View Full Version : Don Rickles & Dennis James


GameShowFan66
11-20-2013, 01:02 PM
I recall watching a Tonight Show clip where Don Rickles was a guest. Johnny Carson was giving Don grief about something or other. At one point Don Rickles replied "I feel like I'm a bad contestant and you're Dennis James!"

I watched an old 1977 nighttime Price is Right episode with Dennis hosting. At one point he said to a somewhat slow contestant "The daytime version is an hour long, sweetheart." or something to that effect.

Did Dennis seem somewhat "gruff" at times w/the contestants vs. Barker in the early years of "Price"? Dennis seemed to have quite a fondness for the showcases at the end of the show. He always seemed very eager to get to that part of the game as fast as humanly possible.

I seem to recall, although I can't be sure, that there were times he would say "Come on come on come on!" to try to get a contestant to shift into high gear. Am I imagining this?

Even though he was like having a substitute teacher, I thought Dennis did a really awesome job as emcee of the once-a-week nighttime Price is Right during his 5 year run. What are your opinions/memories?

howilu
11-21-2013, 12:28 AM
In all the times i saw Dennis James host The Price is Right, i thought he did an outstanding job. He really cared about the contestants, explained the rules of each game well and brought humor to the proceedings.

GameShowFan66
11-21-2013, 01:02 PM
In all the times i saw Dennis James host The Price is Right, i thought he did an outstanding job. He really cared about the contestants, explained the rules of each game well and brought humor to the proceedings.

Agreed. He had a certain kind of frenetic energy too.

KurtfromPitts
12-23-2013, 04:09 PM
I, too, thought Dennis was great as TPIR's host. As good as Barker in the early years.

GameShowFan66
12-29-2013, 10:13 AM
Dennis seemed to really have a man crush on the Showcase round though. It would have been neat to see an hour long version done by him at night.

Vahan
12-29-2013, 01:40 PM
With regards to Dennis James, some people make the false assumption that him and Art James were related to each other.

The fact is, they were not related. Dennis James was of Italian ancestry (real name: Demie James Sposa) and Art James was of Russian ancestry (real name: Артур Симеонвич Элимчи or Artur Simeonvich Elimchik).