On YouTube, fans have posted multiple compilations of contestants who were summoned to the stages of ‘The Price Is Right’. They scream, they hyperventilate, they panic all over. And all this before they even bid on a luggage set, a desk on a roll, a home stereo system.
Bob Barker, the show’s longtime host, who died Saturday, was the silent point in this frenzied world. He joined the show in 1972 – an original version ran from 1956 to 1965 – and remained on the Television City stage for 35 years. Eventually the stage was named after him. Over the decades, his bands became tighter and his collars shorter. His tan remained the most beautiful the sun, or perhaps the beauticians of Burbank, California, could offer, even as his hair went from brown to gray to white. His eyebrows were double contours, bringing fun or soft mockery to a scene. He had the knack, which great hosts have, of making pointless, repetitive games feel risky and exciting. Each new entrant, tens of thousands during his tenure, seemed to delight him.
I watched “The Price Is Right” as many of us probably did: at home, sick, with nothing else going on and I couldn’t convince my mom to drive to a video store. I associate the show with the smells and flavors of the time: menthol cough drops, Kip Cup O’ Noodles, Robitussin for children. Woozy on phenylephrine, I followed games like Plinko, Bullseye, Cliff Hangers, in which bids sent a yodeling mountaineer up a cardboard ramp. I could have sworn I was hallucinating that last one. I did not have.
Reliable, consistent, and even courtly, Barker smiled through it all. And at the end of each episode, he reminded us to spay and neuter our pets. He wanted us to choose responsibly and bid judiciously. He guided us through inflation, recession, bubble, boom and bust. He was the father of America. Then it’s his grandfather. Had a sexual harassment suit been filed by Dian Parkinson, one of “Barker’s Beauties,” he could also have been seen as America’s lecherous uncle. (The lawsuit was eventually dropped, though other women received payments after suing the show for sexual harassment, racial discrimination, and wrongful termination.)