What happened to Barker's Beauties Jan and Kathleen?

In Part II of my interview with Rod Roddy, long-time announcer on The Price Is Right, Rod discusses the switch to the new models, and the possibility of an upcoming big-bucks nighttime special.

Game Show Hall of Fame:  A lot of fans were upset when the models were let go.  There was a lot of speculation and questions.

Rod Roddy:  The only thing I can say about that is that they decided to change models.  And Pearson announced that we were going to have new models.  We went on a major model search, and we had a lot of people that came on and spent weeks on the show. Some of the reruns you’re seeing now, you’re seeing some of those girls again.  

But they selected three fabulous girls.  Two of them are former Playmates, one was Playmate of the Year.  And the other girl was a Miss Carolina I believe. Gorgeous girls, and very fun and friendly. And lovely. 

A lot of people ask me where Jan is, and Jan has got the Hollywood Film Festival, she is very involved with that and was producing it with her husband before. So she’s enjoying herself. And Kathleen is involved in a singing group. She was a singer before, and I think she’s doing more club dates. They are wonderful girls. 

HGSF: I think a lot of people were upset because their last show was so unceremonious. There was no party, or goodbye, or anything.

RR: A lot of people have mentioned that.  All I can say is that Pearson decided to make the move and that’s what happened. I don’t really know the mechanics of it, but that’s the way television is.

HGSF: Here today, gone tomorrow. Except for you guys!

RR: Television is like that. When I was on Soap we learned we were canceled from a reporter. They never announced it. But television is a constantly changing industry. And nothing ever surprises me. Ever. 

HGSF: They get instant feedback, so they can make changes instantly.

RR: Well they have to. Most shows don’t last 15 weeks. With overnights, you make it or you don’t and you’re gone instantly. That’s why we’re so lucky, because we’re still number one all these years. It’s the only show I’ve ever been on you never look at the ratings. Because you know they’re there.

HGSF: My sister, myself, my husband, we all grew up watching it.

RR: That’s right. Generations.

HGSF: And we were on vacation a few years ago, in Disney World, walking through the Magic Kingdom, and for some reason one of us started doing the yodeling song (from Cliffhangers). We all knew it!

RR: We had a guy on the show, about 75 years old, who played that game and yodeled himself. So we took the soundtrack out and let him yodel. And he yodeled beautifully!  That’s the second most popular game on the show. Plinko is first.  

HGSF: A lot of fans talk about what they would like to do with the show, given the chance.

RR:  Really? What would they like?

HGSF:  There’s been a discussion about making it the million dollar Price Is Right.

RR: Strangely enough, we are going to...well, I don’t know what the prizes are. But our first episode for the new season was $175,000. We gave away a lot of stuff on the first show, and it was very exciting. The prize amounts are getting higher and higher. That’s just the way it is. They’re talking about doing a nighttime special, which will be a big deal, in the 30^th year. Of course, we’ve already had our kickoff show. And sometime in the near future we’re going to do a big-budget nighttime special.

HGSF:  A one-time special?

RR: I think so.  I would like to see it happen once a week, at night, because I think it would be a hit.

HGSF: I know a lot of people are burned from the last time that happened.

RR: That’s because they changed the show.

HGSF: The daytime show hasn’t changed much in twenty years, but that’s because people like it that way.

RR: It’s like an old shoe.  It’s comfortable. We don’t change the sets, we don’t change the games. We have new games, just to keep it interesting, but we don’t change the way the games are played. On the nighttime version they did before there were a couple of reasons for that. They had a host that had never been a host before. He was a nice guy, but believe me, hosting is a unique art. And they had a different announcer. And they decided to do without the wheel, since it was a 30-minute show. And they changed the format. And they changed the way some of the games were played.  And people were uncomfortable with that. They resisted it. They actually hated it. They changed the way the set looked, they changed the set, they changed the format. They changed everything about it. And it bombed. And there’s a message there. If it works, don’t fix it.

HGSF: People feel a connection to the show, because they’re watching it every single day. They feel like they have an ownership in the show.

RR: Yes. And not only that, but you can do your housework, you can work in your office, and you don’t have to watch the whole time, you know what’s happening, you’ve seen it. If you’re out of the room, if you’ve turned your attention to something else, you know what happened. You know how it’s played. The reason it’s lasted this long is because it deals with prices. And you have to deal with prices every day, regardless of who you are or where you are. We’re in 32 countries now with the show. Our version is in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean.

Look for more from my interview with Rod Roddy in the coming weeks, when I'll talk to him about how he became the ambassador of Chang Mai, Thailand, and where he gets all those wonderful clothes.

  More > Part I: Rod Roddy Immortalized in Animation | Game Show Slot Machines

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