FULL RECAP - TPiR 12/24/2008

[price_37]

Why didn't they make a Christmas Day for 2008?

[Todd]

I believe today's episode was intended to be.

[Nick]

You know you've had a great season thirty-seven show when all that really sucks is the lineup.  Seriously, I would say this was one of, if not the best, episode in months.  Drew did a fantastic job all round, especially for a show where there was only one winner.  I extremely hope that this wonderful turnaround for the show for the better will continue once the tapedates catch up after next month if not before.  The shows this week have been absolutely fantastic.  For the first time in months, I've actually enjoyed watching the show, and I'm truly looking forward now to the next new episode on Friday.  It's amazing and wonderful to see that the production staff absolutely have the ability to do the show correctly (not that hiring back Roger still wouldn't be a bad thing to do).

The only really bad slotting as far as games were today was One Away first followed by Range Game.  I would have been inclined to swap those two around.  Switch? should have been subbed out for a different multi-prize game, and an SP game should have been worked in somehow.

I was quite surprised One Away was lost.  That was one mighty expensive Audi.

Speaking of One Away, Drew was great with his bit.  "Beautiful sound effects lady" works a heck of a lot better than, "Oh mighty sound effects lady"; and the fact that he didn't even harp on and on so much with the specifics made it work really smoothly.

The normal prize introductions were such a wonderful thing to hear.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you, all of the staff, for bringing these back.

The small banter Drew and Rich had before one of the calldowns ("Do you have a name?"  "I do.  Want me to read it?") was very nice.  That's the kind of host/announcer interaction I want to see between Drew and Rich, and it was a real nice throwback to what you'd hear out of Bob with any announcer.

Gosh, even the Showcase Showdowns have been a lot more fun with Drew not falling on the, "Wanna say hi to anyone" bit on every spin.  We've been seeing some real interaction out of him here, and it's great!

Speaking of the Showcase Showdowns, we got the real ticket plug back!  Thank you!  Thank you!

Still speaking of the Showcase Showdowns, anybody else catch that the logo is back on the first closed captioning plug?

I was quite surprised John won Dice Game.  I wouldn't have thought the Jeep would have been so expensive.

Given that the Showcases had better writing and fewer recaps to them the other days this week, I can't say today's were the best as far as the writing goes; but it's great that they're getting back to normal.

Since we have the day off tomorrow, I'll take the time now to wish all of you a very merry Christmas and thanks to the staff for the wonderful week of shows this has been.  It has pleased me to see the life, familiarity, enjoyability, and fun of the show return in full force; and I dearly hope it will continue in the new year.  All the best!

I believe today's episode was intended to be.

Correct.  Today's episode was supposed to have aired tomorrow but got pushed ahead to today with the schedule shuffling that occurred when the November 11 episode was moved to primetime.

[tpirfan28]

I feel One Away has the potential to be an amazing first slot/kickoff game.  It's a real slippery slope, though...a wipeout or a really poor playing would kill things quickly, but a five-horn win (especially in Drew's style) could start the show off like someone won a Viper on Golden Road or something like that.

It will be interesting to figure out when this sudden change from corny One-Bid ramp-ups and Drewcases to seemingly old-guard Price happened, and it's relationship to the Showcase Perfection show.  I have a feeling the two are extremely related.

[Nick]

Remember that the episode with the perfect Showcase bid was taped at the end of September.  Perhaps a relationship can be drawn with the fact that these shows were taped shortly after that episode aired and the aftermath of lashing out that occurred with it, but there has to be more to it than that.  Pretty near everything that was wrong is literally and completely fixed up.

[Flerbert419]

They HAVEN'T played Dice Game sixth since [sometime in] December 1979, and [it] SAVED us [from] A winless show?

That seems like what the person was trying to say, except that's way wrong.

Dice Game was played sixth 3 times this season, the last one on December 12th.

[MDupont]

Wow Nick, I've never seen you this happy about Drew's performance before. I'm a lurker more than a poster, so if you don't know who I am, it's fine.

[whinbaby]

Game #67 (#6,988)

Showcase #1
All this Ferrari stuff - $1,000
Walk-in Wine Vault - It costs more than...are you kidding me?  A car?  It was first mentioned online on February 7, 2008.  Everywhere I read as of right now, I find a price of $27,995, but I have found a lower price on ConsumerReports.org.  They say $20,000.  I think that's reasonable because there is no way a trip to Tuscany could cost less than $3,000.

Here's that same wine cellar that was on The Price is Right, but look at the price on that website, that is Bar, Cigars, and Brew's website, it's priced more than the showcase itself.

Trip to Tuscany - $10,636

Showcase #2
Range - $8,795
Ducati Monster 696 - $8,013
Ford Mustang - $23,595

Your Modeling Scorecard for December 25, 2008
Daily Records
I only have records on file for 2007:  Rachel's $53,302, Brandi's $18,679, and Tamiko's $75,553.

