The Price Is Right

[wdm1219inpenna]

I want to preface this by saying that while I don't watch every single day, and while I don't take the time to tape the program presently, I have enjoyed the few episodes that I have seen with Drew Carey as host.  I'm no doubt in the minority when I say I really like the way the set looks, it just has a "Drew" feel to it to me.  I enjoy TPIR 2007-08, season #36, but there are elements of the program that I miss.

I miss the padded red/orange/purple turntable.  I rather enjoyed that look, and I think most of us did.

I miss the look of the classic doors, the program name on the white doors and the funkadelic shape of the doors, and the funkadelic colors that bordered the doors.

I miss when the show doesn't have both a SP game and a grocery item game in the rotation every day.  It seems due to lack of SP sponsors and/or lack of time, the show has to play 1 prize quicky games more, and whenever the show has 3 quicky games, or at times 4, it's a real disappointment.  I know there has to be at least 2 scheduled per program, and that's not so bad.

I miss the snail-mail ticket plug (I know they do that sometimes, and that they have to include the website now too), and I really miss the mid-show bumper "Stay tuned for more pricing games, and the fabulous showcases, which are coming up on the second half of "The Price is Right"!"

While quite old and dated, I miss the original intro music used (1972-75), which was also used when players came on down, and came on up to play a pricing game.

I also miss the chats that were had with the beauties at the end of the 4th pricing game from time to time, and seeing the announcer during the 6th "come on down" segment.  I miss the showcases being more fabulous.  It seems there used to be nicer and more prizes with showcases, and the skits were longer, now it seems so darned rushed anymore.  CBS has to plug crap like Survivor and Big Brother 35 times a day after all.

Surprisingly, I just reviewed the 26 retired pricing games that I have listed, and I don't really miss any of them.  Penny Ante & Give or Keep are the two I probably miss most, although I really did love Super Saver too.  I can see why the staff didn't like Give or Keep.  Even though it was SP's, the player didn't get a chance to win all 6 of them, only the 3 they selected.  It took a while to play that game, having 6 SP descriptions, plus the gameboard was visible during the one bid round.  Still it lasted for 17 years, which is remarkable in this industry of television!

I was 5 years old and 2 days shy of starting Kindergarten when CBS debuted "The NEW Price is Right", so I'm old enough to remember both Johnny Olson and Rod Roddy as announcers.  I like Rich well enough, but I certainly do get to missing Johnny & Rod both.  Whenever I watch a PYL ep on GSN, I get to missing Rod more, and whenever I hear Johnny announce, be it on a GSN show, or on my Match Game DVDs, I realize how he was, is, and forever shall be second to none.  I still miss those guys, and am so grateful that there are any shows at all that still are preserved.  Kenny Williams was another superb announcer who I believe goes overlooked quite often.  He too had a very sharp and golden voice to me.

I definitely got to missing Janice & Kathleen after they were released.  I missed Dian when she left, I had a crush on her when I was growing up.  I remember Anitra & there was the sweet Holly.  It's really shameful how mistreated some of these models were.  It's nice to see Drew being nice with the current models on the show.  It's nice that he refers to them by name and not as "My Beauties".  I always felt that was kind of a demeaning term, and this coming from a 41 year old man.

Thanks all, I've missed having chances to read and post on this board.  I began posting circa 1995 on the old atgs boards, back when Randy Amasia was still among us.  It's great to still see "Chuckie Baby", Matt Ottinger & fostergray on here.  It's nice to be kind of "back" again.

Kindest regards,
Bill McD.

[eday_2010]

I wish I could get my hands on eipsodes from the 80's and 90's. That's when I watched the show the most, and miss a lot of things about them (the models - Dian was my favourite - Rod Roddy, the set), plus it's be fun to see what stuff cost back then and how everyone was dressed. That's what I like best about watching the 70's episodes on DVD.

[Mr. Armadillo]

They REALLY need to find a way to bring Penny Ante back...with all the time cuts, they need another (relatively) short GP game so they don't have to play Pick-A-Pair every third show (or so it seems).

[bossjock967]

I miss the big curtain, the asterisks on the score displays, and the surprise bonuses after winning an item up for bid.

Oh... and Bill Cullen.  

