Cheerleading Practice

Two years.

TWO GODDAMN FUCKING YEARS.

That's how long it's been since The Price is Right has last experienced a situation in which all six pricing games were won, AKA a "perfect show". It happened on the Valentine's Day special for Season 38, on February 13, 2010...and that episode ended in a double overbid.

Ever since the Terry Kniess incident on December 16, 2008, it's become a lot harder to win on TPIR. Whereas Roger Dobkowitz always tried to work a 50/50 batting average, Mike Richards's TPIR has an average win ratio of 2 for 6. The aforementioned V-Day episode is, to the best of my knowledge, the only perfect show that has ever happened since then.

And today, we came SO CLOSE to getting another!

We practically had it in our hands...and then some girl named Thuy Tran blew it all on a bad pick in Any Number!

She had the game down to a full count. All she had to do was pick a 1, a 7, or a 9! Unfortunately, the Honda Accord LX she was playing for was $22,936, and she picked 7, winning her a recumbent bike worth $875.

This isn't the only time this has happened, either...earlier in the season (sometime around Christmas or New Year's, I think), we got similarly cheated out of a perfect show! The first five games were won, but the last was lost!

What the hell's going on here!?! Has TPIR become the Boston Red Sox of game shows? I sure hope we break this curse soon!

On a much lighter note, I won both Showcases yesterday! I bid $28,500 on the first Showcase, and it was $28,604! That's the second time this season that THAT'S happened, too! ^^

From an insanely rabid fanb01 named DENo1MatchGameFan on BuzzerBlog, at this post:

I can see why there was so much emotion to ‘the Dob’ being fired – he was an original member of the show when it premiered in 1972, but at the same time, where were all of these people when original model Janice Pennington (who was with the show since 1972 as well) was fired as well?

Janice NEVER caused any problems behind the scenes – she stayed with the show through thick and thin, even when her first husband disappeared, and when she was permanently disfigured by an unqualified cameraman at CBS which caused her not to be able to model swimsuits.

She showed up for work every day, and NEVER complained, and when she testified the TRUTH about Barker in Holly Hallstrom’s case, she got fired for it – Roger was still there. You know why? Cause he may have been the ‘Mr. Rogers’ of the set when Barker wasn’t around, but when he and Barker WERE together, ‘the Dob’ was nothing more than a snitch, telling Barker what all was going on behind the scenes on the show (even if it wasn’t true.) I can imagine that Drew probably caught wind of this situation, and wanted harmony between the crew again, so ‘the Dob’ is history.

I know from two people behind the scenes that yes, on the outside, Roger was ‘good ol’ Roger’ as he was portrayed on “Match Game”, but in reality, he was nothing more than Barker’s ‘watchdog’ once Barker was promoted to executive producer. How do you explain all of the firings that have gone on since Barker was elevated?

Original director Marc Breslow, Dian Parkinson (as we don’t know her side of the affair that started the court cases yet), Holly Hallstrom, Janice Pennington, Kathleen Bradley, Sherrell Paris, Sharon Friem, Linda Riegert, second permanent director Paul Alter, Claudia Jordan, the loss of Rod Roddy’s camera apperances, and finally Deborah Curling?

The truth WILL be told when Chris Mann’s book on the show finally comes out, and the real Barker, as well as the real ‘Dob’ WILL be exposed for the two-facers that they actually are!

...say, whatever happened to that book, anyway? I remember people spending the vast majority of Season 37 harping on that, and then...POOF! Nothing. Although Chris has written a few entries on TPIR on his "Retroality.TV" blog and is supposedly very close friends with Holly Hallstrom, that book he was supposedly planning looks dead in the water! -_-

SpeedAndStrategy, at this thread
Wow indeed. I can believe to an extent that maybe Drew was in shock, but still, anyone with a real grasp of how to host a game show could have handled it at least a little better.

