More Seen at the Gym

Depending on what time of day one works out at the nearby college, one watches different programs. There's the Ellen-View-Oprah crew in the mornings, the noontime ladies who love those court shows and the fellow in the evening who prefers both TVs to show The History Channel.

And there's one guy who will turn it to The Price is Right, which is usually enough to get me to pause the iPod between commercials. My sister and I watched the show when we were kids because it was bright, glitzy and noisy. Later, I grew a real appreciation for host Bob Barker. I really enjoy watching someone who's really good at what they do do that thing they're really good at. There are exceptions, of course. In any event, Barker was a master at being the MC of fun for an hour each morning. Maybe he faked it for 35 years, but he seemed very much to like the contestants on the show, the audience and even those of us watching at home. He somehow made a 19-year-old college student excited about winning a furniture suite that would be a better fit in his grandma's house.

Drew Carey, the current host, had a big job when he took over late last year. His selection made a lot of sense -- he's generally a likeable fellow. Appearance-wise, he can appeal to TPIR's older fan base because of that crew cut and the dorky glasses with a "What a nice young man" vibe. Most of them probably hadn't watched his sitcom very often and seen some of the places where he pushed boundaries that they might not appreciate. As a host, he seems to like the contestants and the people on the show as much as Barker did, and he's more demonstrative of it -- chalk that up to the generational differences, I suppose. He's obviously having a blast.

Over the months, Carey's showing more comfort and ease with the role. His ratings are about 15 percent lower than Barker's, but prime-time specials in February and March did very well. And some people would kill to have 85 percent of their predecessor's ratings.

Watching Carey might bring to mind that he wasn't the only prospective Barker successor -- producers also met with Rosie O'Donnell. O'Donnell said she turned down the offer mostly because the show was filmed in Los Angeles and she and her family live in New York. CBS apparently didn't think much of her vision of the show, either. And I have to say I can't blame them, but I'm the guy who can't figure out why O'Donnell hasn't been working in a convenience store somewhere ever since being the reason Gimme a Break did the the shark-vault in 1986 (Hey -- she shows up in 1986 and the show gets canceled. You do the math).

Anyway, TPIR demonstrates, to me anyway, how it's rarely a smart idea to tinker too much with something that works when one of its major attractions is how it's a walking, talking piece of nostalgia. Sometimes it's really true that what hasn't been broken doesn't need fixing.