(upbeat music) - Paper was like gold in medieval times. (upbeat music) - Oh, not tobacco, sugar. (upbeat music) - That everything we thought
we knew about the world might turn out to be completely wrong. (light music) - So, "Take the A Train"
starts, which is, now I know Rod's gonna come out
next and do his warmup, and Rod finishes his warmup
and they do the opening slate, and he's telling us, "15 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. (exciting music) - Hi, I'm Linda, or I'm Ted. You're Linda, I'm Ted. 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 chuckling) Hi, my name is Ted Slauson and 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 were from, lived there for a few
years, moved and 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. 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. - [Announcer] "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 and the
reveal of the Showcase, we actually taped calculators
to the readout machine with gaffers' tape on that
machine and that machine, and I had to enter in the
amount, oh, now the difference. Then I had to jump over here and the, 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 seventies,
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 and 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, you have more kind of a pastel
color, and then as they got into the 2000's, 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 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 programs,
or your problems ready, and we'll be waiting for your call. - So one week I got into like,
watching "Price is Rights" from like, 1973. - [Johnny] Side by side
refrigerator freezer from world famous Amana. Big 25 cubic foot side by side. - The same refrigerator
freezer, this is 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 both noticed, oh, well, I remember the price of
this was $1,500 or whatever. It would be $1,500 again, and
so that kind of inspired me to start tracking prices or, you know, keeping records, if you will. (frenzied music) When I would record the shows
and put it all on 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
brand new stuff on. - I went to San Francisco State
University, and when you go after a master's degree,
you gotta write a thesis. In those days, you had
to put it all on paper, and I wrote a thesis, about this thick. (pleasant dinging) 200 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. (pleasant dinging) - [Johnny] Speaking for
"The Price is Right," a Mark Goodson television production. - 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 drove, I have a VW bug
and I grew up in New York, and in the hotel, I remember to this day, there was a little slip of paper, and 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. I woke and I went into
his office and he said, "Roger, I decided to
hire you because anyone "that would drive to New
York City for an interview "has a lotta initiative." - [Ted] 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 prices and prizes and everything get randomized. (cheery computer music)
There we go. The opening of the show, it's
all in text with, you know, fake lights spinning
around, and coming down is two other people in our program. You've got your standard opening. Of course, when 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. We 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 then,
and she 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 mike,
went out, started talking to the audience and I got
about three or four laughs, and I thought, I like this. I better try to make
them do that some more, and fortunately my wife,
Dorothy Joan, 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. (Bob chuckling) - 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 going to go ahead
and look in the next hole. Next hole is worth, oh
there it is, $10,000. (excited computer music) Just that easy, and I
think I will keep that. - So after, after 12
years Goodson liked me, and when there was an opening,
he promoted me to be producer 'cause 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, 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 would plan the whole show. The other one would 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. 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
that "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. 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 U.S. 101, which is the 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. - [Reporter] If you're a
New Yorker, you might often get the feeling that you're
waiting on a perpetual line, but here in L.A., 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. - [Reporter] 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. - [Interviewer] I just wanna know what, what you're feeling right now. - It's my tie, I feel it right here. (Bob laughing) Well, you tell, Roger Dobkowitz
will tell you we're going to go out there as if it were. - 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. - Opening day, yes, we're
daytime, that's right. - [Rod] Caress leaves your
skin softer than soap. Skin feels better when it's Caress. - 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 and the most kind of goofball, and so
my sister had this idea. We had a shirt made that
said, I'm here to kiss Holly, and guy who made it was very
helpful, and he was like, how 'bout we put some felt
hearts behind Holly's name, and he thought, 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 a little frowny face out of little scraps of felt,
and so that was the shirt I wore to the first taping. - [Announcer] The job of
picking contestants goes to co-producer Phillip Wayne. He's not above dropping an honest word to a hopeful prospect. - I was stuttering through my interview. He seemed unimpressed with
me and kind of brushed me off by saying, man, 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. (audience cheering) - [Reporter] 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. - [Johnny] 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 $1,499. - [Bob] It's $1,499, Michael. - $1,499, and if you look
way in the back where Dee is sitting next to me, 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 have 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 this. - [Johnny] This item right
here, with clear enamel finish, has two storage drawers,
measures 34 inches by 20 inches. A perfect combo. - So then on the, the
second item up for bids was a brass trunk, which I knew was, $795, which you can hear on the tape. - [Bob] $795, Debra, you win. - [Ted] My first two bids
in the studio were right on. - The, the two things
we did not let them do. We didn't allow them to
take lists into the studio. 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 on a prize, we'll all share. We didn't allow that either. - From about 1984 to 1989,
I went to the show about once a year, 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. - [Bob] And there is the six
down there in the piggy bank. Now give me another number. (crowd yelling) She 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. 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 called CBS. No, we're not taping on the fourth. We're taping on the first,
second, and third and hung up. I better call back and make sure. So I called back and
I said, are you taping on Sunday, July 1st? 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 have 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. $1,250. - Now, there's the first bid of "The Price is Right."
