Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much (2017) Movie Script

1
So, "Take the A Train" starts,
which is, you know, I know
okay, Rod's gonna come out
next and do his warm-up.
And, well, Rod
finishes his warm-up,
and they do the opening slate,
and he's telling us, you know,
"Fifteen seconds. Lick
your lips, and sit up straight."
And blah, blah, blah
and get ready to applaud.
And we start applauding,
and music comes on,
lights are on.
They're doing
the opening pan.
And I hear my name.
Hi, I'm Linda, or I'm Ted!
You're Linda! I'm Ted!
- Oh, you got me confused.
- I don't know who you are. Who are we?
I'm Linda.
And the Homework Helpline
is coming up in just a minute
as soon as we figure out
who we are.
Linda
Great.
My name is Ted Slauson.
And, uh, I was born on an
Air Force base in Massachusetts.
My dad was in the Air Force.
From there, when
I was six weeks old,
we moved to Wisconsin,
which is where both
of my parents are from.
Lived there for a few years,
moved... went down to the
Kansas City, Missouri area
where my dad was stationed
for a few years.
And then in 1970,
they moved to California
where my dad
was transferred.
Uh, he retired in 1972,
so, they ended up
just staying in California,
but that's... they're still living
in the house that I grew up in,
the house that I remember
most from my childhood.
"The Price is Right..."
...America's love-in
with the giveaway,
a hit in prime time
in the 1950s,
by 1972,
the producers decide
time is right
for a daytime version.
Roger Dobkowitz started as a
production assistant on The Price is Right.
It was his first job
in television.
For the showcase,
when they reveal the showcase...
we actually taped calculators
to the readout machines
with gaffer's tape
on that machine,
and that machine.
And I had to enter
in the amount.
Oh, now the difference.
The difference is here, and
then I had to jump over here.
And the operators had to
enter in all that information.
I mean, you look back,
how did we ever put
together a game show
using this rudimentary
equipment?
Nowadays, everyone has four TVs
and a million channels to watch.
Well, back in the early '70s,
there were four channels
and we had one TV.
And with six kids,
obviously, we had to all agree
on what to watch.
And you know,
my older brothers and sisters
decided they wanted to
watch "The Price is Right,"
so grudgingly, you know,
sat down and
watched it with them.
By the end of the show,
I was pretty much hooked.
And I still have...
just about all of my name tags,
and contestant cards from
all the tapings I've been to.
I went to, I'm pretty sure
it was 37 altogether.
What's interesting is that,
in the old days
on the left,
they have more,
kind of a pastel color,
and then as they
got into the 2000s,
they got kind of bright
in their colors.
I have been
a mathematics teacher
and in mathematics assessment.
We mostly write
and develop and review
test questions that go on
assessments that students take.
I didn't have anything to do
on the show at the beginning.
As I tell a lot of young people,
I said, "That's a wonderful
position to be in."
But what happened is that people
started asking me to help them.
I helped them with the prizes.
I helped them
with the scripts.
I helped them copying.
I helped them this,
I helped them that.
And I began to pick up
a little bit of everything.
My mathematical ability
really kind of surfaced
around junior high level.
So that, of course, with
the numbers and everything
and all the prices, that kind
of made a connection for me.
Hi, this is Ted!
And this is Linda!
And we're here
for the Homework Helpline.
So have your program...
Your problems ready,
and we'll be waiting
for your call.
So, one week,
I got into, like, watching,
"Price is Rights" from 1973.
Side-by-side refrigerator-freezer
from world-famous Amana.
Think 25 cubic foot
side-by-side...
The same refrigerator-freezer
was on four different
episodes that I watched
and it was $789 all four times.
I'm like,
"Well, see? There it is.
There's proof. It was way
back in the beginning."
It was the same, you know,
same stuff over and over.
And it's that hideous
avocado green.
My brother and I,
I think, both noticed.
"Oh, well, I remember the price
of this was $1500 or whatever."
It would be $1500 again
and so that kind of inspired me
to start, kind of
tracking prices,
or, you know,
keeping records,
if you will.
When I would record the shows,
and put it all in a Word doc
and everything
and put it in the database,
pretty much every show,
I had to add four
or five new things
because they were always
bringing new stuff on.
I went to San Francisco
State University
and when you go
after a master's degree,
you got to write a thesis.
In those days, you had
to put it all on paper,
and I wrote a thesis
about this thick.
Two hundred pages.
I wrote a thesis
on game shows
because I love game shows.
I would actually sit and watch
game shows in the afternoon,
and wait for
the credits to roll.
Saw who produced them,
and they only showed
the credits once a week,
so if you missed it
once a week,
you had to wait
a whole nother week.
And I sent a copy of my thesis
out to like 20 or 30
game show producers.
I saw Mark Goodson,
and Mark Goodson was
one of those people.
He's larger than life.
A big office, big desk!
Near the end of the interview,
he said to me, he said,
"When are you flying
back to Los Angeles?"
I said, "Flying back?
I'm driving back."
And his eyes got really big.
He said,
"You drove to New York?"
I said, "Yes,
I drove to New York.
I have a VW Bug
and I drove to New York."
And then in the hotel,
I remember it to this day,
there was a little
slip of paper in the...
"Somebody phoned for you,
Roger. Here it is."
It was Mark Goodson's office.
"Please phone the office."
I phoned the office right away,
and the secretary said, "Mark
Goodson would like to see you tomorrow."
Well, I went into his office,
and he said, "Roger,
I've decided to hire you,
"because anyone
that would drive
"to New York City for an
interview has a lot of initiative."
And this is
"The Price is Right"
that I wrote back
in the early 1990s.
And it has all the games that
were on the show that year.
You type in some
names of some players.
And you can type up to nine.
Last thing is
a random number,
so that the prizes and prices
and everything get randomized.
There we go.
Here's the opening of the show.
It's all in text with, you know,
fake lights going around.
And it's calling down at least
two of the people that I put in.
It has the standard
opening, of course.
You know, then the doors open,
it's not gonna be Bob Barker,
'cause I wasn't that good
of a programmer back then.
When I was on duty,
I had a disc jockey show.
They had a studio there.
There was an audience
participation show.
The host didn't show up.
He was never ashamed
to take a drink.
And I think
that he probably over-imbibed.
But in any event, G. Pearson
Ward came rushing in there.
"Bob, you have to..."
Everything was live.
There was no taping in those.
He rushed in there.
He said, "You have to get
out there and do that show."
And so out I went. I didn't
have time to get nervous.
I grabbed the hand mic,
went out,
started talking
to the audience.
And I got about
three or four laughs.
And I thought, "I like this."
I'm gonna try to make them
do that some more.
And fortunately,
my wife, Dorothy Jo,
heard that show.
And when I got home,
she said, "Barker, that's
what you should do."
She said, "You did that better
than you've ever done anything else."
I mean, Bob Barker has said
every game on the show
had an element of luck.
A good chunk of those games,
if you had a really good
knowledge of prices,
you were gonna win.
$500, not bad.
It's not real money,
so I'm gonna go ahead
and look in the next hole.
Next hole is worth...
Oh, there it is! $10,000.
It's just that easy.
And I think I will keep that.
And so after 12 years,
Goodson liked me,
and when there
was an opening,
he promoted me
to be a producer.
Because he realized not only
did I know the show,
I loved "The Price is Right."
I just loved
"The Price is Right."
And at the start of that,
I really became much
closer to Bob Barker.
Well, uh...
any pride that I feel,
I have to share
with several people.
One of them right over here.
Roger Dobkowitz.
He was a splendid producer.
And he protected me
in every situation
where a little protection
was needed.
And he's a dear friend, too.
