Even I was formulating the easy layup joke every hack comedian was thinking. Bob died successfully without going over 100.
What a life he had though! With his career hosting game shows and namely the one he was most associated with, The Price is Right, he beat Johnny Carson’s record for episodes. As he hosted Price for around 35 years, I really doubt anyone will beat it thanks to streaming and how quickly generations turn over and get bored. Besides, Johnny and Bob were just too classy as hosts compared to the pandering, ass-kissing via Leno, Colbert, Kimmel, etc. I don’t see what anyone ever saw in Conan too; he was a great TV writer but just an awful host who tried too hard. I tuned him out quickly. Half the time it was, “Look! Look! This is funny!” and the other half, Letterman and Monty Python already did it and did it much, much better.
Back to the legendary Bob. I grew up with him like most Gen Xers and Mills since there were three ways you watched him on Price: There was nothing else to watch on TV during the Summer because your parents were too cheap for Cable; Your grandmother was had the remote; or you were home with the flu and couldn’t go to school. I never met a person who watched it intentionally without a wink at irony or the “it’s so bad it’s good” mindset. He was a pretty skilled host, especially when he really got up there in age and we all know people get less patient, the older we get. I’m confident he endured the scheduling, unless you’ve been living under a rock, game shows often tape 3-5 “days” in a day in order to bang out two weeks of material in a couple days. Being a game show host might be considered low hanging fruit to many actors but I’d take it. Use all the free time to do other gigs or if the pay were enough, enjoy my hobbies. Obviously, Bob loved golf. He was the only funny part of Happy Gilmore. I learned he was also a black belt in karate, I wish he kicked Adam Sandler’s unfunny ass for real. I enjoyed his appearance on Futurama, a nod to his time as the MC for the Miss America pageant which he quit in order to stand up against animal cruelty; he was opposed to the contestants wearing fur. This probably led to his signature sign-off on Price about having your pets spayed and neutered. I wonder if he was alright with fur or pelts from animals that died of old age. I’m not keen on them being executed at the prime of their lives and as mean as the mink is, they don’t deserve to be electrocuted via their anuses. Either way, if an old guy from the Establishment can change his mind and side with Hippies, Vegans and PETA regarding a reasonable concern, then he was a pretty cool person.
Farewell Bob! Thanks for everything! Your sense of humor. Your coolness under “fire.” You were a legendary American Dream Story.