Episode 019: Thoughts on Game Show History and Culture, a Tribute to Bob Barker, and a Review of "Perfect People"

Today Frank discusses what kind of general character he believes he could play well in any kind of production, then discusses a little about game show history and culture over many years.  He asks questions like what happened to most of the morning game shows and why many are now on only at night and feel "darker".

He then gets in to a belated tribute to Bob Barker, the long-time host of The Price is Right who died recently at age 99.  He credits Bob with "making" that show with his charm and sense of humor, and then Frank then envisions what his own success might look like in the arts non-monetarily.

Finally he does a review of Perfect People, a 1988 made-for-TV movie with PB and some other familiar names.  It tackles the constant pursuit of health and a fountain of youth in western societies, when many people already have much more going for them than they might otherwise realize.  So it has a terrific message in addition to its humor.

Perfect People  is currently available on Amazon Prime Video as well as FreeVee, Tubi, and YouTube.

The theme song is called Retro Funk by SoulProdMusic and can be found at pixabay.com.

--The best way to contact is:
Twitter: @frankwebertx
Web:  frankwebertx.com
Email:  frankoweber@hotmail.com

Transcript

Frank: 0:00

Well, on this episode, I'm going to talk about several things I'm going to get into something that's kind of a passion of mine regarding game show history and culture. Talk a little bit about that and then get into a tribute of the late Bob Barker, who passed away several weeks ago, and I'm a little late talking about him. And then we're going to do a review of a wonderful made for TV movie from 1988 called Perfect People, where Priscilla Barnes has a Wonderful supporting role. So stay tuned. I know you're going to love it. Hello once again. Welcome to Frank Weber's party. Another edition. So glad that you could be with me here again today and allow me to share little stories and commentary with you. tell your friends and family about us. It's subscribe. Leave me some comments. would really appreciate that. I wanted to start off today with a little bit of a joke. that just came into my mind this weekend, and I told my wife, she doesn't like it, of course, but I think it's funny, and I was always thinking, like, if I had ever been an actor, then who knows, maybe something will happen someday, but that's not even really my priority, I really wanted to get more into comedy and And maybe even stand up. But, I was thinking if I was an actor, what kind of role would I be very good at and possibly even be typecast in? And I told her, I think I would really like to be an asshole. And, I don't mean, of course, the body part, but I mean a rude and boorish person. I think I have a little bit of a practice with that, in my life, and sometimes I can be very asshole ish. You know, actors can certainly slip into and out of certain roles fairly easily, but if you have, like, some personal experience with it, you would think it would be... a little bit easier. So I told her I would like to be an asshole. And she thinks that that's not really good for our image and reputation here as a family. I don't know, I disagree. that's just a little food for thought for you first. So my mind is always. Contemplating and wondering about things and, notice over the years, so many things have changed, and like I said, sometimes change is good. Sometimes it's not, but it can be very overwhelming to me and I'm always pondering these questions and one that I've pondered for probably about 25 years now is. outside of the price is right, which we'll talk about in a little bit. And Bob Barker outside of the price is right. What happened to morning game shows on the TV networks? And I know a lot of people who are smarter than me or closer to the business would know more about that. really from, I would say probably from the fifties to the nineties, sometime in the nineties. the three major networks, if you don't count Fox, which didn't come along until late eighties, I guess, but the three major networks always had at least, it seemed one morning game show on between say nine and 11 o'clock before the, the soap opera is ramped up. And if you were at home that day, that was really kind of a nice way to start the morning. I'm reminded of a quote that I heard. A few weeks back, there's an actor named John Ham who has been in a number of, productions, played Maverick's boss. I believe it was. And the Top Gun sequel that came out a little over a year ago. And he was on Bill Maher's podcast doing an interview and said that when he was growing up in the seventies, he always thought that there was a party every morning at CBS television city with all these game shows And I remember that being the case as well in the eighties and even going on into the nineties a little bit. And I don't really know what happened to it because at some time in the nineties, outside of prices, right? Of course they stopped doing morning game shows and uh, the morning schedule got littered with these