My TV Musings

I remember watching Truth or Consequences on television with my mom, mainly in the early 1970’s, it was something that brought us close during my fitful teenage years! But this show actually started in 1950, though Bob didn’t take the reins until 1956.

Truth or Consequences was a game show where contestants were asked trick questions to which they were to answer with the truth and when they couldn’t they had to accept the consequences, which could be any number of stunts or embarrassing things they had to perform.

Though TorC ended in 1975, Bob doubled his workload by taking on The Price is Right in 1972, an updated version of a game show formerly hosted by Bill Cullen. Bob never missed a day of work on TPIR except for 3 days in 1974.

Bob is now 83 years old and ready to retire, looking forward to “sleeping until noon, then golf all day—come on down,” as he said in a recent interview. He is due a rest, having spent 50 years in show business and 35 of them hosting TPIR, the longest-running game show in television history. He has won a total of 17 Emmy Awards — 13 as TV host, three as Executive Producer of The Price is Right and the Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award for Daytime Television in 1999. Currently, he is nominated for his 18th and 19th Daytime Emmy Awards. Barker was installed into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in June 2004.

The final episode of TPIR with Bob as host has been taped and will air on June 15 in its regular daytime slot but will re-air that evening right before the Daytime Emmy Awards.

After the taping Bob stayed on stage and addressed the audience, “I thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting me into your home for more than 50 years. I’m truly grateful, and I hope that all of you have enjoyed your visit to The Price Is Right.”

While the show itself will continue in reruns throughout the summer, no one yet knows who will take over for Bob this fall, but rumor has it that several people are in the running, among them Mark Steines of Entertainment Tonight, John O’Hurley of Seinfeld and Dancing with the Stars, and forever-tan George Hamilton. They may do very well with the job, but long-time game show host Todd Newton may be better qualified if for no other reason than that he hosts a Las Vegas TPIR already!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Bob Barker, The Price is Right. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.