Is there any show on the air that looks more archaic than "the Price Is Right"?

Cafe Society
1

I have the day off work and it’s kind of cruddy outside. After flipping around cable for awhile and finding nothing interesting, I happened to see “the Price Is Right.” Frankly, I was surprised it was still on the air. But being in a lazy mood, I decided ‘what the hell’ and watched a bit of it.

Wow! It’s like time came to a standstill in 1977 in that TV studio. The exact. same. set. Gaudy late 70s color schemes and all. The camera still circles around the audience searching for the lucky chosen contestants, who still run down to the podium with that over-excited “Golly Gee! I’m on TV!” looks on their faces. The same peppy muzak. Same type of prizes (well, OK, they gave away a flatscreen TV - but the announcer still yells “It’s a BRAND! NEW! CAR!” the same way Don Pardo use to), they even still have the prize wheel! The f***ing PRIZE WHEEL!

Even the Carol Merrills look like they just stepped through a time warp. The main model is named “Brandy” - is there any other name that better conjures up the image of a late 70s type buxom bronzed blonde California bombshell than “Brandy”?

The only real difference I can see is that Drew Carey isn’t as amiable as Bob Barker was. Carey just patiently plods through the show. He seems to be thinking “I used to have a PRIME TIME SITCOM! What the hell am I doing here?”

I wonder, is this show deliberately being ‘retro’? I can’t help thinking that to be THIS dated can’t be an accident. How could a series be produced without a single stylistic change in the last 30 years?

2

Once Drew took over, they made a few changes, such as getting rid of the “Donkey Kong” font when someone wins money on the Showcase Showdown wheel and replacing it with one more in tune with the Price is Right font, and a few other cosmetic changes. But it still does have a sort of old-fashioned style to it, which I think is sort of its appeal. Drew himself also has more of a sarcastic tone than Bob Barker had, sometimes making fun of the sponsors and such.

3

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s one of the most popular shows on daytime TV. To see it in person you have to wait in line for literally hours.

4

The announcer back in the 1970s was a guy named Johnny Olson. Though, Don Pardo was actually the announcer for the original version of TPIR, in the 1950s and early 1960s. (Had to look that one up.)

5

Do they still have The Range Game? I used to love that funky sound the game made when it was moving.

6

I never want it changed. When I was a teen and my dad and I couldn’t communicate in any meaningful way, we still sat and watched Price is Right together.

7

Drew Carey says he loves the gig. It’s been his dream since he was a kid to host TPIR.

8

And he still says “Spay and Neuter your pets” BTW, I noticed he did not wear a tie, does he wear one most days?

9

And when they did try to “fix it”, it flopped.

10

Part of the appeal of TPIR is that it’s so retro. Your grandma can tune in and still know exactly what’s going on (although perhaps she’ll wonder why Bob Barker gained so much weight).

And personally I love Carey as host. He’s much more friendly and funny than Barker, and I particularly enjoy how he just nonchalantly rips on various products (by saying how expensive/overpriced they seem if contestants underbid).

11

Yes, the Range Game is still being played. A lot of games have been dropped this century (Penny Ante, Joker, Fortune Hunter, Super Ball, and On the Spot among them) but Range Game is popular, easy to explain and brief.

12

Sometime since Drew took over they updated the sacred wheel’s look. I believe the change lasted less than a week.

13

What’s with the Plinko fetishists? People can’t seem to get enough of it. They way overplay that game.

There’s a couple of new games, too- aren’t there?.. Just added within the last couple of years.

14

Bob Barker was great, but he got really grumping and impatient his last 10-15 years.

Drew is way more fun.

15

I would enjoy Drew Carey 100x more if he stopped doing the stupid fake-out move. You know, “Oh it’s too bad that… you won!” It was annoying when Regis did it, it was annoying when the Deal or no Deal models did it, and it’s still annoying today. You don’t see Trebek pulling that crap!

16

The first rule of the Purple Wheel Secret Society, you don’t talk about the Purple Wheel Secret society.

But.

**
The show has gone INCREDIBLY down hill. **

The show started going down hill when Drew took over. IMHO the show could just barely accept a change in Host. Not a change in games, fonts, Humor (Or lack thereof), and Prize selection. To say nothing about the set being updated [A new Plasma Screen behind the audience for some prize reveals]

The show as it is now, is a blatant, blatant, cash grab.

It wasn’t broken. They fixed it, and broke it in the process.

17

Yeah, Drew Carey and The Price is Right are equally wasted on each other. The format does not suit his comedic skills, and the show needed a “straight man” with a decent head of hair.

18

Carol Merrill was on Let’s Make a Deal, incidentally.

19

The term was “Barker’s Beauties” … I don’t think Drew’s Dolls has the same ring to it, despite, IIRC, a few contestants trying to get the phrase started (On T-shirts).

20

I thought the new collective name for the models was “Carey’s Cuties.”