FULL RECAP - TPiR 01/05/2009

[UniquePerspective]

During SCSD#2, there was some necessary editting because Drew was choking. In studio, Drew was visibly seen stumbling off camera on the monitors trying to catch his breath. ...

What happened? Did he have an asthma like problem?

[BRB_TheFireball]

Opening:  Is this the first time that the wall has moved on camera?

Grandy:  First?!  And with a $3.50 target?!  Wow, feels just like 1981!  That was a hard setup.  I didn't think that aluminum foil was that expensive.  Great job by Jody on stopping the Greco.

Pathy:  For some reason, this game is not as exciting when it's played for a cheapo car like a Focus.  But a last-SP-on-last-number win from a tough trio of SPs is always great.  This may be a first for me, but I got the prices of all three SPs wrong.  And that would've been especially painful for me because I had all of the numbers in the price of the car correct except for the last number.  Uh-oh!  Brandon went to his car.  Nick is gonna get pissy again.

Squeeze Overplay:  Take that, Peanut Gallery!

1RP:  "The Cats" doesn't seem to fit as a multi-trip cue.  But it was great to hear an extra-long playing of it, thanks to those extra-long trip descriptions.  That was an impossible setup.  Sedona is normally uber-expensive, like Santa Fe.

Balance:  This game sure was rushed leading up to the checking of the price... but then the scales were about as rushed as a driver in The Villages.

Dice:  This game should've been played for the Focus instead of the Mustang.  Claudia must've spent some time at the craps table in her years because she did a great job of rolling fives.  Claudia also went to her new car, which means that Nick is gonna get pissy twice today.

SCSD #2:  Lots of obvious edits in this segment.  And I see that CJBojangles just mentioned why.

SC #1:  This Every Room staging sucks.  And so does Steven's bid.  $8,500 barely covers the arcade game.

SC #2:  Wow, this has to be the first trip to Puerto Rico offered on this show in at least 12 years.

My showcase bids:
ERITH--$18,307
Jet skis--$25,607

[Nick]

I'm really glad there's something to look forward to, at least I hope that the last week of first-run shows is what will become regular once the tapedates catch up.  All of the ultimate suck that was so beautifully removed back before Christmas was prevalent yet again.  I sincerely hope it did not take until the first of December tapings for them to get things right because I want the Drew Carey hosted Price Is Right that actually feels like The Price Is Right to return, unlike what this was, which didn't feel like The Price Is Right very much.

I never complain to see both a GP and an SP game in a show since it's so infrequent nowadays, but I don't feel it's asking too much to separate the GP and SP games into separate halves of the show.

I liked how the had such a low target price in Grand Game today.  If anything, Drew really couldn't make the stupid joke about the price of Campbell's soup compared to the target price.

I wonder how they kept those Klondike ice cream bars from melting inside the packaging.

It's going to be great to see the normal prize introductions and lack of stupid jokes about One Bid price reveals be gone.

The directing in 1 Right Price was so stale.  The lack of zoom on Amber as she brought the one right price over was weird, among the other still shots. It could have been a lot easier on everybody if they'd simply bring back the trip skins.

That was some weird manipulation of the scales in Balance Game.

I'm glad that when Salem rolled the one in Dice Game that it turned out to be the correct digit so Drew didn't breeze past it saying, "It doesn't matter because we know it's higher."

It really bugs me how such a simple, longstanding Showcase theme such as Every Room in the House can be botched as it was today.  Terrible staging of the prizes and the lack of the correct cue brought the whole thing down.  Sure, it was still a heck of a lot better than yet another crappy second Showcase, but it was nowhere near as good as it could have been.

Opening:  Is this the first time that the wall has moved on camera?

There's been many times where it's been seen moving as the doors were closing, but today's the first time I recall it being moved in a visibly-intentionally manner.

Uh-oh!  Brandon went to his car.  Nick is gonna get pissy again.

