Happy retirement, Bob Barker!May 9th, 2007 by Adamu |
 |
The Washington Post is reporting that Bob Barker is stepping down as host of the Price is Right after 35 years. It’s a sad day. That used to be my favorite show as a kid, when I stayed home “sick” from school as often as I could convince my mother. The reporter puts it well:
Just the sound of it feels, somehow nostalgically, like being in bed with the flu. (“Come on down!” roars the announcer, Rich Fields—who replaced the late Rod Roddy in 2003, who replaced Johnny Olson in 1986—as you beg some 7Up and toast to stay on down.) There is the sound of it starting at 11 a.m., over those gooey-warm CBS airwaves, just when the day is still technically young and yet already somehow wasted. It feels like skipping class again and again, the MWF 10:30 section of Lit 125: The Emerging Self.
And this is so true:
“Think about it this way,” Dobkowitz offers. “The median age in this country is 36 or 37, which means half the country does not know life without Bob Barker. You’re young, you go out in the world and all the new things happen—jobs, marriage. But turn on the set and Bob’s doing the television show, and it’s all okay.”
Though I’m no longer around to catch the show, I had kind of taken Bob Barker’s existence on mid-morning TV for granted. He will be sorely missed!
May 9th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Jeez. I thought Bob Barker would be around forever. Of course, I also thought the same thing about Dick Clark, and look at what happened to him. (New Year’s Eve this year really made me feel old…)
May 10th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
The Price Is Right was a good one. I think it came on about 100pm in my neck of the woods. The morning programming was the best. There was Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, I Dream Of Jeannie, Gilligan’s Island….The Odd Couple was my favorite.