My 6th Trip to TPIR Trip report Part 1 – Airs 5/29/08
After 5 trips to Hollywood to see TPIR 18 times in studio, I had finally convinced my mom and my aunt to finally tag along with me on a trip to the show after bribing them with Dancing With the Stars tickets. I had told them about how much fun TPIR tapings were, and they wanted to see for themselves.
Since we wanted to try to be on camera as much as possible even if none of us did get called, we camped out since 10 the night before to secure priority numbers 1, 2, and 3 – based on the seating arrangement of the studio, we should’ve gotten front row seats on the right aisle. The next group arrived at midnight, and then Michael’s group and April’s group arrived around 2 AM. Nobody else arrived until about 3 hours later, so in the mean time, those of us in line had time to acquaint ourselves – and with me being the “know-it-all” of the group, we basically formed one big group, and they all made a pact to look for me in the audience should they need assistance if they should get called as a contestant, and if one of us wins the showcase that we’d go up on stage. On the lot, I had also taken the opportunity to get to know the first 50 or so people in line as well, including Jeffrey who had recognized me as the guy that ran on stage with the first $1,000,000 winner.
After several hours of waiting on benches, getting contestant cards, and nametags, it’s time for the contestant interviews. When Stan recognized me as #1 in line, he was kind of surprised to see me there. I was asked what’s the best part about being in line all night and I mentioned that I enjoyed being in line to meet a bunch of great people that I wouldn’t have otherwise. After watching everyone else in our “group” get interviewed, I was sure that at least two of us would get called – and sure enough 2 from our group did get called, although they were not the two I had projected would be picked.
The last set of benches yielded a 2 hour wait because we were in the first group. About 5 minutes before going into the studio, I was told by the head page that my family and I cannot sit in the front. We questioned why and he couldn’t tell us why because he didn’t know. This made my mom furious that we waited in line the whole time and only to get seated in the back. We try to protest to the page that we stayed in line to be #1, 2, and 3 to get the front row seats and we deserve them because of that, but we were told that they could “compromise” and give us seats 5 rows back if I didn’t shout out the answers. By the time we’re told this, we’re already being whisked into the studio, and being led to a 5th row seat, which angered my mom. We tried to protest by trying to talk to someone from guest relations or the production staff, but unfortunately they weren’t accommodating us because “They’re in a meeting.” By this point Roger tells the page (Roger can’t talk to us directly before the show because that could bring up an S&P issue) to offer us seats in front of Rich’s podium which he thinks are better seats, but obviously we’re not going to stand for that. Eventually it gets to a point where the page tells us Syd Vinnedge said we can’t sit in the front, and at that point I know it’s over and we’re stuck where we are in the 4th row. My mom is now visibly angry over this turn of events, now claiming the show is fixed because they don’t want me in the front AND they don’t want me to shout out the answers. Unfortunately, it was either comply with what they told me or get kicked out, so I put on a fake smile for the show and tried to enjoy it, while my mom stewed over it for the entire show, not even getting up when Drew came through the doors at the beginning of the show.
The show however, was actually a fairly good show, despite the losses, but clearly I was in not in the right frame of mind to enjoy the show – I just wanted to help whoever out of our group would get picked win some stuff by using hand signals since they didn’t tell me not to do that. I also tried to be sneaky about the hand signals because I didn’t want to get moved back like I did on one of the MDS’s a few months ago.
Switcheroo: Yay! My favorite game and I finally got to see it in studio! I signal to April’s group a “5” should go in the price of the car – I thought she had 5 right on the first try, but unfortunately that wasn’t an easy setup. They had to re-tape Rachel revealing the prices during the stopdown for some reason.
Balance Game: Jeffrey gets on stage and I signal for $4,046, but unfortunately I didn’t notice that was an NWA vacation, so it was cheaper than I thought it would be. By this point, both contestants I met in line have gotten on stage and had lost their pricing games.
