Talk about an absolutely brutal week as far as fandoms, nostalgia and symbols of millennial childhood go. Wrestling fans had to endure the passing of a legend, and a sudden departure of a star that wasn’t anywhere near the heights he was destined for, but then fans of the same television I grew up watching had to bear witness as a legend passed, and an icon that defined basically an entire television series.
I don’t particularly have a ton to say about Bob Barker or Arleen Sorkin, at least nothing new from one of the many countless tributes on the internet there are for either of them, but it hit me enough in the feels when both of them left us to where I still feel like at the very least, documenting it in my own brog to try and emphasize at the very least, my appreciation for them and what they did.
Obviously, at 99 years of age, it’s easy to say that Bob Barker did not leave us to soon, and he most definitely lived a full and successful life and career. Cue the bittersweet jokes about how if anyone was going to ace the big wheel game of getting as close to 100 without going over, it’s Bob Barker.
But like many, the OG Price Is Right was the show that we all watched when we were home sick from school, or over summer vacations, because at least where I grew up, it was always on at 11 am, obviously not a time in which we could watch it at school. But Bob Barker’s talent was so effortlessly immense that it didn’t matter if you were nine years old, 29 years old, 59 years old or 79 years old, his delivery, his smooth on-screen charisma and charm made him watchable, made him entertaining and made the show the legendary program it was, all because of him.
I always enjoyed watching the show, playing along with the showcase, screaming at the television when contestants didn’t ever seem to realize that the items on the show were always marked up 5000% and undershot their estimates, and of course loved Plinko.
Drew Carey’s variant of the show is garbage in comparison, and as far as I’m concerned, the show ended when Bob Barker retired. There was once an incident where a contestant hit the nail on the head in the final showdown at the end of the show, and Drew Carey immediately deadpanned him and killed the episode, because he thought that the guy must have been cheating; most everyone was quick to point out that if that had happened under Bob Barker’s watch, he would have sold it like the greatest achievement of mankind, and made it into a memorable event.
There are just some things that can never be replaced, and Bob Barker is most definitely one of them. The show is better off discontinuing, than to let Drew Carey sink the prestige and equity that Bob built with his legendary run.
Now I think it’s safe to say that there wasn’t a boy, or frankly girl, and/or comic book fan of either gender, that wasn’t smitten with Harley Quinn when they discovered her on Batman the Animated Series. I’ve made no secret of my love for the show as a whole, but as far as I was concerned, much had to do with Harley Quinn, who was kind of like this cherry on top of the show, this perky, spunky, sassy pin-up that never existed in DC Comics outside of the show, but became so immensely popular, it forced the hand of DC to create and unleash her into the canon of the comics.
None of that happens without the talents of Arleen Sorkin, who quite literally breathed life into what probably was meant to be an innocuous sidekick to the Joker. Her voice acting made the character who it was, and if you were to go back and watch old episodes of the show, you can kind of tell when Sorkin was reading Harley, and when Sorkin’s persona and performance of the character is what started driving Harley.
I remember being excited whenever I’d tune into Batman TAS at 4:30 after school when it was evident that it was a Joker episode, because it meant that I might get to see Harley Quinn. And as silly as it is to have crushes on fictional cartoon characters, there’s no denying the crush that I had on Harley Quinn, and I highly doubt that I’m alone in that regard.
The fact that she made the character so popular that it forced DC to bring her to life in the comics was the ultimate testament to Sorkin’s performing chops. As much as I appreciate Tara Strong and Kaley Cuoco’s takes on being Harley Quinn, I don’t think either of them could have done what Arleen Sorkin did with the character, and without her leaving such a lasting blueprint of the character, they would never have been able to make a living being Harley without the guidance they received.
Anyway, it’s been an absolutely brutal week as far as my fandoms go, and I know death is as inevitable as taxes, but it’s been rough seeing name after name after name after name of people a part of industries I enjoy and shows I loved as a kid start leaving the rest of us schmucks alone amongst the living in a rather droll present.
Happy trails, Bob Barker. Happy trails, Arleen Sorkin.
