My Tribute to Bob Barker and The Price Is Right

I was on The Price is Right as a contestant in 2007, and met Bob Barker. This is my story.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Rich What is the next name onyour list? Gerald Huster jest on the
pleasant line Gerald Gerald. During oneof the commercials, Gerald was telling me

(00:21):
that I had inspired him to gointo broadcasting, and I was so flatter
And now here you are in contestants'role and here is what you are going
to bid up. Oh my gosh, that was just an amazing day in
my life. And baby furniture aside, Hi, my name is Houston.
Welcome to Houston. Has a problemand that is literally me on The Prices

(00:45):
Right. Back in two thousand andseven, Bob Barker was just days away
from retiring. I believe I wason the tenth to last show for him
to retire from his time on ThePrices Right thirty five years, fifty years
in TV entirely. And I wentto the show. I had a friend,
my friend Brandon in Arizona. Hedid not have an opportunity to use
these tickets that he had, sohe asked if I wanted to go,

(01:07):
and I was like yes. SoI flew from Washington, DC all the
way to LA camped out on thesidewalk for thirty six hours in line.
Because even if you had a ticket, it wasn't guaranteed that you were getting
in. That was the crazy thingabout the prices right at the time.
In fact, it's still like that. You have to wait in line.
If you don't get in, youdon't get in. Hundred dollars. Yeah,

(01:30):
yep. I was the last personcalled down to be a contestant,
and there I was with the rightbid. I recall you told me that
you're working in Washington, DC.Am, yes, And are you what
do you do? I'm a radioDJ and I'm also the station's webmaster.
And do you have time now sinceyou have a busy schedule to see the

(01:53):
prices? Right? Occasionally? Irecorded every single day and I watched it
at night when I get home.That is still true. I still do
that to this day. Is thatnot crazy? It's kind of amazing,
but I do. I watched theshow every single day when I get home,
and Bob had such a grip onmy arm in that moment, and
I knew why because seconds after thathe explains that I have a chance to

(02:15):
win a brand new car. Whenyou hear those words on the prices,
right, it's like a dream cometrue. Right now, fast forward a
little bit. I didn't win thecar. Not to spoil anything, but
you can watch my appearance on thePrices right if you go to Pride Radio
dot com and click on Houston's.It was a once in a lifetime moment.
But I have to tell you ameeting Bob Barker, it was kind

(02:38):
of an idol, you know,of mine growing up. He really did
inspire me to get into broadcasting.I grew up watching the show with my
grandmom and it was one of thosethings that it was just he was always
there. And then I finally gotto go and see him in person,
and that was a pretty special moment, a pretty amazing moment. Really.
It was wild. I'm fortunate enoughto have done that, and I'm glad

(03:01):
that had happened. It was Itwas a crazy whirlwind day too, because,
like I said, so you hadto get there in my case,
the day before the taping. Ithink it was like a two thirty in
the afternoon taping. But I gotthere at eleven the day before and just
camped down in line. I metsome great people though. I met these

(03:22):
wonderful two sisters who were just behindme in line from Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Ahead of the in line was Sonjaand her mom and sister from Delaware,
which that was funny because I wasfrom DC, so we were kind
of from the same part of thecountry. And the funny thing is,
I'm still friends with Sonya today onFacebook. You know, we follow each

(03:42):
other. It's one of those momentsthat you know, we connected over our
love for the Price. It's rightin that magic was created by Bob Barker.
A lot of people, you know, wonder what that moment is like.
And I've been asked a whole bunchof times, because you know,
it's one of those neat, funfacts about somebody, right that you don't
know necessary early until they tell you. And it's always one of those things

(04:03):
that I'm so happy to tell peopleabout because it was just so unique,
and it's also a moment that youcan still have today, even though The
Price is Rights no longer a televisioncity. I'm glad I had the opportunity
to see it in its original home, where it had been for fifty one
seasons. This upcoming season, it'smoving to a new facility in Glendale,
California, and I'm sure they'll havememories made there too. It might not

(04:26):
have the magic or the mystique oftelevision city, such a storied studio,
But it's gonna be just fine,you know. I'm certain of that.
Drew Carry has his own legion offans, But people deep down still love
the show for what it is becausethe price is right, ultimately never changed.
It is in the audience participation showled by a host. The stars

(04:46):
are the contestants, not the host. And that's the thing. The games
and the contestants are the stars ofthat show, and I think that that's
why it works so well. SoI was playing a game called the Money
Game, where you have to pickthe first two numbers in the of the
car and the last two numbers inthe price of the car, and I
did such a rooking mistake. AndI'll tell you why. It's because when
you get up on that stage,your mind literally goes blank, because you

(05:12):
have six cameras pointed at you,three hundred people in a studio audience screaming
all of their opinions at you.But then you have Bob Barker, America's
granddad, standing there waiting for youto choose something. Now, he's not
he doesn't pressure you, but beingin broadcasting, I mean he was pressuring,
not on purpose, but he wasthere. He was like, you

(05:33):
know, it's only an hour show. You don't have a ton of time
to make your decisions. So he'sthere hovering waiting for an answer, and
it's nerve wracking. So I blurtedout one of the numbers, thirty five
for the last two numbers. Andthe working mistake is that that is always
the season of the show that they'rein. That's just something they started doing.

