Do You Consider This Price Is Right Winner A Cheater?
This is an older clip, but it was such a big controversy that there was a documentary made about this perfect bid and The Price is Right moment. It's actually now FREE on YouTube if you need something watch and it is rather fascinating. It's an amazing moment, but what is the backstory?
Essentially, there was a man in the crowd yelling out prices to the winning contest Terry. That's normal, it happens every show, but this man, Ted Slauson, wasn't your average audience member. He was essentially the greatest The Price is Right player ever. Before watching the documentary, here is a written account of what happened from Esquire...
Ted Slauson is forty-four, a native of northern California but now a resident of San Antonio, where he writes math problems for standardized tests. He first started watching The Price Is Right when he was six or seven years old. By the time he was in high school, he'd noticed that prizes repeated — Turtle Wax and Rice-a-Roni and Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup (which kept cropping up because Bob Barker had insisted the show be vegetarian; no fur, no meat) — and he began keeping track of their values. Although he had a knack for numbers, he found his memory worked best when he had visual cues; ...he bought a VCR and took mental snapshots. Between 1989 and 1992, he attended more than twenty tapings but never became a contestant. (via Esquire)
Ted had built software to play randomized versions of the entire show, and it helped him get better and better at the game. On top of that, repeating prizes meant that Ted had seen many of the items before and memorized their prices. For some odd reason, The Price is Right repeated things often, so it made things easier for Ted. Before a taping, he met Terry, decided to help him out and the rest is history...
Here is the full interview from Drew Carey on the Kevin Pollak show about the moment…
So, the big question: does this make the guy a cheater?
My thoughts? No. I don't think he should have been banned either. The Price is Right is to blame for not changing up their items. In order to beat as a system, you have to give people something to beat. With a show like The Price is Right, you have to give as many random combinations and outcomes as possible and they left themselves open for something like this. It wasn't even the first time someone "beat the system" of a game show. The infamous Press Your Luck scandal is very similar (and another great documentary)…
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While we are at documentaries about insane minds and beating games and game shows, the Billy Mitchell documentary 'The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters' is also free on YouTube.
When it comes to The Price is Right scandal, the only thing that bothers me is that the showcase winner Terry still doesn't really admit what they did…
Terry says that he had no idea Ted was a ringer. Even if he did, he says that he couldn't have heard Ted shouting out numbers, the way he couldn't hear Rich Fields call out his name. That if it seemed as though he was looking in Ted's direction during his bid, he was actually looking at Linda, who confirmed his math by holding up fingers on both her hands: a two and a three, twenty-three. That Linda had gently scolded him after for giving away their PINs, which they've had to change since, and that it would have been impossible for him to have concocted, after the fact, such an elaborate creation myth, pulling out their wedding certificate and passports to explain why he had bid $23,743, a very exact bid. "I have no regrets," Terry says, "but there have been times I've wondered, What have I done?" Other players had come close before. Five dollars. Eight dollars. It was easy. The answers were right in front of you. If only he'd bid $23,700, he still would have won both Showcases, and no one would have accused him of anything other than good fortune. Terry's only sin that morning, he says, is that he was perfect. (via Esquire)
Just say you were part of the Ocean's 11 of game shows! It's respectable and awesome.
Anyway, that's all, take it away Bob…