Goodbye to a Game-Show Giant

AS THE EXUBERANT AND ENDURING HOST OF THE PRICE IS RIGHT, BOB BARKER WAS AN INVALUABLE ENTERTAINER

- TOM GLIATTO, JP MANGALINDAN

1923-2023 ВОВ BARKER

According to The Price Is Right host Bob Barker, the appeal of his classic giveaway show was irresistible. "From cabdrivers to executives, everyone's interested in what things cost," said Barker, who was 99 when he died Aug. 26 at home in Los Angeles. And he knew how to fire up that interest into a price-tag frenzy as the show's contestants excitedly tried to guess the retail value of lawnmowers, appliances, groceries-even a submarine. However, he later recalled, "someone realized that a contestant could go down in their prize and never be heard from again, so we stopped that."

If Alex Trebek of Jeopardy! was the tenured professor of game hosts, Barker-in his 35-year reign at Price-was the great TV showman. With a permanent tan and an energy that prompted hugs, kisses and even marriage proposals from contestants, "he knew how to work an audience," said Drew Carey, who took over when Barker retired in 2007. The show, with its signature phrase "Come on down!," had an initial run from 1956 to 1966, with Barker coming aboard-for more than 6,500 episodes-when it relaunched in 1972. Price wouldn't have become TV's longest-running game show without him.