 | The Price May Be Right, but the people? |
I always loved the show when I was younger. I liked playing along with the games, and thought it was pretty decent. Now, it is mobbed by fraternity brothers and sisters looking for a way to get the next keg in their truck. It also is an excuse for you to write on your T-shirt. It is a phenomenon. It is an event.
The Price is Right has been on CBS for 33 years and has been hosted by Bob Barker, who is the idol of many of the people who come to this taping. I find it funny that someone who has sexually harassed just about everyone of the women who come to work as one of his “beauties” and ended up banging one of the them is a role model. What’s more, according to many people who have worked on the show, he was also a very vicious employer. I don’t see the fascination about this man. I feel that viewing this man as a hero is like giving Saddam Hussein a pardon for all the people he has killed over the years. The man has been sued multiple times and always slips through the back door.
All these morons that came to the taping have little phrases on their shirts. “We love Bob”, “Bob my mother watched you for years”, “Bob, you are the greatest.” I couldn’t find the “Bob you hit on my sister you asshole” shirt anywhere. Most of the people who came to the taping looked like they weren’t even old enough to attend high school. There were people running up and down the benches practicing for when the announcer says “come on down!” One guy said he quit his job to get on the show and win. What a bunch of losers. Yes I know, I went to the taping. But I only went to see a taping of the show that I enjoyed as a young boy out of curiosity. I have always been fascinated with television. Maybe that is why I do a show. I don’t know.
Anyway, the process just to watch the show is excruciating. You have to be there at 6am. From there you wait until 8am to get a priority number. Then you are told to come back two hours later. At this point, I walked over to the Farmer’s Market and had some good hash browns. Just wanted to throw them a shout to say “good hash browns.” So then at 10am I was back at CBS television city and then I got to sit and wait for 4 hours. I did get a chance to talk to the producer because if you sit in the audience, you are a potential candidate to come on down to contestants row. I think that is part of the attraction for the audience who looked like they just walked out of a sale for the Salvation Army store.
After that you go in the studio, and the studio is very much smaller than it looks on TV. It was amazing to see like ten people on stage at one time, but you don’t see that when you watch the show. While we are waiting for the show to begin, there are many top 40 songs playing, but when “Hey Ya” came on, the room went nuts. Fucking dorks.
Then they played the “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” thing that Buffer does (I heard a rumor that he will pay you a percentage of his lawsuit if you point out to him that someone is using his catch phrase in an unauthorized way. I plan on e-mailing him after I send this) and then they play some techno version of the opening theme. Nice. Then the new announcer Rich Fields tells us how he was so excited to become the announcer. Yawn. Finally the show starts and the room erupts. Hell, when they are calling people you can’t even hear them, so some dude holds up cue cards with names on them.
No I didn’t get called, but it was OK. I was there not really to win, but just to experience this. Although the show is legendary and is interesting, I do not understand how it turned people into total whack jobs. I guess silly things like “The Price is Right” have a way of doing that on people. If you ever go to visit Los Angeles, make sure you visit the Price is Right. Especially after smoking a nice big joint. You are sure to be entertained for hours. Not because of the show, but the morons who have helped to keep this machine running for 30+ years.
That is all for now. See you next week.
MJ