crazy talk shows. initially it was like Donnie Hugh and Sally, Jesse and Geraldo and things like that. but then of course, they also had, Bullshit show the view came out. I think sometime in the 90s. It replaced something called the home show that of course competed directly against prices Right and the view is such a cesspool now. It really is all those ladies on there. But anyway, it's sad when you see A certain snapshot of your childhood kind of pass away and move on as it were. and that's the case of the morning game shows. Of course they have a couple of game show channels now. And, the big thing of course is doing a lot of shows at night. Which, there's a lot of popular shows including Price is Right. Which has done night episodes actually off and on for many years. But then they put a lot of other ones that are very familiar on at night now. And, they have a lot of times, not all of them, but a lot of them have kind of this darker feeling to it. and I'm even going back a little far in the past on this, but you know, when Regis Philbin started doing who wants to be a bit, um, a billionaire, wow, that'd be great, huh? who wants to be a millionaire? they always made this show so dark, you know, less lighting, not as colorful. And then this music that, Oh, you've got to get this question, right? You know, they have that heart pounding music. The music actually sounds like a heartbeat and they, make everything, every question just so life or death and, Oh, if you don't get this question, I think you go back to zero, I think is the way the show worked. And, but if you do get this question, then you move on or maybe you get the million dollars or whatever. And it was just so crazy. and they did that on other shows too. what's the other one deal or no deal. That was kind of a dark show. when you compare it to something like price is right, which has always been colorful and it's still colorful to this day, even with all the changes over the years in that show, it's just a totally different deal. Some others, of course, went into syndication, wheel of fortune used to be on in the mornings, but that's been at night. For a long time now or at least in the late afternoons or evenings on a lot of channels of course Jeopardy as far as I can remember has always been syndicated, but I'm just thinking back on that a lot You know, that's how my mind works I'm just always wondering what happened to certain things and why I mean I still don't quite understand how they got replaced in the morning but then they changed the whole culture up and There's several different people who have hosted Family Feud over the years, including, uh, what's that guy, Richard Karn, who was Tim the Toolman Taylor's right hand guy on his show. He hosted it for a while. And then Louie Anderson, comedian. Who is no longer with us. He hosted that show as well. Of course, I always remember Richard Dawson and then Ray Combs for a little while and then Richard Dawson coming back again, but then Richard Dawson not kissing the ladies at all. The second time I never had a problem with him kissing the ladies and I thought that was the way it was supposed to be. But, but there's a lot of gray area and that and, I just wanted to, ponder that question. Maybe a little food for thought for you. Okay. it was, a lot different back in those days. And I also remember One other thing that used to make us mad as kids and we didn't really understand this either And you could talk about this with prices right or any of the other shows that were on like concentration or sale of the century Or was a password card sharks. I don't know. There's a bunch of different ones that were on I'm probably leaving some out which you know, I can't remember all of them, but back in those days they would most certainly interrupt the game shows if there was a big news bulletin, you know, if there was some issue between us and the Soviets, or I guess Mount St. Helens erupting, or... The big one was in the summer of 87, when they had the Iran Contra thing, CBS and the others wanted to televise the whole trial. And it was always in the morning, and it was always during the Price is Right, and I'm like, what is this bullshit? I wanna watch, game shows instead, and... That was very frustrating, and I'm sure it still happens every so often, they'll break in for that, but it was that one summer, 1987, it was happening all the time, and, there's always something fun about going on those shows, I've never been on one, but I, I would like to, and see if I could. Show some knowledge and win a little something and, have my pride stroked in some really small way for a little while. So anyway, just to get you thinking and warmed up here, today on this show. anyway, I just mentioned Ray Combs to He was the host of the family feud in the late eighties and early nineties. he was a comedian as well, so that's why I mentioned him. He, Wound up committing suicide after they brought Richard Dawson back to the production in the mid 90s. And, I always enjoyed his show. He was always trying to, like, dance and stuff afterwards. But the main reason I wanted to get into this today is I, I needed to pay