TPIR & LMAD Budget

[Season36Fan]

I've been at my job for five years and could probably do most of the things my bosses do if I had a day or two to sit down and mess around in the office.  Many of these people have been at the show for over 20 or even 30 years and have no how to do anything that Roger did.  You're right in that many of them didn't care about learning because he was there to do it for them -- and that was incredibly naive.

What Roger did was as much art as science, you know that as well as anyone.   They have the science part down (what they learned from exposure), but it's the art they're missing. 

[goldroadfanatic]

I'm not trying to be an apologist for the staff here, but I want to bring up the point maybe Roger was specifically assigned to do the things he did and the rest of the staff was instructed that they had other things to do and were barred from creating lineups, setups, etc., as prescribed by Mark Goodson, Bob, or Frank Wayne?

[penny_ante]

I'm not trying to be an apologist for the staff here, but I want to bring up the point maybe Roger was specifically assigned to do the things he did and the rest of the staff was instructed that they had other things to do and were barred from creating lineups, setups, etc., as prescribed by Mark Goodson, Bob, or Frank Wayne?

Your argument is a canard. As evidenced by perennial threads spawned here, you don't need anyone's permission to noodle with imaginary lineups or small-prize foils. Nearly anyone could learn how to set games up in a way that is challenging on the surface, but providing enough hints over the course of a few playings to help LFaTs eliminate some of the outliers to some of the more 'long-shot' prone games. This is where Roger shone.

It is also false to say that people couldn't 'learn from his knee' so to speak, when all of his lessons are on videotape in the vault (read: reruns) AND on the show lineups (staging sheets) in the file cabinets.

The current producers are deliberately making things difficult, and we can only conjecture as to why.

(Although a certain incident with a Showcase winner named Teddy, I'm guessing, has a great deal to do with it.)

[goldroadfanatic]

Terry was his name, actually, but that's beside the point.  I wouldn't be surprised if that's the main reason for the difficult setups for games lately.  That, or they don't know how to make an easy setup for when the budget isn't out of control, out of fear for having the budget go out of control again, or something else.

When I made that argument, I meant someone else on the staff doing lineups for the show instead of Roger when he was still there, but I see your point.

[price_authority]

The people setting up the games now do it wrong.

They had 36 years to learn from Roger and the people who did it before it him.  Their lack of understanding of this important element of the show is their fault.

Either that or they know exactly what they're doing and are using that knowledge to deliberately make it difficult. Here's a juicer which costs $17.99 at retail. Is the right price $17 or $18? Making up fakes is not exactly rocket science.

I have absolutely no idea what some of those prizes cost (e.g. the notorious Mariachi Band they had last week-I've never priced one and couldn't even begin to start).   For others, they hardly give a discription of what one is priciing (e.g., a rental house? Is it on the beach or just near it (quite a difference in rent---I know from experience!).

There's an example of them either not knowing what they're doing or trying to put one over on the contestants. "You'll stay three nights in a lovely hotel!" Which hotel? It makes a difference whether it's the Four Seasons or Comfort Inn.

[PriceFanArmadillo]

Either that or they know exactly what they're doing and are using that knowledge to deliberately make it difficult. Here's a juicer which costs $17.99 at retail. Is the right price $17 or $18? Making up fakes is not exactly rocket science.

Yes, but making up good fakes is brain surgery. 

[brtsimpson142]

Sorry, can't resist:

"Dammit Smithers, this isn't rocket science, it's brain surgery!"   

[Ted]

Terry was his name, actually, but that's beside the point.  I wouldn't be surprised if that's the main reason for the difficult setups for games lately.

Wait a minute.  Let me get this straight.

A contestant wins both showcases, increasing the amount the show gave away on one day by $31,019.  Over the course of the next year, the producers of the show are forced to make pricing game setups difficult if not impossible for contestants to win in order to get the show back in budget. 

Yes, that makes perfect sense.   

 

[goldroadfanatic]

Well, there's one detail I overlooked, make the showcases harder to price to counter the perfect bid, not pricing games.  As for the pricing game setups, they probably just don't "get it" like Roger did, just that.  I don't think there's some grand conspiracy to make the games harder in the name of souring the loyal fans or something else,.

[price_authority]

Yes, but making up good fakes is brain surgery.

I'll say it again. They may be deliberately making the games difficult for budgetary reasons. That $17.99 juicer -- is it $17 or $18. I exaggerate for purposes of illustration but you get the point, I hope.

[penny_ante]

Wait a minute.  Let me get this straight.

A contestant wins both showcases, increasing the amount the show gave away on one day by $31,019.  Over the course of the next year, the producers of the show are forced to make pricing game setups difficult if not impossible for contestants to win in order to get the show back in budget. 

Yes, that makes perfect sense.   

 

No, I'm not saying that the producers are still trying to get back on budget after that incident. They're trying to make the Exacta impossible to repeat, for reasons that elude me. (Yeah, I know Drew and others are on record giving their reasons why, but their answers don't make sense.)

[goldroadfanatic]

I don't think this was ever said by anyone on the show, but one of our posters said that it would be very bad press for CBS to say that "we had a system that was beatable."  So something had to be changed so that the game could stay "fair" in the eyes of the public.  Also, the public could be unforgiving if they think any foul play happened and that would run the risk of the Quiz Show Scandals repeating and that would tarnish the show's and CBS's image, which they would never live down.

[brtsimpson142]

I don't think this was ever said by anyone on the show, but one of our posters said that it would be very bad press for CBS to say that "we had a system that was beatable."

You should add the word "again" to that; such a thing happened in exactly that way before (remember Michael Larsen?).  The same basic principle was at work on Exacta Day, albeit in a price-memorization-by-proxy by kinda way.  Judging by the fact that the Larsen eps didn't see the light of day again for two decades, I'm guessing they weren't too happy about that whole incident.

[penny_ante]

I don't think this was ever said by anyone on the show, but one of our posters said that it would be very bad press for CBS to say that "we had a system that was beatable."  So something had to be changed so that the game could stay "fair" in the eyes of the public.  Also, the public could be unforgiving if they think any foul play happened and that would run the risk of the Quiz Show Scandals repeating and that would tarnish the show's and CBS's image, which they would never live down.

You should add the word "again" to that; such a thing happened in exactly that way before (remember Michael Larsen?).  The same basic principle was at work on Exacta Day, albeit in a price-memorization-by-proxy by kinda way.  Judging by the fact that the Larsen eps didn't see the light of day again for two decades, I'm guessing they weren't too happy about that whole incident.

But the show is called 'The Price is Right' not 'The Price is Random'. Attempting any bit of tarnish here just doesn't stick. Fair is shooting for a fixed target, not one crudely stapled to the back of a hyperactive squirrel chased by rabid foxes.

It's all about Savvy Shopping, not Russian Roulette.

[brtsimpson142]

But that's the point--on Larsen Day, the patterns on the Big Board (obviously we're talking Press Your Luck here for those who don't know) weren't random.  Michael Larsen saw it and memorized the patterns.  Thereby, he milked the show for $110,237 in cash and prizes.

On Exacta Day, a certain audience member was in attendance who had memorized the prices of the prizes that wound up being offered in the Showcase.  To me it's the same thing, and even if the audience member in question didn't get on stage, there's no more foul play there than there was on Larsen Day.