"The Price is Right"

"COME ON DOWN!" Bob Barker beckons.


Although I don't remember much about my childhood there are some things I remember very clearly.
  In the adoptive home I grew up in, the television was on all of the time. Before 1975, once my parents came home from work, they retreated to separate rooms, turned on their respective televisions and they would stay on ALL NIGHT LONG!   My family (no siblings) NEVER  sat down to meals together.  

My mother watched her own t.v. in the bedroom, there was a t.v. in the kitchen, and against my will my parents put a t.v. in my bedroom. My family rarely talked to each other. I was a totally isolated child. I can barely remember a positive word from my mother at all. My most vivid memory from my years at my parent's house were something to the effect of:

"Not now elana, can't you see I'm watching t.v.?"

I lived with "mother and father" from 63-87. I pretty much raised myself while the "television drug" destroyed all concept of "family!"

From the time my father was forced into medical retirement (1975) until '87, the television was on 24 hours a day. My parents didn't sleep much, and neither could I. I witnessed my father watch Bob Barker on the Price is Right, every single solitary weekday for years. Altogether, he watched at least 12 hours of t.v. a day, my mother, about 6. I viewed these t.v. shows as having stolen my parents from me. 

From '81 to '07, I rarely turned on a t.v.    A rebellion of sorts. Nevertheless, I absolutely HAD to watch CBS's 2 night special devoted to Bob Barker this week, because of all that Bob Barker was to the American people. What an amazing man, icon and activist he was! (I didn't know about the fur activism until this week)

I have NO doubt that my late father, Arnold, was watching these "Farewell to Bob Barker" specials from a very comfortable La-Z-Boy chair somewhere in Game Show Heaven!

How did television influence your family dynamic growing up? How does it affect your life now?