FULL RECAP - TPiR 11/30/2009

[Joe_Capitano]

Production #4931K - Taped Sept. 8, 2009 Drew: stage entrance First Four lineup: left to right Handoff: Gwen Models of the Day: Lanisha Cole, Gwendolyn Osborne-Smith and Rachel Reynolds Wearing: Stop Staring 1   LG Lotus Cellular Phone (1 yr service)(R-in the Row) LAURA 900 MAX 450 JONATHAN *750 CARMEN 1 ($780) Jonathan plays PUNCHBOARD (Black & Decker) Portable Power $ 50 HIGHER $ 70 * ( 1 ) 250 6 Blade Pizza Cutter 165 LOWER 190 Polka Dot Hair Dryer 50 LOWER 69 Electric Pasta Maker 150 LOWER 135 * (10) 50 LOSS 2   Women's Designer Swimwear (L) +Laura 450 +Max 499 SHARON *899 +Carmen 200 ($1115) Sharon from Ashland, KY plays FLIP FLOP for a 7n Costa Caribbean Cruise (via Ft. Lauderdale)(R) Setup: 74 25 Pick: 74 52   (She "Flops") Price: $4752   LOSS 3   Chef's Classic 17 pc Cookware Set (L) +Laura 620 +Max 850 SHAWNNA 550 +Carmen 700 ($670) Laura plays LUCKY SEVEN for a Honda Element EX (Std., Susp.) (L) Picks: 4 6 8 6 Price:   $ 2 2 3 8 5 Bucks: 7 5 2 2 1 WIN! SHOWDOWN #1 Spinoff $ 1,035 Jonathan 35 + 55 .90 .60 Through to Showcase Round 1,115 Sharon 65 + 75 OV 23,055 Laura 90 stay .90 .25 4   Apple iMac Desktop Coputer (G&R) ERICA 1800 +Max *2000 Shawnna 1550 +Carmen 1551 ($2149) Max from Portland, OR goes on a SHOPPING SPREE $ 4300 (2) XBOX 360 Video Game Package/(JVC) 42" LCD HDTV $ 2025 2275 (1) Ashley Martining Dining Group 1199 1076 (4) Scandyna Home THeater Speaker System 1548 WIN! (3) Mini Fridge/Water Dispenser 599 5   Classic Flame Electric Fireplace (L) Erica *1200 DONNA 1900 Shawnna 2010 +Carmen 1500 ($1399) Erica plays STACK THE DECK for a Honda Accord LX (Std., Mats)(G) Setup:   1 2 5 4 9 7 8 (Trident Xtra Care) Gum (Fleischmann's) Rapid Rise Yeast (3 pk) $ 1.50 $ 2.29 X (Nutri Grain) Cereal Bars 4.85 4.85 * (5) 7 Glad Forceflex Trash Bags (38 13 gal) (Starbuck's Double Shot) Coffee Drink (4 pk) NeilMed Saline Nasal Drops 7.99 10.99 X PICKS: $24,987 PRICE: $21,847 LOSS Things have not gone Carmen's way today, but maybe there's a ray of hope for her. She now holds the last bid. That's good. Mimi is hoping she blows it, thus requiring banishment to the "First Four" Breakfast Club. Who will get their way? 6   sportsauthority.com Treadmill (G) LAUREN 1500 Donna 1700 Shawnna 1250 +Carmen *1701 ($1900) Carmen escapes! She plays FREEZE FRAME for a Westley Allen Queen Size Sleigh Bed and a Strobel Supplepedic Sleep Set (L) 36 49 25 $5899 LOSS 12 99 85 58 72 SHOWDOWN #2 $ 1,399 Erica 40 + 90 OV 1,900 Carmen 55 + 10 .65 Through to Showcase Round 7,520 Max 10 + 45 .55 SHOWCASE ROUND Carmen has the honor. SC1-Jonathan Outdoor Firepit Seating Group (G) Hi Lo Towlite Telescoping Trailer (R) BMW G650GS Motorcycle (G) BID $19,852 PRICE 33,256 DIFF –13,404 TOTAL $34,291 SC2-Carmen Trip to San Diego (via Limo; 2n) Trip to Las Vegas (4n @ Red Rock) Air Combat USA Experience (R) Maxim 1800MX 17.6' Ski Boat (L) BID $23,000 PRICE 45,891 DIFF –22,891 Today's Pricing Games: 2 for 6 Total Winnings: $70,280 THIS IS THE ONLY OFFICIAL GOLDEN-ROAD.net SHOW RECAP. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED WITHOUT AUTHOR PERMISSION.

[Mallory16]

It's too bad Carmen didn't win the trip to San Diego in her showcase... for no better reason than that it's just totally neat for someone named Carmen to be offered a trip to San Diego.  Come on... I can't be the only one here who was thinking it!  I'm actually kinda' surprised Drew didn't make a joke about it.

