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 - 5/31/12 Episode

I'm calling today a 6-for-6 day on The Price is Right.

Technically, it wasn't, as neither contestant who played for a car actually won a car. But they showed some common sense (a rare concept on this show) and took home pretty good prizes, so I'm giving them the 'W.'

In today's second pricing game, we had Morningstar (yes, really) playing for a truck in "Temptation." One by one, the models trot out four prizes (usually, one of them is cash)...

...and you have to guess which of those numbers is the next digit in the car. You're given the first digit in the car price (in today's case, a '2'), so here, Morningstar has to guess whether the next digit is a '3' or a '4.' And so on and so forth. In addition to the $3,434 in cash, today's other prizes were a portable satellite receiver for $776, a 32-inch HD television for $499, and a trio of watches for $595. So, each digit is a toss-up.

The game is called "Temptation" because you can just keep the prizes without doing a thing, or risk it all on the premise that you guess all right digits in the car. If you are right, you get the car and the prizes. If you go for it and lose, you lose everything.

To me, it's an easy decision: take the prizes. Today, they were worth over $5,000 total. Why risk that on the 16-to-1 odds that you have the right price of the car? And yet, most contestants go for it. They almost always lose.

Morningstar, however, took the prizes. And it's a good thing she did.

In today's fifth game, Dennis was playing "Gas Money" for a shot at a Chrysler 200 LX. In this game, you're given five possible prices for the car. One is correct, and the other four have money values of $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 and $4,000. To win the car, you have to pick the car price last, accumulating your "gas money" along the way. You can stop and just pocket the cash at any time, but if you keep going and pick the car price before you're supposed to, you lose everything. The game is difficult because the five prices are all within about $1,000 of the one above and/or below it.

The Price is Right - 5/11/12 Episode (Part 2)

For the first part of today's The Price is Right episode review, click here.

As part of today's Mothers' Day special episode of The Price is Right, Florence Henderson (of "The Brady Bunch" fame) was part of the show as a guest host/model/etc. Drew Carey introduced her prior to the first pricing game.

During Flo's opening comments about Mothers' Day, she says, "I know what mothers really want for Mothers' Day, and it isn't candy. It's eye candy."

At which point we're introduced to Johannes.

The thing is, he was introduced simply as "Johannes." No last name, no clue as to who he is - nothing. So, who is he? Flo's adopted son? Her lover? A model? The Rock's stunt double?

(According to Price is Right Recaps, he's personal trainer Johannes Brugger. So, there you have it - a little info during the actual show would've been nice.)

And here's my other thought: For the Fathers' Day episode - if they even do one - are we going to have an old man introducing some female "eye candy"? No, because that would be sexist and creepy, of course. I don't begrudge women's right to check out hot, muscular dudes, and the full-time The Price is Right models more than fill the "eye candy" quota for men. Just pointing out a little double standard there.

Oops
During the playing of Lucky Seven (covered in the first half of this review), Drew made it a point to say how "rugged" the SUV was. Here's Johannes and Flo bringing the car out on stage:

And here's why Drew went out of his way to mention the ruggedness (note: this didn't make the cut for television. This clip is courtesy of CBS' YouTube channel): 

                   

I'm glad I didn't make the "Good thing the man was driving" joke for the photo above.

Pricing game FAIL
In honor of the happy-go-lucky spirit of today's episode, I won't go on a diatribe of dumb bids on bidders' row (even though there were a few). There were some pricing game gaffes, however, that just can't be ignored.

Nikki and Lora were first on stage, playing "It's in the Bag" for the chance to win $16,000. Here's the setup: you get six groceries...

...with five prices that you have to match to the groceries. If you get the first one right, it's $1,000, and then the money doubles from there on out, up to $16,000 if you get all five. You can stop and pocket the cash at any time, but if you keep going and are wrong, you lose everything.

Usually, the first two are really easy. Today was no different: the prices were $1.19 and $16.07, by far the least and most expensive prices shown. Looking at the items above, it's obviously the tissues and Allegra, right?

Nikki/Lora went with the tissues and... the coffee pods! Game over. What did those coffee pods actually cost?

Just missed!

Our other loss today came from Sharice and Ryan playing "Secret X." This is the tic-tac-toe game where an 'X' is hidden in the middle column, and you can get up to three X's to complete the tic-tac-toe to win the prize. You get one free 'X' and earn the other two by guessing the price of two items.

The first item seemed to be a slam dunk: $15 or $48 for what was basically a little towel rack with suction cups. For some reason, Sharice/Ryan thought this product to be $48. Rachel had to deliver the bad news...

...which Sharice did not take well.

They actually got the second, more difficult prize ($40 instead of $65 for a food processor) correct, giving them a shot at winning. I had a hunch the 'X' would be on top; Sharice/Ryan guessed the middle.

I was right.

LOLZ
This mother/daughter combo obviously has a sense of humor:

Yup, it's Donna and Dona! I assume Dona is short for Donatella or something, but still... very interesting.

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