Robert William "Bob" Barker (born December 12 1923)
is a nineteen-time Emmy Award-winning former American
television game show host. He is best known for
hosting CBS's The Price Is Right
since September 4 1972, making it the longest-running daytime
game show in television history. After holding the job for nearly 35 years and having been in
television for 50 years, Barker's retired in June
2007.
Biography
Barker was born in Darrington, Washington and spent most of his youth on the Rosebud
Indian Reservation in South Dakota. His mother, Matilda ("Tillie") Valandra, was a
school teacher; his father, Byron John Barker, was an electrical power foreman, who died in a fall from a utility pole in 1929.
Barker has a half-brother, Kent Valandra, from Matilda's subsequent re-marriage. In the 1940s the family moved to
Springfield, Missouri where Barker graduated
from Central High School. He also was in a three-piece jazz band called "The Scatters" in the
mid-1940s.
Barker attended Drury College (now Drury University) in Springfield, on a basketball
scholarship. He was a member of the Epsilon Beta Chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity at Drury. His education was
interrupted by World War II. Barker served in the Navy as a fighter pilot. However, the war ended before he was
assigned to a seagoing squadron. After the war, he returned to Drury to finish his education,
graduating summa cum laude with a degree in economics. While attending Drury, Barker worked his first "media job", at KTTS-FM Radio, in Springfield.
Barker left Springfield and worked at a radio station in Florida before landing another radio
job in California. He was hosting an audience-participation radio show on KNX (AM) in
Los Angeles when game show producer Ralph
Edwards happened to be listening and liked Barker's voice and style. On December 31
1956 Barker took over hosting of the game show Truth or
Consequences. The show made him a star--he clearly was a natural whose charisma and charm connected with contestants
and viewers. Bob would host the show for eighteen years.
Bob Barker and his wife, the former Dorothy Jo Gideon, were high-school sweethearts who married in 1945. Years later, it would
be Dorothy Jo (as well as Barker's mother Tillie) who inspired Bob to become an advocate of animals. D.J. died of
lung cancer on October 19 1981. The couple had no children.
In October 2006, it was announced that Barker had accepted Drury University's
invitation to receive an honorary degree recognizing his life achievements and to speak at its commencement exercises on
May 12 2007.[2]
Animal rights
Bob Barker is well known for his work in animal rights. He became a vegetarian in 1979. That same year, he began promoting animal rights. Barker began ending each episode of
The Price Is Right with the phrase: "Help control the pet population; have your pet spayed or
neutered" in 1985, and was named national spokesman for "Be Kind to Animals Week" in May of that year. On A&E's Biography program, Bob credited his
wife, Dorothy Jo, with him becoming more aware of animal rights and becoming a vegetarian because she had done so. Bob took up
animal rights in order to keep doing something that his recently deceased wife had done. Fellow game show hosts Jack Barry and Bert Convy eventually followed Barker's lead
in promoting animal rights on the air.
During the first ten years of The Price Is Right, fur coats were often featured as prizes. After Barker became involved
in animal rights, he insisted that the show not offer prizes that harmed animals, a demand to which CBS agreed; animals and fur
coats have not since been offered on the program. Barker also forbids the re-airing of older episodes in which fur coats and live
animals are offered, including the program's first episode. [citation needed]
Barker hosted the Miss USA/Universe Pageants from
1967 to 1987. In 1987, he requested the removal of fur prizes and stepped down as host when those in charge of the pageant
refused.
Bob Barker's DJ&T Foundation has contributed millions of dollars to fund animal rescue and park facilities all over
the country. He works closely with Betty White as an advocate for animal rights.
Game show career
Truth or Consequences
Barker started hosting on December 31 1956,
and would continue with the program until 1975. The idea was to mix the original quiz
element of game shows with wacky stunts. On the show, people had to answer a trivia question correctly (usually an off-the-wall
question that no one would be able to answer correctly) before "Beulah the Buzzer" was sounded. If the contestant could not
complete the "Truth" portion, there would be "Consequences," usually a zany and embarrassing stunt. In addition, during Barker's
run as host, "Barker's Box" was played. Barker's Box was a box with four drawers in it. If a contestant was able to pick all
three drawers with money inside before picking the empty drawer, he or she won a bonus prize.
In many broadcasts, the stunts on Truth or Consequences included a popular, but emotional, heart-rending surprise for a
contestant, that being the reunion with a long-lost relative or with an enlisted son or daughter returning from military duty
overseas, particularly Vietnam.
