The Price is Right - 6/21/12 Episode

With the 40th season of The Price is Right recently concluded, they've gone to showing reruns for a good part of the summer. We knew this today because a) Drew Carey was wearing a tie, which he didn't do the last half of the season or so, and b) Gwendolyn wasn't pregnant yet.

Don't worry, everyone, she still is. (The blog actually got a few hits inquiring about this yesterday)

I hadn't watched the show in a week, and was fairly excited to jump back into it with a playing of "Plinko" as the first pricing game. And then this happened:

If you believe in karma, you will surely have to feel DeJoie did something to really, really piss somebody off previously. Particularly after she got a 90 on the wheel, only to be trumped by a 95 from Cynthia.

It just wasn't DeJoie's day.

It wasn't really shaping up to be Lori's day, either, after a couple questionable bids in the first two rounds. Here she is (second from left), bidding second on six pairs of shoes...

...and going just $22 under the previous bid, leaving an impossibly small window for victory (which didn't happen). Then, bidding third on a gas range, with bids of $950 and $1,050 right before her...

...almost the same thing. She didn't win.

Lori figured it out eventually...

...thus catapulting her on a terrific run, winning "Pick a Pair" for a trip to China, getting to the Showcase and then winning it with an excellent bid on cowboy/cowgirl boots, a trip to Calgary and a Toyota Tacoma.

While we're here, spare a thought for Jeremy (the guy who bid $1,200 in the photo above), a "first four" contestant who never made on stage. A military man being allowed to languish on bidders' row? I didn't think it possible.

Pricing game WIN
This hardly ever happens: a win on "Line 'em Up" on the first try.

Patrick did it today, though...

...with Manuela more than happy to deliver the good news.

An enjoyable part of this was Drew casually tossing it over to Manuela, expecting Patrick to be wrong and have to use his second guess. At 18-to-1 odds, it's easy to assume the contestant is going to be wrong on the first go. But Patrick made a believer out of all of us.

Commercials
Regular readers of The Price is Right Files know I enjoy my commercials, with a few in particular being my favorites.

Well, today, I'd like to induct a new entry into The Price is Right Commercials Hall of Fame.

Blythe Danner, congratulations. Your outstanding - and incredibly repetitive, seeing as your commercial is on just about everyday - work in promoting post-menopausal osteoporosis awareness deserves this extra bit of recognition.

"Thaaanks, Ed."

Previous entries into The Price is Right Commercials Hall of Fame are, of course, Wilford Brimley, Henry Winkler and the Hoveround Singing Guy.

And, finally...
Our old friend was back today.

Daniel Goddard!

Follow The Price is Right Files on Twitter (@TPiR_Files) or email thepriceisrightfiles@gmail.com.

The Price is Right - 6/12/11 Episode

I apologize I haven't blogged the last two episodes of The Price is Right - a few things have come up recently. Going forward, I'll still be doing my best to blog about every episode, but in occasional cases that may not be possible.

Alright, on to today's show. It was a day for both the young and the old. Let's start with the introduction of Drew Carey, which included Connor, the son of the host's ex-fiancee:

 

(According to those who report on such matters, Carey's motivation for his recent weight loss was to keep up with Connor as he got older, and that he was planning to remain a part of Connor's life after the couple split in January.)

And then we had Margaret playing "Clock Game" for a trip to St. Thomas:

Ohhhh booooy

To recap, after being told the price of the first item is lower than $900, Margaret proceeds to spend 15 seconds - that's half the time allotted for the game - and 17 (I think) guesses that are higher than $900. I half expected Drew to throw in a "lower than $900" reminder somewhere in there, as Margaret was clearly lost, but I guess that's against the rules of hosting.

Then, she guesses $850, goes back to $800 again, then goes back to $850 again. Concentrate!

Pricing game struggles
Margaret was the last contestant in an 0-for-6 clanger of a day in pricing games.

The Price is Right - 6/5/12 Episode

Having done this blog for two months now, I know there are two things more than any others that are guaranteed to drive traffic to the site: pregnant models and Daniel Goddard.

Today, we had both. Gwendolyn was on the show today, and people seem quite fascinated with whether she is pregnant (yes, she is).

As for Daniel, well...

Oh, right, Manuela is in the picture, too.