I had a very close friend who
lived right across the street.
Her name was Dee.
She and my brother and I
would play "The Price is Right,"
where one of us,
we'd plan the whole show,
the other one wouldn't
have to be all the contestants.
However it worked.
We had planned a trip,
kind of because it was
the first time we both could go
and do our own
thing as adults.
And I told her, "Absolutely, for
certain, one thing we are doing,
is going to
'The Price is Right.'"
In real life, every game
has a time limit.
If you play checkers,
there's no official time limit.
"Hurry up, hurry up.
Make your move.
I don't have all day."
And this is what
Bob used to do.
Well, I was kind of surprised
the show was still on the air
because they had taken
so many game shows off
to expand the soap operas
to an hour.
"Hurry up! 'The Young
and the Restless' is coming.
Make your decision. What do
you want? What do you want?"
It would become very exciting.
I was really worried
"The Price is Right"
would never make it
until my 18th birthday,
and here I am, 52 years old,
and the show's still going strong.
Um, from Sacramento,
we drove to Los Angeles.
And instead of
being intelligent,
and taking the shortest,
most direct route,
we decided we would
kind of meander
over toward
the coastal area,
and take US 101,
which is a much
longer drive.
Of course, what
Dee didn't realize
when we made that decision
is it gave her much more time
to quiz me on my
price list for the show.
If you ask her today,
33 years later,
she'll still complain about
how much time she had to spend
quizzing me
on those prices.
If you're a New Yorker,
you might often get the feeling
that you're waiting
on a perpetual line.
But here in LA,
this is no ordinary day,
and no ordinary line.
These 300 people
are waiting to take part
in a TV audience phenomenon.
Well, you show up
and you hope
that there's not more than
300 people there already.
Of course even if there
aren't that many people,
you have to hope there's
not a bunch of groups
who are gonna come
to the show that day.
But you do spend
a lot of time waiting,
waiting on benches,
waiting outside the gates
until they open them
in the morning.
While they wait,
a small army
is preparing a stage show
that couldn't be
topped in Vegas.
The CBS pages come
through the line.
They will create your name tag,
and if you have
a long name like mine,
they might have to make one or two or three
of them before they get it all on there.
I just want to know
what you're feeling right now.
It's my tie.
I feel it right here.
Well, you tell.
Roger Dobkowitz will tell you
we're gonna go out
there as if it were...
- Uh, opening day.
- That's right.
We're going out there
as if it were opening day.
- Or is it opening night?
- Opening day!
- It's a daytime show! Yes.
- Sorry, that's for daytime.
Caress leaves your skin
softer than soap.
Skin feels better
when it's caressed.
Well, I had always
liked Holly,
who was one of the
models on the show,
ever since I was a kid.
She just seemed like
the most genuine,
the most kinda goofball.
Um, and so my sister
had this idea.
We had a shirt made that said
"I'm here to kiss Holly."
And the guy who
made it was very helpful,
and he was like, "How about we put
some felt hearts behind Holly's name?"
And he got, you know, the most
fancy cursive for her name.
And you know,
a lot of times
people would get picked
who had special shirts made.
Then we decided on the back.
We would put "Sorry, Bob!"
And he insisted on
making a little frowny face
out of little scraps of felt.
And so, that was the shirt
I wore to the first taping.
The job of picking contestants
goes to coproducer
Phillip Wayne.
He's not above
dropping an honest word
to a hopeful prospect.
I was stuttering
through my interview,
and he, you know, he seemed
unimpressed with me,
and kind of brushed me off
by saying, "And you've
got lips for Holly."
And he moved on
to the next person.
But then you go into
the Bob Barker Studio,
and you marvel at
how small everything is
compared to how it looks on TV.
Backstage you can feel it.
The anticipation
is at near frenzy.
And they would just
jump right into the show.
Kind of like
no warning at all,
just "Here we go.
We're getting ready. Boom."
A new swimming pool!
Being my first taping,
I didn't want to be
overly boisterous,
so I waited for a few
other people to yell out bids.
And then I yelled out $1499.
1,499.
$1,499.
And if you look
way in the back
where Dee is
sitting next to me,
her head kind of
snaps over to me
like she's surprised that
I got that on the nose,
even though she spent
the whole time on the road
quizzing me on prices.
We had people shouting
out the exact price.
Of course, nobody
knew that person
knew the exact price, you know?
So, we allowed that.
We were fine with that.
So then on the second
item up for bids
was a brass trunk.
Which I knew was...
...which you can hear
on the tape.
$795.
Deborah, you win.
My first two bids in
the studio were right on.
The two things
we did not let them do,
we didn't allow them
to take lists into the studio.
Good luck inside.
In line, when they're waiting
to come into the studio,
we didn't allow them
to say anything
in the order of "Everybody
pay attention to me!
"I've memorized all the prices,
"so everybody listen to me
when I shout out a price.
We'll all shout."
We didn't allow that either.
From about 1984 to 1989,
I went to the show
about once a year.
It was always hard to try to
find somebody to go with me,
and we realized, "I don't need anyone
to go with me. I can go by myself."
And there is the six
down there in the piggy bank.
He wants the one!
Light up that one!
Well, first of all, we were
very, very absolutely
100% proud of this.
We would tape
a 60-minute show
in 60 minutes.
Marc Breslow
our first director,
and I'd say, "Well, how did
the show went, Marc?"
And he'd say,
"No editing tonight."
We had just completed
a 60-minute show.
And one of the reasons
why Bob did,
and he said, "Roger,
"when you do
the show to time,
you become the editor."
And I would go to the show
whenever I had time
off from school,
and was a first,
second-year teacher at the time
so summer school
was not just an option,
it was kind of a "have to
do this to make ends meet."
In the summer of 1990,
July 4th fell on a Wednesday,
and "Price is Right"
used to tape
on Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesdays.
And so, I called the show,
or I called CBS.
"Uh, no, we're not
taping on the 4th.
We're taping on
the 1st, 2nd and 3rd."
And hung up.
I better call back
and make sure.
So I called back and I said,
"Are you taping
on Sunday, July 1?"
And they said, "Yes, we are,"
and I said, "Great."
So I went down,
and got my hotel,
and got my tickets,
and got in line
the next morning,
and got into the studio.
I had fairly good seats.
I think I'm in the fifth row.
I've now gotten
a little frustrated
that people aren't
listening to my bidding
and yelling and helping.
As soon as the first item
up for bids was described,
as soon as Rod
finished the description,
I yelled out...
1250!
Now there's the first bid...
...of "The Price is Right"
and everyone starts laughing.
And he proceeds to tell them,
"Now, one of you, whoever gets
the closest to the actual retail price
will win that...
And you, sir, have
no chance of winning it.
And they put the camera
on me at that point,
and I'm laughing,
thinking, "Oh.
You should not
have said that."
And you can't
see it on the film,
because they changed
the shot to the contestants,
but his eyebrows
went from about here
- to about here.
- Stand up out there. What is your name?
Theodore?
The actual retail
price is $1250.
And it's fun when somebody
would know the exact price.
The whole audience
would scream.
"Yay! You know the exact price!"
And then Bob would
turn to the audience,
and say, "You see?
"Watch every day,
"and you can become
a good shopper.
Just like John here."
- Theodore is a bidder, isn't he?
- Yeah, I owe him one.
The show went to commercial,
and usually what would happen
is they would reintroduce Bob,
and Bob would talk
to the audience and say,
"Thank you so much for coming,
and you know, does anyone
have any questions?"
And blah, blah, blah.
That day, he pretty much
came down and he said,
"Theodore, you watch
'The Price is Right.'"
And he just kind of
interacted with me.
