The Price is Right - 6/6/12 Episode

Well, this happened on The Price is Right today:

Henry may be a world-class prankster; or maybe he just needs a new dentist. Regardless, this was an epic performance on so many levels. Bravo.

Henry couldn't add to his haul of a fireplace and $500, however, as he misfired on "Squeeze Play" for two motor scooters. At the wheel, Henry lost his tooth again, and then couldn't match a $1 spin that came before him.

Regardless, add Henry to the list of legendary The Price is Right contestants.

The odyssey of Daisy
Today was quite a day for old people on The Price is Right. Let's take a look at Daisy's day on the show.

One of the "first four" contestants to come down, she was stuck on bidders' row through the first half of the show. Here's one reason why: for this set of luggage...

...Daisy bid...

In the next round, though, Daisy got it together with a $1,500 bid on a set of jewelry that was worth $1,505. When she got up on stage, Drew Carey commented, "You went from a disaster bid of $8,000 to being off by $5."

The Price is Right - 5/24/12 Episode

What a day it was for The Price is Right contestants today: 5-for-6 in pricing games, and even the loss wasn't a total wipeout. On top of that, we had two exact bids on bidders' row and a $1 on the wheel.

Mary started us off with a "One Right Price" setup that was clearly meant to be won. Having to choose between a trip to San Francisco and Cancun, with $5,780 as the price, Mary went with Cancun. It seemed like a perfectly logical choice - no one would think a trip within the state of California would be over $5K.

Mary was right, but here's the thing: the price of the San Francisco trip was revealed to be over $6,300. Drew Carey did a double-take...

...and who could blame him? Had Mary been given the $6,300 price, she (and anyone else) surely would've gone with Cancun there, too. Given some of the evil setups there have been this season, I'm surprised they didn't go that route.

Matthew won a Hyundai Elantra in "Switcheroo" (here's a recap of how the game is played). After going 0-for-5 in the first round, he got three right numbers on his second try. Accidentally, he left one of the numbers the same (the '3' in the blender), so when it was revealed he had those three numbers right, it was almost automatic he had the car.

Matthew also wisely went with the '1' for the car. Most contestants eliminate the possibility of repeating a number in the price in these kinds of games, and the show likes to trick contestants accordingly. Matthew wasn't buying it, and was paid off.

The Price is Right - 5/9/12 Episode

Having hosted hundreds of episodes of The Price is Right, Drew Carey is entitled to get a little confused every now and then.

Today was one of those days, as in the first round on bidders' row, he had a tough time discerning who had won. Apparently, the contestants couldn't quite figure it out, either.

Observe Pamela's and Jermaine's Pavlovian response when Drew points to them, even though they had overbid.

So Jeffrey gets on stage with the opportunity to win a car in "Let 'Em Roll." The game looks like this:

You get one free roll of the dice, with the chance to win two more by guessing the prices of a few grocery items. Jeffrey went 1-for-2, so he had two rolls. Each of the five die have three car symbols and three cash values (one each of $1,500, $1,000 and $500). After your first roll, you can keep the cash that comes up (assuming you didn't roll five cars) or take the die that didn't come up car and try again. If you don't have five cars after your last roll, you get whatever cash you got on that last roll.

Here's the result of Jeffrey's first roll:

Again, here's why I'd be a boring game show contestant: I'd pocket the $3,500 and call it a day. Maybe if the odds of rolling three cars were a little better than the 8-to-1 that it is here, I'd consider taking the risk. But $3,500 is a pretty good cash haul from this game.

Jeffrey, naturally, went for the car. He didn't get it, and took home $2,000 instead.

Drama and intrigue
Today, we saw why "Any Number" is the best game on The Price is Right.

The Price is Right - 4/30/12 Episode

Ugh.

That pretty much sums today's episode of The Price is Right, and that even takes into account a $1 spin on the wheel and an exact bid on bidders' row.

That was more than offset, however, by contestants' 0-for-6 performance in the pricing games. The first was the toughest one to take, as Kevin very nearly became the first to ever win $100,000 on "Pay the Rent."

Unfortunately, he took home $0.

Here's the set-up:

You get six grocery items, and each item or combination of items has to cost more than what you put on the "floor" below it. So, the items you put on the first floor (that blue "couch" and green "stove" you see in the photo above) have to cost more than what you put in the red mailbox there at the bottom. And so on and so forth, with the most expensive item up top.

