KCRW's The Spin-Off: Drew Carey and Wayne Brady Talk Game Shows and More

On the latest edition of KCRW's The Spin-Off, it's the audio from a recent Paley Center panel I conducted with "The Price Is Right" host Drew Carey, "Let's Make a Deal" host Wayne Brady, and their producers:

The people behind two of daytime TV's most iconic game shows, The Price Is Right and Let's Make a Deal, share some of their most memorable moments and tell us how they ended up working on the shows in the first place. Both Drew Carey and Wayne Brady say they weren't actually interested in hosting a game show, but now, they say, they've come to love the job. Michael Schneider talks to Carey and Brady, as well as executive producers Mike Richards (who we learn was actually the number-two choice to host The Price is Right after Drew Carey) and Dan Funk. This conversation was recorded as part of the Paley Center for Media's exhibit CBS Daytime #1 for 30 Years.

Listen below!



or watch it here:

Mike on Radio: KROQ's Kevin & Bean Ask, What's Up With NBC's New Reality Show?

Kevin & Bean's Bean and Ralph were taken aback by the idea behind NBC's new reality show "The Million Second Quiz" (read about it here, and brought me on the show this morning to try and explain it. Granted, it's hard to figure out just how this show will work, but I give NBC some props for at least trying to put together a live spectacle that it hopes to turn into a big event before the fall launch. Ralph and Bean aren't having it.

It was a fun give-and-take today. Listen by clicking below!

R.I.P., Gen X Quizmaster Ken Ober

"The quizmaster of 72 Whooping Cough lane, Ken Ober!"

Ober was the unofficial game show host of Generation X, and his "Remote Control" helped usher in an age of programming on what previously had been a diet of music videos on MTV.

It's strange to think that the folks our generaton grew up with are already dying, but Ober, 52, passed away this weekend in Santa Monica. From the L.A. Times:

Lee Kernis of Brillstein Entertainment Partners, who represented Ober, confirmed the death but said the cause was unknown. According to Kernis, friends said Ober had been feeling ill with a headache and flu-like symptoms Saturday and did not meet them later as planned. An autopsy is planned.

Ober was a stand-up comic when he landed the job as host of “Remote Control” in 1987. On a basement set featuring college-age contestants and audience members, Ober introduced categories spanning the universe of TV reruns -- beginning with the old black-and-white days of "Car 54, Where Are You?" and "Mr. Ed" but returning again and again to "The Brady Bunch." If the players, who were strapped into garish reclining lounge chairs, answered correctly, they got to choose the next category. Those eliminated were ridiculed, then pitched backward in their chairs through the wall of the set.

You may also remember that Ober was paired with former "Brady Bunch" star Susan Olsen for a radio program on 97.1 KLSX, back when the station marketed itself as "Real Radio." More recently, Ober had been a TV writer for shows such as "The New Adventures of Old Christine."