tribute to Bob Barker. He died at the end of August and I, for some reason, overlooked him and got into a lot of other subjects since then. I would say, as an overall game show host, I probably enjoyed him maybe slightly more than Richard Dawson over the years. I know a little bit about his story. I think he's part. Native American and grew up in Missouri, came out to California really to be an actor. And then I think the story after he died is, they made him a game show host instead. And the only person that actually allowed him to realize his acting dreams and the only one that I can recall is Adam Sandler, particularly in the happy Gilmore scene when they're playing together in the program and they get into the fight on the golf course. And it's a very classic scene. And then, they have something on the Internet where they kind of recreated that in a hospital. Some years later, it was kind of a bizarre scene. Obviously staged and scripted and it was a lot of fun, but, I've talked before about how you watching people on TV, you basically let them into your homes and you get to know them a lot over the years and that was the case for sure with Bob Barker. Now I know a lot of those mornings I had to go to school or I had to go to work, or maybe it was a rerun. But, if you think about it, he started on that show in 1972 went all the way to 2007 they were largely doing five shows a week. So over the years I watched him quite a bit, especially during vacations and sick days and There was just something magical about the way he ran that show on the Price is Right and it wasn't his first game show He was on a show called truth or consequences before that that went from like the 50s to the 70s and he had A good chemistry, not just with his, announcers, particularly Johnny Olson and then Rod Roddy for many years and since then, it's been kind of a carousel of announcers on that show, but, he had a good chemistry with them. And then, of course, he had Barker's beauties. They were all women back then. There were no male models. I personally like that better, of course. I know he definitely had a relationship with Diane Parkinson, probably starting in the 80s after his wife died, his wife, Dorothy Jo. she died in the early 80s, and I know the other models kind of sued him for various things over the years. I don't know what that was about. I never really got much into that. but I mean, you do remember Diane Parkinson, Janice Pennington. Holly Hallstrom. I don't know if Janice went after Bob or not for anything. And then there was The first black model was named Kathleen. She was, an attractive woman just like the others Went after him for something too at one time. But lately I was watching There's a lot of clips, from throughout his years on that show that's 35 years that he did The Price is Right. A lot of clips are on YouTube, especially some really well produced ones from the early 80s. And I was just watching that and, just a lot of great chemistry with the contestants. he really made the show in the sense of he could really build up suspense whether they had made the right bid or chose the right prize. that sort of thing and just had a way of really joking with people as well. And, I really look up to him for that. Really admire him for that. And, he, like I said, he truly made that show. It's changed a lot over the years, it's definitely different now with Drew Carey and Nothing Against Drew, also happens to be a comedian, and his show is a little bit different, you know, he seems to say more to the models, and Maybe perhaps as a little more respectful. I don't know. That's kind of subjective there, but, it's always Bob that created that. He has the studio named after him as well for that show. so I've just been thinking about him a lot lately and now he was another one of my TV friends, was 99 when he passed away at the end of August. So definitely a long, full life. they say that he, died from Alzheimer's. which I did not know, until he passed, I also know that he was into tanning for a lot of years and he colored his hair for a lot of years But where I'm kind of going with this, is that I kind of look up to him cause I've been asking myself about what would success look like on this podcast. Or with writing or whatever other endeavor that I, chose to partake in, try to create something and, besides the obvious answers, I mean, besides being able to entertain people and make people laugh, which, is a, drug for a lot of people who have a sense of humor and, Desire in a great way to make others laugh. Obviously there's that, remuneration, being able to get paid for this. It's a fancy word for being, getting paid would be nice. but that money itself doesn't really make me happy. And I've told people that, if I won the lottery, it would be nice. I'd be able to do a lot of things with that, but it wouldn't make me happy. I obviously would appreciate signing autographs, maybe taking pictures with people and, that would be tremendous. But one of the things that Bob Barker, he didn't really do anything, in the way that say Richard Dawson did on Family Feud when he kissed all the female contestants. But, The