Sometimes the first game
runs really short.
It may have been scheduled
to go six minutes.
And it only goes three minutes
because the person
loses right away
or wins right away.
So this gives Bob
two extra minutes.
The stage manager
told him, you know,
"We got 15 seconds,"
or whatever.
And he goes, "Oh,
is it time to smile?"
And everyone would laugh.
And Susan, who was a
contestant in Contestant's Row,
turned around and she mouthed
the words, "Help me."
Well, Bob happened to notice,
like, the very last part
of this interaction
about two seconds before
they went back on the air.
Susan was just overtly flirting
with Theodore out here.
And I thought, "Wow,
that was pretty good."
That he caught that
that quickly,
and turned it into
something on the show.
I mean, that kinda really showed
what a good host he was.
So, of course, now I've got
someone listening to me.
And they bring out an item
I've never seen
before in my life.
A lovely area rug!
The models are, you know,
petting it while Rod's describing it.
I'm looking at Susan,
and I'm like, "I don't know."
Go for $1,000.
And she ended up
bidding $1450 or something.
She went way over
what I had said.
Is that your bid or did you
get that from Theodore?
And Bob reads the price
and it was $1059.
And that kind of surprised me
that I was that close.
They called down
the next person,
and they bring out the item,
and I can tell,
kind of immediately,
it's these little
Emmett Kelly figurines.
One of the other contestants actually
turned around and looked at me,
and I was like, "Oh, I
can't give her the right bid,"
'cause I kind of promised
Susan I'd help her.
So Susan finally turned around.
And I told her,
you know, "$695."
I used to be much
better at that.
$695
It was $695, and Susan's
going up on stage.
And he said, "Well, I have
to ask her, don't I?"
- Did Theodore give you that?
- Yes, he did.
Theodore!
Will dinner tonight
be separate checks?
- I'll pay.
- There you are, Theodore.
Whether you get
on stage or not, Theodore,
you've won a little prize
on "The Price is Right."
Meanwhile, they've
opened the doors
on the prize that she's gonna
play for in The Check Game,
and it's a big-screen TV.
And back in those days,
they would usually have the
contestant's reaction on the TV,
so you could kind of
see the prize
and the reaction
at the same time.
Well, that day, because
of what was going on,
they instead had me
on the big-screen TV.
A big-screen TV!
When Rod described it,
I knew the TV
was the $3900 TV.
And so I knew, in order
for her to get to $6,000,
which is the most you can win,
that she needed to
write the check for $2100.
- And Susan, you know how to play this game, don't you?
- Sort of.
- Sort of?
- I was trying to tell her $2100.
You can actually
see me at one point.
Kind of finishing off the $2100,
and then doing it again.
I started yelling, "No! No! No!"
And she just kept going,
and she wrote it
for $3,000, and so...
$6,900.
- Maybe Theodore will leave the tip.
- -I'm just like, nope.
Nope, not gonna do it.
You know, Bob
walked back down
to the kind of the
front of the stage,
and he goes, "Well, Theodore,
what happened there?"
And I didn't even
have to say a word.
I had 300 people jump to
my defense at the same time,
and so loud
that he was looking around.
He's like "What? What? What?"
And he actually gave...
He redeemed me
when they went back on
during the Showcase Showdown,
and he had Susan spin the wheel,
and he said, "I was talking with the
audience during that commercial..."
- Didn't you hear Theodore?
- No, I didn't.
He told you to write
the check for $2100.
You'd have had
exactly $6,000.
So, oh, and by the way,
I'm still waiting
for that dinner.
It's been, uh, what are we on,
25... 27 years?
A ceiling fan light!
They had several from
that same manufacturer
- but they were all...
- $500.
Another $100 bonus.
And then, in the second
part of the show,
Bob kind of stopped, you know,
referring to me on the air.
And I thought, "Okay,
that's fine. Whatever."
A new car!
The car that they
had on that day
was the exact same car
I had seen
a couple tapings prior.
And it was very memorable,
because the contestant
played Lucky 7,
and he got the first three
numbers on the nose,
which never happens,
and it was a $7,659 car.
Tens and face cards are $1,000.
Seventy-six, fifty-nine!
The number on the card
in hundred's of dollars.
Ace's are wild.
Theodore is still
out there, isn't he, yeah?
He asked me, you know,
"What is the price again?"
And I told him,
and he goes, "All right.
You can take that for what
it's worth" to the contestant.
She had to be within
$800 of the price.
$400, please.
We're all like,
"Stop, stop, stop."
And she goes, "One more!"
And she pulls another card
and it was an ace.
And I'm like,
"This'll be awesome."
She can get it
right on the nose.
So I'm like, "$459, $459."
I'll make that $500.
- $500.
- No!
$7700 is her bid.
And we're all like,
"What are you doing?"
So, we're thinking,
okay, she's gonna be over.
$8,694.
A difference of $994.
And I might add, Theodore,
nobody is perfect.
Thank you, Lisa.
We will have the second
Showcase Showdown...
They went to commercial,
and the producer came over
and spoke to Bob for a second,
and he said,
"Well, Theodore,
"Roger just told me
something interesting.
"He said we do have
a model of that car
"that's $7,659.
"But we put different
options on them
to fool people like you."
Basically, what I learned
from that was,
I'm gonna have to
start listening carefully
to what options they have
on the different cars,
and kind of price that out.
And as years went by,
with the Internet that
actually became really easy,
because you could go on
a manufacturer's website,
and find the options
and see what they were worth.
So it really made it
much easier.
By the time I was walking out
to where my truck was,
people were already leaving,
and it was hilarious to me,
because everyone was rolling
down their windows and going,
"Bye, Theodore!
Good luck, Theodore!
"I hope you get on
the show, Theodore!
Bye, Theodore!"
It was just like
I was this celebrity.
And it was just the
most awesome feeling.
I live right here in Hollywood.
They have tour buses
all the time.
I can't go out the door, when
there's not one going by it seems.
And I think a lot
of the guys just...
"Hi," and you know,
go out quickly.
But I talk with them.
I stand out there
and talk with them.
And someone asked me,
they said, "Why do you do that?
Why? "I said," Listen.
Without those people, I
would've had to work for a living."
It's the least I can do.
So, in early '91,
my partner and I went
down to the show.
It was his first time going
to "The Price is Right."
And we got in line
early in the morning,
and a young
African-American woman sat,
I think she was
behind us in line.
Her family was supposed
to come with her,
and they all kinda
bailed on her,
and so, we kinda
made friends with her
during the course of the day.
And she thought
I was gonna get picked,
and I thought my partner
was gonna get picked,
and he thought she was
gonna get picked.
Lorren Reynolds is
the last name they call,
and she screamed,
probably a good five seconds,
and jumped up.
Oh my God, this is so cool!
Somebody I've been talking to
all day has gotten picked.
- A GE Microwave.
- -Lauren, what do you say?
$1,399!
Oh, a kiss. Thanks.
She played the game Bump
for two prizes.
And they don't even
play that game anymore,
but back then, it was
like there were four cars,
and you either had to
bump the cars this way
or bump the cars that way
to represent the prices
of the two prizes.
- They say that way!
- Is Lorren a winner?
- You are!
- So, she wins. She's very excited.
Uh, next contestant?
$1,049.
Another perfect bid.
I'm telling you.
We're not fooling around today.
I was one of the lucky teachers
who had an off period
at the end of the day.
And one day, I was in
my classroom working,
and this kid
popped their head in,
and they're like, "We're doing
a survey for the newspaper.
"Who would you want
for your valentine
if you could have
anyone you wanted?"
And I'm just like,
"I don't know."
And I just went "Holly
from 'The Price is Right.'"
