Remembering Bob Barker, RARE Interviews and New Moments With Close Friends (Exclusive)
ET Broadcast,Bob Barker,The Price Is Right
ET Broadcast,Bob Barker,The Price Is Right
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00:00 [Music]
00:02 I've enjoyed the whole thing. I really have.
00:05 [Applause]
00:12 I have been blessed in that I have had 50 years doing something that I have
00:18 thoroughly enjoyed and I've been paid for it. How good can you have it?
00:23 [Applause]
00:29 99-year-old TV icon Bob Barker passed away Saturday morning from natural causes at his
00:34 longtime home in the Hollywood Hills. That's where this last photo of him was taken,
00:39 sitting in a wheelchair in February of 2021, enjoying the sunshine on the front lawn.
00:45 Where am I going to be? I hope I'm up there looking down on the whole thing.
00:50 I'd hate to think I'm looking up.
00:52 At Bob's request, there will be no funeral or memorial service. ET last spoke to him in 2017.
00:58 I think that that show would be hard to beat the rapport that we had. It was just a joy.
01:05 It was 10 years after he retired from The Price is Right, which he hosted for almost 35 years.
01:12 I'm often asked what do I miss the most about it and I tell them the money.
01:17 [Laughs]
01:18 That's what I miss the most.
01:20 He had a great sense of humor.
01:22 Today we're learning more about Bob's final days. ET spoke exclusively with Janice Pennington,
01:28 one of the original Barker's Beauty's models on the game show, and Roger Neal, his longtime
01:33 publicist. He says Bob's girlfriend of 40 years, Nancy Burnett, was always at his side.
01:38 I can't stress enough the great care that Nancy took care of him. I mean, she had,
01:44 it was around the clock. And for the fact that he got to stay in his home
01:48 and live in his home, the same house since the 1950s, and to be able to be at home when he passed,
01:55 it was very fortunate.
01:57 How did he live out those final years?
01:59 I think very happy. He loved his home. He loved his animals. And I really think he liked his
02:08 quiet life.
02:09 The nurses all doted on him. You know, they were very, oh, they just loved Mr. Barker. And I said
02:14 to the nurses before I left, I said, "You know, you're taking care of the world's greatest MC
02:19 and he is a legend." And he said, "I'll agree to that," and started laughing. So it was great.
02:25 It was that trademark sense of humor that helped Bob face a number of health problems in his later
02:29 years, including both prostate and neck surgery.
02:33 I had a carotid artery that had become blocked, and I had some surgery from which I've recovered
02:40 very well, thank you. And I am back at work and we're grinding out one hit after another.
02:46 In 2015, he suffered a frightening fall on the sidewalk outside his home.
02:51 I twisted and landed right over here, but my head was up on the cement, and so I cut my head all up
02:59 and cut my knee and scraped it.
03:03 So I'm a few weeks ago briefly. He looked terrific, as terrific as you could look to be 99
03:09 and almost 100.
03:11 I'm constantly looking for a contestant with whom I can get by.
03:15 I had a dream about you, so I had to come down here.
03:19 What were we doing in the dream?
03:20 You were chasing me in the hayloft.
03:23 Bob got his big showbiz break hosting Truth or Consequences back in 1956.
03:30 Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
03:32 And I became the host of a national television show just overnight.
03:36 16 years later, in 1972, Bob landed the job that made him a TV icon
03:41 and got him 19 Emmys, the most of any game show host.
03:45 Who's this little dude?
03:47 That little guy is Bob Barker.
03:50 Janis treasures her countless memories with the legend.
03:53 Oh my gosh.
03:54 Oh, you're gonna make me cry.
03:58 I don't know. There was just so many, you know.
04:02 He was just, yeah, one of a kind, so.
04:06 And if you could say one more thing to Bob.
04:09 You're the best. Nobody will ever come close to you.
04:16 What was it like working with Bob?
04:18 It was like a party every day.
04:20 The audience was very excited, you know.
04:24 You look forward to going to work every day.
04:26 What is his legacy?
04:28 Oh my gosh. He was just so loved.
04:32 He loved it. They loved it.
04:35 They always jumped on him.
04:37 He loved those moments with contestants because you never knew what they were going to say.
04:41 Drew Carey, come on down.
04:44 In 2007, Bob handed over the skinny mic to Drew Carey.
04:48 I thought this was just a good time to quit.
04:51 Drew, one of many celebs paying tribute, posted, "Very sad.
04:55 There hasn't been a day on set that I didn't think of Bob Barker and thank him.
04:59 I will carry his memory in my heart forever."
05:01 Bob told us the advice he gave his successor.
05:04 Don't imitate me. Don't imitate any other host. Do it his way.
05:09 Fellow TV host Tom Bergeron shared these pics,
05:12 captioned, "On weekends when we'd shoot Hollywood Squares on the same stage
05:17 the Price is Right shot on weekdays, I used his dressing room."
05:20 Vanna White, come on down.
05:23 And yeah, that's Wheel of Fortune's Vanna White as a young contestant back in 1980.
