Armed Forces Special - May 27, 1991 (#8061D)

[Chelsea]

[William]

That has got to be the worst playing of Ten Chances I've ever seen!

[goldroadfanatic]

This was an episode that I've been waiting to see for over a decade, ever since I learned about it and saw clips of it from different angles on Entertainment Tonight.

I love how the set was decorated to suit the occasion, which led to some cool touches, like Grocery Game omitting its sign on the turntable, Punch-a-Bunch not having the $10,000 banner on the turntable, and the patriotic decor atop the Contestants Row displays and Showcase lecterns.

The use of "Stars and Stripes Forever" to open and close the show, as well as different military branches' anthems echoes what was recently done for the Fourth of July episode this year, as well as the 2002 The Price is Right Salutes primetime specials. I also liked the red opening titles and patriotic colors Rod and the models were wearing. Holly's sign that thanked all veterans at the end of the show was another thoughtful touch.

I was amazed at some of the egregious bidding that went on in Contestants Row. $6,985 for a motorscooter? $9,000 for a video camera? $3,200 for a collection of power tools? This has to be a record of huge overbids by multiple contestants in one show. That said, after the $6,985 bid for the motorscooter, I loved Bob's quip of "If you think a motorscooter is $6,985, I am going to give you a better deal than Monty Hall ever did!"

3 Strikes + was painful to watch. It looked as if Scott was going to win that Corvette, but the last strike caught up to him in the end.

Seeing Double Prices for a new car was very cool. In fact, the show really went all out with the budget for this episode: A Corvette in 3 Strikes +, the car in Double Prices, plus a motorhome and a ski boat in the Showcases.

That was one of the worst Ten Chances playings I have ever seen. I don't know if Ty was nervous, but making several low guesses for the luggage was infuriating to watch. What really made this playing terrible was how, even after Bob explained that there were five digits in the price of the station wagon, he proceeded to write down a guess that started with 9. After Bob gave him another chance after writing such an egregious, guess he still wrote a $70,000+ guess. Bob just gave up and said "Well Ty...I can't help you any more than that, and I know it's not..." There were noticeable edits in this segment too; I wonder what Bob said during the taping.

Grocery Game was heartbreaking. Tammy seemed to be on her way to victory after inching her way to the winning range, but bought one can of fried onions too many.

Despite making a bad bid in the first item up for bids, Stanley managed to redeem himself by being one of only two pricing game winners in the entire show, and he won that new ski boat. I loved the freeze frame of him at the end to close the episode out.

[pannoni1]

Keep in mind this was just two months after the first 5-digit playing of Ten Chances, so it wasn't too surprising that when guessing the price of the car that he'd assume it was still just four digits. But a Buick is a pretty nice car and were pretty much all five digits at this point, and for Bob to give him one final chance after such an odd first guess was still kind enough as a means to try to understand the game. Still, I don't know why Bob wouldn't immediately enforce the foreign car ban for another year and not immediately, since most of Season 20 still featured foreign cars. Still, this was quite an episode that foreshadowed the 2002 specials.

[mellongraig]

One of the things I did notice on this episode, going back to Grocery Game was when she chose the fried onions and wanted 2 (with each being $1), it showed $2.90 on the cash register and $22 total. It did not affect the outcome of the game since she would have been over anyway. Speaking of the foghorn was used for the loss - not permanent yet, as they alternated between that and the regular buzzer for loss during this time period like many other games.

[CaptainPrice]

Finally, I've been waiting a long time to watch this episode!

It's a bit weird to hear the current tenor buzzer in season 19, which debuted earlier that month (possibly by May 8's episode? A clip was posted a couple years back here and it had the current buzzer). That 3 Strikes + playing was painful to watch. Seeing him lose the Corvette like that was painful. As for Ten Chances, the less said about that playing, the better.

[jlgarfield]

Bob not doing the "pet population" spiel during his signoff. I take it they were pressed for time.

[goldroadfanatic]

One of the things I did notice on this episode, going back to Grocery Game was when she chose the fried onions and wanted 2 (with each being $1), it showed $2.90 on the cash register and $22 total. It did not affect the outcome of the game since she would have been over anyway. Speaking of the foghorn was used for the loss - not permanent yet, as they alternated between that and the regular buzzer for loss during this time period like many other games.

I also noticed that after the 409 cleaner purchase was added to Tammy's total, the register read $17.32, when it should have read $17.33 ($2.19*6=$13.14; $13.14+$4.19=$17.33), shorting her a cent.

Also, when I saw Tammy's total was at $19.10 (actually $19.11), I realized that if she bought three Chuckles instead of two, she would have arrived at exactly $20.00 with that purchase, but the register would have displayed $19.99. I wonder if, at that point, would Roger or someone have spoken up and said that her actual total was $20.00 and she would have won?