Over the course of today's episode, my blog's hit total for the day went up fivefold - mostly due to search queries along the lines of "male model price is right" or "who is the male model on the price is right." There was also a "why is daniel goddard on the price is right so often" mixed in. So, thank you for the traffic, Daniel.

Moving on to the games, we had a really nice win on "Lucky Seven" today. After a strong start, Shannon went with the dreaded '5' twice. Here's how it turned out:

Considering she had $5 left for the last two digits, going with a '5' on the fourth one was a logical play. I thought the '9' screwed her over; the '5' as the last digit is as good a guess as any, but a lot of times The Price is Right sneaks a random '2' or '8' or some such number in that spot.

Overall, contestants went 3-for-6 on pricing games today.

Bidders' row FAIL
There was a lot of terrible bidding today. In the first round, Tacara bid $500 for two pairs of Christian Louboutin women's shoes. Even I know you're looking at about $2,000 there.

It got worse in the second round. Bidding last for a trip to Disneyland, Tacara (far left) went with...

The Price is Right - 5/11/12 Episode (Part 1)

Today was the Mothers' Day special episode of The Price is Right. I have mixed feelings about these gimmicky type shows, but after a skeptical start, I came around on this one.

Prior to the third round of bidders' row, Gwendolyn brought along her husband and 4-year old son Molloy for a big announcement:

  

Hoop heads will, of course, recognize Mr. Osborne as Kenny Smith, current NBA on TNT pundit and starting point guard on the back-to-back NBA champion Houston Rockets teams of 1994 and 1995.

As if that wasn't awww-dorable enough, Molloy then shows his mom she may have some competition for "best model in the family."

I've watched this several times already and still laugh at the 1:05 mark every time.

(Yes, that was Florence Henderson modeling the jewelry. More on her, and the guy showing off the computer/television in Part 2 tonight.)

Pricing game WIN
After winning the flowers following Gwendolyn's announcement, Patricia and Emilee played for a Ford Escape XLT in "Lucky Seven." After an inauspicious start left them with just $2 for the last two digits, here's how it played out:

That's a hell of a win. The '5' is as good a guess as any on the last digit, but getting close to the '9' on the fourth digit required a good amount of logic (and a little bit of luck). That fourth number dooms most contestants that play this game.

To close out the pricing games, Patricia and Abby played for a Mini-Cooper in "The Money Game" (Here's a reminder on how it's played). Today's setup looked like any other for this game:

We can say with just about 100 percent certainty that the first two digits are 22, 23 or 24. As I mention in the link above, I think the strategy here is to get the last two digits first. Nobody plays it that way, and neither did Patricia/Abby, who went with 24 first. They missed.

Then it got interesting - they picked 30. Whether they changed strategy on the fly or thought this was a $30K car, I can't be sure (my guess is the latter, but you never know). Regardless, the 30 was correct - as the last two digits.

From there, it was a piece of cake, as they had three tries left but only the 22 and 23 as logical guesses for the first two digits. After missing on 23, they hit on 22 and won the car.

And good times were had by all.

In what I'm sure wasn't fixed in the least to make the Mothers' Day episode a happy occasion, contestants went 4-2 in pricing games (including 2-0 in car games), two $1 spins on the wheel, and a Lexus convertible win in the Showcase round.

Part 2 of this episode review can be read here.

The Price is Right - 5/10/12 Episode

Today was a pretty boring episode of The Price is Right, so this is going to be relatively short.

Let's take a look at the highlight of the day: David winning a new truck in "Grocery Game." This is my favorite grocery-related game.

 

It requires strategy, retail know-how and has a cool setup, including Rachel operating an old-school cash register with the spinny numbers. The purpose of the game is to "buy" groceries until you get to a price between $20 and $21.

And David nailed it.

 

Here he is with his truck:

"It's got wheels!"

David was the star of the day, as he also won an epic Showcase duel with Felipe (who wiped out on "Gas Money" earlier in the show).

To get two bids that close is rare. Felipe looked like he had his iPhone/iMac computer/Prius in the bag, but David topped him with a $28,300 bid on his snorkeling gear/Belize/ski boat package. Well done.

Pricing game FAIL
There were a few of these today. In addition to Felipe, we had Francina asking for the first digit and then getting the next two wrong in "2 for the Price of 1" (a double fail), and Jason blowing "Swap Meet" (by guessing that two pairs of Gucci heels and two pairs of Gucci sunglasses were only $1,650).

