Elder US dataloungers please tell me about former The Price is right presenter Bob Barker

If not for the fact he's 94 and white, he'd likely be where Bill Cosby is right now.

Oh?? 🤔😮😮 [R1] Please tell me more.

^^^ more like Bill Cullen.

He’s been old forever.

My first experience with a celebrity who was all smiles when the camera was on -- and then dropped it the second someone called "Cut". Miserable asshole. I was so disappointed. Gotta watch those America's Sweetheart types.

Thanks [R5] Anymore details please? Was he verbally abusive to staff on the show etc?

[R4] There's a deathlist prediction website in the UK that has had Bob Barker on their list of celebrities predicted to die for a while now.

Best beauty pageant MC ever, by far. He really knew how to navigate the chaos, especially in the international pageants with language barriers. And NO TelePrompter.

Of course, it was other times. And yet he was a progressive anti fur and animal rights activist way ahead of the times (and the reason he left pageants).

Rude to the audience mostly. Just a bitch. Until he was on-air. I bet Dick Clark was the exact same way but I never met him.

The Simon Cowells of the world are probably personable but the Nice Guys in Hollywood... careful. Wasn;t surprised at all when the model chicks started calling him out for being a jerk.

Thanks [R9] What did the model chicks say about him?

He was an early MeToo guy, back before it had a name.

Bob Barker is known for being the host of Truth or Consequences and The Price is Right and for being an animal rights activist and pet sterilization activist and for sexually harassing the onstage models (Barker’s Beauties) on TPIR.

Did that cause him to be sacked from his TV show [R11]?

He had a lot of lawsuits filed against him by the models on The Price Is Right

He's ... still ... ALIVE?

Bob liked to play in the model hen house, Dian Parkinson sued him which led to her ouster from TPIR.

He was a player after his wife passed away. But his promotion for animal rights makes him a gem in my eyes.

Read what the original PIR models said about him. Both Dian Parkinson and Holly Hallstrom sued him - Parkinson for sexual harassment. I can’t remember if Janice Pennington did as well. I was always surprised to read about the harassment stuff because he acted kind of gay on camera.

I was going to suggest somebody ask Carol Merrill, but she was the one on Let’s Make A Deal.

Now, who’s the famous (female?) related to Monty Hall, again?

Bob Barker was famously accused of racism and sexual harassment a few years before he retired. But from what I remember, it was nothing remotely anything like Cosby or Weinstein levels of harassment (just models upset over being let go for their appearance, inappropriate comments about weight gains, favoritism, etc., no rape, no sexual assault). The worst "racist" thing I remembered he allegedly did was make a corny joke when a white middle stood on stage in between two black models. He said they looked like an Oreo cookie.

[quote]How big a star and cultural figure was is he?

Very big, one of the greatest TV show host legends of all time. Later, he became a GenX pop cultural icon when he appeared on Happy Gilmore.

Jo Anna Gleason (Into the Woods) is Month Hall's daughter.

[quote]The Simon Cowells of the world are probably personable

Simon Cowell is rumored to be a nasty man behind the scenes too

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Those original TPIR showcase girls were all WHORES!

He had a big falling out with Betty White over an Elephant at the San Diego Zoo.

Joanne Gleson was also Mark's angry mom in "Boogie Nights".

[quote] I bet Dick Clark was the exact same way but I never met him.

Nope. I was a contestant on a game show he hosted and he was lovely and personable with all of us during the commercial breaks. So was Ben Stein when I was on his show. Jimmy Kimmel, on the other hand ...

Good to hear. Barker sure wasn't lovely.

He ain't no Drew Carey.

If he were still around, he would've been Weinstein'd by now. There was a good E! True Hollywood story on the Price is Right 15 years ago which detailed how nasty, sexist, gropey and ageist he was. None of the models had anything good to say about him.

Thanks R21

I didn’t pay much attention to game shows or their hosts- I had things todo during the day and I was not a “housewife”. Go back into you basement OP.

Barker (great name for being this) is a major animal rights supporter.

Bob McAllister was kind of a jerk when he hosted "Wonderama" years ago, chiding the kids when they couldn't go to the bathroom during breaks.

I retired back in 1972 from GM, at 56 (early buy out), they revamped the show at this time and Bob was the new host replacing Bill Cullen was previously hosted from the show’s inception back in the 50s. Even then Bob was an animal advocate. But, Bob hosted the morning version of the Price is Right for a time. Another gentleman hosted the evening version of The Price is Right. Bob took over both until around 1980, I believe. My partner and I watched both versions then and now just the morning version.

Bob Barker apparently was once asked to appear in a porno film when he was young, which he apparently laughed about with his wife when he got home, according to his autobiography. He was very cute when he was young on "Truth or Consequences".

I was in the same college fraternity as Bob.

R350 is 102???

He seemed so auntie-ish

[quote]If he were still around,

He IS still around.

"Bob Barker did me doggy style!"

Bob is a huge friend of animals.

R38 that’s what stunned me too but he maybe as I didn’y Know there was a TPIR before Barker.

As far as Simon Cowell is concerned: a friend went to some public auditions they had back when he was on AI. He had his picture taken with a lot of kids and they said he was great and spent a lot of time off camera with the audience signing crap and taking pics. It's always the ones that seem wonderful on camera like Barker that are assholes as soon as they shut off

He was fucking one of the Price is Right spokesmodels for, like, 25 years

I used to watch the Price is right with my grandmother, daily. She adored Bob Barker, and was his target audience. I wanted to be a Price is Right model, and my grandmother, who adored me too, watched me present her fridge and washing machine, her car and a can of gasoline, never once telling me that I couldn't work for Bob.

