Inflation Studies Over 35 Years

For the past 35 years, The Price Is Right has been on TV. 35 years. It has been around longer than I have. Yet, the only times that I have watched it was recently (being unemployed, it’s great to pack up your worldly belongings to) and when I was sick as a kid. Dane Cook feels that this program must have some medicinal value to it.
While technology and taste has changed in 35 years, The Price Is Right has not. They are still using the same awful sets from the 70’s and despite the advancements in microphone technology, Bob Barker is still using that 3 foot stick that we have all associated with him.
Rowdy Randy (Rest in Peace) will call out someone’s name from the audience and they have never been more exited in their entire life. Jumping up and down, screaming and slapping high-fives all the way down to Contestant Row. What I will never understand is the guessing of the prices. If a $50 item is brought out and contestant 2 guesses $51 and contestant 3 guesses $30, contestant 3 gets the opportunity to continue while constant 2 has to sit down like a dummy. I have always thought that the person closest to the actual cost should go up, because they have demonstrated their skills at knowing how much worthless crap costs. What I always liked were the cocky contestants who would guess $1. They looked at their competition and with great pride would call out $1. About once a week it backfires on them. Because they forget that they are contestant #3 and #4 pulls out a $2 bid. So, unless the blender costs $1.99 or lower, contestant #3’s cockiness has just cost them the opportunity to give Bob a kiss on the cheek. For some reason, the contestants ALWAYS forget what they had bid. When the final amount is given, Bob always has to identify the winner by name because all four of them have a stupid look on their face wondering what it was that they had said only 30 seconds earlier.
Everyone always hoped for an easy game. Some of the challenges that these poor bastards are put through are more stressful than anything on Fear Factor. You have to flip the numbers around to get the price or change the items around themselves to reflect the actual price or even parachute out of a plane and land on the correct “X” to get the Green Giant frozen peas.
Then came the big wheel. Your goal was to get as close to $1 without going over. Again with the going over. Carol could win with 25 cents, but if you got $1.05, you were out and didn’t get to go to the Showcase Showdown. There are only two options when spinning the wheel. You either spun it so slowly that it didn’t go around the first time and the audience feels your pain, or you spin it so much that Bob asks you to step back in case it rolls off and takes out half of Contestant Row. That thing must be on titanium hinges.
The two winners of The Wheel get to go on to the Showcase Showdown. For some reason I thought the prizes were better when I was a kid. Now they suck. Sure they are still giving away a car, but it’s still nothing that you would want anyone to see you driving. “You could win a BRAND NEW KIA!!!” (With California emissions, of course) Also included in the showcase was a case of Pepsi and a $10 alarm clock.
At the end of every show, Bob hopes that everyone helps control the pet population by spaying or neutering their pets. The first time you hear this, it kind of throws you. It doesn’t fit at all. People are competing for crap prizes, kissing an old man with a weird mic on a set decorated in 1971 and then Bob recommends that you dismember your pet. Out of all the causes that he could have chosen to push with each show, the control of the pet population is one closest to his heart. I just want to meet the guy who heard that for the first time from Bob and looked at Fluffy and said “You and I have to make an appointment with the Vet, as soon as I’m done with my 10am beer.”
Composed on 06/19/2006