The Price is Right

[mares]

Last year, I organized a trip for my sorority to go to a taping. I grew up watching this show, and actually seeing it in person was very surprising. The studio is incredibly small, and Bob Barker is incredibly orange. During commercial breaks, he would talk to the audience, and while he was almost deaf (most audience questions had to be repeated by a producer), he was surprisingly quick and witty. All in all, a fun experience...one of our girls won a car and made it to the showcase showdown!

[sjankis630]

I loved the moutain climber game. I loved it when the contestant lost. (probably the only game I feel this way about)Too funny. The sound of the horrible yodelling and then the crash when he went over the cliff!
I always hated that game when they had to guess the price of the regular household items. They were always stuff I had never thought of buying so wouldn't know the slightest idea of how much they cost.
Also thought the "squeeze" game was hard. They give you a set of numbers and then you had to take out one and they would squeeze the rest of the numbers together to form the actual price of the car (usually).
Also liked the game where you had four items and four price tags (one to put in front of each one) and then had to run back to pull a switch that told you how many you had right. Not which ones were right, just how many thus giving you a chance to royally screw yourself by moving correct prices off the right item.
I can't imagine how any of the contestants can actually pay attention when the whole crowd is constantly yelling prices at the top of their lungs. Does anyone actually get good advice from the audience ?
Someone should waste about 1 month of their lives and figure out the odds on all of those games from best to worst. I would love to see where they would fall out.

[Deleted]

I used to hate the sound of the buzzer when someone would go over when they spun the wheel. I don't know why, but that sound would grate my nerves.

[Ripley]

I can tell you that they were filming as of last year. A co-worker got married and he and his wife went to Burbank for their honeymoon. They tried to get into a taping of TPIR with no luck.

I still have a soft spot for this show, even though I only see it when I'm home sick. I always hated the golf putting game. And I loved the game where the contestant would try to guess a price, and Bob would say "Higher" or "Lower." Oh, and that game where the contestant rolls the giant dice and then they have guess whether the number of the car is higher or lower than the dice number.

Has anybody ever gotten their pets spayed or neutered and thought, "Thanks, Bob! I'm doing just what you said!"

[huntergrayson]

Oh, they're making it. My ex just went for a taping on his birthday on Monday. Yeah, he dragged me along once and it's not as fun as you'd think since you have to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get a good spot in line. There are two tapings a day, but you have to be in line early and then if you don't get in, they bump you for the afternoon.

One thing I think this show might be good for is finding the great actors of tomorrow...

Funnily enough, the only person that I know who has won a prize is my great actor friend. We were pissed, though, because he won a really cool prize -- a BOAT! -- our freshmen year of college and we were all going to hang out on it. But his family made him take the money or sell the boat or whatever. :-(

I don't think I'd be good on the show b/c I have a fairly blase personality as it is, and doubt that I could muster much enthusiasm over his & her mopeds

Once you're in the audience, it's a pretty exciting atmosphere. But unfortunately, a producer "screens" people in the line -- brief Q&A, testing your appeal -- to determine whose name is called. Being anything but blase after waking up at 4 and sitting in line for 2+ hours with nothing to do? Not so easy.

Why does everyone (or contestants/show fans) love Plinko so damn much?

Wow, I am just chock full of info. Thanks obsessed psuedo-ex. How obsessed? Few days before Dec 12 -- "hey, Bob Barker's birthday is coming up, are you excited?" Granted, we're "off" (again), I respond with stony silence. More silence. Why? Oh, happens to be the day we met as well, but that's what he remembers.

[brinksteria]

Oh, they're making it. My ex just went for a taping on his birthday on Monday. Yeah, he dragged me along once and it's not as fun as you'd think since you have to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get a good spot in line. There are two tapings a day, but you have to be in line early and then if you don't get in, they bump you for the afternoon.

With full sincerity, I am so jealous that you got to go.

I don't understand the Plinko-love either. It's gotta be another case of greed outpacing the odds. When I've seen the game, most people walk away with peanuts. That Plinko-thing never seems to fall in the big dollar slots.

[ladymadonna]

TPIR was must see TV for me when I was heavily pregnant/at home with an infant who was breastfeeding.

I haven't really watched it in about 4 years. Is Bob Barker (The Perv) really still alive and making this show?

Has anybody ever gotten their pets spayed or neutered and thought, "Thanks, Bob! I'm doing just what you said!"

Yes. Everytime one of my friends talks about fixing their pets, I really do think "Bob Barker would be proud." I'm such a geek.

[underjoyed]

One thing I think this show might be good for is finding the great actors of tomorrow...I mean some of these people have real talent. If I were standing on the stage, Bob Barker said "tell her what she's won", and the announcer yelled out "A brand new...boat trailer", let me tell you that I would *not* be happy - but the contestants behave like they've just found the fucking cure for cancer. If they're that good in an improv situation, imagine what some of them would be like with a decent script.

See, I always like it when they can't act and are clearly deeply disappointed with their Showcase. Like when you get some little 85-year-old lady whose showcase involves a jacuzzi and a motorcycle, or some 19 year old frat boy, who wins lawn furniture and a dining room set. They get this Bill-Murray-losing-the-Best-Actor-Oscar look of mingled rage and chagrin and then they're mentally hauling the stuff down to the auction house even as they bid on it.

As for games, count me in as another one who always got a kick out "Cliff Hanger" (as I am 99% sure it was called). Something about the crappy little plastic mountain climber scaling the heights of a cardboard Matterhorn against a surreal, yet hilarious musical backdrop of Swiss Alps yodelling just appealed to me. IIRC, there were three items and the farther away you were from the actual price of the [jar of marshmellow fluff] [Toilet Duck] [foot powder], the higher it would climb. If the little guy fell over the cliff, the contestant lost. By that point, though, the combination of the yodelling, the 70s style blue-and-brown set piece and Bob Barker's hair usually had me in hysterics.

Good times.

[underjoyed]

If they only added in a faint, tinny scream as the climber plummeted over the side, that game would be damn near perfect.

[Ripley]

"You idiot consumerrrrrr!"