorites]

Hope his Final Showcase is a winner.

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posted by riverlife at 3:29 PM on August 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

To build on hippybear's comment, it's notable to me that the clip I've seen everyone share is the Happy Gilmore fight scene. Because how many other specific Bob Barker moments do you remember? For me, it's zero.

I don't mean this as a slight. Quite the opposite. I watched many, many hours of that show, home sick with strep as a kid. And Barker always kept that machine running silky smooth, every damn day.
posted by HeroZero at 3:36 PM on August 26, 2023 [7 favorites]

I remember one of the models — possibly Janice — sitting on a grand piano and then falling off right onto her butt and saying “don’t fire me, Bob,” while everyone was laughing, including her and Bob - and also maybe it seemed like Bob was in fact thinking about firing her.
posted by kerf at 3:38 PM on August 26, 2023 [5 favorites]

"Nothing gives me quite so much joy as when people tell me they've had their pets spayed or neutered."

-Bob Barker

🎙️
posted by clavdivs at 3:43 PM on August 26, 2023 [4 favorites]

His evolved professional character is something I aim for every day in my work: keep whatever it is you run going, consistently, every day - do so with gusto and confidence.

[Barker_Marker.png]
posted by JoeXIII007 at 3:58 PM on August 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

Because how many other specific Bob Barker moments do you remember?

How he handled the dirtiest trick anyone ever pulled on him one morning.

(A contestant makes an honest mistake in playing the Shell Game, putting her chip UNDER a shell instead of by it. Bob plays off of her embarrassment and the chaos of the moment perfectly.)
posted by delfin at 4:02 PM on August 26, 2023 [8 favorites]

I also remember him from sick days at home. And ofc the pet control. And while there was some PDA stuff that seemed icky to me as a kid and teen, I also remember a lot of it was via women who as contestants would want to paw him and smooch him etc. I hope he wasn't a total sleazebag.

The other big thing aside from his general smoothness and seemingly genuine kindness was his particular taste in microphones and how to hold them. So much that if any white dude wore a suit and held the same mic in the same way, we'd all know he was Bob Barker for Halloween.

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posted by SaltySalticid at 4:07 PM on August 26, 2023 [9 favorites]

Barker was sued for sexual harassment by one of his models (Dian) and sued another for defamation for saying she'd been fired for gaining weight (she countersued for discrimination).

Yeah, I know. Tainted my sick-day memories, too.
posted by praemunire at 4:13 PM on August 26, 2023 [14 favorites]

I didn't watch a lot of The Price is Right, but I did watch a ton of Truth or Consequences. And I think that was on in prime time, not daytime. And he was just so good at what he did. You never thought watching him, "hey, this guy is an asshole"

And his animal activism, well who can be upset about that.

I have never watched Happy Gilmore, but that is a pretty great scene.

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Get your pets spayed or neutered.
posted by Windopaene at 4:17 PM on August 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

There was a very weird year (June 2009-May 2010) of WWE Raw when nearly every week would feature a celebrity guest host, from the sensible (retired wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan or Rowdy Roddy Piper) to the campy (Criss Angel or David Hasselhoff) to the downright unbelievable (ZZ Top or Flavor Flav).

Bob Barker was, fittingly, perhaps the best of them.
posted by Etrigan at 4:21 PM on August 26, 2023 [7 favorites]

Bob, my generation's cure for the common cold was a can of Campbell's soup and The Price is Right. Thanks for that.

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posted by cmfletcher at 4:33 PM on August 26, 2023 [11 favorites]

Roku TV has a 24 hr vintage Bob Barker channel that I still watch when I'm not feeling well. It's like chicken soup at this point.
posted by bizzyb at 4:45 PM on August 26, 2023 [5 favorites]

It's funny how everyone associates the show with that first euphoric realization that you really aren't going to school today, which kicks in around 10 AM.

I'll also remember the swinging funky music cues which featured some famous session cats.

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posted by credulous at 4:54 PM on August 26, 2023 [18 favorites]

The weirdest thing for me was the Samoans. I mean those has to all be set ups, right?

Anyway yeah, sick days. The Price is Right was the last hurrah before the soap operas started and you had to take a nap.
posted by sevenless at 5:10 PM on August 26, 2023 [11 favorites]

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posted by Meatbomb at 5:14 PM on August 26, 2023

I mean, I have childhood nostalgia for the show too, but The Price is Right is so many of the worst things about America when you put Vaseline on the lens.

