Published June 17, 2007 in the Hibbing Daily Tribune
People on the Iron Range value a hard day’s work and
keeping it up for a whole career. But even the most dedicated worker
sometimes
coasts just a little right as a job comes to an end. Maybe the ditch
digger
rests against the shovel before quitting time. Maybe the seasoned
teacher
switches off her hearing aid during study hall. A rookie couldn’t do
that, but
it doesn’t hurt that much and they’ve probably earned it.
The same might be said for Bob Barker, the now former host of “The Price is Right.” I must admit I was not a regular viewer of the long-running price guessing game show. It’s been on CBS literally my whole life, though, and like most Iron Rangers I’ve woken up at 10:30 a.m. in places with no cable. So I’ve seen the show.
We’ve been home more this summer, so we caught Bob’s last week on the air. Bob was definitely “short timing” it. At one point, a woman wearing an ill-fitting top (that should narrow it down), grabbed Bob’s microphone after losing the showcase spin game to say hi to her family. “Get off the stage,” said Bob, dryly. No smiles. No sense of irony. Just an old man who had a schedule to keep.
Another contestant admitted that he never watched the show but had come with friends to be in the audience. Bob appeared aghast when he learned that this contestant was going to play for the most expensive prize ever offered on “The Price is Right,” a $100,000 recreational vehicle. “You don’t even know what this means,” he bellowed at the young man. “This means nothing to you.”
Barker also seemed to be doing less preparation before shows, depending on his memory for the rules of the various games – from “Plinko” to the “Golden Road.” “Oh, this one, huh,” he’d say.
It all reminded me of the waning days another showbiz Bob: Bob Saget on “America’s Funniest Videos.” Bob’s still on the air with his new game show “1 vs. 100,” but he was also the first host of “Funniest Home Videos,” an enormous franchise for ABC. That show, by the way, is the exact definition of a guilty pleasure. I wish I could say that I don’t laugh at a man shrieking in pain after a toddler whacks him in the groin with a frozen fish, but I do.
Anyway, point is the original version featured Saget – a crass standup comic who got famous playing the world’s most boring dad on “Full House.” He would do annoying voiceovers with dialogue like (high pitched voice) “Oh boy, I’m a baby eating dinner. I sure hope I don’t shove lasagna up my nose. OOOOO. Fiddlesticks.” For his first few seasons he would deliver this dialogue earnestly, but by the mid-‘90s he was stuck in his contract and moped through the show. I missed this when it was on originally, but when our son was born we caught a lot of the reruns late at night. Saget would actually mock the show’s writers on the air and close the show with comments to the effect of “Until my agent gets me out of this contract, see you next time.”
I suppose you hear some stories like this in “real” life, perhaps like the miner who takes his time getting changed at the start of his last shift. Sometimes people just want to move on to something else. But in a strange way I always like the hard edge of folks who no longer put up appearances. It’s refreshing to hear what people really think. I’d rather watch the morning news shows if the perky hosts were honest about how many brain cells they killed with segments like “Showing Up for Work; Still the Best Way to Get Ahead.”
Anyway, here’s to the short timers for keeping it real. Happy Retirement, Bob Barker.Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune.