TPiR Recap - 9/23/2013 (TPiR Season 42 Premiere; Do The Math Premiere)

[FPGWillyT]

Money Shame to start off the year.  Nuff said.

[TheBigAK]

Do The Math --- Isn't this really just Most Expensive with 2 prizes??? Figure out which is the Most Expensive, set your equation accordingly = Win.

Not saying I dislike it, not saying TPiR doesn't have other games that aren't really the same thing.    I guess it is OK for a 2 prize game.    Can't wait to see them play it with 2 cars.   

As for season premier....Yeah, pretty blah compared to other seasons.   At least we didn't see Stack the Deck.   

Not really much else to say.

[therealcu2010]

And even if they are broke, you don't skimp on the season premiere. You make it big, you give a lot of stuff away, you set the tone for the season. You proceed to make it up later.

Roger once said that, during Drew's first season, he deliberately set up the games to be easier to entice people to watch Drew's shows. He knew darn well that he was destroying the budget, yet, Roger, being the saavy producer that he is, had the budget controlled by the finale. And never during Season 36 did the show feel "cheap".

Either way, there is no excuse- none, whatsoever- for a season premiere to be so lacking in quality wins and big prizes.

Anyways, as for the rest of the episode...

Not a fan of the new opening graphics. They're way too busy, feel out of place, and just take up too much of the frame. At the same time, the animation of the logo peeling away to the big doors looks cheap.

Do the Math...I actually really like the concept. It's basically a two-prize Most Expensive with a small cash bonus added in, but the concept is unique and actually manages to incorporate math without the contestant actually needing to do math. If that makes any sense whatsoever. The "prop", on the other hand, doesn't do it...and I could do without the cheesy 90s logo jumping animation.

The fact that the showcase winner won just $30K is pretty darned pathetic.

...oh, and all the stuff with the Emmy. While they should absolutely be celebrating the fact that they won the award, putting the thing up on stage constantly and showing it off like they did just screams of "na na na take that haters!", and got old fast. Add to that a subpar product around it and they certainly aren't making a case for a repeat.

All in all, easily one of the worst season premieres in the history of season premieres. It's still slightly better than Season 38 (a show that went 1 for 6, with the one win being a technical win because someone screwed up the copy), but it's still nowhere up to snuff. I know they can do better. Maybe if they'd refocus their efforts away from some of these unneeded gimmick specials and towards things like premieres, there wouldn't be so many problems.

Oh, and apparently a Jennifer Mullin is being credited as an executive producer now. Dunno who that is. Seems like there's at least some new unheard-of-person who mysteriously started at the top every season now...

[mrbrown2195]

Nothing says season premiere like MONEY GAME!

If it wasn't for the giant "42 Years" signs, I wouldn't have known this was a season premiere. I mean, if you're not going to drag out any of the Big 3 games, at least play the lesser games for big prizes (e.g. Money Game for a Cadillac, cars on SP games, etc.). Our showcase winner should be nearing 6-digits in winnings, not $30,000!

I'm not a big fan of the new graphics, either. They're very busy, very cheesy. Having the logo at the top of the show bothers me - people should know what they're watching -- it's been on for 42 years. It's almost like they're saying, "Hey, we know that you think this is a different show, but it's the same show you've been watching since 1972 and we feel compelled to reassure you of that!"

[vadernader]

Well this was a lackluster show, reminiscent of Season 41's premiere. I guess this is a slight improvement over that (Lucky $even, Plinko, Double Cross, Freeze Frame, Gas Money, Safe Crackers) but not by much if any. Let's just hope that something big is coming this week (Not Plinko...), like last season when Golden Road was played the 2nd episode. Then again, if they do have a Big 3 or a super big prize in a regular game on a day other than the premiere it will just raise question marks as to why not do it on the Premiere itself? I have no idea why either.

It was nice seeing the '42' in the top middle of Money Game and the trip in Coming or Going to be Going, but other than that this episode was mediocre at best. Even the showcases were lackluster, something I would expect from a May or June episode, not the season premiere. How can we be this over-budget already?!

For some reason, the split-screen credits listed Jennifer Mullin as (an?) Executive Producer. Someone should look over the full credits once CBS posts the episode.

Oh, and apparently a Jennifer Mullin is being credited as an executive producer now. Dunno who that is. Seems like there's at least some new unheard-of-person who mysteriously started at the top every season now...

