Bob Barker has passed away at 99! (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

May he R.I.P. I go back to his Truth or Consequences days. Watched The Price is Right through high school, college and early in my professional career before I started working daytime hours. He had a long and productive life.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/26/entertainment/bob-barker-death/index.html

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

Watching The Price is Right has become a daily occurrence for my wife and me on Pluto TV. RIP to the legend.

 

[joshEH]

Looks like he got as close as he could to 100 without going over.

R.I.P.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I guess I should try to watch Happy Gilmore, as a tribute to him. RIP, Bob.

 

[Matt Hough]

Very much a part of my entire life from child to elderly adult, this news is especially sad. Thanks for many, many hours of pleasure you brought. R.I.P.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

May he R.I.P. I go back to his Truth or Consequences days. Watched The Price is Right through high school, college and early in my professional career before I started working daytime hours. He had a long and productive life.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/26/entertainment/bob-barker-death/index.html

I remember watching Barker in Truth or Consequences as a kid, too.

RIP.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

It's truly the end of an era. He was always one of the best parts of staying home sick from school!

He will be missed.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm surprised more people haven't commented in this thread.

 

[bmasters9]

I guess I should try to watch Happy Gilmore, as a tribute to him. RIP, Bob.

Indeed-- that fight between him and Happy was hilarious.

However, I do think that Bob brought it on himself in a way, because he acted like Happy was supposed to just have the heckler be a non-issue, and Happy got worked up enough to let it out, so you can't just blame Happy here.

 

[Doug Wallen]

What a career. I enjoyed both of his game shows, he was a great host who could always get interesting comments during the contestant interviews.

Always watched with a grin on my face. Never thought guessing prices could be so addictive to watch.

RIP sir.

"Be sure to have your pets spayed or neutered!"

 

[Radioman970]

I am hoping he had approved of Drew Carey. Drew has done an outstanding job since taking over. In fact (and forgive me), I find him far more personable than Bob. But shoot, I grew up with BB like others have said. Drew's face will never be what pops in my head when I think of PIR it will be Bob.

 

[John Dirk]

I'm surprised more people haven't commented in this thread.

Some people have been travelling, and are just seeing this. Ninety nine years is a tremendous blessing of longevity so, while sad to hear, I don't consider this entirely bad news as it caps such a storied career. The real sadness [for me] is the continued erosion of one of the greatest eras in American television and cinematic history.

R.I.P to yet another legendary man.

 

[Dan McW]

I loved watching Bob Barker through the years. I have faint memories of Truth or Consequences, but I know I watched early episodes of The Price Is Right during its half-hour days and saw as many episodes as I could during the Barker era. I also remember the Dennis James nighttime episodes and Bob's prime-time shows.

Bob had a sense of the dramatic whether revealing the Showcase Showdown winner or the winner of the Miss USA pageant. I think that's something he had a huge advantage on over Drew Carey. I haven't watched much of Carey after a bad first impression of his early episodes, but I did see the show where the Showcase Showdown contestant got the price exactly right, an all-time first on any version of the show. Carey seemed to rush through his "call" of the win, and I thought how much better a job Bob would have done on that.

Bob came to my town for the Miss USA pageant in the early 1980s. When I used to scrounge around pawn shops and Goodwill stores looking for VHS tapes to tape over (although I wasn't too cheap to buy unused new blanks), I half-hoped to find something good that had been recorded on them. I found one tape with that Miss USA pageant on it and a pre-show segment for local TV that contained an interview with Bob. He didn't have his makeup on, and I remember that he looked freckly without it. Gotta dig up that tape.

 

[John Dirk]

Bob had a sense of the dramatic whether revealing the Showcase Showdown winner or the winner of the Miss USA pageant. I think that's something he had a huge advantage on over Drew Carey. I haven't watched much of Carey after a bad first impression of his early episodes, but I did see the show where the Showcase Showdown contestant got the price exactly right, an all-time first on any version of the show. Carey seemed to rush through his "call" of the win, and I thought how much better a job Bob would have done on that.

Not to veer too far off topic but you bring up an interesting point. The trend these days seems to be to replace storied game show hosts with comedians. The professional host who rises through the ranks may be a dying breed.