Drew Carey was sitting in a Cracker Barrel
restaurant in North Carolina a little over
a month ago when his cellphone buzzed with
a call from his agent. A CBS casting
manager, Mr. Carey was told, was looking
to talk to him.
“In my head,” Mr. Carey recalled
today, “I start thinking, ‘They want
me to be a guest on C.S.I.’ ”
No, Mr. Carey was gently informed, CBS was
looking for someone to replace Bob Barker
as host of “The Price Is Right.”
“Whoever does that is going to be an
fool or desperate for work,” Mr. Carey
replied, or at least that’s how he
recalled it today. “How would you like
to fill a legend’s shoes? Get somebody
else.”
Fast-forward to Monday night, when Mr.
Carey announced during an appearance on
“Late Show With David Letterman” that
CBS had found its fool. Beginning sometime
this fall he will take over for Mr.
Barker, who retired in June at 83 after 35
years on the job.
Which raises a question: was Mr. Carey
that desperate for work?
“Well I don’t need the money,” said
Mr. Carey, 49, whose two network series
— “The Drew Carey Show” and “Whose
Line Is It Anyway” — live on in
lucrative reruns after ending within the
last few years. And yet, while he
wouldn’t disclose his new salary, he
acknowledged that “I like the fact that
I’m getting paid.”
But the most important factor in his
decision, Mr. Carey said, was that he
relished the idea of regularly giving away
a new car or a new refrigerator or a
vacation to somebody who probably really
needed it. He acknowledged, for example,
that his minimum tip — even for a
hamburger at Denny’s, or a Coke at a
Cracker Barrel — is typically $100, and
sometimes much more.
“I just want to share the wealth,” he
said. “And by doing ‘Price Is
Right,’ that’s what I’ll be doing
every day.”
As a long-time stand-up comedian who
worked a lot of nights, Mr. Carey said he
had become very familiar with “The Price
Is Right,” because “it came on right
around the time I was waking up.”
Asked to size up Mr. Barker’s appeal,
Mr. Carey put it this way: “He has good
empathy for all the players. He wants them
to win. You can hug him. He went from
being your dad and your uncle to your
grandfather. You know, ‘He’s Bob,
he’s on my side.’ ”
Mr. Carey said he hoped to bring a similar
warmth to his new role, and that while he
was confident he could extract plenty of
humor from his guests’ anxieties —
mainly through his efforts to try to calm
them down — he would not seek to mine
laughs by making fun of them. He also said
he was confident that whatever dirty jokes
he still liked to tell, particularly in
places like Las Vegas, would stay in Las
Vegas.
Regular viewers of “The Price Is
Right,” he says, can rest assured that
beyond getting used to his blond-brown
crew cut in place of Mr. Barker’s white
mane, little about the show will change.
An announcer will still prod contestants
from the audience with the signature
“Come on down!” And beyond a few
touch-ups, the set is also “going to
look very familiar.”
One change that he and the producers are
planning, he said, is periodically to take
the show, which is based in Los Angeles,
on the road, and broadcast for a week or
so from various cities.
But beyond that, Mr. Carey said the
biggest adjustment would be within his own
head, as he adapts not only to his role on
“The Price Is Right” but also as host
of a new game show, “Power of 10,”
which will make its debut on the
prime-time schedule at CBS on Aug. 7.
“I’m going to be a game-show host the
rest of my life,” Mr. Carey said. “I
had to come to terms with that.”
And then he laughed.
|
Mommy35
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 3165 Location: Vacationland, USA,
Posted: 09-17-07 13:20pm
IMO he's an odd choice to replace Bob, but
I think he'll do a good job.
Some Stan guy that interviews people to be
contestents on TPIR was on a local radio
station this morning said that Drew hurt
his hand taping his first show. He got it
in the way of the wheel. Stan has written
a book. It's called, "Come on Down".
