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October 3, 2005

The Price Is Right

This is to give you readers a little background on the time that the Playaz' hosted and produced the popular game show The Price Is Right. Prior to Bob Barker's arrival, Bon was the first host of The Price Is Right (the version that you have become familiar with, not the sixties version). Bon was an excellent host, albeit a bit aggressive and quick to anger with some of the dumber contestants. Bon ran a tight ship, and was responsible for many of the innovations that make TPIR popular today. Bon discovered and recruited the models who appeared on the show, knowing that their sex-appeal would boost ratings and help promote the show itself.

Many of you are aware of the Playaz late-night parties with the likes of Dian Parkinson, Holly Hutchinson, Ferrari Ferris, and many other of the fine ladies from TPIR. Well, they were Bon's idea, and were called "Bon's Beauties" before Barker came in riding on Bon's coattails. Wayne was the announcer for the show. Wayne is quite a handsome fellow, but has a notoriously jealous wife. In order to keep peace with his wife at home, who was not fond of the Playaz' carousing with the models on the show, Wayne decided to gain 50 pounds and wear flamboyantly gay clothing in an effort to keep the ladies away, a style that was copied by subsequent announcers after our dismissal.

We invented many of the games that are still played today. This is a picture of the "Playaz Clock Game", in which contestants tried to guess the measurements of certain Playaz within 30 seconds, where Bon would instruct the contestant to guess "higher" or "lower".

When the contestant guessed correctly, the clock would stop and then move on to the next Playa. This game was not a favorite of the network and was quickly cancelled, until the Barker-era came along and the game was simply renamed "Clock Game" where contestants guessed prices of vegetables and whatnot.

We were all fired, however, when it came out that we tried to rig the game by winning prizes for ourself. For three shows straight, either Tac, Manny or myself won as contestants on the show until the network caught on. We were forced to return most of the money, but we did get to keep a Chevrolet Caprice Classic they did not account for.

Another sore spot with the network was Bon's "kill all animals" stance, contrary to Bob Barker's stance on making sure your pets are taken care of by being either spayed or neutered. Thus, it simply didn't work out for us.

Posted by Phil at October 3, 2005 9:10 AM