FYI

I bid $1 for Spanky's mom. 

BARACK OBAMA MOTHERFUCKER 

I saw this the day it aired. I was completely impressed, but I DID get the feeling that Drew thought the guy was cheating.

This is a great article and worth the read. 

Anyone care to give a shorter version? 

shit got thick. there was a ringer 

Salomon said:

Anyone care to give a shorter version?

Press Your Luck, v2.0

The article basically explains that a guy figured out TPiR would put the same items up all the time. He memorized their prices, and became the first person ever to hit his showcase price on the dollar. They think he cheated.

Mixed into that explanation are:

* 2,000 unnecessary words where this writer tries to make this story out to be way more than it is
* Evidence that Drew Carey foul-mouthed asshole
* Even more proof that Bob Barker is the fucking man 

* Even more proof that Bob Barker is the fucking man

This. 

I thought the thing about Bob Barker insisting the show was meat and fur free was a neat factoid. I kind of figure all old men are meat eaters :P It does seem sad that they've made the show so luck-based now, do people still win? 

THe real hero is that Ted guy. He basically beat the game and then for years would just feed correct answers to randoms. He's guessed the show case 2 times on the nose, but they've changed the show now, and they all hate it now. 

I was at a TPIR taping several years ago and there was a local guy in the audience that knew most of the prices. He would shout them out during the show when everyone else would and he was always right on the ones he knew. I was amazed no one pulled him out of the audience. 

I have a PhD in nanotechnology, and that was the hardest thing I've read in a long time. After a couple of paragraphs, I started skimming, then I just completely gave up.

Whoever wrote that should stick to doing illustrations. FAIL. F- 

J Twood said:

Press Your Luck, v2.0

The article basically explains that a guy figured out TPiR would put the same items up all the time. He memorized their prices, and became the first person ever to hit his showcase price on the dollar. They think he cheated.

Mixed into that explanation are:

* 2,000 unnecessary words where this writer tries to make this story out to be way more than it is
* Evidence that Drew Carey foul-mouthed asshole
* Even more proof that Bob Barker is the fucking man

thank you JT, everyone just read this instead, what a turd article 

knowing the diameter and chirality of tubules will not help you win TPiR. 

Drew was just waiting for Ashton Kutcher to pop out so he could sock him in the face!! There was no Asthon Kutcher around in Bobs day, although he would have probably socked him right in the face too.

Go price is right rain man.
next year when i have to do my taxes i want that guy in my corner. 

pongobongo said:

It does seem sad that they've made the show so luck-based now, do people still win?

Seems likely. Most of the contestants, back when the prices were static, would be guessing anyway, and they still had more "wins per minute", to use the article's term, than other game shows. I'd imagine if everyone was guessing prices, statistically the win rate would be the same now as it was then, it's just you can't memorize prices and formulas to fix the game for
yourself anymore.

Which may or may not be a good thing. On the one hand it rewards perseverance and skill, but on the other if that kind of thing got public you wouldn't have a game show for much longer (paying out winnings would become too expensive). 

Good read. In the movie TEd is played by Zack Galifinakis. I think Terry and his wife are full of shit and that CBS probably helped them engineer a barely plausible explanation. It was the greatest thing that ever happened to that weatherman. 

Ted wins the Barcalounger, punchboard and gets the girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Qhyq2JSDE

There is nothing ironic about his mustache at all and he really could be played by Galifinakis; Loyal Friend the Ted Slauson story. 

Teh price is WRONG, Bob! (*gulp*!)

LOL I remember those exact same games from watching TPiR when *I* was little. Why we were watching it, I really have no idea. We watched Richard Simmons too, which made much less sense. 

Niveras said:

Seems likely. Most of the contestants, back when the prices were static, would be guessing anyway, and they still had more "wins per minute", to use the article's term, than other game shows. I'd imagine if everyone was guessing prices, statistically the win rate would be the same now as it was then, it's just you can't memorize prices and formulas to fix the game for
yourself anymore.

Which may or may not be a good thing. On the one hand it rewards perseverance and skill, but on the other if that kind of thing got public you wouldn't have a game show for much longer (paying out winnings would become too expensive).

That's the thing with any of these games. People WANT them to be skill-based, and view that as "fair", but also want a chance to win by "luck".

Well, any skill-based game can then be beaten, and there will inevitably be a rise in remarkable people who can beat it. One could crack down on the criteria for winning, but then it becomes fantastically unlikely for people to win by "luck", and it is no longer viewed as a game but a competition.

So they had to defeat the people who excel in skill by randomizing the prices. Ha, it's socialism. They don't want the rewards to go to people who excel, they want everyone to have an equal chance. 

Jeopardy FTW. 

Were they referring to the same kid who swept it on his birthday a while ago? Wasn't that video posted here? 

IG88 said:

Jeopardy FTW.

The best game show ever. 

Know who that TED guy reminds me of? 

J Twood said:

* Even more proof that Bob Barker is the fucking man

Watching old clips of BB makes me realize that he MADE that show. 

He picked 743 because that was the number he and Linda had used for their PINs, their securitycodes, their bets: their wedding date, the seventh of April, and her birth month, March. Here's their wedding certificate, he says, and here's her passport: $23,743.

LOL, they do know this is posted on the internet? Identity theft anyone? 

NakedPope said:

LOL, they do know this is posted on the internet? Identity theft anyone?

