Original subtitles

[Slauson] 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 [laughing] Great.

[Slauson] 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.

-[Narrator] "The Price is Right..." -[bell dings]

...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.

[Dobkowitz] 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?

[Slauson] 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.

[Dobkowitz] 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.

[Slauson] 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.

[Johnny Olson] 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.

[brushing off table]

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.

["William Tell Overture: Finale" playing]

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.

[Dobkowitz] 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.

[bell dings]

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!

[bell dings]

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."

[Slauson] 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.

-[game fanfare plays] -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.

[Barker] 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."

[Slauson] 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.

[beeping]

$500, not bad.

It's not real money, so I'm gonna go ahead

and look in the next hole.

Next hole is worth...

-[alarm ringing] -Oh, there it is! $10,000.

It's just that easy.

And I think I will keep that.

[Dobkowitz] 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.

[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.

[Slauson] 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.'"

[bell dings]

[Dobkowitz] 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.

[Slauson] 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.

[Slauson] 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. -[bell dings]

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.

[Narrator] 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.

[Slauson] 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.

[Narrator] While they wait, a small army

is preparing a stage show

that couldn't be topped in Vegas.

[Slauson] 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.

[Woman] I just want to know what you're feeling right now.

It's my tie. I feel it right here.

[laughter]

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.

[Announcer] 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.

[Narrator] The job of picking contestants

goes to coproducer Phillip Wayne.

He's not above dropping an honest word

to a hopeful prospect.

[Slauson] 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.

-[cheering and applause] -[Woman] Backstage you can feel it.

The anticipation is at near frenzy.

[Slauson] 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."

[Announcer] A new swimming pool!

[Slauson] 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.

[Barker] 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.

[Dobkowitz] 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.

[Rod Roddy speaks indistinctly]

[Slauson] So then on the second item up for bids

was a brass trunk. Which I knew was...

[Slauson shouting in background]

...which you can hear on the tape.

[Barker] $795.

-Deborah, you win. -[bells ringing]

[Slauson] My first two bids in the studio were right on.

[Dobkowitz] The two things we did not let them do,

we didn't allow them to take lists into the studio.

[Dobkowitz] 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.

[Slauson] 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."

-[bell dings] -[Barker] And there is the six down there in the piggy bank.

-[Barker speaks indistinctly] -[crowd shouting]

[Barker] He wants the one! Light up that one!

[bell dings]

[Dobkowitz] 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."

[Slauson] 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."

[bell dings]

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...

[Slauson in background] 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. -[Barker] 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.

[Roddy] 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.

-[Barker] $695 -[Susan screaming]

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! -[applause]

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."

Um...

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.

[Roddy] 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.

-[Barker] 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...

-[Barker] $6,900. -[buzzer sounds]

-[Barker] Maybe Theodore will leave the tip. -[Slauson] 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?

[Roddy] A ceiling fan light!

They had several from that same manufacturer

but they were all... -$500.

-[bell ringing] -[Barker] 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."

[Roddy] 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.

[Slauson yelling] Seventy-six, fifty-nine!

The number on the card in hundred's of dollars.

[audience laughing]

[Barker laughs] 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.

-[Barker] $500. -[Slauson yelling] No!

[Barker] $7700 is her bid.

And we're all like, "What are you doing?"

So, we're thinking, okay, she's gonna be over.

[Barker] $8,694.

-A difference of $994. -[buzzer sounds]

And I might add, Theodore,

nobody is perfect.

-[laughter] -[Barker] Thank you, Lisa.

-[applause] -["Price is Right" theme song playing]

[Barker] We will have the second Showcase Showdown...

[Slauson] 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."

[laughing]

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.

[bell dings]

[Barker] 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.

[laughing]

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."

[laughing]

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. -[bell dings]

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.

-[Roddy] A GE Microwave. -[Barker] Lauren, what do you say?

$1,399!

-[bell dinging] -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! -[Barker] Is Lorren a winner?

-You are! -So, she wins. She's very excited.

Uh, next contestant?

-$1,049. -[bell dings]

-[bell clanging] -[Barker] 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.'"

[Barker] 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.

-[bell clanging] -[Barker] 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.

[Barker] 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.

[Lauren] I can't believe it. This is the best show in the world!

[Barker] 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...

[Barker] 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!

[indistinct]

[Dobkowitz] 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.

[Slauson] 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! [exclaims]

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.

[Roddy] 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!

-[cheering and applause] -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."

[Barker] At last you're in Contestant's Row.

"I'm here to kiss Holly.

Sorry, Bob."

[laughter]

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.

[Roddy] 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.

[Barker] 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.

[Barker] $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.

[Barker] $650. Now, let's go up here to Theodore.

-[Slauson] $599. -[Barker] $599.

-[bell ringing] -One of you is exactly right!

$100 bonus for the contestant who bid $599.

Theodore!

[Slauson] 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."

[Roddy] 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...