It was on Truth Or Consequences that the salute became his trademark sign-off; he ended each episode with "Bob Barker
saying good-bye, hoping all your consequences are happy ones!"
The Family Game
In 1967, Barker hosted the short-lived game show The Family Game for Chuck Barris, where he would ask children
contestants questions about their families' lives, and the parents had to guess how they answered in a Newlywed Game-esque fashion.
The Price Is Right
On September 4 1972, Barker began his most
famous assignment hosting the CBS revival of The Price Is
Right. In the four decades of the CBS version, he has become far more strongly associated with the show than first
host Bill Cullen was with the 1950s–1960s original.
On October 15 1987, Barker did what other MCs
almost never did: he renounced hair dye and allowed his hair to go gray. It was a shock to the studio audience because it hadn't
been publicized in advance; it was a shock to the home audience because the change came in the middle of the week at that time.
Fellow hosts Monty Hall and Alex Trebek would follow
Barker's decision to go to gray hair in the late 1980s.
In 2006 The Price Is Right celebrated 35 consecutive years on the air. It
is the longest-running game show of all time in North America. Overall, in daytime programming (excluding Saturday and Sunday),
The Price Is Right is ranked sixth among the longest-continuing television programs (NBC's Today ranks the longest, followed by four daytime soap operas: Guiding Light, As the World Turns,
General Hospital, and Days of our
Lives). It has won its time slot (11:00 a.m. Eastern) for
the past 25 years with its closest competitor (currently ABC's
The View) normally getting about half of TPIR's ratings.
On October 31 2006, after 35 years as M.C. of
U.S. television's longest-running game show, Bob made his announcement that he would retire from The Price Is Right in
June 2007. He taped his final episode on June 6 2007,
with the show airing on June 15 2007. [3]
Barker has revealed that Fremantle Media, the company that owns the show, has been
looking for a successor in the last two to three years, and also that he had considered retirement for a while, but he had so
much fun that he continued to do the show. On July 23 2007, it was
announced that comedian Drew Carey would take Bob's place as the new host for the show.
Longevity records
Barker has set a longevity record as holding a weekday T.V. job continuously for 50 years as of 2006, which includes his years
on Truth or Consequences. Only sportscaster Vin Scully, who is four years younger than Barker, has held a job longer than Barker in the entertainment
industry, albeit a seasonal job and not a daily one.
At age 83, Barker holds the record of being the oldest man ever to host a game show and the oldest man ever to host a weekday
television program since the inception of network television. Barker is now in his fiftieth consecutive year on television
(network or syndication). Barker also has hosted/appeared on a five-days-a-week television program longer than anyone else in the
history of television.
Filmography
- In 1996, Barker played himself in the Adam Sandler comedy movie Happy Gilmore. In one scene, Barker beats up Gilmore after an altercation arising from their teaming
up in a Pro-Am Golf Tournament. Gilmore fights back and briefly gets the upper hand, declaring, "The price is wrong, bitch!" Bob
then gets up, holds Gilmore in a strangle hold and continues to punch him before delivering a high kick to Gilmore's chin that
knocks him down a grassy hill declaring "Now you've had enough...bitch!" Barker reportedly accepted the role when he learned he
would get to win the fight with Sandler.[4] He and Sandler won the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight for Happy
Gilmore,[5] making Barker
the oldest winner of any MTV award at 73.
- Barker's appearance in this movie is often credited with the increased popularity of The Price Is Right among college students.
- In 2007, during a CBS prime-time special commemorating Barker's career, Sandler made a surprise appearance to thank Barker
and read a poem in his honor.
- Bob appears briefly in the Canadian documentary Come on Down: Searching for the American Dream (2004), directed and
written by Adam Liley and produced by Steven James May of Manifestation Television. Mr. Barker gives a special in-studio message pertaining to Liley's search for the elusive
American Dream. The documentary also features Hunter S. Thompson and Chris Gardner.
- Barker was a semi-regular panelist on the game shows Tattletales (with wife
Dorothy Jo) and Match Game. Barker sat in Richard
Dawson's former place during the first week of Dawson's permanent absence from Match Game.
- Barker co-hosted CBS' coverage of the Rose Parade from Pasadena, Calif., for several years during the 1970s and '80s.
- Created and hosted "The Bob Barker Fun and Games Show" from 1978 to 1986 which was a combination of stunt participation in
the style of Truth or Consequences and pricing games such as the Price Is Right in which Bob traveled throughout
the United States and Canada in various arenas and venues.
