FULL RECAP - TPiR 02/03/2009

[SteveEllis]

Goldroadfanatic, no, i distinctly remember the same thing happening once while Bob was the host.   Bob hit like the button on the 2nd price, and 1 or maybe 2 tags revealed besides the tag that should have popped open.  I don't really remember which tags/buttons were involved, just that it happened while bob Barker was playing it.

[goldroadfanatic]

Interesting, I will have to search the archives for that show sometime.

EDIT: I think I found it, dated June 7, 2004.

[Kev347]

Timings:
That's Too Much! (5) - 3:58
Switch? (3.5)- 3:26
Grocery Game (4.5) - 5:44
Freeze Frame (4) - 3:32
Gas Money (5.5) - 5:05
2 For The Price Of 1 (4.5) - 3:29
Total time (27): 25:14

Another great show today.  Drew was on the top of his game today. He handled the blooper in TTM extremely well, he did a good job of guiding Sarah Mae along when she was confused in Gas Money, he did a good job with Grocery Game, and showed enthusiasm throughout without taking it too over the top. Well done.

The lineup left a little to be desired today, but was not as bad as some we've seen. That's Too Much! has one of the key characteristics of a good first game, that being that it is quick, but lacks at having a reasonably high win percentage that is really necessary for a 1st game. Speaking of, you know what would make a great first game? Gas Money. Even though it won't be won all the time, the chance for that huge prize of a car plus $10,000 certainly builds up the excitement level enough to put it 1st.

Continuing along those lines, at least we didn't have a car game 4th, quickie 6th today. I found it puzzling that we ditched the SP to play 241 though, though it's nice to see 241 as it's not exactly common anymore. We could have put Secret X and Cliffhangers in that 4.5 minute slot. Or we could have ditched Freeze Frame for a 3.5 minute quickie instead, done a good old fashioned 27.5 min lineup, and played BONUS GAME instead. How about them apples? Just something to consider.

Grocery Game was painful today. She played that game the way it should be played and then got nailed on the soup. They've made that soup go from being a reliable $1.29 (due to the fact they only were showing that one cream of mushroom flavor) to being a variety of oddball prices in the $1.40s, $1.50s and $1.60s (as they're offering an assortment of flavors now, as opposed to just the one - I think this answers your question, Frank) probably just to trip contestants up and make the one formerly obvious part of GPs a little less obvious. And, well, $1.29 soup would have won today. Just something for contestants to keep in mind in the future there.

That was the worst loss that Gas Money has seen in its young life. Too bad the poor contestant was nervous and confused the entire time - at least Drew handled it well.

I thought that "Rich as golfer" showcase was handled EXTREMELY well. That is the way to get Rich involved in a showcase skit! And I didn't even mind the "FORE!" - come on, we're just going to have to learn to accept a little silliness from time to time from this incarnation of TPIR. That today was hardly worth crying about. To that end, I'm continuing to enjoy these themed showcases and prizes. They're really beginning to get the hang of it, folks.

Average show gamewise turned into an above average one just because I thought the show was written and hosted extremely well today.

[Wayoshi]

Why does the price of the soup change in every episode?  In the past few days, we've seen the soup at $1.53, $1.63, and $1.61.  Anyone figure out what's acounting for the bizarre price differences?

Because it's being offered with cheese, beef, celery, etc., instead of plain.

EDIT: Per Kev, lol.

[UniquePerspective]

Why does the price of the soup change in every episode?  In the past few days, we've seen the soup at $1.53, $1.63, and $1.61.  Anyone figure out what's acounting for the bizarre price differences?

The type of soup, I think. I don't know quite WHY that is, but who knows. I think the can size is traditional, and the only thing that changes is the type, so that's as good of a guess as I can come up with.

[heelsrule1988]

Can't say I like That's Too Much as a leadoff game. The whole idea is to start the show off with a win, and we all know how much That's Too Much fails at doing that.

BEST CONTESTANT OF THE DAY: Sarah Mae
SHOW GRADE: 2

[Nick]

Much better show today.  Drew was "with it" a lot more today and a lot less annoying.

That's too Much! first is an absolutely moronic idea, especially if you're going to make it so tough with having the winning price third.  If they're trying to create excitement with a win, or even a potential win, playing That's too Much! first, especially with a tough setup, isn't going to accomplish either of those goals.

And I give Drew good props for having handled the prematurely revealed price scenario quite well.  I was pleased he made sure to indicate Nadine the option to stop on the price that came before it.

It's a shame Terri lost Grocery Game when she played it so very well, just about as well as one can play it.  I thought she would win with the soup.  Unfortunately, Campbell's cream of celery is more expensive than their cream of mushroom.

What ever prompted David to choose the first digit for free in 2 for the Price of 1 when it was so obvious the six was the correct digit?

Now, there's how you include Rich in a Showcase and make nobody look stupid!  That was quite nifty of him to be reading his copy on camera like that.  The only quip I had with the Showcase was the lack of introduction, but it is a far leap forward from the other Showcases involving Rich this season.  Very well done.

[mikebev25]

TTM: I think it's sometimes interesting to see games not usually first played first, but this game 1st is not great. In fact, this game in any slot isn't great. Anyway, the game was a forced loss, but I thought we may see a tech win.
Switch: I would've lost here. Designer clothing/accesories are always tough.
Freeze: My guess would have been 5028, but it was still cheaper tha I expected.
Gas: Yeah, you knew she would fail as soon as she picked 23,997. Car prices don't end in that very often, at least not on TPIR.

SC1: I think that Xterra was pretty expensive.
SC2: Had potential to be an el cheapo. Nice to see Rich in a showcase in a way that's not overly lame.