- 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. - And you, sir, have no chance of winning. (audience laughing) - 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 $1,250. - And it's fun when somebody
would know the exact price. The whole audience was screaming. Yay, you know that 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. - That Theodore's a bidder, isn't he? - Yeah, I owe him one. - The show went to commercial,
and usually what would happen was they would re-introduce
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. Maybe it's scheduled to go
six minutes and it'll only go 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 kind of really
showed what a good host he was. So of course now I got
someone listening to me and they bring out an item I've never seen before in my life. - [Reporter] A lovely area rug. - The models are petting it
while Rod's describing it, and I'm looking at Susan and I'm like, I don't know, go for
$1,000, and she ended up bidding $1,450 or something. She went way over what I had said. - Is that your bid, or did
you get that from Theodore? - Bob reads the price, and it was $1,059, and that kind of surprised
me that I was that close. They call down the next person
and they bring out the item and I can tell kind of
immediately it's these little Emmett Kelly figurines, and
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. I told her, you know, 695. I used to be much better at that. - [Bob] 695, Susan.
(Susan screaming) - So it's 695, and Susan
was going up on stage. He goes, well I have to ask her, don't I? - Theodore give you that? - Yes he did. - Theodore! Will dinner tonight be separate checks? - I'll pay. - There you are, Theodore. (audience light clapping) Whether you get on the
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 going to 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. - [Rod] Big screen TV. (audience cheering) - When Rod described it, I
knew the TV was the $3,900 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 $2,100. - And Susan, you know how to
play this game, don't you? - Sort of. - [Bob] Sort of? - I was trying to tell her $2,100. You can actually see me at one
point kind of finishing off the $2,100 and then doing it again. - [Bob] She's writing a check for $3,000. - Starting yelling no, no, no,
no, and she just kept going and she wrote it for $3,000, and so. - [Bob] $6.900.
(angry buzzer buzzing) Maybe Theodore will leave the tip. - 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, 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 and. - Didn't you hear Theodore? - No, I didn't. - He told you to write
the check for $2,100. You would have had exactly $6,000. - So, oh and by the way, I'm
still waiting for that dinner. It's been, what are we on, 25, 27 years. - [Rod] A ceiling fan light. - They had several from
that same manufacturer, but they were all. - $500. (bell pleasant dinging) - [Bob] Another $100 bill. - And then in the second part of the show, Bob kind of stopped
referring to me on the air and I thought, okay, that's fine. You know, whatever. - [Rod] 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 Seven and he got the first three numbers on
the nose, which never happens, and it was a $7,659 car. (pleasant computer dinging) - Tens and face cards are $1,000. The other cards are.