Barker's and the show's brazen sexism and behind-the-scenes abusive behavior. Games of chance that look like skill, and a narrative that you can be rich if you're just savvy enough. A game design where you can get ahead by manipulating the rules to fuck over a competitor. An obsession with consumer goods of questionable quality.

And it's all wrapped in the boomer equivalent of Candy Crush: bright lights, exciting and satisfying sounds, and the underlying fiction that anyone can be a winner.

It's fitting they picked a seemingly-inoffensive Libertarian to replace Bob. That show is like injecting the advertising industry directly into your veins.

Spay and neuter your pets and C-suite relatives.
posted by Riki tiki at 5:19 PM on August 26, 2023 [40 favorites]

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I don't remember watching the price is right until I was in high school and even then (mid 80s) the PDAs were creepy. Still the show was definitely one of those pop culture references everyone my age knew, even the kids without tv.

he quit the Miss USA Pageant in 1987 in protest over the presentation of fur coats to the winners.

This I didn't know but mad props for that, so much more action than the words of his sign off.
posted by Mitheral at 5:24 PM on August 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

I get cussed out and/or called a homophobic slur for telling potential clients that we require any dog over 6 months to be sterilized if they want to use our daycare/boarding facilities a few times a year.

Bob, I'm holding the line.
posted by East14thTaco at 5:34 PM on August 26, 2023 [27 favorites]

He used his fame to advocate for animals. That’s more than many others ever did.
posted by tommasz at 5:37 PM on August 26, 2023 [15 favorites]

Casual reminder that he also funded the Sea Shepherds.
posted by aramaic at 5:58 PM on August 26, 2023 [12 favorites]

99, great spin.
posted by officer_fred at 6:01 PM on August 26, 2023 [9 favorites]

so many of the worst things about America when you put Vaseline on the lens.

Yeah, pretty much. The Candy Crush reference is on-point.
posted by wkearney99 at 6:04 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Grew up with that guy.
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posted by Glinn at 6:10 PM on August 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

According to his obit, he had said that he would visit the Price is Right set again when he was 100. Sigh.

Obligatory Strange Planet.

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posted by Melismata at 6:18 PM on August 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

For some reason I always assumed Truth Or Consequences was an old Wild West name that somehow persisted until the present day, and not the much more prosaic “a town named itself after a radio show”. I wonder how many other beliefs I just made up that persist to this day.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 6:37 PM on August 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

I grew up not too far from Hot Springs Truth Or Consequences, NM. It's quite near Elephant Butte and an accompanying irrigation diversion dam on the Rio Grande, I'm not sure how much water it even receives to divert anymore.

And there are hot springs there! Therapeutic baths, quite civilized. It's become a bit of an artist colony in development over the past while.
posted by hippybear at 6:44 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

The thing that always impressed me about his housing was his ability to be on everyone's side and have it seem genuine. Like, he could somehow simultaneously want every constant to beat every other contestant and not seem fake about it even though the whole point was that someone was going to have to lose at the pricing game and the showcase showdown and the final.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:16 PM on August 26, 2023 [6 favorites]

it was notable that he stopped dying his hair. Looking back at the older shows he just looks better with the natural color.
Also he was an enrolled member of the Sioux, his father being part Sioux.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 7:24 PM on August 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

My favourite Bob Barker moment.

I can't believe it.

I can't believe that happened.

I can't believe it.

I can't believe it.
posted by obscure simpsons reference at 7:51 PM on August 26, 2023 [19 favorites]

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posted by evilDoug at 7:56 PM on August 26, 2023

He was part Native American and in the early 2000s he came to Cherokee, NC and called on the tribe to close down their truly awful heart rending roadside “zoo”- concrete pits with sad and probably dying bears. And the Cherokee eventually did. So thank you Bob Barker and RIP.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:35 PM on August 26, 2023 [9 favorites]

He was so good to animals.

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posted by Avalow at 9:30 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Nobody ever looked bad on The Price Is Right, no matter how they behaved or won/lost.

