Kitten Confessions, Part One

As promised in my last post, here is some more personal information about the Bookkitten, designed to keep the blog interesting. (And designed to keep my one fan--if my one fan is still out there--reading this tome). This is the first part of a series I shall call "Kitten Confessions". I am not going to reveal any juicy info here, because there isn't any juicy info to reveal. I'm a freakin' goody two-shoes, to be perfectly honest with you.

Sooo...something about me no one knows anything about. I'll start with describing my favorite daytime show...the one show that you're SUPPOSED to watch whenever you're home sick from work or school. You probably already know what I'm talking about when I say this, but if you don't, I'm talking about that great American classic, The Price is Right.

I was a MAJOR TPIR junkie as a kid. There was something oddly fascinating to me about Bob Barker. I used to get him confused with James Garner during his Rockford Files days. Both men were handsome, something I'm embarrassed to say, since I was seven years old at the time I discovered both shows. (My mother was in lurve with James Garner and never missed a single rerun. She particularly liked watching The Rockford Files whenever she ironed. My mother irons obsessively. But that's another post for another blog).

Anyhoo, back to TPIR. I don't remember what the best part about it was--the wheel, the showcases, the models crashing the cars into the set--but I found it very comforting. It was a staple of my summer routine growing up--sleep till 10 AM, have a bowl of cereal (never the sugary stuff--my mother didn't believe in Trix or Lucky Charms), and watch TPIR. My mother would come home from her part time job around 12:30, then take me and my sister to the local pond, where we met up with some of our friends. I particularly enjoyed talking to this kid named Steven, since he was a fellow TPIR junkie. We'd compare notes on crazy contestants and whether or not someonebid correctly on a showcase.

Once I got into high school and started working, TPIR disappeared from my routine. I rarely watched it in college; I was not one of those people who scheduled classes around TPIR airings. If anything, whenever I was free at 11 AM, I was more likely at the time to watch The View (yeah, I know...)

I didn't get back into TPIR until last year, when Bob Barker announced his retirement. It really did feel as if I was losing an icon from my childhood--almost as sad as losing Captain Kangaroo or Mr. Rogers--but not quite as sad as losing those two great men. Still, I felt as if I should watch as many Barker episodes as I could, so his memory would be permanently placed in my brain.

I still watch TPIR whenever I can, and, no offense to the purists out there--but I think I like Drew Carey a whole lot better than I liked Bob Barker. Barker seemed to carry that aura of "Hey, I'm Bob Barker, and I'm awesome" throughout every episode. Let's face it, the man had a huge ego, and you don't need to read all of the backstage stories to prove it; just watch his interactions with the models, crew, and even the contestants during his final episodes. He just really seemed stiff and awkward.

Drew Carey, on the other hand, acts like he's in awe to be on that stage every day, like, "Whoa! I can't believe I'm the host of The Price is Right!" He's funny, charming, interacts with the crew, and isn't afraid to joke about the prices. The whole show seems to have a more relaxed vibe now that Barker's gone. Not that I'm discounting his work; the man made TPIR into the American icon it is today. I just think that the people who work on TPIR should show that they're having fun, and Drew Carey certainly enjoys himself. It's a good escape from reality, even for only 60 minutes a day.

And in this day and age, we need all the escapism opportunities we can get.