Price is Right

My parents came for a visit this last week and we had a great time! On Monday, we went to a taping of "The Price is Right". I don't have any pictures since CBS doesn't allow flash photography on the lot. We even had to check-in our cell phones as we went into the studio.

We BARELY got in to the morning show. We were the very last allowed in for that taping! Numbers 301-304. We were also some of the last seated, so we weren't able to all sit together and were seated in random parts of the theater. I was put in a seat right behind contestants' row! So, on April 23rd, if you watch the show, you will see me several times right behind the people bidding! Aaron and my parents were seated to the side, and looking at the screen, you will see them on the left :)

We enjoyed the show, even though we didn't get called up, and it was something my parents have wanted to do for YEARS. Good fun, and it took nearly all day! It's a lot of work to put on a show like that!


AARON'S VERSION

Here is Aaron's synopsis of the day. He's a little funnier than I am :)

That’s right! April and her parents (Randy and Nancy) and I went to go see the Price is Right last Monday! We were eligible to be contestants but were not called down. It was a blast anyway, and each time they called someone down I was so nervous! No cameras were allowed so I have no pictures. The show will air on April 23^rd; I’m planning on having someone tape it for me, and having a viewing party that evening! Here’s how it went down:

• 5:30 am: wake up and get on the road, including dropping the kids off at the babysitters. On the freeway kidless and excited by 6:30
• 7:00 am: parked and heading to the gate. We parked in the parking lot at the Grove, a mall south of CBS studios west of Koreatown near Miracle Mile. It was a big lot full of sound stages. We showed ID and headed up to a waiting area outside of the studio, complete with snack shop, gift shop and restrooms. We were given order of arrival passes for the 1:15pm taping (April had reserved tickets online previously). We were given tickets 197-200. That means 196 people had already gotten their tickets between 6 and 7!!!!
• After this we wandered back to the Grove and had breakfast. Wonderful area, very highbrow :)
• 9:30 am: report back to the outside staging area to be lined up by number on the passes. It is quite clear all 196 people ahead of us had returned. The “pages” started handing out the handwritten name tags (the famous ones in the shape of a price tag) and orange contestant number cards, giving us official numbers for picking who will be a contestant. 196 people were ahead of us, but that didn’t count all of the pre-arranged groups of 15-25 people and folks with special tickets. As the page got to us, he had handed out contestant number 300. He asked us how many were in our group. We said 4. He clearly only wanted to give out one or two more. Randy said “The lonesome four?” He rolled his eyes, and handed out numbers 301-304. That’s right, we were the last 4 folks picked for that taping. Nice work, Randy!
• Now we waited on benches as they checked IDs and verified our social security cards (seriously). They also interviewed us. That was the most nerve-wracking part of the whole experience for me! They called us up in groups of 10 or so. A producer (looking very bored after having seen almost 300 of us by then) with a clipboard was sitting back on a stool taking notes. Another very gregarious fellow asked each of where we were from and what we did for a living. With those two questions they picked the 9 contestants out of 300 audience members! From what we could tell, they looked for:
• Crazy. Like seriously wacked out and excited folks
• Part of a group. If you had a T-shirt (We love you Drew! Or something) and there were 20 of you being very bouncy, it was almost assured one of you would be picked
• A normal. They picked a couple normals. Not us though :P
• I told them I did SCIENCE for a living. He asked if I was a mad scientist and I replied yes. Anything you want dude, just put me on the show! April said she was a Momanator. I told her my mom wouldn’t mind April using her nick name if it got her picked :D
• 1:00pm: all the interviews are done and we file into the studio!! Wooo!!!
• It’s small! From the show it seems like there are miles of space on that stage but that’s all just camera angles. The carpeted stairs were on the left where they do a few games and the Showdown; the three main doors were on center stage to stage right.
• It was just like a theatre! 5 cameras, including one on a big boom, were being manned by old folks that looked like they’d been doing it for 30 years. Producers my age and interns that looked in their early 20s scurried around with who knows what kind of business. Drops came down on flys to hide crewmembers setting up pricing games. It was very chaotic but very controlled.
• 1:10pm: the announcer comes out and chats with the audience for a bit, giving a few instructions. He said if you can’t hear him call out your name to come on down, look for the pages with signs. And when the time came, even with the mics, the audience was so loud we really couldn’t hear him and had to look at the signs!
• 1:20pm: out comes Drew! Turns out he’s hilarious! He essentially did stand-up while we were waiting for the show to start. Then all the sudden, bam! Come on down!
• The show went down just as you see on TV, nothing cool to add there. Except for the shouter intern. He was awesome. During a bidding game, when the audience is yelling out “helpful” information, he would go to the front of the stage where the cameras can’t see him and yell at us, egging us on: “WHAT DO THEY BID!!!! WHAT DO THEY BID!!!” And when they won a prize, no matter what it was, he would come and yell, while raising his arms up triumphantly: “HE WON A MOTORCYCLE!” Or, more comedic, and totally straightfaced: “HE WON A REFERENCE LIBRARY!!! YAHHHHHH!!!”
• Between games Drew would chat with contestants that had played pricing games. More stand-up comedy. Super fun. If a contestant did laughably bad, oh man he was merciless! “Is your family here? Oh don’t worry, they probably won’t hold it against you that you just did TERRRIBLE on national TV. They’ll probably let it go.”
• I won’t give any spoilers for the games. However, because we were the last to get in the studio, they had to split us up. When you watch the show, you’ll be able to spot us all over the studio :)

That’s it! Enjoy the show on April 23^rd!!

-Aaron