- [Ted] $7,659. - The number on the card
in hundreds of dollars. (audience laughing) Aces are wild. Theodore is still out
there, isn't he, yeah. - He asked me, 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, stop, stop, and she goes one more,
and she pulls another card and it was an ace, and I'm
like, well, this'll be awesome. She can get it right on the nose. So we're, I'm like 459, 459. - I'll make that $500. - $500. - [Ted] No! - [Bob] $7,700 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, (angry buzzer sounding) and I might add, Theodore,
nobody is perfect. (audience laughing) 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 'cause 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 like
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 a 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, there's
not one going by, it seems, and I thank a lot of the
guides, they say, all right, and you know, go on, but I talk with 'em. 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 have had to work for a living, and that's the least I can do. (Bob chuckling) - 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 kind of bailed
on her, and so we kind of made friends with her during
the course of the day, and she thought I was going to get picked, and I thought my partner
was going to get picked, and he thought she was
going to get picked. Lauren 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. - [Rod] The GE microwave gas range. - [Bob] Lauren, what do you say? - $1,399. - Oh, hysterics. - 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. - [Bob] Is Lauren a winner? You are. - So she wins, she's very excited. Next contestant. - $1,049. (excited bell dinging) - [Bob] Another perfect bid. I'm telling you, we're
not fooling around today. - I was one of the lucky
teachers who had a 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 was like, Holly from "The Price is Right." - [Bob] Here comes the lovely
Holly with the lovely prize. (school bell ringing) - And so it actually made it
into the school newspaper, and I had clipped the article
and brought it with me. - [Rod] Oh, and it is lovely. - [Ted] The tea set I knew was $1,250. (excited bell dinging) - [Bob] Can you believe it? - Holly actually brought
that out from the wings, right over kind of 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 set's 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. - [Bob] 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 a bid of $9,500. 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. - $1,814. - Then I thought, okay,
well she's closer than that. - [Bob] Lauren. - Or she's over it,
but I don't know which. - $9,846, you win with
a difference of $346. - [Lauren] I can't believe it. This is the best show in the world. - Oh, it gets better with every prize. - 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 I was like, oh, hey, and 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 kind
of gave me a kind of a hug, and we started walking over to the prizes, walking over to the
bedroom and she had kind of pushed me forward 'cause
I wasn't in the shot, and we were like, waving goodbye and 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, I said to a
contestant one day who was very complimentary and had
watched the show for years, I'd say you're a loyal friend and true, and it kind of got a reaction,
and I started saying it. I would say, if they were
a loyal friend and true, like that was, as you said,
knight, like knighting them. - Good to meet you. - Oh my gosh, you know everything. - The most extreme LFATs,
they watch every day, learn what our prices
are, they're wonderful. They 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. (whimsical music) - Having been to two tapings
and having been, you know, there's, 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 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 are like, ooh, he's got, ooh. They were all kind of 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 get kiss Holly shirt. I figured, okay, I better
probably say something about it this time, because that
other time, you know, producer just kind of
looked at it and said, you've got lips for Holly. I figured, eh, maybe I'll
think of something. So. - Some of them, they weren't picked because their time wasn't right yet. - We're standing there and
we're ready and he's talking to the people on my
right and 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, so 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 if they
pick someone that's more and more hungry, three, four, ugh. - 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 I, 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 become
bright and then we take them. - [Rod] 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 go last. I wanted to bid first. So I ran kind of to the other end. On TV, it looks like it's,
you know, pretty far distance. It really isn't. It's about, you know, six or seven steps. Then what I remember is
it seemed like an eternity while they called the other three people and 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 ended up with
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 of steps out and then he looked right at me. - And Theodore, you made it. You made it.