Can anyone justify why the pizza cutter is worth $190?  And what's wrong with a perfectly wonderful "big ol' knife" sort that cuts 'em good and fast, for far cheaper?

[Todd]

That Lucky 7 reaction today had to have been one of the best reactions we've had in a long time. It was so much fun to watch!

[leafsfan17]

It's too bad Carmen didn't win the trip to San Diego in her showcase... for no better reason than that it's just totally neat for someone named Carmen to be offered a trip to San Diego.  Come on... I can't be the only one here who was thinking it!

You are definitely not the only person who thought that.

[goldroadfanatic]

Great to see Shopping Spree show up today.

Was anyone else besides me thinking that as soon as Fingers got that "Why isn't Fingers a Barker's Beauty?" t-shirt, Drew or someone would urge her to go behind the Giant Price Tag to hold the $25,000 bill or model at least one of the small prizes?  It was great to see a Loyal Friend and True win it all today.

What the heck made the second showcase fetch over $45,000?!

[actual_retail_tice]

Prizes like that pizza cutter counteract the whole idea that "it's good for the small prizes in Punch-a-Bunch/Plinko,etc. to be challenging". There's challenging, and then, there's totally improbable. And I think it was pretty well-illustrated today that this type of game is no fun when the contestant only wins two tries.

Aside from the fantastic win in Lucky 7, kind of a grim show*. Stack the Deck was definitely set up for the contestant not to win many tries (although she got a different one right than they probably expected her to.) Drew's comment to the Freeze Frame contestant was annoying: "Beds are way more than that!", like the contestant should have known. I thought she picked the best choice.

* Edit: I take that back; it was fun to see the guy get so excited to win Shopping Spree.

[swolyswoND]

Prizes like that pizza cutter counteract the whole idea that "it's good for the small prizes in Punch-a-Bunch/Plinko,etc. to be challenging". There's challenging, and then, there's totally improbable. And I think it was pretty well-illustrated today that this type of game is no fun when the contestant only wins two tries.

Aside from the fantastic win in Lucky 7, kind of a grim show*. Stack the Deck was definitely set up for the contestant not to win many tries (although she got a different one right than they probably expected her to.)

I couldn't agree more with the first part of your post. Games like Plinko and Punch-a-Bunch are far, far better when the contestant gets most, if not all, of the chances. I'm not saying that they should just give the chips/punches away with insanely easy prizes, but the pizza cutter today and some of the Plinko SPs lately are damn near impossible.

However, I can't agree about Stack the Deck - that seems like it was set up to be won. I felt the 3 GPs were extremely easy, and if the contestant picked numbers 3-4-5 as they usually do, it was fairly obvious what the 1-2 numbers for an Accord were. I think Greco wanted that game to be won.

[Mallory16]

If you don't bake things, the yeast can be a bit more than someone expects, and almost anyone was going to get the last pair wrong, mistakenly believing that the medicinal stuff was going to be the more expensive item.  Which they'd be right about that, but wrong about the given price being the more expensive one.

I wouldn't even say the first two numbers were obvious:  I'd have guessed 19 before 21, myself.

[Wayoshi]

I have to say today really made me think about the direction of the show. I mean, it is much better than S37, for sure...but by how much, really?

Is the economy that bad that Greco has to set up half the games to be lost everyday? L7 was surprisingly OK with the -5, but the Carribean cruise was cheap and the bed was outrageous (I never heard a "king", let me know if I'm wrong, but still). Stacky is already hard enough yet continually 5 and/or 0 is a dud digit while it ends in something insane, and we get yeast which is cheap but not cheap enough and nasal aids which could have been 7.99 just as well as 10.99. I'm surprised she even managed to get those bars.

Then there's the showcases. Greco seems to think it's OK to have more PG losses and then use whatever new budget we have for the showcases... it's not OK!! It brings an incredible inbalance to the show - who's going to still be tuned in at 11:49 to watch the SCs - and 95% of people are still garfing these things like crazy! I don't want minor details like "presidential suite" or "6500 sq ft villa" to add another 15,000 to a showcase when it just makes the contestants look worse than they are!

...I haven't ranted in awhile but it was highly necessary today. I can't enjoy a show when there's a 0.01% chance of big wins.

[BRB_TheFireball]

Yay!  Greco on camera!

$190 for a pizza cutter?!

I can't believe that 5 was actually the last number in the Lucky Seven car.

Yay!  Shopping Spree!

Yay!  Stack the Deck!

My showcase bids:
Trailer/motorcycle--$31,107
--$31,107

[joeyboy]

Fingers cameo!

I wonder if Jonathan wanted his shirt back after the evil Punch-a-Bunch setup? Speaking of Punch-a-Bunch, I'm not too crazy about this game first.

Still speaking of Punch-a-Bunch, how could that pizza cutter be $190???

Boy, we had a lot of tattoos in contestants row today.

