On Wednesday June 18th 2003 I attended the taping of the second show to 'TPIR's 32nd. season.

I was lucky to have gotten having arrived at the relatively late hour of 5:30AM. We were seated at about 2:10. Randy West, in for Rod Roddy, came out first and did the warm up. Our seats were in the back on the far right. Had this been a show were Bob enters from the back we would have been among the ones to see him first.

At 2:30 pm the audience was at a fevor-pitch.It was hard the hear Randy over the cheers, but then I saw on the above monitors how the familiar camera pan of the audience was underway - the show had begun!

The list of the first four names is as fun as it appears on TV. I noticed model Shane standing by for the microphone hand-off. Soon all four contestants were in place. When the announcer said "and now here is the star...." I looked directly at door number two. Seconds later Bob Barker was suddenly standing there! I was one of the first people there to stand up and cheer. The best example of how smaller it all is is the fact the Bob's walk to the edge of the stage is really a short distance. The following microphone exchange only takes a few steps as well.

Through the show there is a line from both ends of the stage of camera operators, producers and stage hands always at work. For the entire hour there was so much to see that I was not always following the show like I would be at home. With all of the audience cheering it was sometimes hard to hear as well, but I was not complaining.

And so I went. The big winner of the day was a young man who started further away from me in the line.

Anyone else have particular memories of your visit or visits over the years now that its rapidly coming to an end?

Yes. And if I do say so myself, I did a brilliant job talking about my first visit a little bit here and a lot more here.

/2800 posts. Can you dig it?

Rookie.

First time I saw "Price" live was in January 1986. Rod Roddy had just been named the permanent announcer and was struggling with laryngitis during the show we taped. (No, he wasn't wearing the garish suits back then.)

The first one-bid item was a grandfather clock from Howard Miller and he nearly coughed up a hairball reading the plug. He had a full liter bottle of Evian at his podium and it was just about gone by the end of the show. (We were sitting right in front of Rod's podium.)

But even back then we marvelled at how Barker just kept going and going and going.

Well, that's what happens when I don't spend 20 hours a day on the board.

Oh, sorry, that's Lemon. I get the two of you mixed up. :)

I am offended. For one, I know I get more than four hours a night of sleep. :)

In one sitting? Or is that 15 minutes here, an hour there.... ? :)

I never saw the show in person, but Paul's description of what goes on reminds me of my experience at an MLB game. Wait to get in, get overwhelmed at the surroundings, not able to pay attention to the game and unaware when it was over. I'd rather see it on the tube from the comfort of my easy chair.

I didn't say you were awake all the hours you were on the board. Hasn't it been said that you could write some of your wit in your sleep? :)

I attended a taping on January 7, 1999. I arrived at the same time you did and was the fifth person in line. I know what you mean about the small set and not being able to fully pay attention until you realize what's going on once the hype slowly lets down at the beginning. What a fun day!

I just came back from the May 31st taping (yes, I made it in!), and I must say that it was one of the most exciting experiences that I have ever witnessed. The set is just full of color, and the audience was amazing. Plus, making new friends during the previous day's taping was as fun an experience.

Barker's still got it, and he worked the crowd like there's no tomorrow. Great stuff, and well worth the 27 hours I spent outside and inside TV City.

I got to see him before he leaves the show. Now, I can move on.

The Excited, Inquisitive One

And make gazpacho at the same time, as legend would have it. :-)

This is what I LOVE about going to a major league game. Get there early, get in the stadium / arena / whatever, and sit there while it's still relatively peaceful and just take in the surroundings; the scoreboard, the perfectly manicured field / ice surface, all of it. Satisfies me in a way few other things do.

Amen! Since I live in Minnesota, I have to go out of town to get it, but to look at Major League grass, and to see how bright the white home uniforms are (unless they're wearing dumb softball tops that day), there's nothing like it. Hockey, too, has that strange electricity about it. I much prefer watching basketball, even the Timberwolves, but it can't match the feeling in a rink.

I saw The Price Is Right in person back in '95, before everyone fell all over Bob with how enthusiastic he was, and frankly, it was a letdown. He admitted to not having slept well the night before, and apparently we didn't give him enough energy to feed off. I also noticed that it was the people who were boorish, dislikable and rude to the ushers in line who came on down, which was another disappointment. The one good thing was, back then, you didn't have to show up before sunrise to get in.

Which reminds me, I need to make a trip to Dallas and see a Rangers game, despite their record. ;-)

We don't have major league in Norfolk, just semi-pro, but the atmosphere is similar with our minor-league baseball team...honestly, I get the same feeling when I go to college football games at HU. The closer it gets to pre-game, the more your anticipation rises, esp. when you hear the marching band coming up the street. :-)

/enough waxing poetic
//must also go to a VT game

For those who might have missed it the first time, details of my experience are here:

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/St...ricetaping.html

I agree with the statement that there's so much going on it's hard to follow everything. I'd really like to get out there again sometime to see another taping just to take more of it in.

Hopefully they'll announce the new host soon so well know when tapings will resume.