She's been involved in a couple game shows with Fremantle, most notably (Up to this point) Family Feud. She actually started being "Co" Executive Producer on 'Price' sometime during Season 41. From the best of what I can find, it was probably at the end of April 2013.

Mike Richards and Jennifer Mullin are executive producers.

[The_Great_Butler]

I found a much better image of "The Dollar That Will Be Promoted But Never Seen":

I'm assuming that the dollar sign in the back is what I'm looking at? Because wow, that looks like junk. I wish I had a better word, but it's literally just thrown there for the sake of it being there.

I haven't even finished reading this thread yet and I had to comment on that.

[Wayoshi]

Heh, well besides that, to explain since Adam didn't point it out in the recap:

After a 75 on the middle player's spin in SD1, a 20 was spun but it was too weak to count, then the 85. From this promotional picture, it is absolutely clear that no one caught this at all until after Dylan ended up spinning a dollar to beat "both" 95s. Now you can go back to this point in SD1 and carefully pick out all the edits (especially the sound effects on the "aww") they made. A pretty good edit that no one would have noticed without the picture to be sure, but holy crap, they messed up the first SD of the season, wonderful.

[thepriceis_J]

I'll just repost here what I said in another thread.

Again, let's not pretend that Mike doesn't know how to set up a great season premiere. Season 40's premiere was excellent. It went 2 for 6 as well. He offered SEVEN cars; four in the first half, one in the second half, and two in the showcase. Out of those seven, FIVE were won. The showcases together totaled over $91,000, and the total winnings were over $157,000. 3 Strikes was played LAST. It was a grand affair worthy of being put up next to Season 35, 32, 25, and others.

He knows what he's doing, he just didn't do it this time.

[SteveGavazzi]

Well...um...that wasn't really much of a season premiere.  And that's a damn shame, because if it had been a normal episode, it would have been perfectly fine.  I'm not really sure how a show like this one gets planned out this way, unless they had intended to start off with 6421K and then never changed any of the prizes when the schedule got shuffled.

Do the Math is a good game.  It works amazingly well for such a simple concept.  Kudos to Scott for creating it.

I like the new light border.  The logo splitting apart as Door #2 opens is a cool touch, too.

Yay for Secret "X"!  It's been way too long since that was played!

Anybody know who Jennifer Mullin is?

Do the Math looks pretty cool. However they can improve on it like maybe including multiplication and division to make it a 25% chance at winning instead of 50/50.

No, they can't -- there's no number that could conceivably make sense for all four of the operations.

[Flerbert419]

In general, I agree with the comments here.  If you aren't going to lead with a brand new game, you have to do something different or break out one of the Big Four (ugh).

The best part of the lineup was honestly seeing Secret "X" after only six playings last year - its lowest ever in 36 seasons!

The reveal for Do The Math needs help.  Perform the contestants' selected answer and figure out the equation. Then, check if that number is the price of the other prize using a traditional flip card.

I also considered whether using multiplication or division would work, but it won't if you are going to give away the cash in the middle.  Thinking about other ways you could play the game, the sign could be fixed to be either addition or subtraction and the contestant would need to pick the correct dollar amount to make the equation correct.

Drew's hosting was mediocre - but he missed a crucial opportunity with Patricia! The only way that we heard about her car breaking down recently was because the contestant microphone picked up on it, and then Drew didn't share it with the audience at large. What a shame.

Contestant selection today was excellent.  I felt like each one was chosen for his or her personality.  Hopefully that trend continues this season.

EDIT: No new look for the site this season?  Guess Mike wasn't the only one who didn't care all that much.

[TPIRighteous]

No, they can't -- there's no number that could conceivably make sense for all four of the operations.

Unless it's something like 2. Maybe a $4 difference between choices isn't the nicest thing in the world.

I won't repeat what's already been said about this show as a season premiere, but I thought, taking that out of consideration, it went pretty well overall. Drew was doing really well, AND he was saying something other than "Welcome back to The Price is Right" coming out of the break! It really did feel like the good ol' days in those moments. Is it possible he took pointers in the offseason??

It looks like Adam is going to be obnoxious with the graphics. To me, they look overproduced. I'm not saying to go back to the Eskander graphics that were 10 years old when they were new, but the logo has way too much highlight/shadow, and everything else has unnecessary sparkles and generally looks like something created in a graphics design class to show off some skill. Otherwise, I noticed a few minor and neutral differences, like being zoomed out from Drew a bit coming out of breaks, and keeping a slightly tighter shot on the Any Number board.

