I came across this classic Price is Right moment the other day via you tube and I have shared it with family.  I just can’t stop laughing at the audacity of the contestant or Bob’s reaction.  Quality not the best but good enough.

It began with $3 cash being enclosed in a letter – we had been selected to be a Nielsen family.  You know the Nielsen company – basically, they gather information about how many people are watching what on tv in order to determine how much commercials should cost.  So anyway, they sent $3 cast, and I have to admit, that piqued my interest.  They called with a short phone survey, and a few weeks later, we received a large envelope with 4 booklets (tv diaries), and $30(!) cash.  There were instructions; all we had to do was record what we watched on which tv for a week.  But it turned out to be easier said than done…

Recording what is watched on all of the tv sets (what year were those diaries  printed – who says “tv sets”?) in our household turned out to be quite a challenge!  First of all, we have a parrot in the laundry room, and his tv is on all the time.  I don’t always know what is playing, but I do know that the bird loves The Price Is Right.  So I made a little note in our tv diary for that tv and mentioned that it’s on all the time for the pet parrot and that he especially likes The Price Is Right.  I made sure to notate that I don’t know if he prefers Bob Barker or Drew Carrey, though…

And then there is the kids’ tv, which is in their room.  I know they watch a whole lot of the Disney channel, but I don’t know what’s always on it.  Because it’s summer, we didn’t watch much tv in the living room; we mostly use that tv for movies on DVD.  It was challenging to remember to write down details every time a tv was watched, and if we forgot, it was hard to remember what was watched.  So at times the task was daunting, but we had already accepted the payment, so I felt that we had to follow through with the project.  Overall, it was a neat experience, and if they value our input, there will be a lot more of The Price Is Right, The Office, and hopefully Cubs baseball on tv 🙂

Just for the heck of it, I took a picture of one of the tv diaries and the envelope:

Overall, a fun experience, but next time I might have to decline depending on how old the kids are when our names come up again.  It was very difficult for me to have to complete “homework” with 4 small children underfoot – hard to say if it would be worth the $30 again…  maybe if the kids are older and can fill out their own diaries…

Since October, Drew Carey has done his best filling the shoes of Bob Barker as host of the longest-running gameshow in daytime history, The Price is Right. Six months later, he is still attempting to find his nitche. I do watch a few times a week. Today was one of those days.

The showcase was one of the most memorable ever. The first showcase had as the top prize a trip to Singapore which was passed on to contestant number two. The second showcase was a masterful stroke of foolishness.

The first prize was something known as a statointellicator. It appeared to be a prop box full of multicolored switches and doodads which also was useful as a jello mold.

Prize number two was a transrebounder. I have no idea what that device was even supposed to be used for but it looked ridiculous.

Finally, the piece de resistance was a trip to the country of Baguslovania. The contestant would be flown via OSD whose tagline is : The airline that gets you there…. although it may not be the cleanest. While in Baguslovania, the lucky winner would dine on hasty tripe tarts and take in breathtaking vistas such as short site tower and no where palace. I wonder if Baguslovania is anywhere near Liswathistan.

After the showcase was presented, Drew let everyone in on the joke by announcing that the show would be aired on April 1st and unveiled the real prize.

I attempted to find the clip to post but only was able to find the climax of the game. But little touches like this make for entertaining moments on any show.

catch the showcase here

I was having a brain freeze today and could not come up with a suitable movie to review… until I read a blog form a friend.  Happy Gilmore is one of the funniest movies involving one of the most boring sports imaginable: GOLF…. UGH!!!!.  Adam Sandler is one of the funniest guys around.  I abhor watching golf…. it is so quiet that that you are just dying to yell out “FIRE” or some other attention grabber.  But this movie makes it hilarious.  My favorite part of the whole movie has got to be when Happy is in a celebrity pro/am tournament.  He was lucky enough to be paired with America’s favorite game show host: Bob Barker former star of The Price is Right.  Happy’s day on the course does not go well.  Bob makes the comment that Happy’s hockey playing could not be worse than his golf game.  Then, the hilarity begins.  Bob Barker gets into a knock-down, drag-out fight.  When it seems that Happy is victorious, he exclaims: “The price is WRONG, B*%#H.”  To which Bob goes into a fit of rage and gives his golf partner a good beating.  After finishing Happy off, Bob returns the favor by saying: “now, you’ve had enough… b*$@h.”  All those days Bob spent boxing in the service must have payed off because the fight actually resembled a choreographed boxing match.  It was one of the highlights of the movie to watch the normally composed game show host lose his cool.  Speaking of boxing matches, Happy’s golf mentor, Chubbs, was played by Carl Weathers who played Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies.

You know I’m not going to finish that sentence…  if you’ve seen Happy Gilmore, you know how it ends, anyway.  If not, rent it if you like comedies, it’s a good one.  In case you haven’t noticed, I watch a lot of tv.  Actually, I don’t really watch it, I just leave it on to listen to while I putter around the house doing various chores and tending to children all day…  it’s nice to hear adults talking, even if they aren’t talking to me – I can pretend.  Anyway, I usually have The Price is Right on in my laundry room for my parrot – it’s his favorite show.  He likes to imitate the AWWW noise the audience makes when they get something wrong.  I’m getting used to Drew Carey.  He’s no Bob Barker, but he is finally becoming less nervous and getting in the groove of the show – or so I thought.  The other day when I started this post – it got POSTponed (HA) because the baby and I have been under the weather – Drew was a little “off”.  The opening prize was a train set, and he goes, what do you want to bid for that chainsaw?  As he admitted, he didn’t even look at the prize!  Then later on, he called one of the models Rachel Ray.  Funny stuff – and though it might seem like I have too much time on my hands, I beg to differ.