Bad fits for established hosts/announcers

[whewfan]

I was REALLY hoping the Barker Era streaming channel would drop a new batch of 1986 episodes as I really want to see Bob Hilton's run at announcing in its entirety. The couple episodes I have from his audition, I'd have hired him on the spot. I know "Bob and Bob" would probably pivot between confusing, frustrating, and funny - but I really liked what I heard.

I have heard several reasons why Bob was not hired for the role, from him hosting a TTTT knockoff pilot and turning it down to Barker having a fear of being upstaged... what's the real story?

Bob Hilton told us years ago at a GSC that Bob Barker thought Hilton was too good looking. Roger gave another interesting reason, Barker didn't want TWO Bobs. Hilton told us another interesting story... he saved Rod Roddy's life. One time, shortly after Rod became the permanent announcer, Rod was in a car accident en route to the studio, and while he was okay, he didn't think he was going to make the taping on time, so Hilton was called in to substitute. Well, Hilton arrived, and as it turned out, Rod made it before the taping was to start. So, Bob decided to stick around anyway. Well, at the CBS commissary, Rod Roddy and Bob Hilton were at different tables eating, when Rod starts choking... Bob immediately got up and ran to Rod and gave him the Heimlich maneuver... it saved his life.

[whewfan]

Seconded on Gene Wood/TPIR.

When Johnny O died, G-T needed an announcer to get the shows in the can, so that was a temp job and I suspect Gene knew that. As for my takes on bad fits on hosts:

Louie Anderson for Family Feud
John Davidson for Pyramid and Hollywood Squares - he was okay on Time Machine
Patrick Wayne on Tic Tac Dough
Mike Darow on The $128,000 Question
Rolf B on Wheel of Fortune
Billy Bush on Let's Make a Deal
JD Roberto on Shop Till You Drop

Louie to me was inconsistent... some shows, I thought he was funny... other shows, he looks tired and wants to go home. Billy Bush had the same problems that Bob Hilton had on LMAD... he was trying to follow someone that was to LMAD as Bob Barker was to TPIR, and when Monty came on Bush's show to host a deal, Billy Bush couldn't help but look astonished at how easy and how much better Monty was. Never mind their attempts to make the show edgier... yeah it was distracting, but it took another 7 years or so for Wayne to finally find a way to make the show shine and not make anyone miss Monty.

JD Roberto wasn't really the problem with Shop Till You Drop... the mistake was getting rid of the stunts in favor of much less exciting and not in any way physical games that were just... boring. The bonus game was basically the same, but it lost a lot with its one level layout, and becoming some sort of Costco type store instead of a mall.

I guess I'll comment on Gene and Break the Bank. If you watch the first week of shows, Gene did seem to find moments to goof off and joke around in the prize vault, and another early episode apparently had Kline in an ape outfit making an entrance instead of Gene, but then Kline wanted a more serious tone, something Gene doesn't do. Gene struggled, and at one point didn't even seem to care, so they got Joe Farago, and honestly, I didn't think he was any better, and the show got much worse when they took out the stunts completely. Interestingly enough, Pat Finn mentioned with the TJW tryout that in another pilot, he was joking around more with the players, and Kline advised him not to do that. Finn was better with STYD, and didn't have to wear glasses like Kline insisted he wear on TJW, even though Pat didn't need glasses or wear them otherwise.

[Casey Buck]

another early episode apparently had Kline in an ape outfit making an entrance instead of Gene, but then Kline wanted a more serious tone

The cognitive dissonance here is off the charts.

[TLEberle]

Quick update after a chat with Jeremy Nelson, who I don't think has turned down a prompt from me yet and thus earns a Cool Friend point from me:

Listening to the show my summer stock counselor was on Password Plus in July of 1980, the partners are Betty and Bill. For the life of me I could not get away with upbraiding my wife (may it happen someday) the way Allen did. There's persnickety and wanting to move things along but Allen started to snap at his guests. Let Uncle Bill fire off a pun--he either did or will do the show a solid and he's possibly the best male celebrity partner you'll find.

I still find Bert Convy to be a bit..squirrely isn't the right word, and neither is flake because obviously he got work, but I watched SP on BUZZR this week and it seemed like he was guest hosting to my perception. It's weird to say that Mr. Password wasn't the right fit of his own show in the eighties, but the password was martinet, and unless Allen was dealing with his stomach issue by then I do not know why the production staff didn't grab him by the collar and say "straighten up, be a mensch and let your guest stars have a bit of fun for the love of Greg."

[wdm1219inpenna]

WOW to reading all of these posts.  I never knew the story about Bob Hilton saving Rod Roddy from choking?!?!?!  That's truly amazing...Bob Hilton an unsung hero.  Bob tried his very best with the 1990 Let's Make A Deal but he did seem like a fish out of water.  He definitely was a handsome man but his announcing voice was by far his best quality.

I also do not recall seeing that episode (or group of episodes) where Allen Ludden became so terse.  That sadly surprised me, but as the poster indicated, Allen may have been dealing with health issues more by that time.  Lord knows I've been going through my own set of physical ailments from my eyes to my feet and some parts in between, and at times it has caused me to be not as gracious at my workplace as I could have been and should have been.

[TLEberle]

Bill: I gave the month of airing, right? You can navigate to YouTube because you can navigate here, right? Then it stands to reason that you can watch the show largely in order and see of which I speak, right?

Ok? Ok.