Priceless Memories - Bob Barker [76]
Adam Sandler is a talented man, and he was a pleasure to work with on the film. Later on, in 2007 when CBS did a prime-time special for my fiftieth anniversary on television, he came on the show and we had a lot of fun together. We showed a clip from Happy Gilmore, and he wrote a poem about me that was hilarious. He read the poem on the show, and it got great laughs.
Shortly after my retirement, I was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame committee requested that we provide a tape, a sort of This Is Your Life, Bob Barker for the occasion, and Adam Sandler took time from what I know to be a very busy schedule to narrate the tape.
Adam’s career has been a thing to behold since Happy Gilmore. But if his kindnesses to me are any indication, he remains the same sincere, thoughtful young man I had the pleasure of working with in Canada more than ten years ago.
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Over the years, I made other television appearances besides Truth and Price. Nothing dramatic, usually as myself, but I did log quite a few appearances on a variety of talk shows, game shows, and a few sitcoms. I did an episode of Bonanza in 1960. I remember I stole a girl from Little Joe. Not many men can make that claim!
Dorothy Jo and I appeared together on a few game shows that had married couples on them. We did Tattletales several times. That was a show where wives and husbands would predict their spouses’ reactions to various questions. They kept inviting us back because they thought Dorothy Jo was hilarious. I resented it. Tattletales was hosted by Bert Convy, a nice man who died too young.
I was also on Match Game quite a bit—there were tons of laughs on that show. Richard Dawson was a panelist with whom I was so impressed that later on I hired him as the host of a local television show I produced called Lucky Pair. I tried to sell it in syndication, but I was never able to cut it. It was a good show, too, based on an idea of my mother’s.
Lucky Pair was a board game played by two contestants. The contestant who completed the most pairs won the game. To complete a pair you had to match two squares on the board. A contestant chose a number on the board, the square turned around, and perhaps it might reveal “1492.” The contestant would say, “Columbus discovered America,” and complete a pair. But suppose a square revealed “Civil War general” and the contestant said, “Robert E. Lee,” and the square turned back into place. That was not the answer we were looking for—the pair was not completed.
Now, the contestant should try to remember the number of the “Civil War general” square in case he discovers the square that reads “General James Longstreet.” Think about it for a moment. Lucky Pair offered endless possibilities that were a lot of fun.
Geoff Edwards was the first host of Lucky Pair. We auditioned a dozen hosts for the job, and I told the folks at CBS that Geoff was the man. But there were several doubters. I talked them into giving Geoff a chance, and in a couple of weeks, everyone wanted to take credit for hiring him. He was that good.
He left Lucky Pair when he got an opportunity to do a network show with his wife. That’s when we hired Richard Dawson. I’ve hired two hosts, Geoff and Richard. I’d say I’m batting a thousand.
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In the 1970s, I was a frequent guest on The Dinah Shore Show. Dinah taped right down the hall from Price for years. When a guest dropped out, they called me. As a result, I was on her show more than any other guest. They even talked with me about cohosting with Dinah, but Sol, my agent, nixed that. He thought I’d be spreading myself too thin.
Craig Ferguson, the late-night talk show host at CBS, has had me on his show a couple of times. He keeps telling his audience that I am a vampire. I don’t know how he found out.
I’ve been on The Late Show with David Letterman. I’ve done Conan O’Brien’s show. I did Rosie O’Donnell’s show. Every time I went to New York, I was on her show. We had a lot of fun. She always said when