Here comes the lovely Holly
with the lovely prize.
And so it actually made it
into the school newspaper,
and I clipped the article
and brought it with me.
The tea set I knew
was $1250.
Can you believe it?
Holly actually brought
that out from the wings,
right over kinda
where we were sitting.
Well, this might be
the perfect time.
I can just give it to her while she's
walking back up with the tea set.
Well, apparently the gold-plated
tea sets are really heavy,
so when she was pulling it
back from Contestant's Row,
and walking up, she had
this look on her face,
like, "I'm gonna
drop this thing."
And I didn't want to be this
weird stalker guy going,
"Here!" and you know,
throw this thing at her.
55 cents total.
And I thought, well,
there's no way
she's going to the
Showcase with 55 cents.
And the second person ended up,
I think only with 40 cents,
and the third person, I think,
ended up with
even less than that.
And we were just
shocked that she was,
you know, going
to the Showcase.
Ended up giving
her bid of $9500.
They went ahead and
showed the second Showcase.
It was another one
where I thought.
"Okay, I know most of these.
And generally,
how much it's gonna be."
And when he bid, I was like,
"Uh-oh, this might be really close."
Difference of $1,814.
Then I thought, "Okay,
well, she's closer than that."
- Lauren...
- Or she's over.
But I don't know which.
$9,846.
You win with a
difference of $346.
I can't believe it.
This is the best show in the world!
Oh, it gets better...
There's Theodore!
There's Theodore!
"There's Theodore!
There's Theodore!"
Which, you know,
because I helped her.
So, she comes down
off the turntable,
and we give her hugs.
At that point, the models had
started coming out from backstage
to, you know, walk us
over to the prizes.
And Holly had walked
right up to me,
and just said, "Hey!"
or "Hi" or whatever.
And it was like, "Oh, hey."
I proceeded to
tell her very quickly
the story about the article
in the school newspaper,
and she was like,
"That's so great!"
And she kinda
gave me a kind of a hug.
We started walking
over to the prizes,
walking over to the bedroom.
She had kind of
pushed me forward
'cause I wasn't in the shot.
And we're, like, waving goodbye.
Then the show went off the air.
Holly's just chatting with me
like we're old buddies.
It was just kind of
a really neat moment, and...
Well, I said to a
contestant one day,
who was very complimentary,
and had watched
the show for years.
I said, "You're a
loyal friend and true."
And it kind of got a reaction.
And I started saying it.
If they were a loyal
friend and true, why,
that was, as you said,
like knighting them.
It's nice to meet you.
It's an honor to meet you.
You know everything... Oh!
The most extreme LFATs.
They'd watch every day,
learn what our prices are,
they're wonderful.
I changed the fonts one time.
They were discussing that.
And some people liked it,
and some people didn't.
Whether they liked it or didn't,
they were still
loyal friends and true.
'Cause they were
discussing the font.
Having been to two tapings
and having been, you know,
there was always a sense
of disappointment
at the end of the show.
Even though it was
fun to be there,
and fun to watch people win,
there was always
that feeling of.
"Well, they didn't
pick me again."
And I've been here, you know,
x number of times.
So I'd been to the Monday show,
been to the Tuesday show,
gonna stay for
the Wednesday show.
I brought the Holly shirt
that I wore to the first taping.
Had the shirt on, and a
lot of people were like,
"Ooh, he's got. Ooh." They
were all kinda intrigued by it.
This is the famous
"I'm here to kiss Holly" shirt.
And here's the back of the
"I'm here to kiss Holly" shirt.
I figured, okay, I'd better probably
say something about it this time.
'Cause that other time,
you know.
Producer just kinda
looked at it and said,
"You've got lips for Holly."
And I figured, maybe I'll,
you know, think of something.
Some of them...
They weren't picked,
because their time
wasn't ripe yet.
We're standing there
and we're ready,
and he's talking to
the people on my right.
He gets to me and
he goes, "Theodore!
Good to see you again."
And I said thank you.
You know, we try to find
exciting contestants
of people that people
can warm up to.
I said, "I'm still a
middle school math teacher,
and I'm still on my
longest vacation ever."
Which is what I had
said the two days before.
But what happens
is they pick someone
who's more
and more hungry.
Thirty. Forty!
Forget the refrigerator,
forget the new car.
This is why I'm here,
and I pointed to my shirt.
And he looked at it
and started laughing.
And it kinda made me stop
in the middle of what
I was saying,
'cause I thought,
"He's never laughed before.
This is really different."
Well, maybe they've become ripe,
and then we pick them.
Theodore Slauson!
Come on down!
You usually couldn't hear
names during the first four,
because it's so loud in there,
and they have cue cards
because of that.
But I could hear my
first and last name
pretty clearly.
In fact, so badly that
the lady next to me,
I think I put my hand
on her bare leg
because I was like, "Oh my
God, they're calling my name."
You know, most people
would want to bid last,
I wanted to bid first.
So I ran kinda
to the other end.
On TV, it looks like
it's you know,
a pretty far distance.
It really isn't. It's about,
you know, six or seven steps.
And what I remember is
it seemed like an eternity
while they called
the other three people,
and it probably doesn't help
that I would have dreams
about going to the show,
and getting picked,
and there'd be some stop down.
And it would take forever,
and they would never get
around to finishing the show,
and I'd, you know, end up
waking up from the dream,
and never having won anything.
So I'm down there,
and I'm just like...
"What do I do?
What do I do?"
And next thing I know,
the doors are opening,
and Bob's walking out.
And it was interesting
'cause he walked
a couple steps out
and then he looked right at me.
Theodore! You made it!
You made it!
I was, you know,
very excited at that point.
Theodore has been
a loyal friend and true.
- How many times have you been here?
- 24.
24 times.
That really kinda surprised,
I think, a lot of people,
because probably 95
to 99% of the audience,
it's their first time.
In fact, that's part
of Rod's warm-up
is "Ooh! Look at that.
An audience full of virgins."
At last you're in
Contestant's Row.
"I'm here to kiss Holly.
Sorry, Bob."
And everyone's laughing,
and he goes, "Theodore..."
Yours is one kiss I'll
pass on, if you don't mind.
I knew from the moment
we made the shirt,
if he got to see it, he would
make some kind of funny remark,
and he did.
Didn't disappoint me.
Lovely outdoor furniture!
Made by Mallin.
And at the time, I knew
I had three of those
in my, kinda, database.
I wasn't sure
which one this was.
Theodore, what do you say?
$1,414.
Josephine, who was
the second contestant,
did $1,417.
So I thought, well,
if I'm not exactly right,
I'm probably not
gonna win this.
$1,578!
He ended up playing The
Check Game for a trip to Mexico.
Which good thing
I didn't get up there,
'cause trips were, you know,
always kind of a guess.
He wins his game.
They go to commercial,
and it's time
to start up again.
And the next item's up for bid,
and it's a recliner.
So I listen carefully
and I look at the monitor,
and I see its Berkline.
Wardell, who's just come down
to Contestant's Row bids first,
and I'm thinking,
"Please don't bid $599.
Please don't bid $599.
Please don't bid $599."
$650.
$650. Now, let's go up
here to Theodore.
- $599.
- $599.
One of you is exactly right!
$100 bonus for the
contestant who bid $599.
Theodore!
Very happy, I go up on stage.
I almost trip
going up the stairs.
People say you don't
really understand it
until you're on the stage,
and it's true.
You get up there,
and you're just kinda like...
"Oh my God,
I don't know what I'm doing.
It's very exciting."
So Bob says to me,
"Now, in your 24
visits to the show,
you've seen that recliner
before, haven't you?"
And I said, "I think so."
