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 - 5/30/12 Episode

Today's episode of The Price is Right witnessed what has been a rarity this season: two car games, two wins.

I'll start with the more impressive of the two, which came in the sixth and final pricing game: Jason's victory in "One Away." According to Price is Right Recaps, this is only the second win in 15 tries on this game this season.

This game was my favorite as a kid, and I still enjoy it now. The premise is simple enough: you're given a wrong price of a car, and you have to guess whether each digit in the real price is one higher or one lower. So, a car that really costs $17,493, for example, could be presented as $26,582. You have two rounds to do it. At the end of the first round, you're told (by begging the "Mighty Sound Effects Lady") how many numbers you have right, but not which ones.

Playing for a Ford Fiesta today, Jason was presented with $27,532 and went "lower" with the first four digits, and higher with the fifth.

The Mighty Sound Effects Lady told Jason he had four numbers right. And then...

The Price is Right - 4/24/12 Episode (Part 2)

Read the first segment of my review of the April 24, 2012 episode of The Price is Right right here.

Sometimes, you have to learn the hard way.

Carol was the sixth and final contestant to make it on stage today on The Price is Right, doing so after earning $500 cash for an exact bid on a $670 cookware set. Her reward was a shot at a car, playing another of my favorite games (I don't have that many, I swear), "One Away."

Drew Carey always makes it pretty clear that, in order to win the game, you have to plead with the Mighty Sound Effects Lady. Carol, for whatever reason, ignored these directions with blunt obduracy...

Carol... Carol. CAROL!!! YOU DO NOT MESS WITH THE MIGHTY SOUND EFFECTS LADY!!!!

Carol's two changes were incorrect, and she lost. And that's what happens when you run afoul of the Mighty Sound Effects Lady.

The Mighty Sound Effects Lady's latest victim.

A Price is Right odyssey
Phyllis also had an interesting day at the office.

We'll start with her facepalm-inducing performance on the second round of bidding.

Phyllis (second from left), as the last contestant to bid, went almost halfway between the two highest bids. Instead of, you know, just bidding $576. Sure enough, the actual retail price was $875.

She got the hang of it, though:

Phyllis' bid, again the last one, didn't win here either. But the next one did.

And then this happened:

Phyllis then got one of the easiest setups of "The Balance Game" I've seen. Today's prize was a trip to Savannah, Georgia. I'm sure it's a wonderful place, but you know it's one of the cheapest trips The Price is Right will give away.

Here's what the game looks like:

The '771' next to Drew is the last three digits in the price of the trip. You then have to pick two of the three "bags of coins" with monetary values attached that will add up with the 771 to get to the price of the prize. Gwendolyn then puts her "treasure" on the scale, and if they "balance," you win.

It's a simple concept, but the values attached to the bags usually make for a difficult decision. I'd say I've seen this game lost more often than won since I've started re-watching the show.

Today, though, the bags were $1,000, $4,000 and $7,000. A $5,771 price for a trip to Savannah was pretty easy. Phyllis went for it, and won.

Phyllis then won the wheel - jumping right into Drew while he was going to commercial in the process - and faced off with Neil in the Showcase round. She won that, too, with a solid $25,500 bid on an iPod touch/Palm Springs/Mini-Cooper package (worth $28,979).

Not that Neil gave her much competition...

That is not Neil's bid - that is how far off he was with his bid. The package was four pairs of designer shoes, a six-night trip to England, and an RV. He bid $15,500. The actual retail value was $36,439. Just missed!

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.