[Barker] There it is.

[Slauson] I thought we were done,

and she kinda grabbed my face,

and just planted one right on my lips.

[Barker] 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.

-[Barker] 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.

-[Barker] 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.

[Slauson] 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. -[bell ringing]

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. -[audience cheers]

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.

[bell dings]

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.

[bell dings]

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.

[Dobkowitz] 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.

[Barker] $1554.

People in the audience going...

Just making these faces,

and shaking their head and going

[groans] like this.

And they light up his bid,

and the perfect bid bell goes off.

[Barker] $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.

[Roddy] 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.

[Barker] Car and you got it!

[laughing] 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?

[Barker] 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.

-[Barker] 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.

♪

[Slauson] 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. -[bell dings]

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.

[Barker] Exactly right!

-Cheryl? -[Cheryl] $520.

[Barker] Again!

We have just tied the all-time record

for a perfect bid.

[cheering and applause]

We've had three.

[Dobkowitz] 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."

[Barker] ...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.

♪ Candles everywhere

♪ Olden times and ancient rhymes ♪

[Barker] 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.

♪ Beauty everywhere

[Dobkowitz] We're taking a picture, we're driving up

to my space that I have.

[Woman] Into his very perfect, front-row...

[Dobkowitz] It says R. Dobkowitz on it.

[Woman] Right by the art of centuries.

[Dobkowitz laughs]

[Woman] Roger's going to greet his fans 'cause-- whoops.

It's his second to the last taping of "The Price is Right."

♪ Could always see

♪ Such spirit

♪ Through the years

[Dobkowitz] 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.

♪

[Barker] And it brought tears to my eyes.

[laughter]

It took me several drinks to get over it.

[laughter]

Roger, it's my pleasure,

my honor...

[laughter]

Aw!

...to try to figure out how to open this.

[laughter]

Here, Roger...

is what you missed most of all!

[cheers and applause]

[Dobkowitz] This is true!

I got home and I said to Valerie,

"I didn't even get a caricature."

[laughter]

[Barker] And you said the same thing to me.

[laughter]

[Dobkowitz] And I said the same thing to Bente!

♪

[Barker] 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. [laughing]

♪

♪ Christmas time is here

[Slauson] 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.

-[bell dings] -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?

-[applause] -[Drew] Terry...

bid $23,743.

Actual retail price: $23,743.

You got it right on the nose.

-[bell clanging] -You win both Showcases.

-[Terry] What? -[Drew] Hasn't happened since '72 or '73.

Right on the nose.

-You won 56,000... -[Man] Terry, you there?

-[Terry] Yes, I am. -[Man] Mr. Terry Kniess.

Aren't you, should I say, lucky?

-[Terry laughing] -Or should I say talented?

Or should I say-- What should I say?

[Terry] 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. -[bell dings]

[Man] Has 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.

-[Man] Wow. -[Terry] Some people kinda make a career out of this.

-The guy next to me had been there 33 times. -[buzzer sounds]

[Slauson] 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.

[Terry] 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-- [chuckles]

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.

[Announcer] Wind plus water equals the perfect day

on this new sailboat!

[Slauson] I think it was $3595,

but it had recently gone up, and I didn't know that yet.

[Announcer] 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.

[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 $1175.

-[Terry] And it was on about three weeks before. -[buzzer sounds]

So I knew the price was $1175 on that.

[Man] Oh.

[Slauson] And Terry looked to Linda and me for advice,

and so we signaled him or told him $1175.

[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.

-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. -[Drew] $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...

Whoa!

[screaming]

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.

[Man] 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.

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.

[Terry] I knew they were about $3,000.

That put me at $4,000.

And the last prize is the Hi-Lo Trailer.

[Terry] 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.

[Terry] I thought he said 19 feet.

So I'm thinking $19,000.

[Man] 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. -[Drew] Wow.

And Drew, most ironic statement ever, says,

"That's a very exact bid." And, uh...

[Terry] 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.

[Slauson] They go to commercial.

And everything stopped.

[chuckles]

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?"

[Pollak] 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."

[Pollak] 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.

[Pollak] 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.

'Cause we knew the people that were in the fan group.

[Man] That question has popped up, you know?

"He cheated." Did you cheat?

[Terry laughs] I don't know how you could cheat.

First off, I have a little bit of a hearing problem.

-[Man] Okay. -[Terry] 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.

[cheers and applause]

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."

[laughing]

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...

[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.

-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.

[Pollak] 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.

[Pollak] Turns out?

Turns out, the guy was just... was able to--

Because we never--

[Pollak] 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.

[Terry] What are crackers worth?

And what's the salsa sauce going for?

And what about Ester-C? These are-- -[man laughing]

[Terry laughing]

[Terry] So, in that sense,

yeah, we were playing pricing games out on the street.

[Man] So, let's just say you did your homework?

[Terry] 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.

[Man] 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.

♪

[Slauson] 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 too 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 ♪