Priceless Memories - Bob Barker [77]
I did the Ellen DeGeneres Show. She is a charming host. I received the Emmy for Best Host the year that I retired, and Ellen followed me to the podium. She said she intended to add more controversy to her own show, and she was going to start that very night by saying, “I think Bob Barker is a quitter.”
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In 1996, I did a couple of episodes of a sitcom called Something So Right, which starred Mel Harris. I played her father, and Shirley Jones played her mother. Shirley and I were separated but still involved. It was a funny show.
Not only had I never been in a sitcom, but in all honesty, I had not watched sitcoms enough to really get the feel of them. So here I was, cast in Something So Right, and worried that I was about to do something so wrong. We started rehearsals, and it did not take Shirley Jones long to realize that I did not know what I was doing. But she helped me tremendously. Between takes and segment rehearsals, she and I would sit down and she would go over my lines with me. She taught me that in sitcoms, everything moves fast. The speech is fast. You say a line. I say a line. He says a line, and boom, boom, boom. I just tried to keep up to speed with the rest of the cast.
But it went well, and they had me back. I did two of those shows with Shirley, and she was such a gracious lady. I will always be very grateful to her. She was my dialogue coach, and to have an Academy Award winner as your dialogue coach is the way to go. The very talented producers, Judd Pillot and John Peaslee, were a joy to work with, too.
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Having Shirley Jones as my dialogue coach was like having Chuck Norris as my karate instructor, which incidentally, is what I had also. Chuck was a guest on Truth or Consequences. He was a karate champion, and he came on and did a demonstration on the show. Not only had I never done karate, I had never seen it. But I was so impressed by Chuck that I started taking lessons. Chuck and I became friends, and I introduced him to a fellow I knew at Metromedia television, hoping to get him started with a television show. It did not work out, but we continued to be friends, and of course he went on to huge success.
After Chuck’s first appearance on the show, he came back and did another demonstration. This time I chose three contestants, three women out of the audience, and told them they were going to learn some karate from Chuck Norris. It was a joke on the whole audience. I chose young women who looked fit. We had a mat, and Chuck said, “OK, lady number one, come over here and I’ll show you how to throw a punch.” He did that and then maybe a kick or two, and then he showed her how to throw him down. Then lady number two went through these basic things, and he showed her how to defend herself. Now when he starts with lady number three—she kicks him, hits him, and throws him up over her shoulder. He’s flopping all over the place, and she’s really in command. The audience was screaming. Lady number three was actually Chuck’s wife. We had planted her in the audience, and she knew some karate. It was a hilarious spot to see this woman pummeling the karate champion.
It was the beginning of a lifetime friendship with Chuck Norris. He became my first karate teacher. He used to come over to my house and give me lessons. We worked out on the lawn at first, but later on I stopped putting my car in the garage, and I had the garage floor all padded and made it a karate studio. I had a big mirror put in so I could see my chops and kicks, and he and I worked together for eight years.
Chuck taught what might be described as the Chuck Norris version of the Tang Soo Do karate style. Tang Soo Do is basically foot fighting, but Chuck taught hand techniques aplenty. I became a red belt, which is just below black belt. Chuck always wanted to test me for black belt, but I declined. I have so much respect for the black belt rank that I would