female contestants on Price is Right would usually come up on stage and plant a little peck on his cheek. they didn't have to but a lot of them would and this was all variety of ladies or whatever. I think if something like that were to happen even nowadays and I would really appreciate that as well. have the female fans plant a kiss on my cheek. I think that would be wonderful and the thing is It's not, there's nothing really bad about it. people will give hugs, or they'll shake hands, or they'll do some other kind of contact. Kissing on the cheek isn't much more than those other things, if at all. I mean, it's a sweet gesture, it's kind, it's... Uh, way of saying I love you just like the other ones, but people don't seem to be doing it as much anymore and it's really kind of sad that that's gone by the wayside. It's not sexual, it's not what is it, it's not a salty or anything like that. So I don't really understand where or why it doesn't happen as much anymore. It's kind of sad, but that would be one thing that I would enjoy. That would be, A symbol of my success, of course, along with autographs and taking pictures with fans and then hearing feedback from you would be great as well. I have several different methods of doing that. email would probably be the best for me, but I appreciate whatever you can do and like I said, I've always said, tell your family and friends about me and Hit subscribe, and then we'll go from there. So anyway, I hope you enjoy that story, rest in peace. Bob. we love you. And I'm gonna start, with a review of a delightful made for TV movie from 1988 starring Priscilla Barnes. Well, she's actually co-starring in a very supporting role, not one of the main characters called Perfect People. And, it's got a nice message as well as being mostly funny. And we'll be right back with that. All right. Welcome back. I, wanted to review this made for TV movie called perfect people from 1988. I don't have, I couldn't find any network information or what the exact original air date was. But I find this to be a comedic and, poignant movie at the end and some of the things that America or people in America were doing back in the late eighties and are still doing a lot of now. let me go ahead and start off and tell you about who this stars. First of all. the main star is Lauren Hutton. It was a very beautiful woman, still beautiful woman today. she's still alive and started off as a model. She's famous for having the gap in her upper teeth. we call that in dentistry diastema. And, she's been in several movie productions over the years. I remember her a lot from Zorro the gay blade with George Hamilton, obviously a recommendation there. and so she plays the wife of this couple named Barbara. She's married to a guy named Ken who's played by someone named Peter. I'm sorry, not Peter. Perry King, who has a very distinctive voice just like Lauren Hutton does. I think he may have voiced some commercials And it was in a few other productions that I'm not sure if I've seen. And they have a daughter, Irene, that's played by Cheryl Pollack. Barbara has a mom that's played by June Lockhart, obviously she. Was the mom on Lassie I believe back in the black and white days and in the late 80s June Lockhart was probably doing the Depends commercials if I recall correctly She's actually one of the few people who have passed away from this movie Most people are still alive and the other two or three mentions actually You have David leisure who played Joe Isuzu During this time and was in a couple of airplane movies. He plays Derek, who's a coworker of Ken's at a stockbroking firm. because back in the day they were brokers, if you recall And we have, of course, the lovely Priscilla Barnes, who is a coworker of, Barbara's at a real estate agency, a very, outgoing, flirty, vivacious, a single woman, and also Karen Valentine who plays Margo, who's also a coworker. at the brokerage firm. So what happens is Ken and Barbara, they're in their forties and they're approaching their 20th wedding anniversary and they would like to go to Europe. and they have flashbacks of their little honeymoon in Mexico 20 years ago and they said they always love each other and everything. And in this movie, they're really only supposed to be in their forties, but initially they are done up with wigs and makeup to look Much older than that. it seems like and their daughter Irene is going off to college and they feel like they're getting older and they need to recapture their youth and Through some initial prodding at work. So in Barbara's case Amy played by PB she says that she got divorced and then she started going to clubs and taking up tennis and dancing and all this stuff and it really reinvigorated her life and And then Derek, who's the coworker of Ken Ken was really kind of worried that he might lose his job. He saw a guy getting laid off there at his office and says you can't just sit behind a desk and call people on the phone anymore. You got to go out and make eye contact with them and everything. And so this starts this little quest that extends throughout much of the movie about how to regain this youthful figure. Well, beautiful