(audience cheering) - I was 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 kind of surprised,
I think a lot of people because probably 95 to
99% of the audience is, it's their first time. In fact that's part of Rod's
warmup 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. (audience laughing) - And everyone's laughing,
and he goes, Theodore. - Yours is one kiss I'll
pass on, if you don't mind. - No, I knew from the
moment we made the shirt, if he had got to see it,
he would make some kind of funny remark and he
did, didn't disappoint me. - [Rod] Lovely outdoor furniture. - Made by Mallin, and
at the time I knew I had three of those in my kind of database. I wasn't sure which one this was. - [Bob] 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 probably don't, not gonna win this. - [Bob] $1,578, the winner is Thomas. - He ended up playing the Check
Game for a trip to Mexico, which, a 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 up for
bids and it's a recliner. So I listened carefully
and I look at the monitor and I see it's a Berkline. (frenzied music) 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. - [Bob] $650, now let's
go up here to Theodore. - [Ted] $599. - [Bob] $599. (excited bell dinging) One of you is exactly right. $100 bonus for the contestant
to who bid $599, Theodore. (audience cheering) - I'm very happy. I go up on stage. I almost trip going up the stairs. People say, you don't really understand until you're on the stage and it's true. You get up there and you're
just kind of like, oh my God, I don't know what I'm doing. It's very exciting, and it
just, 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. - I know so. - You know so. (audience laughing) - Everyone starts laughing. Then he says, now Mr. Roddy has. - Good news for ya. - [Rod] Now you have a
chance to win up to $10,000. - The stagehand would
always have a cue card with the next pricing game
that they were going to play so Bob would kind of know
where he needed to go. I mean, with 50, 60, 70 games,
you got to kind of 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 know, so he pulls me back and
proceeds to start to explain, you know, what we're going
to do, and meanwhile, the third door opens and the
prizes that I'm gonna price are behind there and Holly's going to show the prices of those and she sees my shirt. - As you well know, you
can win four punches on the punch board. - And starts, she kind of 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 and we kind of met in the middle. - Seen his shirt, there it is. - I thought we were done and
she kind of grabbed my face and just planted one right on my lips. - [Bob] That's enough, Theodore, that's enough, that's enough. - I have to say that if
you've ever seen him kind of guide contestants by grabbing
them by the elbow and he's, 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. 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 to where she is, and. - I don't want an engagement. It's just a kiss. - And Holly, meanwhile
is motioning me to like, wipe my lip because 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, 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. - [Bob] Higher, right again. - And I got that one right, and then there was a dumbbell set. - Higher, yes, yes, yes. - Hamilton Beach photo laminator,
it's like, that one's $50. I know that one for sure. - [Bob] You got them all. - So I won all four punches
and now I have to figure out where I'm going to 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 kind of went on
the second row and just did every other hole that I could do. - Boy, 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've
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've
gone on and ended up with. - $250. - And I'm thinking, yup,
this is about right. This is 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. (audience cheering) You did the right thing, Theodore. Congratulations. - Walked over to where the
producer was 'cause you know, we watched 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 kind of 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 kind of neat. They changed out the
little circular carpets that the contestants stood
on the, on that taping. So I was literally the first person to stand on both of them. - [Bob] 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 going to get beat. - [Bob] 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. Lauren went to the Showcase with 55 cents. Maybe I can do it too. So I go over and stand
under the scoreboard. Thomas spins the first time. - [Bob] 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, 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 kind of line
everybody up, the three people who didn't get onstage,
the six people who did and you all go up to the aisle
and there's a little curtain that they take you through,
and there's an area where you sit and they process
your, 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. I look up and it's Holly
and she's handing me an autographed picture, and I'm like, hey, and I got up and I gave
her a hug and she said, I just 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 was just, it was really kind of, kind of blown away by the whole thing, and we
finished up her paperwork and they kind of 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 and notice there's two different
money amounts, the $100 for my perfect bid and the
$1,000 for 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. (curious music) - So in, I think it was 2002,
the Memorial Day timeframe, I got together a kind of a ragtag group. It was a 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. Little short time later, a
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 three in the morning, just incredibly excited
and hyper to be there, and we spent the day
kind of 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 have 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 on the prices
and you should listen to him and then it's like, great. Now you 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 picked from the audience, gives everybody a chance to win. - He said, I'm going to
get picked as a contestant. I'm going to win a car,
I'm going to spin a dollar on the wheel and I'm
going to win the Showcase, and we were all like, okay well, that's positive thinking, good for you. Well, he, 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 Flintstone 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 he realizes, oh, I'm supposed to high five people. So he kind of went back
and then high fived a few more people and went
on down to contestant's row. - It'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 kind of blanked for
a while because first item up for bids, came and went.
