This just in from our "Department of Stories That Will Keep You Up at Night By Reminding You that the World Can Be an Awful, Horrible, Rotten Place." We probably need to rework the title.

Rodney Alcala, a serial killer convicted for the deaths of four women and a child, appeared as "Bachelor No. 1" on a 1978 episode of 'The Dating Game' hosted by Jim Lange. And here's the most f-ed up part, he won!

Buzzerblog found the actual episode on YouTube, that never-ending fountain of "Keyboard Cat" entertainment, of Alcala competing for the heart of one Cheryl Bradshaw. CNN also talked to one of his fellow bachelors who described him as "obnoxious" and "creepy," which incidentally is how most people describe what it feels like to watch a full episode of 'The Dating Game.'

If anyone was curious as to what the Drew Carey-hosted version of The Price is Right is going to look like, here's a taste.

The picture above is of Carey and Rebecca Dobkowitz, daughter of TPiR's longtime producer, Roger Dobkowitz, standing in front of one of the three huge doors on the set. It looks like they're giving the show a bit of a retro-modern look, which seems to fit the nature of the show pretty well.

Where did the picture come from? Facebook, of course! Rebecca put it up on her page, but took it down after it rocketed around the interwebs. Alex Davis of BuzzerBlog posted it a few days ago, generating more details about the revamped set from people who have seen recent tapings. More on that after the jump.

For those of you who were afraid NBC was going to burn out Deal or No Deal by airing it all summer long, you can relax.  According to this article in Broadcasting & Cable, NBC and producer Endemol are very aware of the burnout factor that helped sink Who Wants to be a Millionaire on ABC. Because of this, NBC will air the show two to three times a week until June 5, then give the show the summer off.

The June 5 season finale will feature a huge jackpot pool; I'm not sure what that means, because, like I've said before, having bigger prizes doesn't really provide that much of an incentive for someone to push forward and keep picking. Maybe the bank offers will be bigger.

Interesting article; they even get a quote from Regis Philbin, host of the burned-out Millionaire, expressing concern that the show might get over-played. It also mentions that the network and Endemol are interested in doing Spanish-language and syndicated versions of the show. NBC says it will only air the show once or twice a week come September, but I get the feeling that if they get another Joey-sized scripted disaster on their hands, that restraint may go out the window. Let's hope they can be "masters of their own domain," so to speak.

[via BuzzerBlog... thanks, Alex!]