Bob won't allow a sub host. He did in late 1974 for three episodes, as Dennis James(who was doing the weekly nighttime syndicated TPIR at the time) filled in for him on the daytime show. WHen Bob became EP in 1987 upon the death of Frank Wayne(the recently-departed Phil ROssi's dad), part of his contract IIRC says no one will sub host. 'Twould be interesting to see Todd Newton, Marc Summers, or even Randy West step in for a show or two, however.

That's just selfish. Pure and simple. Selfish to the crew, the contestants
and many others. Say what you will about Walter Cronkite's ego, but when he
got sick or went on vacation, did The CBS Evening News go on as
scheduled anyway? It did. Did CBS have to plug in a rerun? It did not.
They just called up Roger Mudd or Mike Wallace or whoever and the
show went on. Bob needs to get over himself.

Selfish to some of the crew. Some do get paid when they don't work. (ie: non-tape dates, cancelled dates)

Contestants aren't paying to get in, although those who fly to L.A. for the specific purpose of being a contestant might be disappointed.

I really don't see the big deal. Most game shows today don't have substitute hosts and work around the host's vacations or illnesses. For all we know, other hosts may have that clause in their contracts as well. Sure, Bob's 80 and more likely to have health problems, but on the other hand, TPIR is the one show for which we obsessively track the production schedule. If Jeopardy skipped a taping day because Alex wasn't feeling well, there wouldn't be nearly this much attention.

Of course, Alex did miss a couple of tapings of TTTT and Mark Goodson found someone to fill in rather than cancel the tapings. (He looked in the mirror to find someone.)

Good point. Better to have The Best Of Bob than to have a one-hour recreation of The Syd Vinnedge Comedy Routine.

I would love to see proof of this. Did you help draft the contract, Zach?

I think it's an unwritten part of his contract, but it is there. Bob's ego, as someone stated earlier in this thread.

Exactly my point. If it's unwritten, then it ISN'T there, and you're speaking ex rectum.

And you know it, since you've edited the questionable content out of the original message.

Zach, this is gibberish even for you. Something is either in a contract or it's not in a contract. There may be an unwritten understanding, or an unwritten agreement (and there almost certainly is in this case) but there's no such thing as an unwritten part of a contract, much less one that's definitely "there".

And back to the original topic, as Mr. Bogart has noted, 2/17 was set to be #6,000. As I reported on Golden-Road, CBS has apparantly requested that the 6,000th Show tape out of order. It has been moved back to tape on 2/19.

Which means when that show tapes it still won't "officially" be 6000.

Chances are good that they will do another all-car show.

I was told since people expect it (because of precedent), they will probably do it.

Though, I wouldn't expect retrospective clips.

John, do you have any personal connection with the show/CBS?

In that instance, weren't they in the middle of taping a week's worth of shows when Trebek's wife went into labor? Big difference if you've already got everybody there from cancelling a day or two in advance.

If an on-air personality realizes they're a bit under the weather during a taping, most of them tough it out. We saw Pat Sajak all but lose his voice a few seasons ago (to the point where Pat and Vanna switched places during the bonus round).

If this happened in the late '70s it was because Dennis James was no longer available as a fill-in emcee, not because the audience was outraged.

Nowadays there is still no alternate emcee available to fill in on a moment's notice, so the only option is to cancel the taping. If Barker were out for an extended period they might be able to press Tom Kennedy into service, but I doubt they would.

I agree, never happen, but damn, wouldn't that rule. :)

Well, he *almost* missed a taping day this week--but if the accident was much worse than it was, all Friedman would've done is postpone the taping to another date. No doubt they have enough shows in the can that it wouldn't hurt at all--the only potential problem is when they *don't* have enough shows in the can to work around it. That's when they would get a fill-in--and there's already another thread about *that* right now.

Poor Tom -- he'd be the guy producers turn to when their hosts are sick or dying. (Although technically Dick Gautier replaced the dying host on It's Your Bet; Kennedy replaced him.)

I don't think Kennedy would want this -- I just went halfway through Brad Francini's web site of TPIR pricing games -- of the 50 games A-M, Kennedy did 25, one's since been retired, and there are 15 new ones in rotation. Imagine learning 15 new games and relearning 24 old ones when you haven't hosted a game in 17 years and you're in your 70s.

They'd probably put the show in reruns for awhile, and Todd Newton would get 24-hour training if it appeared Barker would be out for a long time.

Regis was losing his voice on an episode of WWTBaM? one time. The contestant was proficient in ASL (American Sign Language), so she taught Regis a few words, and for the first five questions, Regis asked for final answers and declared right ones in sign language. Then during commercial, Davies told him to knock it off, I guess.

Even Tom gets sick occassionally though, that's how Jamie Farr became a network game show host for a few days.

I once mentioned that Tom Kennedy seemed lost at times probably because he had so many games to remember.

I was told that they only used a small (relatively speaking) rotation of games.

I was there on Monday. They told us right after all the name tags were handed out. The pages had been cracking jokes all morning, so we all thought it was a joke at first. One lovely young lady who was wearing a t-shirt indicating that it was her 18th birthday was even in tears.

Oh well, at least I got a TPiR name tag (and an excuse to go back to California!).

