I don't want to say that Bob was a complicated man, because it's really not hard to understand (as in comprehend, not empathize) his different facets, but it's easy for me to separate "Bob" (the host) from "Barker" (the BTS figure). Being able to regularly watch the classic episodes from the mid-80s has really solidified how incredible of a host he was. It feels like there were never any "off" episodes for him where he was in a mood or disinterested or anything. He kept the show moving, knew where to find the fun side moments to have, knew how to draw out the suspense, hyped up all the prizes no matter what they were, etc. I view his work on TPIR as the greatest daytime game show hosting of all time because it did exactly what I believe daytime game shows should do - offer a warm, comfortable, familiar, carefree place for viewers to spend part of their morning. Of course, you have to give just as much credit to Johnny, Janice, Dian, and Holly. Together, they were a great unit.
That being said, he was also gross in soooooo many different ways, and I've had to turn it off sometimes because of the truly cringe-worthy comments he would make in regards to women's bodies and immigrant contestants (never racist, just completely tone-deaf). Forcing women to dig into his pocket for the $500 exact-bid bonus was weird, especially because he just handed it to men. If it wasn't meant to be a weird sexual thing, then why did women have to reach in but men did not? At the same time, you have Richard Dawson doing his thing on Feud.
With that being said, I'm curious as to if the Barker Era channel plans to rotate more 70s episodes in. I know the demand for Rod Roddy + grey-hair Bob was high from day one, and so they wisely jumped ahead and added 1988-1989 into the regular rotation, but the allure of a classic TPIR channel for me has always been the chance to see late 70s episodes.
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All My Shadows ·
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