I was trying to be modest,
and he goes...
- You know so! You know so!
- I know so.
Everyone starts laughing.
Then he says, "Now, Mr. Roddy
has good news for you."
Now, you got a chance
to win up to $10,000.
The stagehand would
always have a cue card
with the next pricing game
that they were gonna play.
So Bob would kinda know
where he needed to go.
I mean, with 50, 60, 70 games,
you gotta kinda know
"Where am I going next?"
And I had seen
that this game
had started with a "P"
and it looked like a "U"
and I thought, "Well,
Punchboard's for money.
Money's always good."
You know, you don't...
So he pulls me back,
and proceeds to start to explain,
you know, what we're gonna do,
and meanwhile,
the third door opens,
and the prizes that I'm gonna
price are behind there.
And Holly's gonna show
the prices of those.
And she sees my shirt.
As you well know, you can win
four punches on the Punchboard.
And starts... she kinda burst
out laughing, and Bob says...
Come on, Holly,
give him a kiss.
So he can concentrate
on what he's doing.
"Come on, Holly,
give him his kiss."
And so, she comes walking out,
and he pushed me over.
We kinda met
in the middle, and...
There it is.
I thought we were done,
and she kinda
grabbed my face,
and just planted one
right on my lips.
That's enough, Theodore!
That's enough.
I have to say that
if you've ever
seen him kinda
guide contestants
by grabbing them by the elbow,
and he wasn't gentle
about it with me.
That's what I remember.
Was it was kind of like, "Ooh,
he's doing this with a purpose."
And he goes,
"That's enough, Theodore.
That's enough.
I've got a show to do."
And he's grabbing my arm
and pulling me back,
and Holly's laughing and
going back where she is, and...
I don't want an engagement.
It's just a kiss!
And Holly's, meanwhile,
motioning me
to, like, wipe my lip,
'cause I guess she got
something on me.
So I'm trying to do
that not on camera,
and it didn't
come out very well.
'Cause you can still
see me do it.
- Right price, higher or lower?
- Lower.
Lower, Holly.
That's right!
It was $160.
I mean, this thing
is this big.
And you think, how can there be
$160 worth of stuff in that?
But anyway...
I got that one right.
Second one was, I think,
the children's clothing.
- Higher!
- And I got that one right.
And then there was
a dumbbell set.
Higher! Yes, yes, yes.
Hamilton Beach
photo laminator.
I say that one's $50.
I know that one for sure.
- You got them all.
- So, I won all four punches.
And now I have to figure out
where I'm gonna punch,
and on my home game
that I had programmed,
I had just played
Punch-A-Bunch, like, that week.
And had just done, like,
the middle four holes
on the board.
And the very first one
was $10,000.
And I thought, well, maybe
something like that would work.
So I just kinda went
on the second row,
and just did every other
hole that I could do.
The first contestant
who ever did that.
Theodore, you have
done quite well.
And I thought, "Oh, no."
Honestly can say, if he
had shown me $10,000 on that,
I probably would have
passed out right there.
$1,000.
He turns it around,
and it's $1,000.
And I think,
"Okay, $1,000 is nice.
There's only five on there
that are bigger than that.
44 are smaller than that.
My luck is usually...
if I give this back,
I'm gonna regret it.
And the audience, of course,
there's 300 people telling me
give it back and go.
Give it back.
And I'm just like...
He's taking the $1,000.
There you are.
He's taking the $1,000.
And he hands it to me, and the
audience is like, "Boo, boo, boo."
And you can see me
turn to them and say,
"You don't have
$1,000 to lose."
I don't blame him.
He could have had $500.
Then I'm looking at the
audience, like, "See?"
And he goes, "Or he might have
gone on and ended up with..."
$250.
And I'm thinking,
"Yep, this is about right."
Just down, down, down.
And he goes to the
last hole, and he says,
"Or in the last hole, he
would have had to accept..."
50 bucks.
You did the right thing,
Theodore. Congratulations.
Walked over to where the producer
was 'cause, you watch the show that long
you know exactly what
you're supposed to do
when it's time to go.
And lights went down,
and Roger started to kinda
escort me down the stairs
to show me where
I was supposed to sit.
And I was about two steps down,
and I said, "Oh."
And I stopped.
And I reached in my pocket.
And I got the $100 bill
and I handed it to him.
And he stopped
and looked at me.
He literally grabbed
my arm, and said,
"Thank you."
'Cause I had been there
enough times with perfect bids
to see that he would
always ask the contestant
when they were
going back down
"I need the $100 bill back."
They'd give it to him.
He'd give it back to Bob.
So, you know.
'Cause you can't leave there
with their money.
Spin that wheel, and I don't have
to tell you to get it all the way around.
And I should also
mention that,
I thought this was kinda neat,
they changed out
the little circular carpets
that the contestants stood on
on that taping.
So, I was literally
the first person
to stand on both of them.
First spin, 40 cents.
Spun the wheel the first time.
Got 40 cents.
And spun it again,
thinking, you know, well,
I can't stand on 40 cents.
I'm probably gonna get beat.
40 cents and 15,
hurry, that's fine.
Second time, it landed on 15.
So I'm like, "Well, at least
I'm still in the game."
Lorren went to the
Showcase with 55 cents.
Maybe I can do it too.
So I go over and I stand
under the scoreboard.
Thomas spins the first time.
And you will spin again.
He didn't beat me,
so he's spinning again.
Add 40 cents.
You're the leader
with 70 cents.
But unfortunately on his
second spin, he got 70 cents total.
So, I'm out.
So I went over where
I'm supposed to go.
And as I'm waiting for the
Showcase Showdown to finish,
it dawns on me.
"Hmm, I'm done."
I'm going back and
sitting in the audience,
and I'm not in the Showcase,
and my time on
"The Price is Right" is over.
So, okay.
And they kinda line
everybody up.
The three people
who didn't get on stage,
the six people who did,
and you all go up the aisle,
and there's a little curtain
that they take you through,
and there's an area
where you sit.
And they process you
with your paperwork.
I'm looking down
at my paperwork,
and all of a sudden, there's
like this tap on my shoulder,
and someone saying
hi to me and I look up.
And it's Holly, and she's handing
me an autographed picture.
And I'm like, "Hey!"
I got up and I gave her a hug,
and she said,
"I just, you know,
wanted to bring this to you."
And I was like,
"Thank you so much."
And she left, and to me,
that was always like
the best moment
of the whole experience,
because she was always
my favorite model.
To me, it was like, I didn't
ask for an autographed picture,
but she felt like, you know,
I was such a great fan
that you know, it'd be
a nice thing to give me.
And I just...
I was really kinda...
Kinda blown away
by the whole thing.
And we finished up
our paperwork,
and they kinda
sent us on our way,
and then I sat home and
waited for my prizes to come,
and the rest,
as they say, is history.
I have a copy of the prize form.
This lists everything
that I won on the show.
You'll notice there's two
different money amounts.
The $100 from my perfect bid,
and the $1,000 from
playing Punch-A-Bunch.
This is what I got
from Berkline.
So that I could choose
the color of my recliner.
I think I chose that
top right-hand color.
And here's the directions for
the dumbbell set that I won.
And I still have
the photo laminator,
including the pouches
to laminate,
and the directions.
So in, I think it was 2002,
the Memorial Day time-frame,
um, I got together
kind of a ragtag group.
It was my partner,
a friend of ours,
her mom,
my nephew, my sister,
my dad.
Another nephew,
and me, that's eight.
That's all of us.
So we all showed up in line.
A little short time later,
couple of guys
got in line behind us.
And we soon started
chatting with them a little bit.
And their names...
one of them was
named Brandon.