Hey, he was only doing what the host was telling him.  Of course, the host shouldn't be instructing him to run to his newly-won car.  He should be instructing him to proceed off stage to Roger.  Yes, Roger, because Roger also should be there.

[goldroadfanatic]

I wonder how they kept those Klondike ice cream bars from melting inside the packaging.

I wonder that too, not just the Klondike bars, but all the other ice cream novelties and the Breyer's packages the show has had throughout the years.  Is it possible that the staff freezes those products for a long period of time so they don't melt as easily on stage?

[SteveGavazzi]

Parts of this show -- Pathfinder in particular -- already felt like things were progressing towards the way they were on the Christmas shows.  Most of the second half, though, was just annoying.

I am so freaking sick of not seeing Drew in front of the Barker Wall when the Big Doors open.  It was mildly funny once; we're now up to seven or eight times this season.  Today, the wall even moved, which made no sense whatsoever.

Grand Game was freakin' hard.  I am utterly amazed that that was won (and for the first time all season, no less).

Speaking of Grand Game, who else remembers when the $2.79 Klondike Bars were on the show three or four times a week?

I've got to give Drew credit for his reaction to the bids on the Lancome products.  That was hilarious.

I still don't like that they're using green screens for trips, but at least they managed to do a decent job of presenting 1 Right Price today.  The artwork was absolutely beautiful...although I still think it's absurd that they can't just display said artwork in the studio instead of making the contestant and everyone in the audience look at green walls.  It was considerably better than that cluster**** of a presentation in Switch? a couple months ago, although it still resulted in some strange directing, particularly because they couldn't move the camera along with Amber as she carried the one right price over to the podium.  (Incidentally, when she revealed the price of Napa Valley you could see the green screen behind her plain as day.)

Oh, and Drew...it's not "Sedoña."

Balance Game just sucked.  Drew plowed through it like it didn't even matter, and the scales moved so slowly that they weren't even interesting to watch.

Salem struck me as something of a showoff.  I was glad he never got out of Contestants' Row.

How the hell hard is it to stage Every Room in the House correctly?

The second showcase was the stupidest one I've seen since...well, right before the Christmas tapings.

[tpirfan28]

One of the previous "attempts" at a two-trip game.  They have made improvements!

[mrbrown2195]

I wonder how they kept those Klondike ice cream bars from melting inside the packaging.

Is it possible that the staff freezes those products for a long period of time so they don't melt as easily on stage?

I'm no genius on the way the show operates, but maybe the simplest explanation is correct, as it often is: Perhaps there is no actual product in the packaging?

[Briguy]

I never complain to see both a GP and an SP game in a show since it's so infrequent nowadays, but I don't feel it's asking too much to separate the GP and SP games into separate halves of the show.

I'll agree here. There seems to be something kosher about playing a GP game in one half of the show and a SP game in another half. Then again, I'm intrigued at how they decide all this; do they do a secret "blind draw" beforehand (as in, to determine what games are played and when), with S&P present, or what?

I liked how the had such a low target price in Grand Game today.  If anything, Drew really couldn't make the stupid joke about the price of Campbell's soup compared to the target price.

I wonder how they kept those Klondike ice cream bars from melting inside the packaging.

I was surprised that the target price was set so low. They probably wanted a win on this one.

As for the ice cream bar package — well, they probably use an empty box ... just like with the other perishable products.

Hey, he was only doing what the host was telling him.  Of course, the host shouldn't be instructing him to run to his newly-won car.  He should be instructing him to proceed off stage to Roger.  Yes, Roger, because Roger also should be there.

I'm sure I or someone else has asked before, so forgive me, but what is so wrong with someone being asked to go to his/her newly won car? They do it on "Wheel of Fortune," and I'm sure they did it on "Let's Make a Deal," et al. This is just me talking, but I'd probably have the contestant visit his new car (for a few minutes) before directing him offstage if I were the host, and I would have done so even during the Bob Barker-era.

