'Price is Right' celebrates 40

On Monday, the classic game show “The Price is Right” will boldly go where no game show has gone before… over the hill. As television’s longest-running game show (over 7,000 episodes), contestants of “The Price is Right” have been guessing the actual retail value of living room sets, gym equipment and BRAND…NEW…CARS... for 40 seasons under the guidance of longtime host Bob Barker (1972-2007) and current host Drew Carey.

Everyone has their own memories of watching “The Price is Right.” I think it’s safe to say that for any generation, it was the one show you always managed to watch when you were home sick from school as a kid — it’s as if Barker’s voice soothed the pain away.

For me, whenever we visited my grandmother “The Price is Right” was always on just as the clock turned 11. We’d watch it on her tiny 10-inch TV in her kitchen while we gathered for lunch, always saying how one day we’d “show them how it’s done” by getting ourselves on the show.

Lucky for me, I managed to do so. Well, I never got up on stage, but I did have the pleasure of being in the coveted studio audience. It happened by accident, really.

My friend and I had taken a vacation to California about a year-and-a-half ago — L.A. was our first stop, and we wandered around on Hollywood Boulevard for most of the first day. That’s where we were given free tickets to “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Dr. Phil” — all being taped at the same time. Obviously Dr. Phil was out — and after much debate we ended up opting for the crazy Craig Ferguson because he had better guests that day.

As we were waiting in the CBS parking lot to head into “The Late Late Show,” we saw people with the infamous “Price is Right” nametags on their shirts coming out of the building — it never occurred to us that this was the place that housed “The Price is Right” studio. We decided to ask one of the interns who was herding us in how we could score tickets to a “Price is Right” showing. We didn’t think much would come of it — assuming the shows were booked months in advance — but low-and-behold, he had two tickets available for us to “Come on down!” the next day for a taping.

Even with tickets though, we were not expecting the entire process — including the taping of the show — to last nearly eight hours. It was a long day, to say the least, but it was still worth it.

Here’s a brief rundown of how it all went down: For a 12:30 afternoon taping we were required to be in line at 6 a.m., just to make sure we got in — we had what they called ‘general admission’ tickets, where apparently they give out more tickets than there are seats in case a large group doesn’t show up. The gates opened at 8 a.m., and we filed into a line outside where we filled out a very brief survey about who we were: where we were from, why we were in L.A., etc. etc. During this waiting period we were also required to pose for a picture, so that they have us on file, (Unlike talk shows, I think the rule was we can’t be on “The Price is Right” more than once in a span of 10 years — something ridiculous like that.) and we also received our lovely yellow nametags.

After a lot of waiting, we were brought up in groups of 12 for a 1-minute interview with the announcer (Rich Fields in my case), as interns next to him judged us and took notes on whether we were deserving enough to make it on stage.

After what seemed like ages, we were brought into the colorful studio. Our first impression — as is everyone’s, it seemed — was “Wow, it’s so small.” It sure was — I thought after all that waiting, we weren’t even going to get a seat. But somehow they squeezed us all in, and the show was set.

From here, Drew came out and said hello before the cameras began rolling and Fields explained the rules. The number one rule: Don’t look to your friends in the audience for help on bidding — it takes up too much time. And how many people do you see per show doing just that? Exactly. Pretty much all of them.

Aside from the major rule that no one follows, we were told to cheer, clap and laugh a lot at Drew’s corny jokes. After an hour-and-a-half show, when that slight hopeful feeling you had before the show that you just might get up on stage goes away, you file out and find the next batch of hopefuls waiting in line for the 4 p.m. show, and ‘The Big Wheel’ spins on.

So what’s the key to getting up on stage? Either being part of a group of 15 or more — during our show, it seemed one person from every color-coded T-shirt-wearing group made it to the Contestants’ Row — or having one heck of story that you can tell in that 1-minute interview. The woman waiting in line next to us said she made it on stage when she was first pregnant with her son. Now, 18 years later, she returned with her son in hopes of making it on stage again — and she did. She made it all the way to the final Showcase where she took home a massive boat or something. It’s stories like that that make the producers go crazy… and a little bit of luck, I guess.

So here’s to “The Price is Right” — a big Happy 40th to You! And may you continue to keep us guessing for another 40 years.

FUN FACTS
• As of November 2009, the show had given away approximately $250,000,000 in cash and prizes.
• The most expensive prize ever offered was a Tesla Roadster valued at nearly $113,000.
• The record for the largest amount won in a single episode is $147,517.
• Only two people in the daytime show’s history of “The Price is Right” have guessed the final Showdown price exactly correct.