The Price is Right - 4/27/12 Episode

OK, first thing's first.

If this isn't the best picture on the Internet right now, I don't know what is...

Why is Manuela holding a puppy? We'll get to that later (nice tease, eh?).

For now, let's chronicle a couple terrific pricing game wins. We had Rodney playing "That's Too Much" for a Jeep Wrangler. This is one of The Price is Right's toughest games - according to The Price is Right Recaps, contestants were 3-23 coming into today's show.

Make it 4-23.

Take a bow, Rodney.

As impressive as that was, Kelly Anne's performance on "Hole-in-One" was better. A quick explanation of the game: you have to sink a putt to win a car. How long that putt is depends on your ability to price grocery items. You're given six items, and you have to guess them in order from least to most expensive. The more you get right, the closer you get to the hole. If you blow it on the first one, you're looking at about a 14-foot putt. If you get all six, you have a tap-in for the car.

Kelly Anne got a pretty brutal set of groceries:

Lighter fluid? A five-gallon keg of root beer? If I had played this, I might have been looking at that 14-foot putt. Kelly Anne, however, went blackberries ($1.49), lighter fluid ($3.99), canola oil ($5.29), walnuts ($9.99), root beer keg ($18), pain reliever ($6.79)... All things considered, that's really damn good. I mean, I know that's a big-ass bag of walnuts, but really? $9.99?

So, Kelly Anne had to hit a three-footer...

...and completed her audition for a job in television, which she had been doing pretty much throughout the show.

Bidders' row FAIL
I admit I didn't have much faith in Kelly Anne after one of her first bids: $580, right after someone else bid $599. But she certainly righted the ship.

Poor Adam, on the other hand...

The Price is Right - 4/18/12 Episode

There are few things in life that piss me off more than people woefully under-dressing for an occasion.

I went to a wedding last summer where two men (and I use that term loosely) wore shorts. Shorts... to a wedding. For a couple minutes, I was legitimately angry. I don't care that the wedding was outside and it was 85 degrees out. That is never ever, ever ever ever, acceptable.

I realize The Price is Right is not a wedding, but there still should be at least a minimal sartorial decorum. You're out of the house, in the presence of hundreds of other people, and on national television.

National. Television.

Really, Carol? Really? Did you think The Price is Right was played at the beach? Put some fucking pants on.

Showcase FAIL
Out of principle, if both showcase contestants are more than $10,000 off, they should both lose. For the second time in a week, we had that happen today.

I'll admit, Autumn's (right) showcase had me fooled, too: she bid $24,000 on a trip (for four) to DisneyWorld and a Ford Focus Titanium. I drive a regular Ford Focus; that Titanium must be one hell of an upgrade.

Lisa (left) bid $18,550 on beach accessories, a trip to Corfu, Greece and a sailboat. Under $20K for that package? Fascinating. And she walks away with it.

Contestant shenanigans
Then again, we knew something was off about Autumn right for the start.

The Price is Right - Tweets of the Day (4/17/12)

The following are real tweets from real people during Tuesday's episode of The Price is Right, starting with our No. 1 Tweet of the Day. Enjoy.

 @creamzodes Trying to figure out which little tune is more upsetting, the sound when u die in super mario.. Or when someone loses on the price is right

@u_me_and_dupree never schedualing a class from 11-12 so i can watch the price is right #ilovecollege  (When you do SCHEDULE a class, though, make sure it teaches spelling - Ed.)

@tsnyder03 You might be a #bum when you skip class to cook a big breakfast and watch the price is right. #priorities #greatmorning

@Zeipen This dude on the price is right is #blazed

@hartley14 I love The Price Is Right but if i had it my way id never be awake before the show goes off

@TyreeHoffman The only reason I watch The Price Is Right everyday is to see that Hoveround commercial. "Hoveround takes me where I wanna go..."

@i_BOINK_barbies i take that last tweet about manuela on the price is right. . its Gwendolyn Osborne that i love. . think she married to kenny smith to (Nothing says "love" like getting one woman confused for another - Ed.)

@AdamTouchet Sitting in the waiting room. I think when they call my name I'm gonna go all "Getting called on The Price is Right"