Season 39: The Time To Complain Is Over

No one is perfect.

- Common phrase

I am growing tired of hearing this (or a paraphrase of it): The Price is Right is not the same without Bob Barker. Drew Carey ruined the show and is not good for the show. This opinion could have applied during the show's 36th season, but it didn't. Drew is not a Bob Barker, we know that, but you know what, he's gotten much better as we approach 8 weeks to the 39th season. If Drew was doing that crappy, would the show have reached its 39th season? No. Drew knows what he's doing, and in the time since he's taken over, he's gotten much better. At some point, the fact these skeptics will have to stop complaining, since its becoming redundant.

Drew Carey is a comedian, we all know that. But in reality, since starting The Price is Right, it seems he's mellowed out a bit. Sure this random joke here and then, but he has definitely calmed down from his gig as a stand-up comedian. Yesterday on TPiR he made a really hilarious joke about Patrick Duffy. Yes, we may not like a soap star being on the show, but we need to get some sense. Roger Dobkowitz isn't producing. We can't just expect the same to go on day by day. Nor can we keep bashing Drew for doing what he has learned to do.

My feeling is that the staff has much more respect for Drew than most critics think. They let him make the new game Rat Race, which is definitely a hit by what I have seen. Drew made the idea well and I think it works nicely. People may not agree, but that's your 1st Amendment rights at work. Drew has lost a lot of weight during Season 38 and is no longer this overweight energy machine. Yes, there are times where Drew is energetic and great with the crowd. There are also times when Drew is on "happy pills" energetic. Sometimes, these can cause problems, see the Hi-Lo yogurt "incident". During a playing of Hi-Lo, he dropped one of the grocery items on the set, a thing of yogurt and it splattered over the bottom portion. My feeling is he got a major sitdown after that, because he hasn't treated the groceries the same way since.

In the 50 Years special for Bob Barker on June 15, 2007, Bob said something in the interview portion.They [college kids] bring such energy to the show. I love it. Drew is a comedian, but yet on good days, he brings such energy to the show, making it a lively audience and time for game shows :). Now again, is Drew going to be any Bob Barker? No. Is Drew going to be a permanent fixture? I would hope so :).

People complain that stand-up comedians don't make good game show hosts. There are two people I'd like to point out that have made great game show careers out of stand up comedy. The first is here in America. In 1988, Ray Combs, a stand-up comedian was hired to do the new Family Feud reincarnation, and I may point out was one of the best hosts, maybe 2nd or better than Richard Dawson, depending who you ask. The main difference is something Drew does nowadays. Drew or Ray don't bring their stand-up to game shows. Yes a joke here or there, but not a 60-minute Jeff Dunham or Larry The Cable Guy Special. Ray, as most know, was fired by Jonathan Goodson in 1993 and after major problems mentally, killed himself in a mental ward in 1996. In the short five years Combs hosted the show, he made quite an impact on the Family Feud show, creating great humor and laughs for people. Stand-up or not, he wasn't a poor game show host.

The second example I'd like to bring up is from across the pond. In 1986, after problems with Max Bygraves and the status of Family Fortunes (the Family Feud of Britain), Leslie Dennis was brought into the show in 1987 to host the new incarnation. Les Dennis (as better known) was a British stand-up comedian and was offered the job to host the show. Bygraves, his predecessor was a former singer and his replacement, Vernon Kay is/was an actor. Dennis got used to hosting the job fast and as we know, hosted Family Fortunes for 15 wonderful years, longer than any American host or British host of the show. Les Dennis was a great comedian during the show, just like Drew or Ray would do. He knew when to be a comedian and he kept it to the right level, something Drew's adjusted to nowadays.

In the end, we can't expect Drew Carey to replicate Bob Barker's job just like we can't expect Wayne Brady to be another Monty Hall. In the long run, the critics have to stop criticizing Drew for just taking the show over in the first place and judge on how he performs now in Season 39. Stop criticizing him for the past.

Princeton's support of the Dinky to the Bussy

The Princeton Regional Planning Board will soon be voting to endorse NJ Transit’s plan to replace the train connecting Princeton and Princeton Junction with a Bus Rapid Transit system.

Recently, a member of railroad.net forums pointed our attention to a news article saying the Princeton Regional Planning Board will support a proposal to remove the Princeton Branch of the Northeast Corridor, maintained by New Jersey Transit. I want to start my opinion of this off with the following sentence: Princeton is and for a long time have been run and inhabited by idiots. The borough AND township, home to an Ivy League university, has a snobbish attitude, especially among the people I've met. They are not capable of rational decisions and should be horsewhipped.

Now that I have this bash off my head, I'd like to start getting to the topic. The Princeton Branch, also referred to as the Dinky (and has been for many years) is a 2.7 mile spur from Princeton Junction station for commuters and students to get off the Northeast Corridor and transfer to a short train to the lovely Princeton station. The Dinky has been used back into the 19th Century, started by the Pennsylvania Railroad on May 29, 1865. In that time, people have idolized the small train and even famous people, such as Albert Einstein, have ridden the train. The Dinky appeared in the TV sitcom Family Ties and even in a 1934 movie She Loves Me Not, starred by Bing Crosby. New Jersey Transit took over passenger service from Consolidated Rail Company (CONRAIL) in 1983 and continues to operate the service 27 years later. May 29, 2010 was the 145th anniversary of the Dinky and everyone I know hopes it will last for a long time, but as you're about to see, Princeton is trying to get rid of it.

The Princeton Regional Planning Board wants to endorse a proposal to have the 2.7 mile track removed and its train, along with the train station for a Bus Rapid Transit, in other words, a "fast" bus. Importantly, trains only run into red lights when they are block signals, yet the Dinky is trying to be replaced by something that is semi-unreliable, runs along city streets WITH red lights and is generally less useful. The idea to rectify the red lights is give the bus a power to change the light to green automatically, which I think causes MORE traffic dilemmas. The trains can go almost fluently from Princeton Station to Princeton Junction at West Windsor Station smoothly, while a bus which holds LESS people would have to follow this long turn-filled route from Princeton to Princeton Junction to transfer. First of all, the train at least leaves you on the platform and time to disembark for a waiting train. Secondly, if the bus is late, you've missed your train, what are you supposed to do? Especially if the train service is a half-hour and you know you'll be late for work? The dinky is reliable and it gets you there.

I want to say this now. Princeton is run by modern idiots who are trying to fix a service that is not broken, then I decree this curse on them: If you want to get tracks through a city/borough removed, fine. However, be prepared to feel the Passaic Curse, in which all the crime and low-class people will come to the city the train has helped prosper and ruin your Ivy League Yuppie status. I promise you it will happen. Not today, not tomorrow, but it will happen. I decree it. I don't care if these crimes burn the city down, you brought it upon yourself.

- Roadgeek Adam
(Completely rant free for one day)