http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAPOv51gNxU

This was the very day when Ralph Edwards brought Bob Barker out before America for the first time.

...revive "TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES" as a daily series in late 1956. But since Ralph was firmly established by then as "Mr. 'THIS IS YOUR LIFE'" every week, he decided he couldn't host it himself, as he'd done before. He tried other hosts in several prime-time editions during the early '50s, but they didn't quite work out.

One day, in the fall of '56, Ralph was taking his daughter to her ice-skating lesson. And he happened to tune into Bob Barker's local radio show on his car radio. "Who is this guy?", he wondered. "He sounds like a young Jack Benny- he might be the one I'm looking for to take over 'TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES'!".

Bob talked about the audition process for the show in his autobiography (it wasn't easy). Finally, he got the word from Edwards- you're on! And from December 31, 1956, through September 10, 1965, Bob emceed the NBC version of "TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES". Unfortunately, very few examples of the shows from that period exist (although there's an "integrated" Raleigh cigarette commercial Bob delivered during one show in the early '60s that's posted on YouTube). And, of course, the daily syndicated "Metromedia" edition from 1966 through '74 followed [very few of those are available as well].

:tv:

Did you know that, when Ralph Edwards brought Bob Barker out before America for the first time, the doors behind Ralph opened up and Bob came out in much the same manner as he would on "TPIR"? If you ask me, Ralph was foreshadowing the way that Bob would come out before America for his 50-odd years on television.