IUFB 3: Two overbids were edited out – I was hoping to go for the trifecta and get 3 contestants I know in the showcase showdown, but unfortunately he got $5-upped.
Buy or Sell: There was a 20-minute stopdown before this segment because they couldn’t get the readout to work – which is why Drew mentioned the readout didn’t work. However, during the game the readout actually worked! After this game there was a 15-minute stopdown to decide whether to keep the readout in the show and have Drew mention that he didn’t know the readout actually did work when he was told it didn’t or they would completely edit out the readout working. I guess they picked that they would completely edit out the readout working. Confused yet? We were all just as confused when Drew mentioned to the audience what they were going to do with that segment.
SCSD 1: April advances and I know I’ll have at least one person in the showcase from our group – and a chance to run on stage again.
IUFB 4: Yeah, I laughed when Theresa bid $9000 too. Turns out those surfboards were a bit more than I thought.
Double Prices: Easy setup.
IUFB 5: You can see that they tried to keep me out of the camera shot during Tiffany’s come on down – I was just a row in front of Tiffany on the aisle. I knew this Chandelier was $10xx, so that’s what I signaled to Michael. He thought he got $1-upped by Ronald though, which is the reason for the delayed reaction because he thought there was no way he could’ve won.
Card Game: I had seriously hoped he wouldn’t draw a $1000 card because I had only seen the car on the show once before this taping – and it was around $18,000 – which is what I signaled to Michael. You can see when he says $24,000 the next thing he whispers is $18,000 – which meant that he got my hand signal. By the time he gets to $17,400 I signal to stop, which he does and wins the car which was $18,395. I don’t think Drew actually said what the price of the car was, and I’m SO glad he didn’t draw another card because if it in fact was a 10, he would’ve been over by a painful $5.
After Michael had won the car, he had taken a victory lap around the audience ala Jaimal (jimlange) from the 2/20/08 show. When he sat down to fill out the paperwork, the reality of wining an $18,395 car really hit home and he bawled like a baby for about a minute. My mom did the same too – and I explained this is exactly why I go see the show – to see other people’s lives change before my eyes. Michael talked to Drew during the stopdown about how he was unemployed and was considering joining the military.
Pick A Pair: I thought this was an easy setup because all of the pairs of products had more than a $5 difference between each other ($2.49, $7.99 and $13.99).
SCSD 2: Michael advances and after he wins, April goes up there to congratulate him because they’re both in the showcase! With 2 people from our extended group in the showcase, it’s now up to me to either cost the show both showcases, or at least make sure there isn’t a Double Overbid.
Showcases: After I see the furniture, I know Michael is going to pass, and I signal to April’s group to bid $17,200 – she ends up bidding $15,500 which I thought wasn’t too bad. However, during the 2nd showcase, someone from the producer’s table gets up and blocked my view of the turntable so that I couldn’t see Michael and Michael couldn’t find me in the audience. Instead, I signal to Michael’s group in the front row to bid $30,000, and at which point my mom tells me that every last person at the producer’s table was looking directly at me while I was trying to signal. I looked back angrily at them and they all turned away. Unfortunately, Michael changed his bid to $25,000 at the last second and I knew he wasn’t going to win at that point. I was bit disappointed when they revealed the ARP's and Michael would've won if he had stuck with $30,000, but I was still happy for April since she had already lost her pricing game and Michael had already won a car. When April won the showcase, she actually wanted me to run on stage, but with the events of what happened I didn’t want to risk being barred from the studio again so I thought the better of it.
While this was a fun taping to be a part of and help people I knew to win some great prizes, I walked out of this taping with a bitter taste in my mouth – more so because my family had to be subjected to it. It really gave them a bad impression of the show and I get mocked on a daily basis for even watching the show because they don’t like that I’m treated this way when I go to the studio. Unfortunately it doesn’t end here, as the next taping I attended turned out to be even worse than I could’ve expected.