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posted by rhizome at 9:41 PM on August 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

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posted by dogstoevski at 9:48 PM on August 26, 2023

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Truth or Consequences was a family favorite growing up.
posted by fairmettle at 11:16 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Sick days here too. But for some reason, I was fascinated with the Showcase Showdown Wheel. How much did it weigh? How did it do the beeping noise? And the sheer tension that it could build, using simple arithmetic even I could understand.

I believe one of my wildest hallucinations while humm dee humm dee dum was instead of hearing Led Zeppelin coming out of my speakers, I saw the Showcase Showdown wheel tumble out of the speakers, all rainbow-glittery. I mean it was totally out of context, but it was definitely the wheel. I always loved that show. But especially that wheel.

So long Bob
posted by not_on_display at 11:28 PM on August 26, 2023 [7 favorites]

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posted by kitten kaboodle at 11:54 PM on August 26, 2023

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posted by drworm at 6:33 AM on August 27, 2023

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posted by May Kasahara at 6:52 AM on August 27, 2023

.99
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:11 AM on August 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Barker was an enrolled member of the Rosebud Lakota tribe.
posted by Ideefixe at 9:52 AM on August 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

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posted by dannyboybell at 10:11 AM on August 27, 2023

Always mostly seemed like a good guy.
Had some #metoo things in that timeframe

These cannot both be true.
posted by MexicanYenta at 8:03 PM on August 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Complex feelings here after hearing the news. Like many others in this thread, Bob Barker will forever remind me of sick days. I'd doze on the couch watching The Price is Right, doze some more and wake up in time for All My Children. 11am on CBS and there Bob Barker was, reliably there as always. Whether it was Plinko (my favourite) or Hole in One (or Two), I loved the excitement of whether or not people would win. I was probably 11-12 when I realized the theme of the game was, you know, pricing. It just seemed normal to have pricing games after having grown up with them, I guess? (Boy, does capitalism do a number on you...)

I was really disappointed to learn about Bob Barker's behaviour towards women, some years ago. Unlike Richard Dawson, he wasn't making out with his contestants who were women, although more than enough of them did kiss his cheek voluntarily, so none of his behaviour was stuff that was evident to me as a viewer. That kind of makes it worse. At least Dawson was sleazy in the open. I did question, even as a kid, why there were all these women and why they were called Barker's Beauties. (Seconding the ugh on that from earlier.) So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to learn about his behaviour.

I can't really separate the dude from the harassment. It's really tainted my good childhood memories of dozing off while sick, only to be woken up by hearing "A NEW CAR!!!!!" or watching, with anticipation, if the contestant will beat the clock in Clock Game. So, the population of the world is down another sleazy guy and, therefore, is better for it. I still do have to commend him for his commitment to animals. I think of him and his signature sign off every time pets getting spayed or neutered comes up. I guess my only wish here is that he had respected women as much as he seemed to respect animals. On that note, Bob, the price was wrong.
posted by juliebug at 8:28 PM on August 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I won't split the guy from the guy's actions.

Doing good things (advocating for pet adoption / spayed-or-neutered, his various charity works) while doing bad things (detailed upthread) is better than just doing the bad things.

Doesn't remove having done the bad things. Far, far, far worse than him all over Hollywood, to be sure. But that only barely matters. =/

I literally got into game design as a result of watching TPiR from 11-noon, then Sesame Street from noon-1pm, as a preschooler! Was doing math at age 2 (says the baby book) and making little mathy games up by age 4 (says the baby book). My love of gameshows traces right back to that show, and that show's host.

I thought he was great. Now, I remember him as being a great host, and not one of the worst men. That's the best I can come up with.
posted by andreaazure at 10:29 PM on August 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I think TPIR was the first show where I understood that what was on the screen wasn't quite real. There must have been some documentary when I was a kid, maybe a teen, that showed you the actual studio, and how tiny it was, compared to how vast and glamorous it seemed on TV. Trickery! (Not quite as tricky as being very young and trying to understand the difference between Bob Barker and Dennis James, from the evening TPIR...were they the same guy? Were they different? It's not like you could look this stuff up back then!)
posted by mittens at 5:36 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

Like office_fred’s comment above I saw someone on Mastodon say “fitting that he got that close to 100 without going over.”
posted by terrapin at 6:29 AM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

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posted by detachd at 4:27 AM on August 29, 2023