Hail to the Silver Fox: Bob Barker, American Institution
Late last year, Bob Barker announced that this season of "The Price Is Right" would be his last. The final show of this, his 35th year, will air in June of 2007. The format has been a staple of the daytime game show for years, and existed in several incarnations before Barker took the reins in September, 1972. In the years that followed, "The Silver Fox" rendered the previous hosts of "TPIR" as irrelevant as Wally Pipp, the first baseman for the New York Yankees who preceded Lou Gehrig at the position. "TPIR" is CBS's #2 rated daytime show (behind soap opera "The Young And The Restless") and the network clearly realizes that Barker is "the franchise". .
Game shows are trendy again, thanks primarily to "Deal or No Deal" on NBC. There have been other “hot” game shows and shows over the years like “Wheel of Fortune”, with Pat Sajak and “Jeopardy” with Alex Trebek. To paraphrase the great parody of Sinatra that Joe Piscopo used to do on Saturday Night Live, Barker has “chunks of guys like this in his stool”. It’s one thing to have a hot show for a few seasons, another thing entirely to have dominated the genre since before Nixon’s second term in office. “TPIR’s” formula is simple, but it works—the Silver Fox, riding herd over a bunch of sexy spokesmodels (“Barker’s Beauties”) and giving away prizes to a bunch of hyperventilating contestants. To win these prizes the contestants don’t answer trivia questions, they compete in sometimes demeaning, always amusing pricing games. Basically, the show is a vehicle for the pulchritudinous pleasures of “Barker’s Beauties” and the charm, wit and cool of the “Silver Fox” himself.
It’s hard to believe from looking at him that Bob Barker is 83 years old. He’s got the vigor of a much younger man likely due to his conversion to vegitarianism in 1976, and could still kick Alex Trebek ’s ass with one arm tied behind his back. He’s had affairs over the years with a number of the models on the show, and is clearly still sought after by women a third his age. He lists his heroes as Winston Churchill and Dizzy Dean, and urges viewers to spay and neuter their pets at the end of every episode. He played hardball with CBS to make sure that they wouldn't offer fur as prizes on the show, and he stepped down as host of the Miss USA/Universe pagent for twenty years before stepping down after they refused to remove fur coats from the pageant. The Miss USA pageant is now owned by Donald Trump, so its obvious that Barker did a lot better without the pagaent than the pageant did without "The Silver Fox". It’s hard to find anything not to like about the guy. Back in the day, when a contestant won a bonus c-note for getting a price exactly correct he used to have the ladies dig into his suit pocket for their prize. Unfortunately, the hairy legged feminist types raised a stink about it and they no longer give out the money in this way. This acquiescence to political correctness is about the only problem I can find with Barker or his show.
The show itself is filmed on Stage 33 at CBS’ Hollywood studios, which has housed such icons of entertainment as Jack Benny. It’s certainly fitting for Barker and the TPIR posse to now roam the soundstage, since he’s definitely achieved legend status himself. Like a good casino, the garish colors (green, orange and yellow) and slightly tacky décor featuring the CBS “eye” logo seemingly hasn’t changed since the mid-1970’s. And why should it? Unlike other institutions like Cadillac and Coca-Cola that have sometimes lost the way, “TPIR” has stayed true to the game. 6.1 million people a day tune in, and Barker and the show don’t look to be slowing down.
Bob Barker is an inspiration to all American men, a paragon of virility, style and graceful aging. Barker plans to devote more time and money to animal welfare advocacy after his retirement from TPIR and we wish him the best.
And don’t forget…SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS!
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