I don't remember
his brother's name.
Brandon was a bundle of energy
at 3:00 in the morning.
Uh, just incredibly excited
and hyper to be there.
And we spent the day
kinda chatting with him
and his brother a little bit.
And my dad and my sister,
bless their hearts,
and I don't mean this ugly,
they had this way of pimping
me out to the other contestants.
"Well, you know,
if you get picked,
my brother or my son,
knows a lot of the prices,
and you should listen to him."
And now, it's like, great, you've
put pressure on me to perform.
Thank you very much.
You know what I like
about "The Price is Right"?
It's... it's...
It's a very democratic show.
Not Democratic, in the sense
of political parties.
Because we pick
from the audience,
it gives everybody
a chance to win.
He said, "I'm gonna get
picked as a contestant,
"I'm gonna win a car,
"I'm gonna spin a dollar
on the wheel,
and I'm gonna
win the Showcase."
And we were all like, "Okay.
Well, that's positive thinking.
Good for you."
"Well, he studies prices,
you should listen to him."
And Brandon must
have asked me
at least three times
during the day,
"How much are the
Flintstones vitamins?"
And every time I would be,
"$6.72, remember?"
That's what they were the last
time you asked me, Brandon.
And here comes Brandon,
just like coming down the aisle.
People are trying
to high-five him,
and realizes, "Oh, I'm
supposed to high-five people."
So he kind of went back,
and high-fived a few
more people,
and went on down
to Contestant's Row.
There's four people.
And who gets to go
up on the stage?
It's the one that
does the best job!
Well, I don't know
what happened to him,
but I think his mind
kinda blanked for a while,
because first item up
for bids came and went.
Second item up for bids,
third item up for bids.
Fourth item up for bids.
We're running out of chances.
During the commercial,
I think they had just stood up.
Bob would always
make a joke about.
"You guys can stand up and make
another bad bid and sit down again."
They had just stood up,
and Brandon turned around
to look at his brother,
and I just looked at him,
and I kinda waved
and he just went...
Before they come to him,
you can see him mouthing though,
like, he's ready to say it.
And everyone's bidding
like $600 and $800
and these, you know,
nice round numbers.
And they get to Brandon
and he goes...
$1554, Bob.
$1554.
People in the audience going...
Just making these faces,
and shaking
their head and going
like this.
And they light up his bid,
and the perfect bid
bell goes off.
$1554.
And Bob is like, "Well, we
have to know the story of this bid.
Have you seen that
barbecue before?"
And he says, "No, I just
took a bid from the audience."
- And Bob said...
- And sir, here's your...
Brandon's like
grabbing the money,
and everyone's laughing
'cause it's like, you know.
I would never do that.
A new car!
And then they get on stage,
and they play against the house.
They're not playing against Bob.
Bob's on their side.
Which is kinda unusual
in a game show.
Car and you got it!
He's out of control.
So, he's already
gotten on the show,
and he's already won his car.
He goes up to spin the wheel,
and what does he land on?
You got a dollar!
He's having quite a day.
I loved our show because...
you're always rooting
for the contestant.
Bob is rooting
for the contestant.
Brandon's Showcase
had a pool table,
which I knew was about,
I think it was $2100.
It had a computer,
which I knew was
probably around $1500.
I don't know that
I knew it exactly.
- A brand-new car.
- And it ended with another car.
And I kind of knew
roughly the price,
but I'm like, I don't want
to make him go over,
so I'm gonna under...
You know, lowball this.
And I decided on
$20,000 for the whole thing.
$22,018.
You win! With a
difference of only...
We thought we were gonna
be able to go up on stage
and celebrate with him, but
Roger stopped us at the stairs.
And his brother came down,
and he let him go up on stage.
After the show,
he gave me the biggest hug
I've probably ever
gotten in my life.
He was still so excited.
He was like, "I want
to keep in touch with you.
Can I have, like,
your phone number?"
And I said, "Well, I can
give you my email address."
And he said, "I don't
have a computer."
And I said, "Brandon,
you just won a computer."
And he goes, "Oh my God,
I just won a computer!"
And I'm like...
yeah, but you just won two cars.
Almost every show I've been to
they had, um, VIPs.
And on this particular taping,
my dad, my sister
and my nephew were with me.
And we must have
gotten in line very early,
because we ended up
in the second row as I recall.
I ended up sitting right next to a
woman whose name was Pam.
And they actually
came in, of course,
right before the show.
Bob, you know, talked
to the audience for a second,
and he said, "Well, Pam,
it's nice to see you."
And she said, "Hi, Bob."
And they were talking
back and forth,
and I was like, well,
wow, this is interesting.
And I asked her...
when they went
back into the taping,
she said she was
Mark Goodson's secretary.
Exactly right!
- Cheryl?
- $520.
Again!
We have just tied
the all-time record
for a perfect bid.
We've had three.
Bob announced his retirement.
I remember the exact date.
It was October 30, 2006.
He phones me up in the office.
Everything's going
fine in the office.
He says, "Roger...
"I think I'm retiring.
This is my last year."
...won more than $140,000.
Now, folks...
I want to thank you
very, very much
for inviting me
into your homes
for the last 50 years.
I am deeply grateful.
And please remember,
help control the pet population.
Have your pet
spayed or neutered.
Goodbye, everybody.
In 2007, as you
probably know,
Bob Barker retired
from "The Price is Right"
after his 35th year.
I said, "Bob, you can't retire!"
He said, "No,
I-I think it's time."
35 years,
50 years in show business,
and 35 years on the show.
It was a good time,
and it really was.
50 years in show business,
35 years on the show.
I consider myself
a very lucky man.
Because all my life,
I did something
I thoroughly enjoyed.
I really did.
I never got up in the morning
and thought, "Oh, I don't
want to go in there today."
Never.
I really enjoyed it.
And upon retiring,
I really miss it.
But you have to keep
a stiff upper lip and accept it.
I really have sympathy
for someone who doesn't
have the same feeling.
The "I don't want to go
to work" feeling.
I... That would be terrible.
We're taking a picture,
we're driving up
to my space that I have.
Into his very
perfect, front-row...
It says
R. Dobkowitz on it.
Right by the art of centuries.
Roger's going to greet
his fans 'cause... whoops.
It's his second to the last
taping of "The Price is Right."
These things happen
in television.
They change producers
all the time.
You have a hit show,
and all of a sudden,
they have new producers
for the new season.
That's what happened to me.
I-I was spoiled by working
36 years on a show.
And, uh...
I was lucky to have
worked 36 years
on a great, great show.
And it brought
tears to my eyes.
It took me several
drinks to get over it.
Roger, it's my pleasure,
my honor...
...to try to figure out
how to open this.
Here, Roger...
is what you missed most of all!
This is true!
I got home
and I said to Valerie,
"I didn't even
get a caricature."
And you said the
same thing to me.
And I said the same
thing to Bente!
When Drew was
coming in as the host,
I was going to ask him.
"Would you please
continue to say.
'Have your pets
spayed or neutered'?"
And when he came in, I said,
"How do you do, Drew?"
And he said, "Bob,
I want you to know
"I'm gonna keep right on
at the end of every show,
'Have your pets
spayed or neutered.'"
I kissed him on the lips.
No.
So I continued
to watch the show.
Tracked the prices in case,
you know, friends or family
wanted to go back to the show.
And at the end of Season 36,
they made a decision to change
the rules to the show
where if it had been
10 years or more
since you'd
been on the show,
you were, once again, eligible.
And before, the rule had been
once you were on the show,
you were not eligible again.
So, to me, this was like,
"Well, this is cool."
I can go back and maybe
get on a second time.