Now sound: There was an eraser sound effect on Do the Math, which I don't believe was in the promo video, since people said it would be a good addition. It must have been added in post-pro. Also, did anyone else feel like the bells in Any Number were a bit behind? Maybe that's a side effect of automating the sounds. If it is, I'm already not a fan.

/ramble

[htmlcc92]

Did I watch the wrong parts?

I only actually saw the Emmy once (before the showcases), and heard Drew mention it before the showcase as well as before the "Have your pets spayed or neutered" line.

As a few others have said, this would not have been a bad show if it weren't the season premiere.

Also, don't they generally avoid playing the same cue more than once in a show? The cue used for the car in Money Game and the car in the first showcase were the same ones, unless I'm mistaken.

[Roadgeek Adam]

Any time they plugged the Emmy they could (Intro, SCSD 1, SCSD 2, before showcases)

[htmlcc92]

Hmm, must have fast forwarded through all the places except on either side of the showcase. Or been distracted by the intro graphics (which, incidentally, aren't too bad, except for the two spinning dollar signs). Right after a contestant finishes his or her game is when I usually start to fast forward.

[whinbaby]

The 7,878th episode (6th for Season 42)
Here comes my 14th year as a loyal viewer!  As a result, my showcase bids both end with "14".

Showcase #1

• iPad:  $499
• Trip to Seattle:  $3,608
• Nissan Sentra:  $18,200

My bid:  $25,714 (D'oh!)

Showcase #2

• Teppanyaki Table:  $7,614
• Trip to Tokyo:  $8,860
• Pizza Oven:  $787
• Trip to Rome:  $11,616

My bid:  $27,814 (Difference of $1,063)

Modeling Totals:  September 23, 2013 (OSAD 9/30)
Highs and lows among shows for the OSAD in previous years
High:  $77,034 (9/30/2004)
Low:  $15,896 (9/30/2002)

Rachel Reynolds
Total:  12/$98,055.00 New OSAD High! (8/$34,545.00, 4/$63,510.00)
Cars:  2 /$38,761.00 (0/$0.00, 2/$38,761.00)
Trips:  2/$19,462.00 (2/$19,462.00, 0/$0.00)
Cash Prizes:  1/$16,000.00 (0/$0.00, 1/$16,000.00)

Danielle Demski
Total:  12/$59,989.00 (8/$17,486.00, 4/$42,503.00)
Cars:  1 /$22,396.00 (0/$0.00, 1/$22,396.00)
Trips:  2/$12,468.00 (1/$8,860.00, 1/$3,608.00)
Cash Prizes:  1/$16,000.00 (0/$0.00, 1/$16,000.00)

All Prizes
Total:  24/$140,948.01 (16/$50,927.00, 8/$90,021.01)
Cars:  3/$61,157.00 (0/$0.00, 3/$61,157.00)
Trips:  4/$31,930.00 (3/$28,322.00, 1/$3,608.00)
Cash Prizes:  1/$16,000.00 (0/$0.00, 1/$16,000.00)

Career to date
Rachel Reynolds (1,206 shows)
Total:  11,313/$60,027,655.17 (7,040/$26,954,277.15, 4,273/$33,073,378.02)
Cars:  1,222/$27,631,191.00 (477/$10,295,085.00, 745/$17,336,106.00)
Trips:  989/$7,498,758.83 (517/$3,786,001.20, 472/$3,712,757.63)
Cash Prizes:  195/$2,260,227.00 (39/$397,198.00, 156/$1,863,029.00)

Yes, she has just reached sixty million ($60M)!

My viewing to date (2,367 shows)
Total:  61,701/$336,756,676.68 (38,410/$146,521,560.72, 23,291/$190,235,115.96)
Cars:  6,688/$144,145,225.51 (2,590/$54,532,328.51, 4,098/$89,612,897.00)
Trips:  4,957/$34,695,556.20 (2,548/$17,744,621.20, 2,409/$16,950,935.00)
Cash Prizes:  1,757/$37,914,482.00 (347/$6,227,290.00, 1,410/$31,687,192.00)

On the other hand, I have viewed over a third of a billion dollars in prizes to date!