I was stunned that Lucky Seven was won. (I’m sure Fingers was too!) That win, as well as Laura’s reaction, was awesome!

I knew the water cooler should have been avoided in Shopping Spree.

Stack the Deck was downright impossible today.

On the other hand, Freeze Frame was rather easy today. (O.K. so 2/6 games with fairly easy setups)

Wow, the first showcase, the one with the  :frts:was fairly normal.

Am I the only one getting tired of multiple trips in a showcase? (as well as the same  ?)

[SteveGavazzi]

Some of the one-prize games are becoming almost impossible to win.  I can't remember the last time I had any clue what the price was in Freeze Frame, for instance.

The comeback in Lucky $even was absolutely amazing.

There is no way anyone was going to make a reasonable bid on either showcase today.  In fact, that's something that's been happening far, far too often this year.

[Kev347]

You know, today would have been a really fun show if not for Greco. We still had some great Price moments today, from the great reaction to winning L7 to the Fingers cameo (and shirt!) in Punch (who thought we'd ever see that kind of shirt?). Ironic then that Greco showed up in a bad way all over the rest of the show today. A $190 pizza cutter? $8 coffee? A $6000 bed (when there are 3 other perfectly reasonable cheaper fakes?) An unwinnable Flip Flop? And then two ridiculously expensive showcases. I have some news: If people see contestants losing games in such ridiculous fashion, they aren't gonna be around to watch the ridiculously expensive showcases. And yes that Las Vegas package is a nice package - it's really nice to be able to stay in a "presidential suite" and all that. But it has to be PRICEABLE. If it's not priceable, it's not fit for The Price Is Right - I don't care how nice it is. And they seem to have learned this about designer wardrobes, at least. Now they just have to learn this about trips. Extras on trips are fine and great - if these extras are emphasized enough in the copy, and they are possible to price and don't add $10,000 to a showcase ARP for no reason. (Hey, at least showcase 1 was nice and normal today. A good old Hi-Lo trailer from the olden days and a motorcycle. Nice.) OK, rant over.

Lineup today was solid - was really nice to see Freeze Frame last for a change of pace (especially when I was expecting Pick A Number!), and it's always nice to see an MP show up.

Timings:
Punch A Bunch (5.5) - 4:41
Flip Flop (3.5)- 3:33
Lucky $even (4.5)- 4:17
Shopping Spree (4.5) - 4:32
Stack The Deck (5.5)- 5:20
Freeze Frame (4) - 2:43
Total (27.5): 25:06 (these totals have been going up recently. Less 24's and more 25's and 26's. Nice to see them allotting more time to games.)

[catdogwheel]

Can anyone justify why the pizza cutter is worth $190?  And what's wrong with a perfectly wonderful "big ol' knife" sort that cuts 'em good and fast, for far cheaper?

Or the old circle pizza cutter? It's always amazing to me that people come up with inventions that have already been invented.

[whinbaby]

The 7,161st set of Pricing Games (49th for Season 38)

Showcase #1
Outdoor Furniture - $5,413
Hi Lo Trailer - $19,943
Motorcycle - $7,900

Showcase #2
Trip to San Diego - $3,439
Trip to Las Vegas - $23,590, yes, the Presidential suite can be real expensive.
Maxum 1800 MX - $18,862

Your Modeling Scorecard for November 30, 2009
Daily Records
$92,395/2006, $22,367/2000

Rachel Reynolds
Total:  8/$56,800 (5/$25,019, 3/$31,781)
Cars:  0/$0 (0/$0, 0/$0)
Trips:  3/$31,781 (0/$0, 3/$31,781)

Lanisha Cole
Total:  8/$77,884 (5/$28,173, 3/$49,711)
Cars:  1/$22,385 (1/$22,385, 0/$0)
Trips:  0/$0 (0/$0, 0/$0)

Gwennie Osborne
Total:  10/$40,343 (7/$18,237, 3/$22,106)
Cars:  1/$21,847 (0/$0, 1/$21,847)
Trips:  0/$0 (0/$0, 0/$0)

And for the season
Rachel Reynolds (46 shows)
Total:  447/$2,332,398 (265/$961,061, 182/$1,371,337)
Cars:  42/$1,023,862 (16/$353,120, 26/$670,742)
Trips:  43/$340,391 (21/$147,168, 22/$193,223)

Lanisha Cole (39 shows)
Total:  360/$1,730,632 (222/$744,967, 138/$985,665)
Cars:  31/$689,739 (11/$255,654, 20/$434,085)
Trips:  34/$284,699 (17/$140,651, 17/$144,048)

Gwennie Osborne (16 shows)
Total:  128/$790,225 (79/$385,305, 49/$404,920)
Cars:  14/$320,329 (5/$124,122, 9/$196,207)
Trips:  17/$145,729 (11/$114,919, 6/$30,810)