Tuesday, November 29, 2005
I'll be on The Price Is Right this Friday and Monday!
At least I'm in the studio audience. Last October the wife and I attended two tapings of The Price Is Right while visiting my parents out in Los Angeles. The first show will air this Friday, 2 December. The second will be on Monday, 5 December.
The experience was awesome. As a kid I used to play hooky from school just to stay home and watch Bob Barker and his Beauties, so this was definitely a life long goal. Bob is looking older every show, so I knew I was running out of time if I wanted to see him. I dragged the uniform along to help represent the Air Force, and of course to help me get chosen to play. I never did get picked, but I still had a great time.
The stage is actually very small, and the crowd is even smaller than how it looks on TV. Camera angles... It's all magic. Barker's Beauties were OK, but They're not as cool as the gals I grew up with back in the 80s and 90s. These new ones are too Barbie-dollish, whereas the older ones had character and could actually change expressions.
The only thing I found disappointing was the crowd. The crowd during the first taping was much younger than the second, so they seemed ruder to one another and to Bob. Yes, they were rude to Bob Barker, the Pimp Daddy of Daytime TV. Amazing how stupid and disrespectful people are these days. Yes, maybe it was just the younger LA culture, but it's still shocking to witness.
The second crowd was much better and had more fun. Sorry for the spoiler, but the winner for Monday's show was a young Marine ROTC Cadet (Rat bastard, That was my Mustang!!!) He wins big.
You can see my wife and I in a lot of the crowd shots for both episodes. I have the ability to record the shows on my computer, but I don't know how to take still shots and post them. If someone can tell me how to do it, I'm all ears.
As for my wife, she made it onto the show back in 1997, and the rule is you can't be a contestant on the show twice... ever. She won a cedar chest, which we still use, but she lost a car. (Yes, it was some type of Cheapo Dodge Dart or something, but a car is a car) While standing in line for our taping someone asked her if she was disappointed when she lost the car, or was she just happy to have been on the show. Her answer was priceless. "Of course I was disappointed. I was pissed. I lost a car, and I'm still upset about it to this day." It was funny seeing these wannabe contestants' fake smiles dry up when she said that. Priceless.
So, as we were in line walking towards the theater they took groups of about 10 of us and interviewed us all together. Yes, fake smiles, jumping up and down, shouting and showing off... people did what they could to try and get on. I was guilty of it. My face hurt for 20 minutes after the interview because I was smiling so big and laughing at everyone's stupid comments and jokes.
Overall it was a blast, and I'd do it again if I had another day to waste out there. I'm not sure what will happen with the show after Pimp Daddy Barker retires or keels over, but I know it'll never be the same without him. He was a class act, and he entertained the crowd during commercial breaks. During the second show he had us military folks stand up and he thanked each one of us individually. Made my day.
So, another item to mark off my list of things to do before I die has been check-marked, and it was worth it.
Also, please let me know if anyone is familiar with capturing still photos from recorded TV.
posted by El Capitan at 11:23 AM
4 Comments:
Sean Dustman said...
Looks nice over here! If we knew you were out here we would have thrown a milblog meet up!
4:58 PM
said...
I don't know about doing stills from video tapes, but if you can get a copy of the show on DVD you should be able to do screen shots with a number of computer programs.
I use a program called PowerDVD to watch videos on my laptop and it lets me do screen grabs without any problems. Another program I have is called ACDSee, it's used for browsing and previewing images, and I can do video still grabs there as well.
Only $19.95 said...
I am so jealous of you going to the PIR. It's sickening. I have said it before, but my entire family laughs at me because when I am on leave, I make a special point of watching it. My father plain out says, "You're weird, Alli."
I still love it after all these years.
Taking a still off a video is really easy if you have the software. You run a VHS through a Hi-8 to a Firewire card into a 'puter that has video capture capability -- something like Premiere. Then you capture what you want and do whatever you want to it.
Sorry for sounding like a dork, but it is, afterall, my career field. :)
Other than that - if you wanted to send it to me, I could do some OJT. Hehe.
Allison said...
I can't believe I f'n missed this. I'm pissed. I want to see some still clips.
As for rude ass people I wonder if the audience was transported from my area of DC to LA. Hmm?