Bob's Goodbye

Nancy and I watched Bob Barker's last time hosting The Price Is Right last night. It aired during primetime. The audience was obviously very excited to be there and showed a lot of love for the host who has missed only three shows in 35 years! The first couple of contestants had t-shirts on with writing about how happy they were to be there. Bob made a couple comments about them waiting in line for a day or two. Just before the second item up for bid he turned to a young man in the contestants row and said, "I thought I recognized you. I just figured out why. This morning I was eating breakfast and I saw you being interviewed on our local CBS station while waiting in line. How long did you wait outside?" 5 days! Wow.

So it was fun to see all the old familiar scenes, Come On Down, One Dollar, A New Car, Plinko, Spin The Wheel, The Showcase Showdown. Bob even gave the audience a chance to show how loyal of fans they were. "Don't press the button before you're ready, because we can't restart it for, 'How long audience?' 37 hours"

Watching this landmark episode (and perhaps watching it at such an unfamiliar time - 8 PM) reminded me of what it was like to watch The Price Is Right growing up. Being a daytime show I would only ever see it if home sick from school (TV while sick? Never.) I remember feeling like it was only ever on on the days I was there to see it. It took me to another place for 1 hour. But the next day back at school, I would never think, "Oh, The Price Is Right is on right now. I'm missing it." In fact, I'm fairly certain it didn't air when I wasn't at home. It didn't exist on those days. It wasn't the only show that acted that way, but it was the most memorable. There was also Matlock, MacGyver, Columbo. And other gameshows of course. Hollywood Squares, Pyramid, Press Your Luck. So that was a fun little reminder of eating chicken ramen and sipping soda through a bendy straw.