What made today's defeat so heartbreaking was that Kevin played it correctly, and I genuinely thought he had it. What most contestants do is place the obvious least expensive item in the mailbox at the bottom, placing more expensive items above and leaving no chance of the top item being more than the floor below it. Most of these contestants take home the $5,000 or $10,000 - you can stop at any time, or risk what you've won already to move on to the next level - so that's not exactly a bad haul.

Kevin put the Twinkies (or "snack cakes" as Drew Carey and George Gray were contractually obligated to call them) on the second level, which was the right move.

Unfortunately, it didn't pay off.

I really enjoyed Drew's buildup, and Rachel looked legitimately excited about the prospect of a $100K winner. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Nor was Erin's trip to Rome on this brutal "Range Game" loss:

Would Bob Barker have asked how to say "That sucks" in Italian?

The Price is Right - 4/23/12 Episode

Why is "Any Number" my favorite game on The Price is Right?

It's relatively straightforward, still involves some logic, and is the most consistently dramatic game on the show. It almost always comes down to those last one or two numbers to win the car, mid-level prize or the piggy bank.

Sometimes, the drama gives way to a memorable victory.

And then we have Dendee today...

Tough luck. I'd have gone with the '1' there, too. The Price is Right has been tricky like that lately. They reversed the trend just in time today. I feel like it's been ages since somebody won a car.

It was a bad day for logic, as Allison's reasonable playing of "Lucky Seven" also let her down. After going with '8' and '5' as her first two numbers for the new pickup truck - guesses that left her with $3 to spare (meaning she couldn't be off by more than three on her next two guesses combined) - she goes with '4.' I went with '4,' too.

Cue the losing horn!

Another '9'? Really? That's just cruel, The Price is Right. Cruel.

Well, at least Allison's appearance on the show led to this exchange prior to her loss:

An epic wheel spin-off
As I mentioned a couple times last week, if you spin a 60 as the first contestant at the wheel, I think you should spin again. It's a close call, and today, Joshua decided to stay with the 60 in that same situation.

An epic wheel spin-off ensued.

The Price is Right - 4/19/12 Episode

There is a famous YouTube clip from a The Price is Right episode, toward the end of the Bob Barker era, of a contestant with absolutely no idea what she's doing on "Ten Chances."

Even people who work for a living and don't watch the show know of this clip, one of the very few moments where Bob became noticeably upset with a contestant.

I bring this to your attention because of Kendra's performance today on "Bonkers." She did everything wrong - including constantly looking back to the crowd during a TIMED game - and yet...

My favorite part of this is Drew Carey, normally pretty affable with contestants, having to yell in desperation, "Put the paddle up there!" Even as I was watching this, I was writing my scathing critique of Kendra in my head.

And then she won despite, as Drew said, doing everything you're not supposed to do.

Drew didn't get pissy like Bob did, but he reminded Kendra of her luck every chance he got. And there were many chances, as Kendra got all the way to the Showcase (with a 30-60-90 on the wheel).

She won that, too, with an impressive $18,000 bid on a trip to Aspen, home gym and jetski.

What a start
Kendra's "Bonkers" performance - the first pricing game of the day - was part of a tremendous start to the show. In the next round, the item up for bid was a limited edition Star Wars-themed XBox 360...

(Model-bots not included)

...which Robert won with an exact bid of $650, allowing him to pocket $500 in cash straight out of Drew's pocket. Robert was pumped...

...and so was I when the next pricing game came out: Any Number. My favorite game! (I didn't make it the background to my blog for nothing.)

Why am I blogging about The Price is Right?

Why, of all things, am I starting a blog about The Price is Right?

Call it a return of childhood memories.

As my parents will tell you, I always had a fascination with numbers. I spent many a morning while on vacation, or home “sick,” watching the show. And while I hadn’t the slightest notion what that dinette set cost, I loved watching those numbers light up on bidders’ row and spin around on stage (One Away was my favorite game then).

I fell out of touch with the show during college and my first years in the “real world.” Still, thoughts of bidding a dollar, or whether there was more strategy to Any Number than meets the eye, never completely went away.

A recent entrance to the world of (f)unemployment give me plenty of free time, and it didn’t take long for me to set aside The Price is Right as appointment television. The personnel on stage may have changed (I wonder what “Barker Beauty” Janice is up to these days), but the show has otherwise remained virtually unchanged.