- In the 1970s, he was the host of the annual/biennial Pillsbury Bake-Off (the
bake-off occurred every two years starting in 1976). In the 1978 Bake-Off, he was the first host to have a male category
champ.
- He appeared on Bonanza, playing a character named Mort in the
1960 episode "Denver McKee."
Awards and recognition
Barker has won 19 Emmy Awards in total. Fourteen were for Outstanding Game Show Host, more
than any other performer. He has also won twice for Executive Producer of The Price Is Right and received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Daytime
Television in 1999.
On March 11, 1998, on the occasion of the ceremonial five thousandth episode of
The Price Is Right, CBS dedicated the sound stage where the show has been produced since 1972 in honor of Barker.
In 2004, Barker was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.
Health
Barker's health problems started in 1991 after he complained of having vision
problems while exercising. After a visit to the doctors, they sent him to see a neurologist,
where the doctors told Barker he had a mild stroke. He soon recovered and went back to work.
On September 16 1999, Barker was in Washington, D.C., to speak about HR 2929, the proposed legislation that would ban elephants from traveling shows. While preparing for the presentation, Barker experienced what he called
"clumsiness" in his right hand. He was admitted to George Washington University
Hospital and diagnosed with a partially blocked left carotid artery. Barker
underwent carotid endarterectomy to remove the blockage, and the procedure went
well enough that he was able to return to work within the month.
Three years later, Barker also had two health crises after taping the season finale on
The Price Is Right. While lying out on the sun, he was hospitalized again with a stroke on
May 31 2002; and six weeks later, on July
11 2002, he underwent prostate surgery, both at George Washington University Hospital in
Washington, D.C. Both surgeries were successful.
In July 2006, Barker suffered a minor injury to his right hand. On the July 15
2006 episode of The Late Late
Show, he jokingly stated that he broke it by karate chopping "countless
desks" (something he later proceeded to do to host Craig Ferguson's desk).
Controversy
In the mid-to-late 1980s, after being named executive producer of The Price is Right, Barker was involved in a number
of alleged sexual harassment and other incidents, many of which led to lawsuits. Barker was sued by former model Dian Parkinson following a bitter breakup after the two of them engaged in a sexual relationship while
working on The Price is Right. Parkinson later dropped her lawsuit, claiming the stress from the ordeal was damaging her
health.
In 1995, model Holly Hallstrom exited The Price is Right after Barker
allegedly asked her to take early retirement following an issue had with her fluctuating weight problem. Hallstrom later filed
suit against Barker for wrongful termination and malicious prosecution after Barker launched a media attack against her, claiming
that she was disruptive to the working atmosphere of The Price is Right and that she had lied about the weight issue.
Barker eventually dropped his case, while Hallstrom did not, finally ending in settlement in 2005.
As a result of their testimony in the Hallstrom case, longtime Price is Right employees Sherrell Paris, Linda Reigert,
Sharon Friem, and models Janice Pennington and Kathleen Bradley were all released from the show in 2000 as their
depositions had contradicted Barker in one way or another. Reigert, Friem, Pennington, and Bradley filed lawsuits against Barker,
CBS, and FremantleMedia as a result. Friem additionally
charged Barker and The Price is Right for sexual harassment.
In 2002, announcer Rod Roddy's on-air camera time on The Price is Right was suddenly
eliminated upon the start of the 31st season. Officially, FremantleMedia claims that it is their official policy for announcers
not to appear on camera on any of their shows, however, during Roddy's cancer-related absence during the 31st season, substitute
announcers Paul Boland and Burton Richardson were
both shown on camera on occasion, while Roddy was not after returning. Following Roddy's death in 2003, replacement announcer
Rich Fields later claimed in an interview that announcers appearing on camera was "entirely
up to Bob."[1] Since joining the show, Fields has appeared
on camera numerous times.
In October 2007, Deborah Curling, a long-time employee of The Price Is Right, filed a lawsuit against Bob Barker and The Price Is
Right producers, claiming that she was forced to quit her job after testifying against Barker in a wrongful termination
lawsuit brought on by a previous show producer. Curling claimed that she was demoted to "intolerable work environment" on the
back stage of the show which caused her to leave the job. Curling, who is black, also alleged that The Price Is Right
producers (including Barker himself) created a hostile work environment in which black employees and contestants were constantly
discriminated against.[2]
References
External links
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Barker, Bob |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Barker, Robert William (full name) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
American game show host |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
December 12, 1923 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Darrington, Washington, USA |
| DATE OF DEATH |
|
| PLACE OF DEATH |
|
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