Why I love Price: a thread

[babytims]

Not just for the material reasons, y'know Bob Barker, his beauties, and the like...but the show has a bit of sentiment to me:

This coming Wednesday, February 22nd, will mark 12 years since my mother won on The Price is Right. She, my grandmother and a neighbor of ours all went together.

Now, in recapping the episode I'm using the show's episode guide recap-website-thing, so...it might be a little discombobulated.

My memory of seeing the episode when I just just a wee little 4 year old lad made me think she was fourth called, but she was the third person to come on down! She was also the first One Bid winner of the day, winning a coat scarf and hat 

Onstage is a different story. She played "Bonkers"...and well...she wasn't the world's best player to put it plainly, and just well...ran out of time to say the least (Wasn't the best playing of the game...) Love you Ma .

She lost a trip to Austria by looking at the audience during a very quick process (if y'all know the show well enough, y'all should know timed games shouldn't have audience impact but oh well) and ended up wasting the 30 seconds essentially. Every single thread about a recap of the episode says something about that specific game, just to show how much it frustrated other people. I'll put it like this: had Bob been hosting that playing, he'd been at a lost for words.

(Also, looking at the golden road recap version of the episode makes me grimace seeing the way they talked about MY OWN MOTHER!! lol, but sobeit)!

As in any normal Price show, 5 more games are played, with a big wheel for each half...and mother's off to the showcases with 90 cents, being the top winner of the half, since the pricing game stats were 0 to 3 at that point.

Another half is played again, and my mother is the Runner Up for that episode. The first showcase gets passed to her and she ends up winning her showcase and $46,040 worth of prizes! 

Fast forward 8 years later and yours truly went to a taping of Price for a middle school special with my mother, and was so amazed by just how small that studio is!   Can't imagine how small it is now...with all of the pods everywhere! I sadly did not get called on down, but it was SO amazing to just see everything unfold right in front of me! I got to see behind contestant's row, after being curious as to how it did in fact look back there.

Back to the episode, in which my mother won a car, which we STILL have to this day, sitting in the driveway waiting for me to get my license so I can whip around town in it!

So there you have it...forgot to talk about it last year, because we couldn't figure out the episode date or any resurfacing of it, but we finally got it. That being said, if you want a full recap...

tpirepguide.com/?p=3269

But seriously, I truly do love Price, though it's not my all time favorite (Wheel is), they're both truly neck and neck, just because of how luscious Price's history is and just how much fun it is over the years! Never have I seen people dedicated to be on a game show as they are on Price.

Also, of course expect the 2011 episode of Price: Seasons to use the same lineup as the one in my mother's episode because...well...I'd be a fool not to use it!

Open to discussion of course, have y'all seen the episode, or at least heard of the "Bonkers" Bonkers playing anyway?

[billmcdee]

That's a great story to say the least!  So sorry that Bonkers did your Mom in, or more specifically, her canvasing the audience for help.

If it's of any comfort, I've seen that game played many times where players are super fast and get a whole bunch of different combinations placed on the board, only to still lose anyway.

As the elder statesman (Ben Franklin) of our little community here, I can tell you that my love for the show began on episode 1, Labor Day 1972, just 2 days before my first day of Kindergarten.  

I remember feeling rather upset because way back in 1972, Kindergarten classes were only half days.  I was slotted for the morning session so I wasn't able to be home to watch every day.

It aired at 10:30am EST for us, right after The Joker's Wild and right before Gambit (both big favorites of mine too).

During Easter break (back when it was still allowed to be called that), I remember eagerly waiting to see Price at 10:30, only to see this new show "The $10,000 Pyramid" instead.

I was traumatized to say the very least.  Little did this 6 year old realize that they moved Price to the afternoon!  I think this is the single biggest reason why, to this very day, that I've never felt a great deal of affection for any iteration of Pyramid, much as I adored Dick Clark.  

One of our members here (I guess former one now) was on the Strahan version a few years ago and I watched those because he was on the program.  Pyramid was "okay" to watch but when you knew all the answers ahead of time, it made it harder to play along with, although the few times I did watch I would sit there giving clues.  And there were times I could cover up or close my eyes and just listen and play along that way too.

Sorry I went off on a Pyramid tangent there.  Yes indeed I am very familiar with all 120 or so pricing games that the show has had lo these many 51 seasons, including the rather lame ones like Gallery Game and On The Nose just to name a few.

Time Is Money has taken the same Bonkers concept and applied it to grocery items instead.  I am not a big fan of that pricing game for two reasons, 1, very few seem to win the top prize or even $5,000, many seem to win $0 at all and 2, it's far more difficult to play along with at home.  Bonkers board is large enough that you can play along with it, even though it is very fast paced.

All of the timed pricing games, both past and present, owe a great big debt to the granddaddy of all timed pricing games, the Clock Game.  

I think it's sensational that your Mom did win a showcase including a new automobile, and that you still have it today!  Even more awesome that you attended an episode!  That's really awesome.  And it seems everybody who does attend says the same thing, about how tiny the set seems to look as compared to seeing it through the TV lens.

I hope once you reach your 18th birthday that you'll be able to attend, and maybe then you'll get to Come on down!  I always felt so badly for the last person of the day being called down, having just one possible chance to qualify for a pricing game, whereas others who bid poorly or just have bad luck at that part of the game, can get up to 6 chances to do so.

Thanks for sharing these memories.  You definitely are very gifted at writing as I was able to picture it quite well in my mind.  Bravo!

[babytims]

Oh darn, you really missed all the goodies if you went in the mornings. Too bad you couldn't have recorded it as you can now.

I also am not the biggest fan of the new Time is Money. While yes, I do love that it's a pure cash game now (hence the name), it's a slim chance for anyone to win the top prize.

Also in my humblest opinion, I do have to agree with you Bill that Pyramid is probably the easiest game show ever made, not making it so entertaining for me.

And yes, TV magic makes it so the studio seems massive, even on the Barker versions, but nope! Also it's extremely loud, so I just hope the cameras didn't get footage of me covering my ears at various points through taping

And yes, it is a big goal of mines to go to Television City once I hit 18, as it's a big goal of mines to get a feel of it before I myself hit the TV screens as a star . Even if I'm the 9th person called, or even not get called for that matter, it's still fun to just be there.