'Price is Right' says good-bye to longtime host Bob Barker

"The Price is Right". Farewell party. Bob Barker says adios to the game show life after 35 years of playing genial "Price is Right" host. His final show, taped last week, offers Barker one last chance to hear the show's iconic catchphrase, "Come on down!"

Robert William "Bob" Barker (born December 12, 1923) is a seventeen-time Emmy Award-winning American television game show host. He is best known for hosting CBS's The Price Is Right since September 4, 1972, making it the longest-running daytime game show in television history. On October 31, 2006 he announced that he would retire from hosting The Price Is Right in June 2007 after holding the job for nearly 35 years and having been in television for 50 years. His last episode of The Price Is Right was taped on June 6, 2007 and aired on June 15, 2007.

Bob Barker is well known for his work in animal rights. He became a vegetarian in 1979. That same year, he began promoting animal rights. Barker began ending each episode of The Price Is Right with the phrase: "Help control the pet population; have your pet spayed or neutered" in 1981 and was named national spokesman for "Be Kind to Animals Week" in May of that year. On A&E's Biography program, Bob credited his wife, Dorothy Jo, with him becoming more aware of animal rights and becoming a vegetarian because she had done so. Bob said that Dorothy Jo was ahead of her time in terms of animal rights. Bob took up animal rights in order to keep doing something that his recently deceased wife had done. Fellow game show hosts Jack Barry and Bert Convy eventually followed Barker's lead in promoting animal rights on the air.

Barker has set a longevity record as holding a weekday T.V. job continuously for 50 years as of 2006, which includes his years on Truth or Consequences. Only sportscaster Vin Scully, who is four years younger than Barker, has held a job longer than Barker in the entertainment industry, albeit a seasonal job and not a daily one.

At age 83, Barker holds the record of being the oldest man ever to host a game show and the oldest man ever to host a weekday television program since the inception of network television. Barker is now in his fiftieth consecutive year on television (network or syndication). Barker also has hosted/appeared on a five-days-a-week television program longer than anyone else in the history of television.

In 2003, Barker celebrated his 80th birthday with a prime-time special on CBS. It featured guest appearances by fan Céline Dion along with friends talk-show host Larry King and actor Chuck Norris. The show also featured taped vignettes from CBS stars like Ray Romano, the cast of Becker, and the cast of Joan of Arcadia.

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