I’m going for a play on the children’s book here, but couldn’t work “wild” into the title. But there is a land where pricing games live, it’s not mythical at all, and you’re about to read all about it…
Just to the west of Stage 33, TPIR’s home for the past 38 seasons, there is a fairly large area where many of the pricing games are stored. The games stored back here are many of your favorites, including Plinko, Cliffhangers, Three Strikes, Ten Chances, and many more. We actually have two areas we store games in, one is in our prize warehouse across the lot from the stage, but the main one is here, just down the hall from the Bob Barker Studio:
Now, don’t think we wouldn’t like all the games on the show to live together, because we would. However, we have limited space back here, and the games that get to live here do so mostly because they have electronics or other mechanisms inside them that would get broken quite quickly if they had to rumble across the lot, up the ramp outside, and into the studio. So here they live, waiting for their number to be called and brought out to play for the day.
When our prop and grip crews arrive the morning of a tape day, one of the first things they do is check their rundowns (the 4 page document that tells everyone what’s in the show for the day) for what games and prizes are their responsibility. When a game is built and put on the show, it is assigned to either the prop or grip crew, depending on its size and the location on the stage where it plays. Once they’ve seen what games we’re playing, they “pull” them out, and take them down the hall to where they’ll “live” until it’s their turn to go on the air.
Once they get to where they need to be, they get the treatment: dusted off, prizes and graphics put on them (if necessary), and perhaps given a look-see on camera during rehearsal. Then, they wait their turn until it’s their big moment on the show… they get played, pounded, punched, written on, flipped, and everything in between, all in service of the greatest game show on television! Then, when they’ve either been won or lost, it’s right back home – down the hall, make a left, and back into their little (or large) slot in the storage area.
That’s life for a game on “The Price is Right”… I wonder what they talk about when we’re not looking…
-Adam
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