So I really put a lot of effort
into studying the prices
over the summer.
So this is the
program I wrote
to help me memorize
the prices on the show.
I broke everything down
by category.
So, go ahead
and hit regular prizes.
And here comes the mattress.
I have the description
that they read on the show,
a picture of what it
looks like on the show.
And there are 1,073 prizes
in this database.
As I recall, this was maybe
Twenty-five nine.
I am correct.
So if you notice the "Left
To Guess" went down by one.
And when I was going
on the show in 2008,
I was able to get through
this entire file in an hour.
Because I figured
well, now, you know,
I can win something
for myself again.
Maybe do better than
last time, you know?
Who knows what's possible?
Terry...
bid $23,743.
Actual retail price: $23,743.
You got it right on the nose.
You win both Showcases.
- What?
- -Hasn't happened since '72 or '73.
Right on the nose.
- You won 56,000...
- Terry, you there?
- Yes, I am.
- Mr. Terry Kniess.
Aren't you, should I say, lucky?
Or should I say talented?
Or should I say...
What should I say?
Well, I don't know
quite frankly.
I kinda feel like I'm in
the middle of a storm.
Yeah, I think I'm very lucky.
This Terry Kniess fuck has
changed things up
a little bit too.
- Oh, that dude.
- That dude, uh, who bid...
He got it exact.
He got the exact amount.
- To the penny.
- Right.
On both Showcases?
Uh, yeah, he won
both Showcases,
- 'cause he got his Showcase on the... right to the dollar.
- Right.
And somebody on a headset's
gotta be freaking out.
Well, we all thought
something happened.
Right.
Has anyone talked to you about
that or brought that up to you?
When we were outside
in the middle of the night
at three o'clock in the morning,
we were the first
three people in line.
There was a fellow that
had been there like 99 times.
- Wow.
- -Some people kinda make a career out of this.
The guy next to me
had been there 33 times.
There was an older couple
named Norbert and Francis.
Terry, who's the man next to me,
with the silver hair,
gets on his phone
and he's talking to his wife.
"You probably should
come over and get in line.
It's starting to
get really busy."
And he says goodbye,
and he hangs up.
And I said, "Okay,
I don't want to be rude."
My sister would kill me
if I didn't tell you this."
I said, "This is not the greatest
neighborhood in the world.
"I'm happy to hold
your place in line.
You know, no problem."
And he goes...
"Oh, are you sure?" I said,
"Yeah, absolutely, just..."
They were back in
probably five minutes.
His wife's name was Linda.
Very nice lady.
Obviously a big fan
of the show.
And we played pricing games.
You know, "What are
the cookies worth?"
And "What's the salsa
sauce going for?"
And what about Ester-C?
These are...
At this point, it's
a different producer
who's now making
the selections.
And he starts asking us
our questions.
And I had prepared.
I thought, "Okay, I gotta really
catch his interest, you know?"
"Tell me about yourself."
And I said,
"I'm a mathematics
assessment specialist
for an educational
testing company."
And he just like...
reacted like I had just
shot him with a machine gun.
And I think he may
have asked me,
"What does that mean?"
Or you know, whatever.
You know, I thought,
well, that's good.
At least he asked me more than
one question, things are good.
And the third name
is Terry Kniess.
And like I am in that studio,
I'm like, "Terry." I remember there
was a Terry in line somewhere.
Where was that Terry?"
And Terry jumps up two seats
away from me, I'm like,
"Oh, Terry!
This guy right here."
And he runs, of course,
he steps into Contestant's Row
'cause he's right
behind it pretty much.
Wind plus water
equals the perfect day
on this new sailboat!
I think it was $3595,
but it had recently gone up,
and I didn't know that yet.
Enjoy hours of fun as you
sail your favorite waterway
on this ten-foot boat.
And I think you can see me
either signaling or saying,
you know, $3595.
And he reads
the price as $3695,
and the guy who was
closest goes up on stage,
and Terry wasn't
listening to me,
and Linda didn't, I guess, know
yet that I knew my prices, so.
There was a guy that
was from this fan group
that was able... had showed up
and he was in the front-row,
or the second-row.
And he was giving people advice,
like people do from the audience.
Well, the first item up for bid
that I successfully bid on
was the large, green
egg ceramic cooker.
And the first time
it was $900,
which it had been
previously to that,
and then in March,
it was on the show again,
but it was $1175.
And it was on
about three weeks before.
So I knew the price
was $1175 on that.
And Terry looked to
Linda and me for advice,
and so we signaled him
or told him $1175.
So that got me
up on the stage,
and we went on from there.
We encourage them to yell out
what they think the price is.
- They're always yelling.
- One guy won a Chevy one time on the show.
He was with a friend of his
who's a Chevy salesman.
- Oh, geez.
- And got every number... so what?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, that's how it goes.
- $44.
- $44.
She realized that I knew
some of the prices
that I was yelling out,
and things were correct.
She kinda was like,
"I'm gonna listen to you."
I was like, "Okay."
So, she gets back up.
And she bid $2201.
She bid one dollar higher
than whoever was the highest.
And Drew reads the price,
and it's $2598,
and you can see her
kinda look at me, like...
And they opened the doors,
and she's gonna play for a car.
And I'm trying
to listen carefully
to the car and the options,
and I remember
it was a Pontiac Vibe.
So I'm thinking,
"Okay, it's $17,695."
And then I hear this
endless string of options
that's going on and on
and on and on.
And I can't even possibly
keep up with it.
And then I heard,
"AM/FM stereo and
paint and fabric protectant."
Uh, some lady was
playing One Away
and got every single
number exactly,
and was like
looking at this guy.
And changing the number
'cause this guy was yelling out,
"No! Not five, seven!"
You know, "Make that
a seven," you know?
Well, the way they had
the numbers set up,
I could tell what the price...
It had to be $18,546.
Because they usually
don't repeat digits,
and I knew it had
to end with a six.
Because only the paint
and fabric protectant
caused that last
digit to change.
Well, when that guy that...
That ended up in the Showcase,
when he was doing
his pricing game,
it was in Door Two and we
were really far away from that guy.
- Oh, yeah. Good.
- And you couldn't hear him.
And he lost his pricing game.
They go to commercial.
They come back to do the wheel.
Terry spins first,
'cause I think
he won the least,
and he hit 90 cents.
And we were just like,
"This is awesome."
He's got a good chance.
And the other two contestants
spun, they didn't beat him.
So, we're like, "This is
great. He's in the Showcase."
Yay! We're happy.
You know, we can see Terry.
He's right up here.
Probably, you know,
a stone's throw away.
And the Showcase?
What was your strategy?
The karaoke machine
had been used
as a get up on the stage
prize before.
And it was $1,000.
And the way
I remembered it was
that big giant tower
was the one,
and then there were
zeros after it in my head.
That's just the way
I thought of that.
Then they opened another door.
You know, it's three things
everybody's seen before.
Certainly the guy...
This Rain Man dude
from the fan group.
Yep, that's the
$2800 pool table.
I knew they were about $3,000.
That put me at $4,000.
And the last prize
is the Hi-Lo Trailer.
The rule of thumb
for campers
is $1,000 a foot.
Well, there's two of 'em.
There's a 17-foot,
and there's a 22-foot.
I thought he said 19 feet.
So I'm thinking $19,000.
You're amazing. Okay.
It looks kinda short.
But I listened to make
sure that was what it was.
I added it up.
I told Linda what it was.
And I said,
"Let me do it again."
And I added it up
again in my head,
and I said, "$23,743.
Is that what I said before?"
And she said, "Yes."
- Meanwhile...
- She's passing it on to Terry.
She decides to pass.