The article said that they changed their PINs afterwards. 

...a wolf carrying a beaver in its mouth represented the extremes of possibility

This is, simply crap of an article. 

Good read, but what he didn't know and got lucky at was getting his name called to actually get to bid.

It's not some random pick to get your name called (at least not back in 1992).

At the time the girl I was dating had an old lady friend that had been on the show in 1978 and won a Caddy. And she wanted her to go on the show and win a car.
So, we go and meet her in line at the gate with about 500 other people.
She goes on to explain how to get your name called, what to say, how to act, etc.

Turns out that before you go into the studio they pull 10 people at a time to meet the producer in a group. He'll say your name and ask you simple questions like "where are you from", "What do you do" that kind of shit.

They say they do this so that the producer can meet everyone, but in reality it's a way for the producer to pick the actual contestants. In other words if "he" doesn't like you you not getting on.

The producer will only say your name once, ask you a few things and move on to the person next to you. If he says your name again, his asst.
will write it down and you have just been picked.

In my case it went down like this:

The producer had finished asking me where I was from and I told him I was local
and I had just got out of the Army.
He moved on to 3 more people and was talking to a girl that made cookies for a living.
The Producer turns to me and asked ,"Che, have you ever had Megans cookies?"
And I saw his Asst. start writing...I said I hadn't had the pleasure, but he didn't really care about my answer.

So it turns out me and Megan had been picked.

As I we walked away the old lady friend was all "YOUR GETTING ON!!" and I turned to see the producer and the Asst. giving us the stink eye. He then said something to the Asst. and she did something to the clipboard she had.

Megan did in fact get called and I even told her she would. The producer must have thought the old lady was a ringer and had my ass crossed off. 

when the shit gets thick your ass better go rain man on em. 

What bank has a 3-digit pin? Aren't they all 4-digits? 

Maybe the first number is zero. 

Maybe the last number they just have to squish their penis against the buttons. 

Squishy said:

I have a PhD in nanotechnology, and that was the hardest thing I've read in a long time. After a couple of paragraphs, I started skimming, then I just completely gave up.

Whoever wrote that should stick to doing illustrations. FAIL. F-

I bet you can find your way around a pussy hole really good. 

jesus christ, get to the fucking point. Crappily written. 

Drew Carey is a fat-assed putz and a shitty comedian. He's even a worse game show host. Why they went with Drew Carey to host, as well as replace, an icon of game show television is beyond comprehension.

He must suck some mean dick. 

Well... he was in the marine corp...so, maybe. 

arothman said:

What bank has a 3-digit pin? Aren't they all 4-digits?

Didn't make it through the whole article, eh? :-) 

Terry and Linda sold the karaoke machine, the pool table, and the camper. That helped them pay the taxes on their winnings,

The Saddest part 

NakedPope said:

...a wolf carrying a beaver in its mouth represented the extremes of possibility
This is, simply crap of an article.

ahaha this is by far my favorite part of the article...
he and Linda saw the most incredible thing: a wolf carrying a beaver in its mouth. Terry had tried to get his camera out — had wanted proof — but the wolf had disappeared into the trees. Terry and Linda guessed they had seen something unusual, but it wasn't until they went back to their hotel that they realized just how rare it was, that a wolf carrying a beaver in its mouth represented the extremes of possibility 

tldr; 

http://memegenerator.net/Courage-Wolf/ImageMacro/1626521/Courage-Wolf-SAVE-A-TRE E-EAT-A-BEAVER.jpg 

That black chick musta been pissed. Being off by 400 is pretty f'n good 

I like all the people in here crying about the article,
because it was longer than five sentences.

That was a great article and a very interesting story about a few interesting people.

I loved the part about Ted. What a bad ass.

Thanks Spun. 

and that it would have been impossible for him to have concocted, after the fact, such an elaborate creation myth...

He picked 743 because that was the number he and Linda had used for their PINs, their security codes, their bets: their wedding date, the seventh of April, and her birth month, March. Here's their wedding certificate, he says, and here's her passport: $23,743.

Going back and pulling a three-digit number out of the air using the various important dates of a couple is far from "impossible." That 743 matches their anniversary backwards and a birth month seems more made-up than solid proof.

I'd be more impressed if the guy said "I'm patriotic and I like threesomes!" 

Good link 

743 matches their anniversary backwards

So they were married in March of 1947? Or the thirty-fourth month of 1907? 

It could be March 4th, 1970. 

Everyone who thought this was hard to read does not appreciate the art of editing.

I'm not saying it was a perfect article.

But it was fun to read. 

It's a crap game show. It's so bad that even the people running Wheel of Fortune think that TPIR's contestants are morons. Always hated TPIR, always will...regardless of who's hosting it.

..and it's true, by the way, that the show has never changed. The twentysomething frat boys and sorority girls who often appear on the show are just as loud and obnoxious as they were years ago. The only difference now is that the frat boys are fatter, the girls' clothes are tinier and Drew Carey obviously has nothing else going on in his career. 

Ravyn Wiald said:

Everyone who thought this was hard to read does not appreciate the art of editing.

I'm not saying it was a perfect article.

But it was fun to read.

I got bogged down in the first paragraph, then skipped to the second half of the article, read it, and went back and read the first half, minus the first paragraph. It made a lot of sense that way.