Rachel Reynolds
December 25
Total dollars:  $81,884
($14,455 won, $67,429 lost)
Total prizes:  8 (3-5)
Cars, Trips:  1, 2

After 53 shows
Total dollars:  $2,794,897
($1,380,924 won, $1,423,973 lost)
Total prizes:  458 (305-153)
Cars, Trips:  56, 40 (22-34, 26-14)

Brandi Sherwood
December 25
Total dollars:  $58,358
($39,364 won, $18,994 lost)
Total prizes:  7 (4-3)
Cars, Trips:  1, 0

After 39 shows
Total dollars:  $1,848,817
($917,875 won, $930,942 lost)
Total prizes:  334 (218-116)
Cars, Trips:  38, 31 (19-19, 17-14)

Lanisha Cole
December 25
Total dollars:  $58,214
($25,408 won, $32,806 lost)
Total prizes:  7 (3-4)
Cars, Trips:  1, 1

After 31 shows
Total dollars:  $1,431,071
($700,014 won, $731,057 lost)
Total prizes:  257 (163-94)
Cars, Trips:  27, 17 (14-13, 8-9)

[goldroadfanatic]

I was quite surprised One Away was lost.  That was one mighty expensive Audi.

The TT is actually one of the cheapest Audis you can buy.  Their most expensive model, the R8, fetches $114,200 for a base model!

[edmojautis]

Xmas eve show '08. Let's get it on....

One Away: Didn't mind seeing this one first and for an AUDI??!!!   WOW!!! That was something excited to see!!! I really thought Sandra had it too!!!

Range: Too bad.

Switch?: I had a bad vibe when Judith decided to switch the prices.  

Squeeze: Now that's one "El Cheapo" trip to Jamaica. Too bad.

IITB: I'm quite amazed Cheryle got the Gingerbread House and the Christmas Cards and chose to bail out at the right time.

Dice: The "Stacked" Jeep Compass is back!!! After rough rolls with the middle digits, John saved us from the "skunk" ALL HAIL HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Showcases: What the hell do I need with a biga$$ wine refridgerator??!!!! Talk about prizes that would make getting a DSW very rough.

A 2.75-star show.

I would like to wish everybody at the BBS and of course all of you here at G-R.net a very Merry Christmas and hope you get everything you want and look forward to being back in business on Friday. Have a good night.  

[priceguy]

Wow!  Great show again today.  Well, the lineup was indeed weird, but I'll let that go.  Drew's hosting was great and the contestants were very enjoyable too. 

I must admit, the fake snow at the end of the show was totally random, but awesome!  I was almost expecting Darlene Love to jump out and start singing "Christmas, Baby Please Come Home" (A joke for you Letterman fans).  Great show.

I can't wait for the rerun tomorrow because I never saw it last year.  Merry Christmas and happy holidays everybody!

[Teddy]

One Away: For an Audi??? Now I wish it was won.
Range Game: I would've waited a bit longer to stop the rangefinder.
Switch?: Shoud've left those prices where they were.
Squeeze Play: An El Cheapo-trip to Jamaica??? For 4 nights??? WTF???
It's in the Bag: Good call quitting at $4,000. Always better than nothing.
Dice Game: The game that ended all chances of an El Skunko. I didn't expect this to happen, and I certainly didn't expect it to be played last.
Showcases: A wine cooler??? Holy crap! Santa must've been really kind, because of all that high-end stuff he left at the BBS.

Another great show, but my only beef is with the lineups this week. No Golden Road or Triple Play, and I get the feeling of deja vu every time something like Squeeze Play or Double Prices shows up. I'd like to see more variety in the new year's lineups. I'd like to see games like Gas Money, Shell Game, Secret "X", and Check-Out played more frequently. Heck, I'd even settle for the frequency of More or Less being increased, considering the fact that other games are now using its font.

[SteveGavazzi]

Drew's hosting really impressed me today.  Hardly anything was won until the sixth game, but he stayed upbeat and energetic through the whole show.  Bravo, Drew!

I have no problem with One Away being played first -- especially if they're going to hearken back to days of yore and play it for a luxury car!  That was awesome!  It's just too bad it wasn't won.

I know we've been doing a lot of complaining about the lineups lately, but It's in the Bag fifth was a reat treat.  It's been years and years since they've done that on any kind of regular basis...and it's a good fifth game, dammit!

Those were a couple of pretty cool showcases.

Why didn't they make a Christmas Day for 2008?

They did.  This was it.

[heelsrule1988]

BEST CONTESTANT OF THE DAY: Jerome
SHOW GRADE: 2

Walk-in Wine Vault - It costs more than...are you kidding me?  A car?  It was first mentioned online on February 7, 2008.  Everywhere I read as of right now, I find a price of $27,995, but I have found a lower price on ConsumerReports.org.  They say $20,000.  I think that's reasonable because there is no way a trip to Tuscany could cost less than $3,000.

So there it is. Got to be one of the most expensive prizes ever offered on the show that doesn't have wheels on it.

[Cartboy]

One Away:  Heartbreaking loss!   I thought for sure Sandra had it on the first try!
Range Game:  Too low by $46 - ouchie mama!
Switch?:  I thought for sure the prizes should've been switched!   I thought the price of the scuba equipment would've ended in an even number because there was two sets.
Squeeze Play:  Too bad!
It's In The Bag:  Did they have the right item in the $4.99 bag?  I don't believe for one minute that a bag of M&Ms is $4.99!
Dice Game:  YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY JOHN!!!!!!!!       Thanks for keeping the skunk out of the studio!   I do have to admit that I was a little unsure about whether the second number would be higher than 3 since the first number was 2.

Not too good today overall, IMHO. 

Merry Christmas Everybody!!