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'bossjock967\' post=\'182893\' date=\'Mar 31 2008, 04:23 AM\']
I miss the big curtain, the asterisks on the score displays, and the surprise bonuses after winning an item up for bid.[/quote]Backstage hanky-panky doesn't cut it?

Oh, those bonuses.

As far as the original topic goes, maybe its my young(er) age (23), but I'm immensely enjoying the show again after not enjoying it for at least the last five.  I think its best to leave the past in the past and move forward.  Barker had his day in the sun.

[Neumms]

I miss the days when the set was actually cool, which is to say when it was first designed, not the "hey, look how funky and dated we are" late-Barker-period repaintings and the "hey, look, we must be insane" current redesign which is horses--t now and would have been horses--t 35 years ago, too.

There's no reason they can't make the set look hip yet retain charm, something like "Cash & Carry" from Europe.

[clemon79]

"Horseshiat" is an awfully strong word. I mean, really, if I just don't like something I see on TV, then sometimes I turn the channel, and sometimes I don't. If I think something is "horseshiat," that's a strong enough opinion that I go out of my way to watch something else.

Methinks some people in this thread would do well to take that advice.

[Neumms]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'182904\' date=\'Mar 31 2008, 10:14 AM\']
"Horseshiat" is an awfully strong word. I mean, really, if I just don't like something I see on TV, then sometimes I turn the channel, and sometimes I don't. If I think something is "horseshiat," that's a strong enough opinion that I go out of my way to watch something else.
[/quote]

I suppose if "Say When!" was still around I'd watch that, but where else on television can I test my skill at estimating the prices of furniture and digestive supplements? I just wish the set was cool.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Neumms\' post=\'182906\' date=\'Mar 31 2008, 08:26 AM\']
I suppose if "Say When!" was still around I'd watch that, but where else on television can I test my skill at estimating the prices of furniture and digestive supplements?
[/quote]
I believe you prove my point.

[Jeremy Nelson]

As far as Price goes, there are only 2 things I miss: Penny Ante and Super Ball. I like the direction in which the show is going, and it's only going to get better from here.

[mparrish11]

Wow.  It's amazing to see how some people here can't let go of the past.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'mparrish11\' post=\'182919\' date=\'Mar 31 2008, 02:17 PM\']
Wow.  It's amazing to see how some people here can't let go of the past.[/quote]
I really don't see anything wrong about discussing things you miss about a 35-year-old television program that's undergone changes.  I can miss Mike Wallace's regular contributions to 60 Minutes and I can miss Don Meredith singing Turn Out the Lights... on Monday Night Football without feeling mired in the past.

This forum tends primarily to be nostalgic in nature, discussing the history of older shows more often than the recent developments of current ones.  Cheap shots about being stuck in the past, especially in a thread which is clearly marked as nostalgia, will not advance you to the bonus round.

[chris319]

There are far, far more shows from the '50s through the '80s which our members have seen thanks to GSN, than there are new titles which have debuted since, say, 1991. By "new titles" I exclude such shows as Family Feud, Match Game, Twenty One and Temptation, The New Sale of the Century.

It's nice that he refers to them by name and not as "My Beauties". I always felt that was kind of a demeaning term

When they went to daily-hire models, I question whether Barker even bothered to learn their names, at least some of them.

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'182922\' date=\'Mar 31 2008, 12:02 PM\']
When they went to daily-hire models, I question whether Barker even bothered to learn their names, at least some of them.
[/quote]
The rotation had begun while I was announcing the show in 2003/2004. Barker had the names of the day's models and announcer in his dressing room for review before air. He mentioned me quite often by name, only having a moment of forgetfulness once on the dozens of shows I did. I'm not sure what his batting average was with the models. <insert your own joke here>

Randy
tvrandywest.com

[chris319]

Barker had the names of the day's models and announcer in his dressing room for review before air.

Yeah, but wouldn't he also need like a picture to tell which model was which?

Waaaaay back in the early '70s, when it was just Janice and Anitra, ISTR Barker referring to the models as "you" a lot, while at the same time Dennis James was referring to them by name. I also STR the term "Barker's Beauties" didn't come into existence until after the debut of the 1977 ABC sitcom "Blansky's Beauties".