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Had He Not Been Spayed or Neutered, Bob Barker Could Have Been a Porn Star

Richard Lawson — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:21:04 EDT

Oh dear. Former Price Is Right host Bob Barker was on the Today show this morning hawking his new memoir, and it seems that he, for a brief beautiful second, almost entered the porn industry.

Basically he told a little story about his days as a model. One day someone suggested that he go into porn. Giddy with delight, Meredith Vieira said "so you were thisclose to a career in pornography." Barker laughed and said "well, more like this___close." Oh Meredith, you minx.

So there may be an alternate, Sliders-esque dimension somewhere where instead of helping people play Plinko, Barker was doing the, uh, plinking himself. On camera. But in this world, it never happened. Rod Roddy, though? He has a name that sounds like he dabbled in some extreme hardcore pornography in the early/late 80's.

'Price Is Right' Horny For Younger Eyeballs

Seth — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:55:00 EDT

·First they try to Poochie-up Ebert & Other Guy, now this: In a bid to appeal to a younger audience, Beauty and the Geek host Mike Richards has been hired to take over showrunning duties on The Price is Right. Which strikes us as just plain wrong: white trash grandmas and TPIR go together like mayonnaise and cold hot dogs. (But if that's really the plan, they might want to start with canning Drew Carey, who we literally noticed nodding off during a not-particularly-gripping round of Mountain Climber recently.) [Variety]
·The TCA—whom we've suggested might best be taken off life-support and sent to that all-expense-paid junket in the sky—will come three weeks later next year, in the hopes of giving the critics attending some idea of what it is they are covering. [Variety]
· E! has paid New Line $7 million for rights to broadcast the Sex and the City movie, The Women, and He's Just Not That Into You, with an eye towards launching a new weekly program entitled Ryan Seacrest Presents: My Favorite Movies of All Time. [Variety]
· Disney purchased the rights to Monster Attack Network, a graphic novel set on a tropical island inhabited by giant monsters which they assure us will be adapted into a kick-ass monster island movie, not "the artsy farty Spike Jonze thing over at Warner Bros." [THR]
· Fox has picked up another season of So You Think You Can Dance, and EP/judge/longwinded-speechifier Nigel Lythgoe has reportedly left American Idol after seven seasons to concentrate solely on it. [THR]

Lawsuit Reveals Price Is Right's 'Atmosphere Of Terror'

Seth — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:01:28 EDT

Even after his departure from a 35-year tenure hosting the Price is Right, cat-sterilization fanatic Bob Barker still finds himself party to yet another in a long string of harassment lawsuits from disgruntled female employees: nine in 13 years, to be exact, with all plaintiffs represented by the same guy—attorney and mutesmodels' rights advocate, Nick Alden. The latest complainant suggests she was demoted from P.A. to the far more demeaning rope-and-pulley-tugging duty after she testified against Barker in an earlier lawsuit:

[Deborah] Curling, whose job was initially screening contestants for the show, said she was in a "pleasant working environment" for many years. But after she testified in the wrongful termination suit of a former production assistant, she was moved from that job to one working backstage, she claims in her court filing.

That was an "intolerable" work environment in which black employees and black contestants were discriminated against, she said.
"Barker created an atmosphere of terror on the show, as a result of which any employee who complained about the working environment or contradicted Barker was fired," the lawsuit said.

Details of just how exactly Barker enforced a reign of "terror" over his tiny, cost-obsessed fiefdom inside CBS Television City remain sketchy; we suspect the game show host's generally beloved reputation will remain intact until Curling tearfully describes for the jury the time Barker heated his trademark skinny microphone with a butane torch until its bulb glowed an orange-hot, then held it within millimeters of the cheek of a Showcase Showdown set-dresser whom he suspected to be on Alden's witness list.

