I went to watch a taping of The Price Is Right yesterday in Hollywood. Here is my story (insert L+O gong).
There was a group of 25 of us leaving from Bakersfield where we split up into different cars for the drive. I rode in a large Suburban with seven other people.
Down on Beverly Drive, we tried to pull into the CBS Studios parking lot. The guard turned us around and instructed us to park in the garage adjacent to some ritzy outdoor shopping area. We then had to walk over to the studios.
There were already gaggles of people hanging around outside of the stout gray building. Some plain-clothed guard asked to see out I.D.s and made us venture near the side of the building before the rest of our group could catch up. Luckily, the bright blue t-shirts that our group was wearing made us stand out.
Underneath this large awning were four long benches. This is where you wait. As the TPIR has two tapings in a day (1:30 and 4:30PM), there were already people waiting to go into the studio by the time we checked in at noon.
We weren’t allowed to leave the awning area for the most part. Some girls from my group went to then nearby shopping center and bought some Chipotle without any consequences. There were bathrooms down a hallway. Right inside the hallway was a type of deli that sold sandwiches and refreshments. I ended up buying some stuff from here. There was also a small gift shop underneath the structure that sold items related to CBS shows. Posters for CBS shows lined the outside walls of the studio.
The way that CBS ran things, I thought I was back in Army Reception. The pages spoke from a bullhorn giving us instructions. They had us sit on one of the long benches. Then, one of the pages read off this litany of legal-speak.
If you’ve ever been a contestant on TPIR, you are not eligible to win anything.
If someone you know works for the show, you are not eligible to win anything.
If you have been on another game show in the past two years, or plan on being a contestant on another game show, you cannot be one today.
ABSOLUTELY NO PICTURE TAKING
He listed more rules that came into play later. While sitting on the bench, some more pages came around with these little green cards with a perforation down the middle. On one side of the perforation you had to fill out your true legal name, social security number, and signature. The other part had a large number on it. Earlier, the page had made is explicitly clear that you were to write your true full name on the card: no nicknames, abbreviations or shortened names like Debbie or Chris. It would have to be Deborah or Christopher (or Christine). Also, in some type of alternate reality where Ross Perot and Roger Clemens attend a taping of The Price Is Right, they would be Henry and William respectively. I got gigged on this, as I go by my middle name.
After the green cards were passed out, another page came around and checked our I.D.s and social security cards to see if they jived with the information were provided on the aforementioned green sheets. He then took the information part of the card and left us with the large bold number.
Then, another page in an oversized red sportscoat with the CBS eye logo came around to create the famous nametags (as seen above). Again, I had to William and Henry it. The group who knows me by my middle name was perplexed as hell seeing this unknown name on my tag.
We stuck the nametags onto our shirts on the left side (another strict CBS instruction), and stuck the numbers under the bottom of the adhesive nametag. This is important information, as CBS required us to sit in numerical order on the bench and throughout the rest of the day.
It was breezy in Hollywood that day. The temperature, according to CNN Weather, didn’t get above 60 degrees. We sat under the awning for three hours with 100’s of other people.
Finally, the pages instruct our group to rise and led us around the building. Our group formed with another group from the bench, a bunch of Arizona meatheads wearing black t-shirts. The coalesced groups were parsed off into smaller groups of a dozen people where we were led further down the outside of the studio wall to talk to two producers. We stood against the railing while a guy in a tie and winter coat asked us questions and a slim blonde lady wrote on a legal pad. This is how they presumably choose who it is that is going to “come on down,” although the only two questions each of us was asked were “Where are you from?” and “What do you do for fun?” My foxy female Asian friend (FFAF) with the booming radio voice said she is from some Southern California city and that she likes to race cars for fun.
After the interview, we were instructed to go around the third side of the studio where the Army Reception/Airport Security procedure continued. We had to pass through a metal detector. If you were carrying a cell phone, it was confiscated and you were issued a claim ticket. Yet again, we sat on long parallel benches where we had staring contests with the audience members that had arrived before us. We sat here for around 30-45 minutes.