It's really getting to the point where I think Drew's solid performance last year was just a result of Roger pulling his strings. Now that Drew has been let loose, he's clearly showing that he has little interest in the game and feels like he has to add slapstick comedy and snarky comments in order to make the show "fun". Last year I wanted to believe his comments stating that he really enjoyed the show and respected its heritage, and that he wasn't just in it for the money, but that all seems to have gone out the window now.

I would love to be proven wrong, and I'll give him until the end of the season to turn it around, but things really aren't looking good right now.

I'm really starting to lose respect for The Price is Right, and that quote kinda sorta summarizes my opinion.

I'll make a post (or edit this one) sometime later on what actually IS my opinion.

From Scott, on this September 21, 2010 BuzzerBlog entry:

I hate to burst your bubbles now but a letter writing campaign to reinstate someone has a very low rate of success but go ahead and waste your 44 cents. Keep in mind, the powers that be wanted to send Rich to pasture the same time Bob retired four years ago. Would you have complained back then? It would look very bad on their part to suddenly switch back to a previous announcer. They will forge ahead with this project of guest improv announcers until one is chosen, IF one is chosen. They might keep the rotation system for a while.

No one is going to be happy with whoever is chosen. Not everyone was happy with Rich when he started. Do you know why? Everyone compared him to Rod and had the internet been around back in 1985, everyone would have done the same thing to Rod for not being Johnny Olson.

And the next response? It came from me!

I also hate to burst your bubbles, but I agree with Scott.

Although I like Rich, I don’t want them to switch back to him right now, for the same reason why I didn’t like it when they changed the Tonight Show’s host back to Jay Leno and cringed when I heard rumors that Bob Barker might come back for TPIR Season 36. It seems incredibly cheap and dickish, as a move to pander solely to a specific set of fanb01z. Plus, their hearts might not be into it the second time around.

Maybe if they pick a new announcer, fire that guy (let him die, let him retire, etc.), and let Rich audition during a new announcer search, I’d be okay with it, but restoring him just because of a fan outcry!?! Most of the art world (and keep in mind that The Price is Right is considered art) considers that a cardinal sin!

As a matter of fact, I can’t believe I, of all people, am saying this, but I might actually quit watching TPIR if this campaign succeeds. At least, for the rest of the season, anyway. I’d probably try warming back up to Rich in future seasons…

All of you people who are so enraged over Rich’s departure really need to move on. I kinda sorta like J.D. Roberto, anyway! -_-

And the next next response? From someone I've never heard of named "shelly":

Exactly.

Rich isn’t coming back; no letter is going to change that. All one can hope for is that Rich will get another announcing gig in the future. Or a hosting one.

Unfortunately, we got lost in the crowd of Telephone Pole Screamers™. Making us hate them even more. -_-

A change occurred on TPIR last week. I was going to write an entry on it then, but I wanted to make sure it was permanent.

Anyway, I don't know how many of you who aren't Telephone Pole Screamers™ have noticed, but as of last Monday...

THE CONSOLATION PRIZE PLUGS ARE GONE!!!

The "contestants not appearing on stage" bit, which has been with the show since September 4, 1972!!!, has been eliminated, in favor of a second closed captioning fee plug!

For about the 879,634^th time since I started this journal, I once again have to say, "Oh God; what's Golden Road.net gonna think about this change?"

I don't know what to think of it myself. On the one hand, the CNAOS plug has been with the show since the very beginning and it feels pointless to eliminate it. On the other hand, this feels like yet another one of those changes they should've made a long time ago, as consolation prizes are dead. No one wants them anymore.

Consolation prizes and "parting gifts" speak to a time when people were actually happy to receive things other than cash and cars, and didn't care about the tax burden their prizes had. But thanks to inflation, people now DO care about the tax burden, and, as such, the vast majority of game shows are played solely for cash, with maybe the occasional car thrown in. So, consolation prizes, even though their value is negligible, seem out of place in today's world.

I think they died sometime in the 1990's, likely when Who Wants to be a Millionaire debuted. In 2002, Wheel of Fortune abandoned parting gifts in favor of cash equal to the "house minimum" for solving a puzzle, and many game shows these days, even revivals, give you NOTHING (not even cash). So, by 2002, TPIR was the only game show left on the air giving consolation prizes.