(05:53):
And I should have known. Idid know, but I didn't know
at the time. It was justone of those things like mind blank story
short. I did not win apt Cruiser, but I did get to
spin the big wheel. And youmay have heard people talk about this before
the big question. People are alwayslike, is the wheel really that heavy?
Because it looks like it is,right. It is. It's it's
extremely heavy. It's one of thoseweird things that you don't think about until

(06:16):
you go to spin it, andit's You've got these little metal handles on
the side. You grip it ashard as you can and you just try
to yank and who boy, itwill throw your back out if you're not
careful. And I think that's stillthe case for today too. It's it's
so funny, it's so amazing that, you know, to think back.
I think someone told me one timethere have been sixty thousand contestants on that

(06:38):
show, which is insane to thinkabout. Right, sixty thousand people have
been called to come on down.Not everybody gets up on stage. Of
course, some people never make itout of contestants row, but that's a
small amount of people, a veryyou know, unique percentage to be part
of in the country. It's it'sone of those neat things. I guess

(06:59):
I don't know. But long storyshort, I spun the wheel, got
to spin it twice because the personahead of me had I think seventy five
cents and I was trying to beatthat and I did not quite get enough.
I didn't go over, so thatwas the good thing. I didn't
have to, you know, hangmy head in shame. I got to
walk off proudly. But hey,I won baby furniture, the item that
I bid to get up on stage. And again that was a lucky instance

(07:23):
too. If you look back atthe bids in this video, the I
bid twelve fifty and a guy rightafter me bid twelve hundred. I just
think again, the cameras are on, your brain goes blank. He just
wasn't thinking. But it worked outin my favor because the actual retail price
was fourteen hundred dollars and I gotto run up there, and you know,
after as soon as the show isdone, you go backstage, have

(07:44):
to fill out a bunch of paperworkand they arrange for the prize to get
sent, or at least for someoneto call you to arrange for that.
And when they did that, Iwalked out with my paperwork out of the
studio and the two sisters from FortWayne, Indiana were waiting for me out
there, blew me away, tellingme that they would love to buy the
baby furniture from me, and infact, she wanted to even give me

(08:05):
more to cover the taxes that Iwould have to be responsible for. I
was like, what are you serious? And she was. She was dead
serious. And that's exactly how itworked out. She sent me two money
orders, and I guess because there'sa limital money I don't know, but
she sent me two money orders,and when CBS called to arrange the shipping,
I had it shipped to her andit worked out. It was great
like the price is right. Theydidn't mind it was it was great.

(08:26):
They were able to ship it towherever I wanted to. They said,
as long as it was in thecontinental US, they were happy to do
it. They're what you call it, a full service game show, and
that's something they still carry on tothis day. It's something that Bob wanted.
He wanted people to be happy.He brought so much joy to so
many people, including myself. LikeI said, for years I watched him
on TV, never once dreaming thatI would actually share the stage with him.

(08:50):
It was wild. And I'll tellyou he is just a gentleman.
He's very, very nice. NowI know he does have a spotless record.
There has been some controversy with modelsin the past. Some have sued
and one got a settlement, theother dropped her lawsuit. And I think

(09:11):
ultimately it becomes that he said,she said, situation, and I'm not
saying that's right or wrong. Wedon't really know what the true story is
there because everyone's just sharing their ownopinions. It was a very different time
when those lawsuits came about, youknow, between the eighties and the nineties.
If you look back at Bob's oldershows, you can see he changed

(09:31):
through the years because it used tobe a chauvinistic world. I mean,
there's just no getting around it.When you watch some of the older episodes
of The Prices, right, hedoesn't, I guess you could see he
talks down to women. I meanreally, and I don't think he's doing
it intentionally. I honestly truly don'tfeel that way. But it's one of
those things where that's what men didand that sucks, like it just does.

(09:54):
I know that that's not right,and I'm glad that it changed in
his later years. He did awaywith that really quickly. As the nineties
came to a close, entered thetwo thousands, it was a new millennia,
and he changed with the times too. Again, it doesn't absolve him
of his past sins, but Ido like to think that the joy he

(10:15):
brought to millions of people far outweighedthe bad stuff, especially all the work
he did for animals. You know, Peter, his work with them has
done countless amazing things to save animals. The ASPCA. He is the reason
everyone thinks of spaying and neutering theirpets. It's Bob because that's how he
ends every show. As you know, he ended it every day by saying,

(10:39):
have your pets spade or neutered?And Drew Carey, to his credit,
still does that to this day.The Prices Right has saved millions of
animals lives, and that's a hugelegacy. It's an amazing legacy. And
I think that's what Bob wanted toleave the world with, is just that
legacy of treat animals like we shouldtreat each other. And I think that
is something he came to realize asthe years went on as well. So

(11:03):
that's my story. I wanted toshare it so you understood, you know,
what Bob meant to me and whatmy experience on The Price Is Right
was like, and how big ofa loss that it truly is for the
entertainment world. So many kids,so many sick days, you know,
staying home watching Bob eating some soupand just hoping that somebody was going to

(11:24):
get that chip into the center sloton Blinko and when five thousand dollars it's
it was really truly a dream cometrue to meet him. You know,
they say don't meet your idols becauseyou never know. And again I'm sure
people have different experiences with Bob dependingon when you met him, but when
I met him, he was nice. He was super great, gracious,

(11:46):
and just a fan for the fans. And I think that's where we'll have
to leave this because I don't knowwhat else to say about Bob. He's
just a magical guy, magical host, and I don't know that we'll ever
see another game show host quite asgood as Bob was. That's why he

(12:07):
was known as the world's greatest MC