figures and vigor if you will. And, they started by, exercising initially. They had a gym membership, but then canceled that spent a lot of money on home gym. And then they start getting into diets and vitamins, all natural foods and then diet pills. And then they go to like salons for a little bit and you know, do all the, a number of things there. And then we start getting into hair plugs for Ken and some plastic surgery, plastic surgery for Barbara and they're on this never ending quest and about halfway through the movie they look very youthful and in shape and invigorated and they're getting a lot more attention now from other people. They actually go to a club once and they are kind of hit on by a couple of, I guess you could say younger folks. But the thing is that this is never really ending and we reach a point in the movie where, Barbara thinks Ken is cheating on his coworker, Margo, but really Margo is just giving him some advice. And she had been through a tough breakup and actually gets back together with her boyfriend named Harry. And, she basically tell him like, well, maybe you just need to get to know your wife a little bit more to truly reinvigorate the love that they had. And so he tries to do that one time, bring some flowers, but then Barbara, Caught him taking a walk out on the docks with Margo and thought he was cheating with Margo when he wasn't and And then Barbara decides to leave him and then Ken tries to go chasing her down there On the road and winds up taking his eye off the road and runs into a garbage truck winds up in the hospital and then as that point, you know, nobody dies, but, they begin to understand what they really have. And chasing after all these things, isn't the most important thing, but it's about the love that they have and rediscovering each other that really cures their relationship. so that's kind of a quick and dirty summary of that. people always kind of make fun of made for TV movies, which I guess they don't really have as much of anymore except on cable. Hallmark movies, but I would give this one a definite A because it's, it's full of laughs, and, you're gonna really enjoy yourself at all the different characters. You know, Priscilla is hilarious in this. I think David Leasure, of course, was always hilarious, and I don't really know what happened to him. I know he was in a show, he was in a, a TV show with Richard Mulligan around that time as well. I don't know what happened to him, but anyway, it's a great message, great family friendly movie, I would highly recommend it. It's available pretty much everywhere on, well not everywhere, but it's widely available on the internet. Not necessarily DVD or anything, but I think, you can find it a couple places on YouTube and a couple of streaming services. I would give the movie, like I said, about an A Uh, Priscilla's performance, I would, I'd give her an A as well. I think it was really good and... Hopefully I summarized that pretty well for you. Trying to think about if there were any other scenes that really came to mind that really stood out. It's a very quintessential 80s movie. It's got the soundtrack and some popular songs from the time. but, It holds up, even today. I think a lot of it is about, it's great that we have all this technology, medical technology, and people can, whether they stay healthy through working out and going to a gym, or, I wouldn't really recommend diet pills, you know, but, eating right, but then also the technology as far as plastic surgery, hopefully you're doing it for the right reasons. I know everybody wants to look good, but it's, difficult to look good forever. I brought up the thought. Some people think that let's just, talk about a couple of Priscilla's here. Some people, Priscilla Presley had some fairly bad plastic surgery a few years ago and I don't know. What the story was behind that. I mean, she was absolutely beautiful in the naked gun movies. If you remember seeing those and I don't know what happened there. Some people think Priscilla Barnes had plastic surgery. Her face is kind of as she's aged. I don't want to be mean or anything. Maybe kind of jolly or. Cheeks have kind of drooped down a little bit, but I don't think that's because she had plastic surgery. I could be wrong, but there are a couple of people leaving comments out there. Not on my page, but on, like, YouTube and stuff, who think she's had that surgery, but I'm really kind of doubtful of that. But, anyway, sometimes it's useful, sometimes it's not. Just kind of depends on where your priorities are, but, if you have... family, loving spouse. you have, a lot, you have a lot already is what I should say. So that was the point of the movie. But, anyway, that's about all I have for this episode. I believe this is, Unless I change it up again, like I did last time. This is probably going to be episode number 19 already. And, thank you for joining me. like I said, tell folks about me and leave comments. really appreciate it. And, for now, this is Frank Weber signing off from Frank Weber's party. The theme song is called retro funk by soul prod music. and is available at Pixabay. com