Would it be a good idea (or even enforceable) for the producers at TPiR to add a caveat in the rules:
"Contestants who act like asshats or otherwise make a travesty of the game and its proceedings shall forfeit any and all winnings earned, and shall be rendered the consolation prizes given to losing contestants".

Or is this just the kind of idea one has when having ate one too many crab rangoons?

Asshat in the "Deal or No Deal" sense, or asshat meaning bidding 69420 then snickering to himself wildly? Either way, I mean, is there any way to really decline someone who wins a prize, just because they decided to be completely obnoxious for the sake of a laugh?

The later, as opposed to the former. The guy who bid $420 on every IUFB a couple years ago came to mind immediately; as did the contestant being discussed currently.

I still say a slightly better method of contestant pre-screening would be better too.

I like the idea in the spirit it's meant to be applied, but it's completely arbitrary and unenforceable. The thing is the difference between genuine excitement and happiness and asshattery is a slippery slope, and for all we know, some people like to watch those contestants.

The solution is to pick the right starting nine in the first place, so it isn't an issue.

And here's the problem. You have 660 people coming to 33 every day. Eighteen of them will be chosen to come to Contestant's Row.

There is not enough time to pass out a scantron sheet and say, "OK, we're gonna show you 50 items, and you're going to write down your bids. Those of you who miss by the lowest percentage without going over will move on, and we'll interview those people."

And what's to say that the people that go 50-for-50 on the pricing of items won't spend all of Double Prices telling Drew about how great it is to live in Mom's basement or the size of his Vulcan ear collection? The nature of the beast is that it's not possible to go about things in the manner of Jeopardy!, Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune.

I have said on numerous occasions that asshattery cannot be a reason to ban someone from our forum unless and until someone comes up with a scientifically sound method to quantitatively measure asshattery.

I will revise that comment by promising that if we do ever devise such a method, we will be more than happy to grant Mark's wish by sharing it with our friends at The Price is Right. ;-)

Said quantitative measurement MUST be called the "Horan".

"Holy cow! That post came in at 6.4 Horans! That must be a record!"

Well, if South Park can measure the size of a turd in Courics, we can measure asshattery in Horans. :-)

They did something like that in Las Vegas with keypads and multiple-choice pricing quizzes. It didn't filter out contestants who were feeble-minded or otherwise disoriented, so the keypads and the pricing quizzes are now gone. You really need human judgement for that kind of thing.

Would it help matters if Stan avoided college-age males altogether?

I can theoretically understand missing an asshat now or then in the selection process. Plus, despite Friday's unpleasantness, they certainly seem to have a better batting average this season than they've had in recent years.

But I still want to know what it is these . . . people manage to say in 10 seconds that registers as good-contestant, move-to-the-top-of-the-list material.

I don't think what they say ("I want to win a NOOOOOOOOOOOOO CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHR!") is as important as how they say it. You want a contestant who is cheerful, fairly outgoing, and who will register delight when they win prizes and won't be a sore loser if they don't, and who will register surprise at, say, the prospect of playing Plinko. They must also not come across as needy or desperate, or disoriented as some of the Las Vegas contestants chosen at random with no human intervention do. The thing to remember is that it is theater, and job #1 is to entertain the home audience by having contestants who are likeable.

Just to clarify, I'm actually curious to know what the specific asshats under discussion say, and how they say it. I want to see how they manage to turn off the running spigot of annoyingness long enough to get through the interview with high marks.

I've told this story before. Frank Wayne once told me that some day he was going to bring out a $1,000 bill as an IUFB. He said one person will bid $350, two people will be over, and one person will bid one dollar.

And at least two of the four will be looking at their friends behind them for help until Drew tells them to get on with it.

Then the rule should be that Drew says "three seconds" the way they used to do on FF and the old TPIR. When the buzzer sounds, you'll be standing behind a blank readout and the game will move on.

i LOVE that idea...however, that will in turn quiet down the audience considerably.....would TPIR benefit from the less-carnival-like atmosphere?

Watch a '72 Price today and it seems so damn staid. Would the game benefit? Absolutely. Would the show? Maybe not so much.

That said, I loved the guy last week who wore a suit--and Drew was classic about it: "Nobody's worn a suit to this show since 1974!" I say anything that classes up the joint is not a bad thing.

I wish I had seen that.

Personal preference, but I don't want to see the carnival atmosphere toned down one iota.

Gee, ya think? TPIR did quite well for about 25 years without an audience full of laughing hyenas and fratb0is. This was back in the day when they had more than health insurance, diabetes supplies and mobility scooters as advertisers. Do you think my rule would have a beneficial effect on the PACING of the show, which seems to be the chief complaint here?

I can't watch the show any more because I value my high-frequency hearing (and so does one of the cameramen who puts his fingers in his ears). That and the jib shots of every bald spot in the audience. I'll pay $100 to the first person who sits in the audience of a TPIR taping with a curlicue TPIR dollar sign shaved into his/her hair.

The first person who comes dressed as a carrot has to pay ME $100.

How is it that TPIR gets away with a crowd of 330 people screaming out their answer, as opposed to no other show that I can think of? On LMAD, Monty would even warn against that, saying that an answer from the floor would invalidate the deal.

The crowd can't call out stuff during Clock Game; I don't see how it would be that hard to extend such a rule to the rest of the show.

I'm not disgusted by a contestant who chooses to show up to the studio in whatever TPIR costume that they threw together, but it is indeed refreshing to see someone wearing nice clothes and all.

And here's the problem. There is a difference between a carnival atmosphere and the zoo at Beverly and Fairfax. I don't have a problem with the calling out of prices from the audience up to a point, and I don't mind seeing contestants being genuinely excited during their game.

I dislike it when contestants can't hear the host asking the third time for a bid because the entire crowd is yelling over each other, or when a contestant takes any length of time to pick a random option (such as the numbers from Pass the Buck or Spelling Bee. I don't think it would be so bad to impose a reasonable time limit of some sort to keep the show moving along.

We also would have accepted "airheads who claim to be Bob's #1 fan, but don't even know how to play Switch?". Or "Samoans".

Seriously, though, TV shows seemed to have gone through a "loud" phase in the 2000s. Loud hosts (Newton, Karn, Osmond, et al.), loud sets, loud music, etc. I'm glad to see a bit more mellowness again.



I think that TPIR's pacing won't be fully fixed until the day that greedy advertisers realize that 45 minutes of commercials in an hour long show is way too [bad word] much. So in other words, probably never, but that's little to no fault of anyone at Fremantle Media.



If you're interested, I can impersonate at least two Let's Make a Deal announcers...

I'm sure that's a fact that wasn't lost on Old Man Goodson. Monty wanted some decorum every once in a while, while Price was intended from the start to be a show with audience help at all times (with the exception of Clock Game).

Plus, the audience assistance goes all the way back to the Uncle Bill days. It may be worse now, but it's nothing new.

From the start? Really?

I remember on the first episode, Bob said something like "Oohs and ahhs are always welcome at the Price is Right, but don't shout anything out.

/or maybe that was to the models
//giggity

I distinctly remember hearing that in relation to Bullseye I (episode 2), which indeed prompted the audience to get loud when the contestant was within a few dollars of the ARP.

-Jason