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What's going on with the comments concerning what I posted about Bob Barker? [1]

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Date: 2023-08-26

To understand the impact of Bob Barker, it helps to think of being a child of the 1970s, 1980s or the 1990s. It was a time before the internet took the control it has to this day. Most people had at that point, one or two televisions at most. Cathode ray tube beasts. By the late 70s, the majority of television was in colour. There were starting to be more than three channels. However, on CBS, there was this smooth, suave, black haired guy proposing to offer you prizes beyond your wildest dreams if you knew how to price things. He cheered for the contestant, he wanted you to win. However, he also knew how to make the moment important. He could hold big moments. He had incredible wit and used it to his advantage.

At the same time, the housewives of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s were obsessed with soap operas, from Guiding Light (my favourite), One Life to Live, All My Children, Search for Tomorrow and The Young and the Restless and so on. In the middle of those soap operas, networks offered television game shows. Game shows were prime watching television for those at home during the day. The 1972 revival of The Price is Right took off and transcended generations. It drew you in to play along. To cheer for those people just like us to win some really cool stuff, from new cars to trips to Europe to stuff for the home. You wanted to be just like them.

The impact wasn't just on housewives. If you a child, teenager or even adult, stuck at home sick on a weekday afternoon, at 11 am, The Price is Right was required viewing. Your parents knew it, their parents knew it. Your kids probably know it. Bob Barker was already a household name by the time he received the job in 1972, but it was during this time he went from a household name to an icon. His status took off in ways that most people did not. Contestants would come on the show just to meet Bob. To kiss Bob. To chase Bob. To pick him up and spin him around. To shake his hand. To bid $1 in his presence. At some point, Bob Barker transcended his own show. The games meant less than meeting Bob did. By the time of his retirement in 2007, the lines at CBS Television City were 5d long to just get into the show to see him one last time.

Bob Barker knew he was famous and reveled in it, sometimes to his ultimate destruction. It doesn't take an idiot to find he had a massive ego. Displayed it to contestants, was known to get pissy behind the stage and ultimately, took it out in lawsuits and extortion of the models of the show that he felt made him look good. The idea of a television personality behind the scenes having a massive ego they would throw their weight on wasn't uncommon with people of his generation and television of its time. The stories of Peter Jennings, Mike Wallace and Howard Cosell being egotistical jerks are plenty. However, he did things that nowadays would get him canceled faster than you can blink. One hopes today Dian and Holly don't have to hide in the shadows anymore. They didn't deserve the treatment they got. Instead, they got shoved off to yesteryear. It shouldn't be that way. What Bob did during that time was heinous.

We all knew today was coming. We didn't know when. Some of us probably didn't know how we were gonna handle it. Even in retirement, we just knew he was there. In the shadows, an invisible poltergeist at the studio that bears his name. People to this day, 16 years after retirement still show up with Bob Barker shirts, go "$1, Bob!" to Drew, and he is still referenced to this day. Every day, Drew Carey reminds us of his legacy reminding you to help control the pet population by spaying and neutering your pets. Bob's champion of animal rights is what will be his other legacy, because there aren't as many celebrities doing that today. Fur sales continued to drop even in his retirement and he was a champion in the campaign against fur coats. People have hoped he would make one more appearance on the show, but it never came. His impact was that large.

Today and for the week on, we will hear many tributes about the person he was and the impact behind the scenes. His impact on social media notes how many areas he transcended. Even superstar football players like JJ Watt talked about how much Bob was a part of his life. If being the best game show host on the planet, being one of the biggest champion of animal rights in the world is his legacy, he just spent 99 years and 257 days making the most of that legacy. Yes, his darkness in the 1990s will be a major part of the epitaph, but one must remember it does not always define the person. His light was very bright for 99 years and the torched was passed to Drew Carey, something the latter is still very proud of.

$1, Bob. Thanks for the memories.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/26/2189893/-What-s-going-on-with-the-comments-concerning-what-I-posted-about-Bob-Barker

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