I kinda liked the lineup today. Yeah, there were a couple of problems (no SP game and the fact the first 2 games needed to be switched in the worst way), but it's always nice to see Grocery, Gas, and 241. No car game 4th and no boring quickie in the 6 hole.

Another decent show.

[Cartboy]

That's Too Much!:  Rats!
Switch?:  Good job!
Grocery Game:  Tough loss!
Freeze Frame:  Heartbreaking loss!
Gas Money:  Curses!   Is it me, or did the pink slip look different this time?
2 For The Price Of 1:  Shoot!   Why did David pick the first number as the free one!?  In this case, I think the middle number would've been the best one to pick for the free number because the last number seemed pretty obvious to me.
Showcases:  That was neat for a change actually having Rich in the showcase instead of just showing him at his podium.   I wonder what fell as Drew was getting ready to reveal the ARP of the second showcase.

Not too good overall, IMHO.

[whinbaby]

Game #90 (#7,011)

Showcase #1
The kayak that first appeared on the show on February 3, 2009 - $1,799
Motorcycles - $5,198
Nissan Xterra, the first Nissan on the show since my childhood - $26,455

Showcase #2
Golf Clubs - $1,659
Trip to Pebble Beach - $6,800
Trip to Edinburgh - $12,027

Total show prize value:  $132,020 (21 prizes)

Your Modeling Scorecard for February 3, 2009
Daily Records
High:  $56,808 (Brandi Sherwood, 2005)
Low:  $23,312 (Rachel Reynolds, 2005)

Rachel Reynolds
February 3
Total dollars:  $52,442
($7,278 won, $45,164 lost)
Total prizes:  7 (3-4)
Cars:  2
Trips:  0

After 75 shows
Total dollars:  $3,947,386
($1,835,792 won, $2,111,794 lost)
Total prizes:  642 (407-224)
Cars:  81 (30-51)
Trips:  56 (32-24)

Amber Lancaster
February 3
Total dollars:
$12,654*
***NEW FEBRUARY 3 RECORD***
($8,018 won, $4,636 lost)
Total prizes:  6 (5-1)
Cars:  0
Trips:  1

After 24 shows
Total dollars:  $1,184,663
($665,080 won, $519,583 lost)
Total prizes:  193 (139-54)
Cars:  22 (11-11)
Trips:  17 (9-8)

Gwennie Osborne
February 3
Total dollars:
$63,750*
***NEW FEBRUARY 3 RECORD***
($32,889 won, $30,861 lost)
Total prizes:  10 (5-5)
Cars:  1
Trips:  3

After 12 shows
Total dollars:  $539,950
($268,474 won, $271,476 lost)
Total prizes:  105 (61-44)
Cars:  11 (5-6)
Trips:  14 (6-8)

[pete1974]

Now, there's how you include Rich in a Showcase and make nobody look stupid!  That was quite nifty of him to be reading his copy on camera like that.  The only quip I had with the Showcase was the lack of introduction, but it is a far leap forward from the other Showcases involving Rich this season.  Very well done.

I thought the same thing Nick, they finally included Rich in a showcase without embarrassing him!

[Off_trak]

I found it rather interesting and ironic, the way Drew glanced at his watch, when explaining the rules of the One Bid at the top of the show. Makes me wonder if it was an e-wink to the people on this site, who have been discussing the timing of the shows lately. My interesting is piqued now,  if the show it genuinely having trouble keeping it within the amount of airtime the network gives it. (Hears a faint "That's Too Much" in the distance...)

[SteveGavazzi]

This show was just about as good as yesterday's.  It felt like our show again...Drew wasn't perfect, especially when Grocery Game was lost, but you could tell he was trying.  Gas Money in particular went better than it probably would have if the show had been taped just a few days earlier.  It took me a while after the sixth game ended to realize that there'd only been one win, and that's good.

The Showcase writing also seems to be improving.  It's not back to where it was when Stan was writing them, but it's not mind-numbingly stupid, either.    Again, you can tell Drew's trying, even though the writing today was a bit dodgy.

This isn't enough to fix the show, though.  The next step in repairing the damage they've done is to get the rest of the games back in the rotation, even if Drew isn't a big fan of all of them.  Barker's Bargain Bar, Barker's Marker$, Pocket ¢hange, Bonus Game, the multiprizers, and the Big 3 all need to come out of hibernation, and someone different needs to start doing the game lineups.  Price thrives on variety, and there just isn't much of it in this regard lately.

Kudos to Drew for the way he handled the blooper in That's Too Much!.  That could easily have become a disaster with someone in charge who'd never dealt with that before, and it didn't.

For what it's worth, I'd have won 2 for the Price of 1 -- I'd have asked for the middle number and guessed the 6 and the 5.

The second showcase was pretty neat, although the writing, as I said earlier, needed some fine-tuning.

I don't think in the history of That's Too Much that a malfunction of the prices occurred.

This is at least the third time it's happened.

...Pocket Change. We've only seen it ONCE this year and that was a Roger lineup (back during Purple wheel week).

Pocket ¢hange has been played twice -- still far too infrequently, but more than once.

[goldroadfanatic]

I think I have found the third occurrence, October 25, 2005.

[Mallory16]

The type of soup, I think. I don't know quite WHY that is, but who knows. I think the can size is traditional, and the only thing that changes is the type, so that's as good of a guess as I can come up with.

Wouldn't that be kinda' like a store charging $2.99 for a bag of milk chocolate M&Ms, $3.07 for peanut M&Ms and $3.16 for almond M&Ms?  Don't most stores usually charge the same price for different varieties of the same product?  Guess a store is allowed to do weird things like that, but that doesn't make it less weird.