Suit claims 'atmosphere of terror' on Price is Right set [cbc.ca]

Brian Grazer To Play Cowboys N' Aliens

Mark — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:43:09 EDT

· Imagine's Brian Grazer will superproduce an adaptation of the graphic novel Cowboys and Aliens for DreamWorks and Universal, a project the spikey-haired seeker described as the "perfect realization of all the cowboys-meeting-aliens-related ideas I've been quietly developing since I was a hyperactive six years old locked in my bedroom with a chest full of toys." [Variety]
· Fox's show about people who think they can dance continues to shame their one about people who think they can direct movies, pulling in more than triple the viewers of the last On The Lot installment. [THR]
· Another famously overweight TV personality rumored to be under consideration to replace Bob Barker is Drew Carey. [Variety]
· Advertisers give a $2.4 billion upfront vote of confidence to Steve McPherson's vision for ABC, with one Madison avenue booster gushing, "Have you heard about this Cavemen thing? It's like a sitcom and car insurance commercial all rolled into one! Think of what they could do with that Coke ad with the polar bears." [THR]
· Stripping off his shirt and smearing his entire body in warpaint, CEO Howard Stringer whipped 7,000 employees into a frenzy at a shareholder ceremony in which he dramatically declared himself the "Sony Warrior." [Variety]

Bob Barker: Not So Fast With The O'Donnell Stuff

Mark — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:29:40 EDT

Backtracking from recent remarks that have been construed in the media as an endorsement of Rosie O'Donnell's candidacy to replace him on the The Price Is Right, retiring emcee Bob Barker today clarified what he meant when he said he had "no doubt" O'Donnell would make a good host, telling the AP, "I have not been asked for my opinion, nor have I expressed one. I think there are several candidates who could do the show, and Rosie is certainly one of them." (To his credit, the discreet Barker made no reference to a heated, closed-door meeting with Les Moonves earlier today in which the CBS Corp. head promised "to sew the balls back on every neutered dog and cat in town [himself] if [Barker] said another word about handing over the show to that [woman of below-average attractiveness].") O'Donnell has yet to publicly comment on this seeming blow to her chances of landing the job, but Defamer has exclusively obtained the ad she is placing-in tomorrow's Variety to address onetime idol Barker's unexpected withdrawal of support, one that echoes her earlier attempt at currying favor with the gameshow legend:

Barker: Remarks not a Rosie endorsement [Yahoo News]
Previously: Bob Barker's Rosie O'Donnell Endorsement Indicates He's Further Gone Than We Realized [Defamer]

Rosie O'Donnell Not Ready To Give Up On Her 'Price Is Right' Dreams

Mark — Thu, 17 May 2007 13:25:34 EDT

Tonight, CBS will air Bob Barker: A Celebration of 50 Years on Television, a tribute that will finally send the The Price Is Right legend into the gameshow host afterlife, where he will enjoy the attentions of 72 Barker's Beauties in an idyllic environment free of troubling sexual harassment lawsuits as his just reward for 35 years of dedicated service. While the network has yet to name Barker's successor, it seems that Rosie O'Donnell is renewing her public campaign for the job, undeterred by reports that the retiring host would sooner see an entire shelter full of abandoned pets have their neutering magically reversed than allow the skinny mic to be passed to O'Donnell. She's taken out a full-page suck-up ad in the trades today (above) inviting Barker to her Miami compound, where the two can enjoy a lazy day of Plinko (she's got her own full-size board), inverted yoga-swinging, and some casual conversation about her candidacy.

[Ad via DigiVariety]

Soon, Bob Barker Will No Longer Have To Pretend That A Busty College Girl Bidding $1 On A Refrigerator Is The Cleverest Strategy He's Ever Heard

Mark — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 20:08:06 EST

For die-hard fans of The Price is Right, today's announcement that Bob Barker plans to retire in June after 35 years with the show hits just as hard as if the beloved octogenarian had stepped up on stage, dramatically brought his quivering skinny-mic towards his lips, and informed the CBS television audience that God Himself had told him (through the voice of deceased announcer Rod Roddy, of course) that He was taking Barker after the very next spin of the Big Wheel. Take heart, Plinko addicts, for you still have more than half a year to enjoy your hero before he finally retreats to the paradisiacal splendor of the exact replica of the Price set he's had built at home, where he will spend the rest of his days being serviced by a private staff of Barker's Beauties, all of whom he's paid handsomely to waive their rights to troublesome sexual harassment claims should they tire of his favorite game, "How Much Did These Funbags Cost?"

Bonus: Enjoy this montage of Barker's greatest moments from the show once again.

[Photo: Getty Images]

Bob Barker Retiring After 50 Years on TV [AP]