- [Bob] It's $699. 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 was like, I looked at him and I like,
kind of waved, and he just went. Before they come to him, you
can see him mouthing the, like, he's ready to say it,
and everyone's bidding like, 600 and 800 and these nice round numbers, and they get to Brandon and he goes. - $1,554. - [Bob] $1,554. People in the audience going, just making these faces
and shaking their head and going ugh, like this,
and they light up his bid and the perfect bid bell goes off. - [Bob] $1,554. - And Bob was 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. (audience laughing) - Brandon likes grabbing the
money, and everyone's laughing because it's like, you
know, I would never do that. - [Rod] A new car. - And when they get onstage and
they play against the house. They're not playing against Bob. Bob's on their side, which is, which is kind of unusual in game shows. - [Bob] Found another. He's out of control. - So he's already gotten on
the show and he's already, already won his car. He goes up to spin the wheel
and what does he land on? - [Bob] Brandon, you got a dollar! You're having quite a day. - I loved that show you
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 $2,100. It had a computer, which I knew was new, probably around $1,500. I don't know that I knew it exactly, - [Rod] 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 going to under,
you know, low ball this, and I decided on 20,000
for the whole thing. - $22,018, you win (Brandon yelling)
with a difference of only. - We thought we were going
to 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'd probably ever gotten in my life. He was still so excited. He's 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. 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 VIP's, and on this particular
taping, my dad, my sister, and my nephew were with
me, and we must've 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, I asked her when
about, when they went back into the taping, she says she
was Mark Goodson's secretary. (excited bell dinging) - Exactly right. Again. We have just tied the all
time record for perfect bids. We had three. - Bob announced his retirement,
I remember the exact date. It was October the 30th, 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. - [Bob] Won more than $140,000. Now folks, I want to
thank you very, very much for inviting me into your
home for the last 50 years. I am deeply grateful, and please remember, help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered. Goodbye everyone. - 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 think it's time. It's 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 enjoy. 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 I have to keep a stiff upper lip and accept it. ♪ Everywhere ♪ ♪ Olden times ♪ I really have sympathy for someone who doesn't have the same feeling. I don't want to go to work,
that would be terrible. - [Roger] We're taking a picture of us driving up to my space that I have. - [Mallory] Into his
very perfect spotlight. - [Roger] This is my Dobkowitz honor. ♪ Joyful memories there ♪ - [Mallory] Back at the artists' entrance. ♪ Time is here ♪ Roger's going to meet
his fans because whoops, it's his second to the last
taping of "The Price is Right." ♪ Could always see such spirit ♪ ♪ Through the years ♪ - 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've, I've, I was spoiled by
working 36 years on the show and I was lucky to have
worked 36 years on a, on a great, great show. (elegant music) - And it brought tears to my eyes. Took me several drinks to get over it. (crowd laughing) Roger, this is my
pleasure, my honor, to try to figure out how to open this. Here, Roger, is what you miss most of all. (crowd cheering)
(crowd applauding) - [Roger] This is true. I got home and I said to Mallory, I didn't even get a
caricature before I left. - [Bob] And you said the same thing to me. (crowd laughing) - [Roger] And I said the
same thing on that time. (elegant music) - 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 we came in and said, how do you do, Drew, and he
said, Bob, I want you to know, I'm gonna keep right
on, end of every show, have your pets spayed or neutered. I kissed him on the lips. ♪ Christmas time is here ♪ - So I continued to watch
the show, track 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 version I
wrote to help me memorize the prices on the show. I broke everything down by category. We'll go ahead and hit regular prizes, and here comes a mattress
and 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 either $2,599. 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. (siren whooping)
(audience cheering) You win both showcases. Hasn't happened since '72
or '73, right on the nose. You won $56,000. - [Interviewer] Terry, you there? - [Terry] Yes, I am. - [Interviewer] Mr.