Terry looks at us,
and then I thought...
Maybe we don't
want to call
this much attention
to ourselves.
Maybe we should
just get both Showcases
and not make it
a big spectacle.
So, I went $23,500.
But I think at that point,
he was really focusing on Linda,
and I had already
told her the price.
And you can see him
kinda mouthing numbers
and looking at us,
and he says...
- $23,743.
- Wow.
And Drew, most ironic
statement ever, says,
"That's a very exact bid."
And, uh...
So I know
I'm in the ballpark.
Now, as strange
as this sounds,
I opened my mouth
and the 743 came out.
Then he proceeds to
show Sharon her Showcase,
which is every trip
in the house.
And I had no idea,
because like I said,
trips were always
a big guess.
And it depends if you're
going from one place to another,
or if you're always
starting from LA,
and who knows,
so she bid $30,525.
And we're all like,
"Okay, great."
But the second
Terry made that bid,
I saw Kathy Greco, who is
now one of the producers,
she's got a clipboard and she's
just standing there, watching.
And she just turned and
walked over to this little area
that was called
"The Puppet Booth."
It was where the, kind of the production
people sat behind this screened wall.
And she just stood there
and stared into that screen.
We'll be right back,
folks, don't go away.
They go to commercial.
And everything stopped.
Kathy Greco, she came out with
her headphone. She was like...
Like that, and I go,
"What happened?"
She goes...
She had her clipboard.
"He got the exact amount."
And I go, I went like, "What?"
And what was the item?
There's three or four things,
I don't know.
I go, "Did that
ever happen before?"
And she goes, "No."
That had never
happened before?
No, that's what
she said right away.
People on the show
were on the stage talking
with other people on the show.
We shut down for,
like, ten minutes.
- Right.
- 15 minutes, which is a long time.
They started playing
the music again
to keep the audience up.
And we're clapping along,
and I think the song
may have been, like,
"We Built This City"
by Jefferson Starship.
And everybody was like...
Standards and Practices was there.
- What are we gonna do?
- What does this mean?
- What does this mean?
- Yeah, does this happen? Is this possible?
- Right.
- You know, could this even happen?
And we're clapping along,
and I'm looking around.
And I glance up and I'm like,
there's a camera
staring right at me.
Just right in front
of me on the stage.
Did someone cheat?
That's gotta come up.
Yeah, and this
fan group had a lot...
We knew that this guy
was yelling out prices.
'Cause we knew the people
that were in the fan group.
That question has
popped up, you know?
"He cheated."
Did you cheat?
I don't know how
you could cheat.
First off, I have a
little bit of a hearing problem.
- Okay.
- -So if people were yelling prices,
I couldn't hear it very well.
Thought, "Hmm.
"Well, they obviously
know it came from me.
You know, we'll see
how this plays out."
Let's give the guy his prize
right now. We'll investigate it.
So, you come
back on the air,
and you're not
thrilled for the guy.
Which is all over
the fucking press.
- I think I'm fucked!
- Right! You're out of a job.
- I think I'm out of a job.
- You think they're shutting down the show.
I think they're
shutting down the show.
All right,
welcome back, everybody.
But finally...
they bring the lights back up,
and Drew and the
contestants are in place,
and this is probably
the saddest moment.
She only missed her
Showcase by $494,
which with that
much money involved,
was a pretty
darn good bid.
He walks over to Terry.
And I thought they were
never gonna air it anyway.
- Right.
- So I was like, "Well, fuck it."
They said that before
you went back on the air?
I didn't think
they could... yeah.
I remember somebody wondering
how they could even air it,
you know, if there
was a scandal.
- Right.
- You know?
And I was like,
"Well, this is fucked."
I mean, I was so
depressed right then.
Actual retail price...
$23,743.
You got it right on the nose.
The display changed
to just a zero,
and then they
showed his total,
and Linda went up on stage,
Terry, I think, was more,
like, shocked than anybody
that he was on the nose.
Linda went up
and gave him a hug,
and they went
and looked at the prizes, and...
Oh, it was a
standing ovation.
I was stunned. You know, it's
just like being dipped in Novocaine.
It wasn't like $4,700.
- No.
- It was a ridiculous amount.
Yeah, it was right
on the penny.
- Yeah, it was crazy.
- Yeah.
And so, everybody thought
that something happened.
You know, we're all in
the audience clapping,
and we're all on our feet
'cause it's such
an exciting moment,
and I'm standing there
smiling and clapping,
and Kathy Greco's standing
right in front of me on the stage
just shooting me
the dirtiest look
I've ever gotten in my life.
And...
There was a producer
on the show my first year,
that had been there 35 years.
He'd been there
his whole television career.
It was his first job
out of college.
And, uh, and...
he wasn't there my second year
on the show.
This fan group... they didn't
blame me for him not being there,
but we thought
somebody from the staff had...
Was also mad about this,
and was cooperating
with the fan group,
was, like, just to
fuck the show over
gave the guy
the price of the Showcase.
Yeah, you didn't have
to be Oliver Stone
- to see a conspiracy theory going down.
- Yeah.
Show goes off the air.
Linda comes back down.
And next thing you know,
Kathy's at the
front of the stage
and she's like, "Linda! Linda!"
Then she turns back around
and she motions
her back up on stage,
and I thought,
"Oh! Here we go."
Now they're gonna
call us all up there,
and find out what happened,
and ask us questions.
Like, they were
always getting a lot
of inside information
about the show,
and we never knew how they
were getting their information.
About the things
we were planning
or things we were doing.
- They just had a lot of contacts.
- Right.
You know, within the show.
Well, what happened
was, I guess,
she had wanted Drew
to autograph her shirt,
and so they were
gonna have that done,
and so they took her up,
and he autographed her shirt.
And they were mad about
this guy not being here,
so we all thought, "Oh,
they're just fucking with us now."
- 'Cause they're mad and they're trying to hurt...
- Oh, the producer of 35 years...
Yeah, now they're mad 'cause
this guy's not here anymore.
They're just trying
to fuck with us.
There was discussion because
they had fired Roger Dobkowitz
who was the producer
from Day One,
and they thought I was
part of this fan group
that was trying
to take the show down.
Turns out?
Turns out, the guy
was just... was able to...
Because we never...
He beat the game.
Yeah, because
we didn't repeat...
'Cause we repeated
prizes so much,
he was able to just,
like, memorize
all the major ones
we'd give away.
There were all these theories,
none of which were correct.
I mean, I think we've proven
that I've known my prices
from Day One.
And it's not unusual for me
to help people win.
Right, now it's like
constant meetings,
constant prize pitching.
You know, like, that's never
gonna happen again.
What are crackers worth?
And what's the salsa
sauce going for?
And what about Ester-C?
These are...
So, in that sense,
yeah, we were playing
pricing games out on the street.
So, let's just say
you did your homework?
I did my homework. I'd suggest that
to anybody that's gonna do that show.
Do your homework,
watch the show,
watch the show,
watch the show.
Did you hear that?
"Watch the show."
Honestly, all those guys are...
If you wanna
come wait in line,
They never had to wait in line
before, so they're not gonna.
But if you wanna wait in line, and
come see the show and try your best,
never gonna be able
to do that again.
You know, I've been
called a lot of
ugly names on the Internet,
and in podcasts
and things like that, and...
it's just sad that people
don't know the whole story.
So, I appreciate
being able to tell it.
My dad would ask
from time to time,
"Well, did you ever
hear from Brandon?
"Well, I just think
he should've given you
something for all that help."
And I was like, "Dad...
That's not why I help people."
It's just it's fun
to watch people win.
And you know, I don't
have to pay their taxes.
So, you know, good for them.