Robert William "Bob" Barker (born December 12, 1923) is an American former television game show host. He is best known for hosting CBS' The Price Is Right from 1972-2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history. After holding the job for 35 years and having been in television for 50 years, Barker retired in June 2007.
Personal life
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 (née Matilda Kent Tarleton), was a school teacher; his father, Byron John Barker, was the foreman on the electrical high line through the state of Washington. He is 1/8th Native American (Sioux). While in Washington, his father fell from a tower and sustained an injury which resulted in his death in 1929. Barker has a half-brother, Kent Valandra, from Matilda's subsequent re-marriage. In 1931, the family moved to Springfield, Missouri, where Barker graduated from Central High School in 1941.
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.
Barker married his high school sweetheart Dorothy Jo Gideon on January 12, 1945 and the couple remained married for 36 years up until her death on October 19, 1981 from lung cancer. The couple had no children. Barker has not remarried after her death; however, he was later involved in a relationship with model Dian Parkinson from 1989 to 1991, a relationship that ended in legal action.
Game show career
Truth or Consequences (1956-1975)
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, and hoping all your consequences are happy ones!"
End of the Rainbow (1957-1958)
On December 4, 1957, Barker began hosting a new Ralph Edwards creation, the short-lived End of the Rainbow for NBC. On this show (similar to Barker's Truth or Consequences and Edwards' This Is Your Life ), he and co-host Art Baker went out to various places in America and surprised the less-fortunate who helped others when they could barely help themselves.
For example, the first episode featured a Minneapolis grocer who, in return for his community service, was given a complete makeover to his store plus new furniture and appliances for his home. In addition, his landlord (who was in on the surprise) announced that the current month's rent was free and that the grocer's rent would never increase.
The Family Game (1967)
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, similar in fashion to The Newlywed Game .
Simon Says (1971)
In 1971, Barker was tapped to host a pilot for NBC entitled Simon Says , which required him to interact with a giant computer called "Simon" in Let's Make A Deal -style "trades". The pilot was produced by Wesley J. Cox of DUNDAS Productions, and its theme was "The Savers" (the theme used on The Joker's Wild , which has led some to believe that Cox or DUNDAS was an alias for Jack Barry or Dan Enright, since Joker used the theme in its original 1968 pilot).
That's My Line (1980-1981)
In 1980, Barker emceed a series called That's My Line for Goodson-Todman. The series was not a game show, but rather a program along the lines of Real People and That's Incredible! The show's second season in 1981 focused more on unusual stunts, and was cancelled in September.
The Price Is Right (1972-2007)
On September 4, 1972, Barker began his most famous assignment hosting the CBS revival of The Price is Right . In the 35 years of the CBS version, he has become far more associated with the series than first host Bill Cullen was with the 1956-1965 original. In September 1977, he hosted the last three seasons of the syndicated nighttime version, originally hosted by Dennis James.
On October 15, 1987 Barker did what other MCs almost never did: renounced hair dye and allowed his hair to go gray. Fellow hosts Monty Hall, Alex Trebek, and Richard Dawson would do the same 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 daytime 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 ), and will move into fifth in September 2009 when Guiding Light airs its final episode on CBS. 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, Bob made his announcement that he would retire from The Price Is Right in June 2007. However, Barker has revealed that FremantleMedia, the company that owns the show, had 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. He taped his final episode on June 6, 2007, with the show airing twice on June 15. The first airing was in the show's normal daytime slot and the second airing was in primetime as the lead-in to the Daytime Emmy Awards . Repeat episodes from Barker's final season continued to air until October 12, 2007, ending with a repeat of his final episode. On July 23 it was announced that comedian Drew Carey would take Barker's place as the new host for the show beginning on October 15, 2007.
During Barker's tenure as host, three pricing games were introduced that used his name: Barker's Bargain Bar, Barker's Marker$ and Trader Bob. Of the three, none are actively played on the show - Trader Bob was retired from the show in 1985, Barker's Marker$ was renamed following Barker's retirement, and subsequently retired, and Barker's Bargain Bar has been disassembled, and is currently on hiatus.
Barker made a guest appearance on the show for an episode that aired on April 16, 2009 to promote his new autobiography, Priceless Memories . He appeared in the Showcase round at the end of the show.
Animal rights
Barker became a vegetarian in 1979. That same year, he began promoting animal rights. Barker began ending some episodes (later every episode) of The Price is Right with the phrase: "Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered." Even after he retired, Drew Carey continued his signature sign-off. He was named national spokesman for "Be Kind to Animals Week" in May 1985. On A&E's Biography program, he credited his wife, Dorothy Jo, with causing him to become more aware of animal rights and becoming a vegetarian, because she had done so. Bob remarked that Dorothy Jo was way ahead of her time as far as animal rights were concerned and that shortly after her death in October, 1981, he took up animal rights in order to keep doing something that she had done. Fellow game show hosts Jack Barry and Bert Convy eventually followed Barker's lead in promoting animal rights on the air.
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 facil
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Bob Barker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert William "Bob" Barker (born December 12, 1923) is an American former television game show host. He is best known for hosting CBS ' The Price Is Right from 1972-2007, making ...
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