Brian

[Casey]

Bob certainly did invite/encourage contestants to see their new cars as well on occasion.  He certainly did it in the 70s - that can be seen on the DVD set.

[gr8daynegb]

Bob Barker  had contestants go to their newly one cars.  Winners just celebrate a lot weirder than they used to

[Nick]

I'll agree here. There seems to be something kosher about playing a GP game in one half of the show and a SP game in another half. Then again, I'm intrigued at how they decide all this; do they do a secret "blind draw" beforehand (as in, to determine what games are played and when), with S&P present, or what?

Heck no, it's skillful crafting.  The kind of crafting that only Frank Wayne and Roger Dobkowitz have really proved themselves to posses.

Because GP and SP games possess a similar style (the use of a smaller product as part of the pricing game), you'd want to separate each into a separate half of the show at least to keep it varied.  Granted, with the way Adam's been doing lineups, moving one game seems to involve moving all of them around to create a proper lineup.  For instance, I would have made today's lineup Squeeze Play, Dice Game, Grand Game, Balance Game, Pathfinder, 1 Right Price.  Squeeze Play naturally works as a first game, and you've got the GP and SP games separated into separate halves of the show.  I opted to switch halves of the car games because Grand Game fits better in the first half of the show as opposed to the second.

As for the ice cream bar package — well, they probably use an empty box ... just like with the other perishable products.

That's probably all it is.  Still, I wonder just what exactly it is they do.

I'm sure I or someone else has asked before, so forgive me, but what is so wrong with someone being asked to go to his/her newly won car? They do it on "Wheel of Fortune," and I'm sure they did it on "Let's Make a Deal," et al. This is just me talking, but I'd probably have the contestant visit his new car (for a few minutes) before directing him offstage if I were the host, and I would have done so even during the Bob Barker-era.

Aside from the fact that no other host than Drew has ever actively encouraged it extremely regularly (Yes, Bob did it, but nowhere near as much as Drew does. Heck, more often than not, Bob never encouraged car winners to run over to their car.  They just did), I've offered the directorial argument in the past.  It's impossible to get a camera in to get a shot of the contestant's face over at the car unless they turn back towards the camera, which few of them do.  Nobody wants to see the back of the contestants' heads.  We want to see their faces full of excitement.  In addition, aside from the fact that The Price Is Right is not Wheel of Fortune or Let's Make a Deal, typically car wins in those programmes were at the end of the show or that particular contestant's involvement in the programme.  Price doesn't work like that.  The contestant returns later at the Showcase Showdown, so it's not like a send-off-to-the-car thing is really making any big celebration.  Further, Price is simply a fast-moving show.  Let's not hog all the airtime for just one contestant celebrating his win.  Let's move along so we can get more interaction with all contestants.  That's where the heart of the fun of the show is.

[goldroadfanatic]

I'm no genius on the way the show operates, but maybe the simplest explanation is correct, as it often is: Perhaps there is no actual product in the packaging?

One peculiar thing I noticed from the March 20, 1996 playing of Hole in One is a package of Klondike Big Bear ice cream sandwiches, with the sandwiches seen in the plastic case.  I wonder if they melted or were they frozen for a long period of time.

[rob79]

Grand Game fits better in the first half of the show as opposed to the second.

It works awfully well in the 2nd half in my opinion,too, better yet it works really well played last--where it used to be more often than not.

[Nick]

True, but I feel 1 Right Price works better to end the show rather than playing it third.  Grand Game last could push Pathfinder back to second and move Dice Game to fifth.  That would also work well.

[heelsrule1988]

A return to earlier shows, but still... not too bad. The second showcase was kind of lame, but it still wasn't as bad as the stuff we saw during the dark days. This seems to be the period when things were starting to cool down, which is why last month's shows were completely free of the stupid stuff.

BEST CONTESTANT OF THE DAY: Brandon
SHOW GRADE: 2