End of the road for Bobbo.

Bob Barker ends his run as host of the The Price Is Right on June 15.

Nothing can be said about the peculiar magic of this show that hasn't already been said expect that, personally, no show has consistently cut through and beat down every cynical tendency about the inherent nature of humanity more than this one.

And no host has embodied the superlative definition of grace more than Bob Barker.

Everyone has seen the show. 300 people pack into a Los Angeles studio, most donning shirts paying tribute in one way or another to Bob, and act borderline psychotic for an hour. People have broken bones from falls resulting from their flailing about, two people have fainted after winning the showcase showdown, and even one extraordinarily large Samoan man, so jazzed about winning the initial bidding game, ran on stage and jumped all over Bob, breaking three of Barker's ribs.

That last one happened a couple of years ago. Since then, Barker has instituted a no-hugging policy. It's said that the measure of a man can be seen in how others act in relation to him. Next time you watch the show, pay attention to the cavalcade of people rushing to the stage, all stopping just short of Bob and ever-so-gently leaning over and kissing him on the cheek, all displaying an unyielding reverence for a man who, for 35 years, has hosted a show that, on the surface, is easily one of the cheapest and cheesiest on TV.

But that has been the magic. I will not wax poetically about the ever-changing society we live in and the loss of institutions and roots. Screw that. Things change. Grow up and get used to it. The lure of the show is the melting pot of contestants, all eternally optimistic, all rooting for each other, all there just to shake Bob Barker's hand.

From the retired men in their mesh US Marine hats all wishing Bob a happy retirement to the morbidly obese women, crying their eyes out, professing their life's wish fulfilled just by being on stage with Bob to the college kids shaking Bob's hand as if they were shaking the Pope's, something strange happens to the cynical viewer. Not only do you like these people, you don't hate People, if ever so briefly. Nothing's staged, nothing's false, nothing's contrived. It's just a cross-section of the whole freakin' world having some fun within the right context.

And Bob deserves all the credit for that. He, over the years, has woven together this fun by his sheer charisma. He's gracefully impatient, gracefully annoyed, gracefully dorky and, best of all, gracefully embraces his own - and more frequent - mistakes. In short, it's impossible not to smile watching this man navigate this wonderful silliness.

This week, Wednesday and Thursday, the last of the $1 million spectaculars will be aired in prime time on CBS. The wheels of the bus, I'm sure, will fall off and someone will most likely faint, so tune in!