Many years ago we had a low level producer or someone who knew a low level producer on TPIR and he talked about mishaps like people wetting their pants or vomiting., etc. He said they eventually kept a small collection of old clothes to lend to contestants with loose bladders and bowels.

There was also a story of a screaming stereotypical gay bear man making it up to the stage and giving Bob Barker a big tight hug. Barker was all smiles for the camera but once they hit a break he was spitting nails about not wanting to feel the gay guy's erection pressed against him again.

Bob's affair with Barker's Beauty Dian Parkinson, after Bob's wife Dorothy died in 1981, is (or was?) relatively common knowledge. Dian left the show in 1993 and later sued for sexual harassment.

Two years later Holly Hallstrom was dumped from the show, with the reasoning behind it that she had gained weight. She later sued the show and won after a lengthy lawsuit that lasted for years. Janice Pennington (the longest lasting and one of the original Beauties) was dumped by the show in 2000 after being subpoenaed in the lawsuit, along with Kathleen Bradley (the first AA Beauty).

Building on what R47 said, announcer Rod Roddy would lay down the ground rules for contestants prior to shows about how to greet Bob on stage: "no tongues, and no guys". Bob and Roddy's professional relationship also broke down in Rod's final years (on the show and in life - he died in 2003).

Bob was not at all receptive to guys showing him affection, even in a joking manner. Back when there was a perfect bid on Contestants' Row, Bob would get the female contestants to fish into his coat pocket for the $100 bonus. Bob handed it to any male contestant.

However, there are very few that were as good or better than him as a game show or pageant host. It's just too bad he was such a perv and an egomaniac.

I've heard through a friend that he was a total asshole to Rod Roddy because Rod was a big homo. I guess Bob was pissed that Rod was getting more attention and screen time for his flamboyant outfits. He thought the announcer should always be heard but not seen.

Elder US dataloungers please tell me about former The Price is right presenter Bob Barker

Seriously?

Forgot to mention that Rod and Holly were good friends, which led to friction and bad blood between Rod and Bob.

Also, you better believe Bob would not at all be receptive to having male models on his show, which only came about in the Drew years. Thus, no Rob, no James.

Forgot to mention that Rod and Holly were good friends, which led to friction and bad blood between Rod and Bob.

Also, you better believe Bob would not at all be receptive to having male models on his show, which only came about in the Drew years. Thus, no Rob, no James.

R25 It was not the elephants at the San Diego Zoo. It was the elephants at the LA Zoo in Griffith Park.

Arr right [R49] Always disheartening to hear that a big name celebrity was / is homophobic.

Hung like a horse.

This is the ORIGINAL Bill Cullen version of "The Price Is Right."

I always found Bill Cullen inexplicably cute.

So was Bob Barker at any point during his career in showbiz considered to be a sexy hunk?

In that '50s perfectly parted hair way, yes.

Saw him on "Match Game" and they worked hard to mess up his hair -- and he wasn't pleased. Looked great actually but he smushed it down flat immediately and stewed.

Oh I love the messy mop of hair look [R59] So sexy in an endearing way!

A long time CBS employee said that Barker was sort of like Jerry Langford in King of Comedy. All those years, decades of high emotions, punch lines, excitement and disappointment had dulled him. The death of his wife really hurt him but the grind of the daily show was great. Yes, he had his rules, but after a while, you don't want to play the game by someone else's rules.

So overall, a relatively decent man who earned a living the hard way, but he was good at it.

Big into saving whales and Greenpeace has a boat named the Bob Barker.

R25, it made me like Barker more because he was one of the first celebrities who said that large animals should not be kept in a zoo. Maybe that's why he kept Rod Roddy employed.

I tuned into TPIR recently and it has absolutely no feel left from the show I watched after school as a kid in the 70s. Even the wonderful theme song — so sad.

The one vestige of the old show feel was the one hostess who had a feel for the gorgeous models of the 70s, this stunning girl, Amber Lancaster.

I can’t believe I used the word “feel” so much in my preceding post — maybe because I haven’t been felt up in so long....

R64, Drew Carey also reminds people to spay and neuter their pets at the end of the show, which I think was a concession to Barker.

R9 " I bet Dick Clark was the exact same way but I never met him."

I worked as a PA on a couple of shows he produced. He was assertive and reserved, but definitely not an asshole. A fine example of true professionalism.

Any news on his health is these days? Would his passing be a big news story on the TV networks?

R67 but haven’t there been myriad threads on here about what an asshole he was? Like even right after his death. I’ve read it elsewhere too - hardly confined to the DL. He also kind of sounded like a d-bag when he would go to the winners circle and tell the celebrities what clues they “should” have given with the benefit of hindsight.

And yes I think even at his advanced age, Barker’s passing would be a very big deal. Unless Betty White croaks on the same day.

Yeah, glad to hear nice things about him but I wasn't crazy about how he handled himself in that Michael Moore movie. Then again, it was an ambush so...

[quote]Elder US dataloungers please tell me about former The Price is right presenter Bob Barker

Isn't "presenter" a Britishism? We would normally say "host or "emcee," no?

And now in hospital as reported elsewhere

Not sure how you can reconcile your warm fuzzy post with the fact that he was a disgusting perv to the women who worked on the show, r61.

Right winger.

He's native american (Sioux) and grew up on the Rose Bud reservation in North Dakota.

I've never heard him discuss politics [R74]?

Too bad about all the bad blood. This ensemble brings back many memories. Even if I was home sick with the flu, you had The Price Is Right to make it better...