Terry Kneiss, aren't you, should I say lucky, or
should I say talented, or should I say, what should I say? - [Terry] Well, I don't
know, quite frankly. I kind of feel like I'm in the
middle of a storm, but yeah, I think I'm very lucky. - This Terry Kneiss fucks, changed things up a little bit too. - Oh, that dude. - That dude, who. - He got it, he got the exact amount. - To the penny. - Right. - On both Showcases? - 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. - [Interviewer] Had anyone
talked to you about that or brought that up to you? - [Terry] 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. - [Interviewer] Wow. - [Terry] Some people kind
of 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 said, 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 problems, and he goes, oh, are you sure? I said, yeah, absolutely. Just, you know, they were
back in probably five minutes. His wife's name was Linda, very nice lady, obviously a big fan of the show. - [Terry] And we play
pricing games, you know, what are the cookies worth,
and what's the salsa sauce going for, and what about Ester-C? These are. (Terry laughing) - 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, you know, shot him with a machine
gun, and I think he may have asked me, you know, what
does that mean or, you know, whatever, and 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 Kneiss, 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. - [Rich] Land plus water
equals the perfect day on this new sailboat. (audience cheering) - I think it was $3,595,
but I had recently gone up and I didn't know that yet. - [Rich] Enjoy hours of fun as you sail your favorite waterway
on this 10 foot boat. - And I think you can see me
either signaling or saying, you know, $3,595, and he
reads the price, it's $3,695, 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 from the,
this fan group that was able to, that 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. - [Terry] 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 $1,175. - [Terry] And it was on
about three weeks before, and I knew the price was $1,175 on that. - [Interviewer] Ohh. - And Terry looked to
Linda and me for advice, and so we signaled to
him or told him $1,175. - [Terry] So that got me up on the stage and we went on from there. - [Drew] We encourage
them to yell out what they think the price is. - [Kevin] They're always yelling. - Yeah, one guy won a
Chevy one time on the show. He's with a friend of his
who was a Chevy salesman. - [Kevin] Oh geez. - And got every number, just and so what. - [Kevin] Yeah. - You know, that's how it goes. - $44. - [Drew] $44. - She realized that I
knew some of the prices that I was yelling out
and things were correct, and she kind of was like,
I'm gonna listen to you. I was like, okay. So she gets back up and she bid $2,201. She bid $1 higher than
whoever was the highest, and Drew reads the price and it's $2,598, and you can see her kinda
look at me like, whoa. - [Drew] Dollars. (audience cheering) - 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,
$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 protection. - Now, 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, that's five seven. You know, oh make that a seven. - Well, the way they
have 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, he was in door two. We were really far away from that guy. - [Terry] I couldn't hear him good. - 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. We can see Terry, he's
just like right up here. Probably, you know, stone's throw away. - [Interviewer] And the
Showcase, what was your strategy? - [Terry] 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, and 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 from, this Rain Man dude from the, the fan group. - Yep, that's the $2,800 pool table. - [Terry] I knew they were about $3,000. That put me at $4,000. - And the last prize is
the high-low trailer. - [Terry] The rule of thumb
for campers is $1,000 a foot. - Well, there's two of them. There's a 17 foot and there's a 22 foot. - [Terry] I thought he said 19 feet. So I'm thinking $19,000. - [Interviewer] You're amazing, okay. - That looks kind of 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'd already told her the price and you can see
him kind of mouthing numbers and looking at us, and he says. - $23,743. - [Drew] Wow. - And Drew, most ironic
statement ever says, that's a very exact bid and. - [Terry] So I know I'm in the ballpark. Now, as strange as it 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. She's just standing there and
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. (Ted chuckling) - Kathy Greco, but she came
out with her headphones. She was like, like that, and
I was like, what happened? She goes, she had a clipboard,
you got the exact amount, and I go, I went like what? - [Kevin] So what was the item? - I think there was like,
there's always like three, four things, I don't know, and I go, I go, did that ever happen before? And she goes, no. - [Kevin] That had never happened before? - No, so 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 10 minutes. - [Kevin] 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 at
Standards and Practices there, going, what are we going to do? - [Kevin] What does this
mean, what does this mean? - Yeah, did this just
happen, is this possible? - [Kevin] 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. - [Kevin] Did someone cheat? That's gotta come up. - [Drew] Yeah, and this
fan group had a lot. We knew that this guy
was yelling out prices, and 'cause we knew the people
that were in the fan group. - [Interviewer] That question
has popped up, you know? Oh, he cheated. Did you cheat? - [Terry] I don't know
how you could cheat. First off, I have a little
bit of a hearing problem. So if people were yelling prices, I couldn't hear it very well. - Well, they obviously know
it came from me, you know. We'll, we'll see how this plays out and. - 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, all the fucking press talked about.
