His tenure ended shortly after Drew Carey took over as host. (Dobkowitz and Carey got along about as well as Alec Baldwin and that other driver.) Roger now runs a Facebook site where he regularly dumps on the current show.
One of his funnier recent gripes: TPiR staged an incident where a contestant got caught in the restroom when she was called to come onto the show. I got a faux tweet out of the minor but amusing incident. Why the show would go through the elaborate ruse of staging such an occurrence is never made clear, but Roger loves conspiracy theories about the current TRiR regime. This idea is so strange, though, that even some commenters on his Facebook page can't buy it.
A much more serious charge from Roger came a few days earlier. He thinks The Price is Right is running at a loss to either CBS, Fremantle, or both...
As I have mentioned before, I believe the show is no longer making a profit (we were struggling during Bob's final years, having to cut back every year on our production budget to make sure the show was profitable). I would wager that since Price is sold all around the world in other countries, it is important for the company to keep the main version on the air, even if it is losing money (it would be embarrassing for the original version to be cancelled!). I believe they are pumping money into the show, feeding gimmicks and rebuilding games and sets, in the belief that these superficial actions will help the show. Giving a car away on contestants row was indeed a REAL DUMB THING for Price to do. It was a gimmick, pure and simple, which undermined the integrity of the show in ways that the current caretakers do not understand (and probably never will!).
But some of his arguments look goofy on their face, as many have commented around the game show Interwebs. It makes no sense that Fremantle and CBS would keep the U.S. show on the air at a loss just to avoid some kind of "embarrassment" to international editions. Why would viewers of the local TPiR versions in, say, Thailand or Portugal give a flying flip about the fate of the U.S. show?
His swipe at "rebuilding games and sets" also seems silly. The Price is Right did a lot of such refurbishing when Roger was running the show. It's been a constant process on TPiR since the current run started in 1972. How does such "rebuilding" prove that the show is broke?
Finally, Roger does himself no good with the closing swipe at the "current caretakers" who have "undermined the integrity of the show." What exactly is he saying? The show is rigged? Or the producers are unethical in some other way? To be blunt, he's doing a very good impersonation of a bitter old man. And the bitterness makes it hard to accept his criticisms as anything more than the sourest grapes.
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