I'm watching the Price is Right Christmas episode right now and thought to myself, I wonder if there's any old Christmas episodes of the show online. OF COURSE THERE IS! Here's Part 1 of the Christmas episode in 1983 (you can watch the other parts here). The show really hasn't changed all that much.

I'm not sure if it seems like it should be more episodes or less, but The Price is Right has been going strong since 1972 and they're going to be celebrating their 7000th episode on November 5. I guess that seems right, it's just that when a show is on for 37 years you lose all track of the number of episodes.

Here's a behind the scenes look at tomorrow's show.

[via BuzzerBlog]

I guess if there's one good thing about Guiding Light being canceled is that CBS replaced it with a game show. I'm not sure if Let's Make A Deal is the game I would have chosen to remake, but it's better than having another Dr. Phil-ish show on the schedule. Here Price is Right host Drew Carey welcomes LMAD host Wayne Brady to the network. It starts Monday.

The Price is Right set has gone through a lot of changes over the years, but today's season premiere showed that they were really busy over the summer (as was the Jeopardy crew).

The show used to have a very '70s vibe (even in the '80s and '90s), and then they replaced the more '70s-ish designs with more of a '50s look (while still keeping a lot of the '70s stuff). Today we found out that the retro '50s graphics are still evident on the walls, but they've also changed the two main areas of the stage. The screens on Contestants Row are now more clean and boxy than they used to be, and it looks like they're using a different lighting system for the numbers that pop up on the screens. Looks better.

Remember how we all used to cringe when a giant contestant would freak out when she or he won a prize on The Price is Right and try to hug, jump on, and/or pick up Bob Barker, and we thought his 80-ish body would break in half or he'd at least get a cracked rib? Looks like he was the wrong host to worry about.

Recently a contestant on the show kneed Drew Carey right in the groin. Not a glancing blow either; this was an "oh my God I can't breathe or talk but I'll try to smile as we go to break" slam.

By the way, the contestant is a former Survivor: Fiji contestant.

This clip is from 1993, but it's worth seeing again (or for the first time - I'm a huge Price Is Right fan and I don't remember this at all). A woman spins the wheel and gets 75 cents. She spins again and gets 25 cents, so that's a dollar, which means she gets $1000 and a bonus spin. Nope. Bob doesn't realize she got a buck and thinks its only 95 cents. They just go on with the show and no one says anything about it (though it's possible someone is tries to say something to Bob at one point but the sound isn't clear). Scandal!



[thanks to reader Bob for the tip]

If you didn't watch today's episode of The Price is Right, you missed a woman wearing a "Substitute Teachers Need Random Sets Too" t-shirt (which I'm still not sure I understand), a woman winning a set of Star Trek Pez dispensers (!),Drew Carey showing what the price card looks like inside that envelope used on Contestants Row (not sure if we've ever seen that before), and a woman flapping her arms up and down like a bird in excitement, even though she didn't win a car in the Lucky 7 game (side note: that game is impossible to win now). Oh, and you also missed Bob Barker return to the show he hosted for over 30 years.

Barker made his first appearance on the show since his retirement to promote his new memoir, Priceless Memories. He showed up during the showcases. After the jump, his appearance (along with interviews and some behind the scenes footage).

We've already heard that former host Bob Barker is going to appear on The Price is Right later this month to promote his new autobiography. But there's another guest that's going to pop up on the show, and it happens today: Mimi from The Drew Carey Show!

Well, to be accurate, Kathy Kinney will appear on her former co-star Drew Carey's CBS game show today as part of the April Fool's Day festivities.

I remember a great April Fool's day Price is Right episode years ago. One of the showcases was their regular "Something For Every Room In The House," but the prizes this day were things like a yo-yo for a game room and a cup for a kitchen. It was pretty funny and really unexpected. Not sure if Drew has anything like that planned for today or if we're just going to see Kinney as Mimi causing havoc on the set.

I've been watching The Price is Right since the 70's and I thought I had seen everything: prizes break, people falling down, April Fool's Day jokes being played on contestants, boobs popping out of shirts. But today I saw something that I'm sure is going to be talked about a lot.

During the showcase, the first contestant came very, very close to the actual retail price. I think she was something like $480.00 off (I didn't record the show so I'm going on memory here). It looked like she was going to win, until they got to the other contestant. He bid $23,743, and then host Drew Carey announced the actual retail price as...$23,743. That's right, the contestant got the price exactly right.

If I were to win a prize on The Price is Right - perhaps a new Broyhill sofa, some dinnerware from The Michael C. Fina Company, or a new car - I wouldn't jump up and down. In fact, I don't think that a car is even such a great prize to win. But I can understand why contestants who win some of the bigger prizes would want to jump up and down and celebrate.

However, I don't understand why contestants jump up and down before they win a prize.

The Price Is Right recently started its new season, and people who were worried that the show would go in a bad direction after the removal of longtime producer Roger Dobkowitz can rest easy: the show pretty much remains the same. Same host, same music, same games (with a new one added like they usually do every season), same big wheel (slightly spruced up), same Showcase, same people making really lousy decisions when it comes to bidding on prizes in Contestant's Row that make you want to kick in your TV.

There are a few changes, such as the set design changes they made during Drew Carey's first year. For God-knows-how-long, the walls and doors of the stage set have been stuck in the 1970s, and it has always been sort of quaint and comforting that they never changed it. But now they've gone even more retro, with 1950s/early 60s-ish square shapes (circles last year) and colors. As a big fan of mid-century design, I really like this change. Somehow fits in with the game show world a little better.

There seems to be an inordinate amount of lawsuits involving The Price Is Right: sexual harassment, wrongful termination, etc. Now one of those lawsuits is going forward but with one key member no longer involved.

A judge in Los Angeles has dismissed allegations against Bob Barker in the lawsuit involving a former production assistant who says she was demoted because she testified in one of the other cases. The reason for the dismissal? Barker wasn't her boss. The judge also dismissed claims that the woman made against Fremantle Media, but those could be reinstated later if the judge is convinced by her attorney that they should be.

Jason's post earlier today about The Price Is Right reminded me of something I've been thinking about for years: what are the best and worst prizes you can win on the show?

This is all personal opinion, of course. Where I might frown or shrug at a prize I might win another person will scream and jump down about. But I think there are certainly some prizes we can all agree are pretty lame. Below are the six that come to mind. Five of them you'll probably agree with, but I bet several of you will have a problem with number six.

This seems like a no-brainer, and I wonder why they haven't done it before. A video game based on The Price Is Right will be in stores in time for Christmas.

Now, that will be long after the CBS show picks a new host to replace Bob Barker (the latest rumor: Drew Carey could get the gig, if he audtions and his new game show Power of 10 does well in the ratings), so there's no word on there will be any host depicted in the game. But all the classic games will be there: Contestant's Row, Plinko, the Showcase Showdown, and there will be real products in the game just like on the TV show.

I just hope they also have annoying, screaming audience members who can confuse the contestants, and women who run down the aisle and their boobs fall out of their dresses.

It looks like the long search for the new host of The Price Is Right is down to two: Sarah Silverman and David Hasselhoff.

Just kidding! The New York Post is reporting that producers have narrowed it down to two contestants: Mark Steines and Todd Newton. Steines is a host on Entertainment Tonight (he'll keep the job if he gets the PIR gig), and Newton has hosted several game shows, including a PIR show in Las Vegas. The pay for the job is reportedly near $3 million a year. Nice.

Hmmm...I'm not sure about this. But I guess they're both competent hosts. It looks like producers are going for the safer choices (male, slightly older, experienced) than going with someone like Mario Lopez or Ian Ziering.