- I think I'm, I'm think I'm fucking up, I think I'm fucked. - [Kevin] 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, I think they're
shutting down the show. All right, welcome back everybody. Sharon. - 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 going to air it anyway. - [Kevin] Right. - So I was like, well fuck it. (Drew laughing) - [Kevin] They say that before
you went back on the air? - I didn't think they could. I remember hearing somebody wondering how they could even air it. - [Kevin] Right. - You know, if there
was a scandal, you know, and I was like, well,
this is fucked, you know? I mean, I was so depressed right then. Actual retail price, $23,743. You got it right on the nose. - His display changed to just a zero, and then they showed his total
and Linda went up on stage. He was, Terry, I think was
more like shocked than anybody that he was on the nose, and
Linda went up and gave him a hug and they went and
looked at the prizes. - [Terry] 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. - [Drew] No. - It was ridiculous, down to. - Yeah, it was right on the penny. Yeah, it was crazy, 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 is 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. There was, he'd been there
his whole television career. It was his first job
out of college, and then he wasn't there my second year of the show and his fan group, like, they
didn't blame me for getting, 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 and 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. - 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,
and she turns back around and she motions her up on stage and I thought oh, here we go. Now they're going to call
us all up there and find out what happened and ask us questions and. - Like, they were always getting
a lot of inside information about the show and we never
knew how they were getting their information about
things we were planning or things we were doing and
they just had a lot of contacts. - [Kevin] Right. - You know, with the, in 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 like,
oh, they're just fuckin' with us now 'cause they're mad. - Oh, the producer, the 35 year. - Yeah, now they're mad 'cause
this guy's not here anymore. They're just trying to fuck with us. - There were, there was
discussion because they had fired Roger Dobkowitz, who
was the producer from day one, and they thought that I
was part of this fan group that was trying to take the show down. - Turns out. - It turns out the guy was just, was able to because we never. - [Kevin] He beat the game. - He beat, yeah, because we didn't repeat, because we repeated prizes so much. He was able to just like memorize all the major ones we 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. - Now it's like constant
meetings, constant prize pitching, you know, like, that's
never going to happen again. - [Terry] What are
crackers worth, and what's the salsa sauce going for,
and what about Ester-C? These are, (Terry laughing) so in that sense, yeah. We were playing pricing
games out on the streets. - [Interviewer] So let's just
say you did your homework. - [Terry] I did my homework
and that's what I suggest to anybody that's going to do that show. Do your homework, watch the show, watch the show, watch the show. - [Interviewer] Did you hear that? Watch the show. - I mean, honestly, all
those guys are, if you wanna come wait in line, they never
had to wait in line before, so I'm not gonna, but if
you want to 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. (upbeat music) 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. ♪ Life is just a bowl of cherries ♪ ♪ Don't be so serious ♪ ♪ Life's so mysterious ♪ ♪ You work you save you worry so ♪ ♪ But you can't take your
dough when you go go go ♪ ♪ So keep repeating it's the berries ♪ ♪ The strongest oak must fall ♪ ♪ The sweet things in life
to you were just loaned ♪ ♪ So how can you lose
what you've never owned ♪ ♪ Life is just a bowl of cherries ♪ ♪ So live and laugh at it all ♪ (whimsical music)
