The Price Is Right

[February 28th, 2007] This week, the Rogue gets personal.

That's because I learned firsthand recently that the next item up for bid on The Price is Right is the "shattered" dreams of wannabe contestants who have traveled from afar to appear on the show.

Full disclosure: I'm a huge fan of the show. I've been so hooked on The Price Is Right since I was a tyke (not even eye level with the bosom of one of host Bob Barker's voluptuous beauties) that, on occasion, I'd feign a sore throat just to stay home from school and watch.

Knowing that the show hosted the past 35 years by Barker is in its final months, several weeks ago I requested tickets for this past Monday's taping and booked a flight from Portland to L.A. in order to catch the game show with a few friends.

Our Price Is Right tickets said processing for the 1:15 pm show would begin at 9 am, though earlier arrival is suggested. We had no idea that even arriving as early as 5:30 am, we'd find a four-block long line of more than 1,000 Price Is Right fanatics bundled in brightly colored sweatshirts with the 83-year-old Barker's face on them. Many had slept overnight on the street, making the place look like a Middle-American refugee camp.

And, sure enough, with a studio capacity of 325 people, my pals—and hundreds of others—never made it in with our "official" tickets.

While the tickets do say on the back that there's no guarantee of admittance, we'd like to think Barker and the Price Is Right producers could figure out a better, more efficient way to reward the fans who have kept the show afloat—and not fan the false hopes of Barkerites nationwide.

Lured into believing I'd have my chance to jump up and down and hug Barker, then having the dream crushed like somebody who'd overbid on the Showcase Showdown? That's just plain cheap.

—Lance Kramer