I'm not nearly as big a TPIR fan as a lot of you are, so my story is a lot shorter. I wanted to see the show, mostly just to say that I did. A couple of days after my Jeopardy taping, when I was feeling pretty low, a dear friend arranged VIP seats for my wife and me. ("VIP" meaning we weren't going to get picked to play, but we didn't have to stand in line all day and we sat right behind Contestants Row.) Seeing the show in person was a memorable experience, and just what I needed at that particular time.

I will try keep it short and sweet.... but what you described in so few words, Matt, is how I felt a couple times when I attended Price is Right, as well.

Being there to watch a show just always seemed to perk me up, as well as other shows taped in 33. (Hollywood Squares being my other fav) Dane Cook was right... the PiR has healing powers, especially in person. =)

There's so much more I could say, but I will leave it at this: I love the baseball analogy that you guys brought up earlier. Walking into Dodger Stadium, I cannot help but be taken in by all the historic moments that have taken place inside there, like Sandy Koufax' perfect game, Don Drysdale's scoreless innings record, Fernando-mania, Gibson's homer, and many others. Sure, going to a bunch of other different ballparks in the country is a great experience, but nothing beats the classic stadiums. (I still want to check out Wrigley, Fenway, and the two in NY)

Being at a Price is Right taping is like going to the MECCA of all game shows. Not only do you absorb the fact that you are about to see a taping of a quality show... but you are standing in the same studio which graced Gene Rayburn, Dick Clark, Richard Dawson, Peter Tomarken, Bill Cullen, and a plethora of other game show legends. I don't know about the rest of you, but to me, that's a pretty surreal feeling.

You misspelled "Orel Hershiser's."

Dodger Stadium was a particularly special one for me, as I was a HUGE Dodger fan (and, more importantly, a Dodger fan who lived in Northern California, so I didn't know what it was like going to watch them without having idiot Giants fans running their yaps all day long) until...well, until they traded Piazza; that, to me, was the moment the franchise jumped the shark. And my first trip there wasn't until 1992. I *still* haven't been able to do the whole go-early-and-take-it-in thing there, because we were rushed the two times I was there. But, still, sitting there with a Dodger Dog...that was as close as I'll ever come to a religious experience.

I have some fun memories:
1.) I got in line particularly early one time. As I entered the studio, I saw the Golden Road props on stage. KNowing that means Bob will walk in from the back, and seeing there were still seats available on the aisle row. I broke away from the line the pages were ordering to fill in one row and grabbed an end seat farther back. I was admonished to move down, but refused. Good thing I stayed - Bob walked right by and I "high fived" him. A couple of things I noticed.
a.) Bob doesn't make eye contact with those he high-fives. His gaze is straight down the aisle and he walks with a fast consistent gait. He isn't trying to hit your hand. You will try to line your hand up with his raised hand.
b.) His make-up looks very thick and orange in person - sort of the "carrot" Al Gore looked like in the one Presidential debate he styled his hair like Ronald Reagan.
2.) One funny line from Bob. In response to the question, "Do you do anything other than host?" Bob replied, "Ma'am, I do everything here. I unload the prize trucks when they arrive. I replace the light bulbs. I do the painting. I cook the snacks. I sweep up after the show. And when I sit down to take a break, they all tell me GET BACK TO WORK!!"
3.) There was a fifteen minute tape delay because the boat offered in Golden Road was stuck in the back doorway.
4.) The cards on the Money Game look more orange then the pink they come across on tv.
5.) If you feel bad because you weren't selected, take confort - I was talking to some cheerleaders from UNLV - One guy admitted he was the only one of four who hadn't been picked during the week of shows they attended. He didn't get picked that day either.
6.) a Dice Game player rolled a 5 as one of the last numbers in the price (not the thousands digit). He said "higher" because his girlfriend told him to. The number was lower. I wonder if it's his ex-girlfriend now.
7.) We all cheered loudly when a Marine played Hole In One and won the car on his second putt.
8.) The whole audience was screaming in unison "ice cream" in the Grand Game - he selected something else and lost.

No, no, no... Orel Hershiser broke the record in San Diego at the old Jack Murphy Stadium, and the game before THAT was at old Candlestick Park. Yea, that's it... =)

I think what qualified as a religious experience for me this year was being able to attend Jackie Robinson Day at the stadium. Seeing all the Dodgers wear #42 gave me the goosebumps. That was something special, and probably the only time I was there nearly 2 hours early. Maybe you should do the "go-early-and-take-it-in thing" here one time!

Huh?!? Wha...? Oh yea... I got WAY off-topic there. Yea, Bob Barker... I'll miss him on PiR.

/Don Drysdale appeared as a contestant on To Tell the Truth.
//Jackie Robinson was a mystery guest on What's My Line?
///.... so was Roy Campanella
////.... Duke Snider, too.

/////Don Sutton was on MG.
//////ObBob: So was Barker.

Sadly, I've never been there. I'd rather be the new guy's first contestant rather than one of Barker's last. Unless that host is Dave Price.

If said host wanted to give me a potload of cash for playing a game, I don't care if that host is Gilbert Gottfried.

/actually, doing schtick with Gilbert Gottfried would completely rock