A point not addressed -- the CBS Evening News airs live (or nearly live) every night. The days of live TV where game shows are concerned are long-since past, other than the novelty act. There's no need for a sub host.

Probably not so much a problem if Newton got the call, considering the time he's been spending over at 33 (and he supposedly has been watching the show since--everyone--he was a kid).

Right. Somebody's got to do The CBS Evening News, be it Dan Rather, John Roberts, Walter Cronkite, Arnold Zenker, or Rudy from the mailroom.

But they have some flexibility with TPIR. Yeah, a few union guys are going to get paid without shows being produced, and a lot of people who waited to get into 33 are going to be disappointed, but there won't be an hour of dead air.

The analogy between Carson's Tonight Show and today's TPIR isn't particularly apt either, I'm afraid. Carson routinely used guest hosts (Leno and Rivers were the *regular* guest hosts in their time, but before that a wide variety of folks would step in) so seeing a guest host step in because of illness wouldn't be all that unusual.

Even after reruns became a possibility, the Tonight Show was considered something fresh and topical every day (the way the Today Show is still viewed) so having a guest host come in, even at the last minute, was preferable to showing a "Best Of". By comparison, there's just no burning *need* to produce a TPIR if Bob can't make it. All you have are a couple hundred disappointed fans, many of whom would probably be just as disapponted with a replacement host.

*Could* it be done? Of course. And given that they'll have to pick a replacement at some point, there's even a certain amount of logic to doing so. But if Bob objects, it's not worth the fuss.

I don't think the Reno shows are using all the games ... which means Todd Newton and the other guy (HELP, RANDY, NAME?) could fill in, but they might be limited in what they could present during that time.

The ones I know of are Plinko and Hole in One (which actually has a smaller hole than the daytime game)

I wonder if there is a game show host who is a fan of game shows, somebody who knows how to explain all the pricing games without a run-through? What Barker needs is somebody who is not after his job to fill in, Doug Davidson is right across the hall. From what I remember the other Reno hosts are or were Chris Harrison and Jeff Trachta.

I believe Newton is 34, meaning he wasn't older than 3 when CBS TPIR began.

Doug D. does of course have experience hosting TPIR(and The Price WAS RIght from his version plays like the one bid does). Doug, on the other hand, didn't preside over every pricing game the daytime TPIR has(though they did use games not part of the 70s or 80s syndicated TPIR rotation which were in the rotation at the time on Daytime TPIR). Then of course, how rusty are his TPIR hosting skills after a decade(some would argue they were rusty then).

How is Chris Harrison doing as a host on the Reno TPIR anyway? He was fair on Mall Masters, granted the show wasn't all that exciting to begin with.

A real dark horse candidate I know, but many of us would LOVE to see Geoff Edwards do TPIR.

I dunno, from what I have seen of Janet in recent years on the news, I can't see her get too excited about anything -- One-Bids, Plinko, Double Showcase Wins,...

;-D

Okay. UNCLE! I see I'm alone in this compulsion to designate a sub host so before I get too far in my written rampage, I'll throw the white flag. Bob is of the all-time greats. By no means do I challenge that. Given his position, I suppose I'd want to keep my name and face out there, too, so I do see his side in this. Moving on now.

While I can certainly feel your theoretical pain, the point is that when the producers of a network television program are considering what's in the best interest of their television program, a handful of fans being "devastated" just isn't high on their priority list.

In other words, yes it would be a miserable experience for you and your fellow fans, and I'm sure there were probably some people just like you who actually were devastated when this week's shows were cancelled. But that alone is not remotely a good enough reason to have a substitute host standing by.

Then you need to get out more. Bottom line.

Sorry, no sympathy from here. When you make this pilgrimage to Studio 33, or in fact to any live event, you do so with the knowledge that something might Go Down that causes the cancellation of the event.

In this case, I have even less sympathy than usual, because you are in Hollywood. There is LOTS TO SEE AND DO in Hollywood. Yes, you didn't get to see TPiR. Waah. Check out the Walk Of Fame. Eat a Tommyburger. Didja know that the Sunset Grill that Don Henley made famous in song is a teeny little walkup stand? Good lord, I was hanging out in the Guitar Center on Sunset once when Sherman Hemsley walked in, flanked on either side with bodyguards. (No, he doesn't walk like George Jefferson in real life.)

Man, save "devistation" for the loss of a pet or a loved one, or your girlfriend dumping you. Missing out on a game-show taping is not cause for "devistation."

*Studio* 33, Zach. *Studio* 33. Despite the signs, that's what everyone at TV City still calls the place when Barker's not within earshot.

And I would be disappointed but understanding if Barker had to cancel, just as I'm sure the people who witnessed the snowboarding accident on Letterman last night understood when the taping was called off early. These things do happen.

Last year, I made plans to go to Washington, D.C. to see a certain jazz musician from Germany at the Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams Festival. With tickets and hotel all set up, I find out a few days beforehand that she cancelled (probably due to the SARS scare). I went to Washington and saw the performance anyway. Enjoyed the evening and her replacement, although I most likely would've it enjoyed it more if she were there. But in this case, there were other performers on the bill and the show went on. Didn't stop me from having a good time in Washington for the weekend.