No doubt they've held onto consolation prizes for so long for sentimental reasons. Bob and Roger were huge traditionalists, and the latter sucked the cock of a fansite with traditionalists, so, to them, keeping the CNAOS plug made perfect sense.

But it doesn't make sense anymore to the current production staff. So now it's gone. R.I.P., CNAOS plug.

I don't know how many of you watched today's episode of The Price is Right...but if you did, after George Gray's signoff but before the closing Fremantle Media splotch...



...you saw something like this. ;_;

R.I.P., Bob. I hope you and Bill Cullen are making an excellent revival of TPIR together in the afterlife. You will not be forgotten.

Likewise, I hope you and Dick Clark are making a good Pyramid revival. And I hope you're making a good Password revival with Allen Ludden and Bert Convy. And a good To Tell the Truth revival with...whoever's dead that was on that game's panel. And that Mark Goodson and Bill Todman are watching over you. And all that other good stuff. :(

By the way, go to tpirecaps. You'll notice that I've made a few changes to better suit the mood. If you want to write a recap in memory of Bob, then it needs to be an episode of the Bill Cullen version, as Bob was most directly involved with that version. He's had no hand in the current version.

Brought to you by Rich Fields and the pink, purple, and blue Turntable.

Why? See my quote of the week for Season 31.

Just like Devin "TheKid965" de Gruyl, Alex "itiparanoid13" Davis sings the hits, as well as quite a few misses!

But my jury is insanely hung on this song, from April 19, 2010:

Stupidest Poll Ever: Floor Clocks? Really?

OK so apparently me saying floor clocks on The Price is Right are stupid was enough to get people angry, as I had a sneaking feeling that it would. Come on, people. Really? So I want to ask a legitimate question and feel free to tell me if I’m wrong: is a floor clock something you’re wanting to win badly or is this, oh, just another outburst. I’m honestly curious if I’m way off base or if I’m off base.

Yes.

(sigh)

You won't believe this. Throughout much of the month of April, due to high winds, thunderstorms, and other commitments, I was unable to watch The Price is Right for most of the month. In addition, since I have dial-up at my house, I can't really go to CBS.com and re-watch the episodes. Plus, I threw out my VCR, don't have a DVR, and even if I did, I'd steadfastly refuse to use it in order to maintain my image as a casual fan.

And I've just now learned on BuzzerBlog that on April 10^th, Barker's Bargain Bar was brought back to the rotation, renamed "Bargain Game"!!!

Why did I have to miss something this insanely important!?! >x(

Needless to say, expect some edits, both in this journal and in tpirecaps...

Brought to you by the Hollywood Turntable, which, IMO, was insanely underrated and needed more love from the fans.

Why? Because this is Week 31, and that Turntable design was used in SEASON 31! I'm almost to the Rich Fields era here... :D

We're getting pretty close to the end of the season, so it's time for me to go all out. I've saved the best for last...

During the host search, TheNewNeko often said on GSN.com's forums that Jesus himself (or God himself) could be picked as the new host of TPIR, and fanb01z would still be complaining. Well, on October 6, 2009, and (ironically) on a Let's Make a Deal thread where TheKid965 was reviewing the current version of the show, phgellis had THIS to say in response to a rant from Neko:

Jesus would be a terrible host for TPIR. First off, they'd have to stop playing Hole in One because he'd keep healing the darn hole. He'd never be able to keep with with the clock game, stopping to tell parables with every guess. And we all know facial hair is out with game show hosts these days--just ask Alex Trebek.

LOL WUT! xD

Okay, I'm running out of quotes to cull from the Internet, so for this week, I'm taking a break and doing a St. Clair Publications Original™. This one's based on venusinthenight's somewhat-famous GSN.com Words of Wisdom.

Shelly herself once said on a previous entry of mine that she'd be writing some TPIR words of wisdom, but I don't know where they are or if she's even made any.

( This quote got too long, so I needed to use an LJ Cut. )