05:28 She wrote, "Thank you, Bob, for introducing me to the game show world. We will miss you."
05:33 How do you keep in such marvelous shape?
05:34 Well, I'm a vegetarian and I try to get my rest and I drink.
05:42 [Laughter]
05:43 That sounds like a nice start for my life. I'm gonna change it all over to that.
05:47 One of Bob's most iconic gigs, off the Price is Right set,
05:51 Happy Gilmore with Adam Sandler in 1996.
05:54 His first ever movie role and that fight, just comedy gold.
05:58 I don't want a piece of you. I want the whole thing.
06:02 E.T. was on set where at 72 years young, he did his own stunt work.
06:07 Let's go.
06:10 I suggested that and they're letting me do it myself. I'm pleased.
06:13 Here's a young man who watched me as he was growing up and look at him. He's a star.
06:20 He's a success. It could happen to you if you watch me on television.
06:25 [Laughter]
06:26 Price is wrong.
06:27 Now you've had enough.
06:31 Referencing that quip, Julie Bowen honored her co-star revealing it was Adam who convinced him
06:39 to do it. "Bob was kind and polite and had declined to say the line, but he got swept up in the
06:45 hilarious fight scene and he just said it." And from Adam, "Loved laughing with him. Loved him
06:51 kicking the crap out of me. He will be missed by everyone I know. Heartbreaking."
06:56 At my age, rolling around with this 26, 28 year old guy, I thought I would die.
07:03 I was, "All right."
07:05 Now I think, where do we go to see Bob Barker?
07:07 Reruns of Happy Gilmore.
07:09 Yet the cameos kept coming.
07:12 E.T., come on down to The Price is Right.
07:16 Nice suit.
07:17 Thanks, Dad.
07:17 Here he is.
07:18 In 2007, E.T. was back on set as Bob played himself in How I Met Your Mother.
07:23 I'm sure you'll do just fine, son.
07:26 But you just...
07:28 I had no idea how much fun it would be. I think I'm going to adopt Neil.
07:33 Who gets the chance to be on The Price is Right?
07:36 Bob also crashed in Everybody Loves Raymond table read and delivered his
07:39 signature Price is Right sign-off with a twist.
07:42 Please have this staff spayed or neutered.
07:44 But perhaps his favorite role was that of devoted husband to his wife of 36 years, Dorothy.
07:52 We had our first date November 17, 1939 in Springfield, Missouri.
07:58 Bob was just 15 years old, but it was an instant love. They remained together until 1981 when she
08:04 passed away from lung cancer at the age of 57.
08:07 He would go every year at Christmas time and put a Snoopy Christmas tree on Dorothy Jo's grave.
08:13 It is there, next to Dorothy's grave, that Bob will be quietly laid to rest.
08:18 And while he vowed to never remarry, Bob did find love again in 1983.
08:23 I've spent a lot of time with Nancy Burnett.
08:26 Any wedding bells?
08:27 No, no, and not at my age.
08:29 And I know he loved her. She cared deeply for him the last five years.
08:34 Of his life, she was just completely devoted to making sure that his health care,
08:43 that his care on a daily, around-the-clock basis was the top. And it was.
08:51 Nancy paid tribute to her love, telling ET, quote,
08:54 "I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker and I did together.
08:58 We were great friends. He will be missed."
09:00 If I had to tell you who was maybe one of the most positive influences on his life,
09:06 it would be his wife, Dorothy Jo, and Nancy.
09:11 Bob and Nancy actually met at an animal adoption event.
09:14 Throughout their 40 years as boyfriend and girlfriend,
09:16 they advocated for animals, organizing protests, and
09:20 he donated $25 million to establish an animal charity, which Nancy ran.
09:25 Well, I've always loved animals.
09:29 I felt compelled to try to do what I could to change the situation.
09:35 This is Bob Barker reminding you to help control the pet population.
09:39 Have your pets fed and neutered. Goodbye, everybody.
09:41 Of course, we all know Bob's famous sign-off.
09:43 But did you know he stopped dyeing his hair because the products were tested on animals?
09:48 Lady in the back row says she loves my hair. Do you like it? Do you like it?
09:52 Release those elephants and let them go into a sanctuary.
09:59 We have to make people aware.
10:02 They don't realize how much suffering is going on in the animal world.
10:07 Any animal that came in Bob Barker's path was a lucky animal.
10:10 He used to send a limousine to put an animal in there to go to the vet hospital.
10:14 He'd send them in a limo.
10:15 Now look up there and smile. There you are.
10:17 We need more voices like mine, and we need more voices, period.
10:22 I think that the fact that I have the opportunity to be with you on entertainment tonight
10:28 is important.
10:29 Bob also took on movie studios, demanding the ethical treatment of animals on set.
10:35 When you go to the movie theaters and you see on the screen no animals were harmed
10:39 in the making of this film, that's because of Bob Barker's work and Nancy Burnett's work.
10:44 I would like to have them remember me as a man who loved all living things and did all he could
10:51 during his life to make ours a better world for animals and at the same time did a lot of television shows.
11:00 [Music]