We were again instructed to rise. We were going to enter the studio. This consisted of climbing up a short staircase with the TPIR logo painted on it. 300 people entering and exiting a building through one clogged staircase. Fire hazard?
At the top of the staircase, you enter the world famous set of The Price Is Right. On TV, it looks palacial and expansive. It is not. I’ve wracked my brain to find a comparison in the outside world that you are familiar with. The only thing I can think of is a movie theater. The audience area holds around 300 members. Small microphones hang from the ceiling by wires. Right off the left of the stage is where the producers sit in front of monitors and other technological stuff. Rich Fields the announcer doesn’t have his own separate area. He stands on the side of the stage with headphones, a podium, and some type of device that looks like my dad’s bitchin’ stereo from the 80’s.
The stage is very small. Do you know the center part of the stage where Bob Barker walks out and is handed his skinny microphone? The logo is an optical illusion making it appear larger and deeper. In fact, the stage consists of only three doors and a tiled middle area. Imagine taking three small garage doors, forming three walls out of them, and having a tiled space in front of them. That’s the stage. Games played on the tile and the spinning of the money wheel are played on the exact same spot. The Showcase Showdown and games played in front of a felt wall are played in the exact same spot. The little booths for the Showdown are brought in and placed there from off-stage toward the end of the taping. Camera angles make it appear to be different area on TV. Smart.
When contestants lose, they don’t disappear back stage. They return to their seats. When they lose the Wheel Spin, they remain on the stage outside of camera range until the winner is decided. Then they return to their seats.
Rich Fields is the announcer for TPIR. About 15-20 minutes before the show, he announces himself out on to stage. Really. But he was pretty cool. Told some stories and jokes, got the crowd riled up, told us of yet more on-camera procedure (don’t stand except when the words BOB BARKER are mentioned, then stand and go apeshit). He also acted as a kind of cheerleader throughout the taping, waving his hands in between product descriptions to prompt applause. He did a pretty good job, considering he was reading advertisements for Oreo Cookies during a game, then would turn around with his headphones on and prompt cheers and number calling from the audience. TPIR loves for you to scream numbers.
So Fields tells us to stand up and go ape when he calls out BOB BARKER anytime during the taping. He goes off to his little area and tells us that, since it is going to be so loud, someone will have the names of the first four contestants written on cue cards so that they will know to motor down to Contestants Row.
A bunch of shabby cameramen and women meander onto the stage in front of their equipment. The leggy blonde Beauty awaits with the skinny microphone. A cameraman with Ted Nugent hair stands in the center with the cue cards. No names are shown yet because Fields hasn’t called them. Cameras mounted on the ceiling show the frenzied beginning segment were the camera zooms all over the audience looking for the first four contestants. Fields calls out the names. Nugent holds up with cue cards with scrawled names on them in black marker. The Fourth Contestant called is FFAF! Holy crap! BOB BARKER! People go apeshit!
Games are played just like I mentioned before. FFAR never makes it on stage. The contestant selection is kind of rigged. Fields makes a joke about Delta Airlines and asks if anyone works there. One woman responds. She is called down and later wins a car. Bob remarks to a rotund female Navy LT. She gets called up and wins the Showcase Showdown.
I scream numbers and clap like a madman throughout the taping. I felt the TPIR spirit fill my soul. The Barkers Beauties were hot. One of the blonde ladies dressed like a detective in her stiletto heels for the Showcase Showdown skit. Hubba bubba!
Mr. Barker himself has got a ton of charm. During the commercial breaks, he’d remain on stage, asking and answering questions. He cracked jokes and they were funny. I can see why he slept with all of those spokesmodels a few years back. He charmed their panties off.
So, that was my Price Is Right experience. Afterward, I ate dinner with the large group and then screwed around at the Universal City Walk for a while listening to raunchy stand-up comics and watching while my coed group of friends rode a mechanical bull.
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