Penny Ante Glitches
If you’ve been watching “The Price is Right” for some time now, you may remember Penny Ante. The game featured an eight-lane highway set-up of prices and played a memorable “wubba-wubba-wubba” sound when the host put in a contestant’s guess. Of course, as cool as the set may have been, there always seemed to be some type of mechanical errors that went on when it was played.
On more than one occasion, the correct answer is shown before contestants are even allowed to guess it for themselves. Eventually, the game was pulled from the show’s rotation so that the set could be worked on. But it seems as though it wasn’t meant to be, because it was accidentally left out in the rain before it could be fixed, and was ruined, never to be played again.
Bob Flips When Flip Flop Doesn’t Flop
On a good day, Bob Barker was just the most helpful guy you can imagine. And when he’s pissed off on set, he still seemed like he was pretty nice. In fact, even when he was turning red and yelling, he did it with a smile on his face.
Just take the instance of the game that didn’t go the way he wanted, and he flipped out on the contestant playing. “Get off the stage!” He yelled, even pushing the guy away. And it was all due to that pesky red button that just beckoned players to hit it, even when they weren’t supposed to. Producers wound up fixing that issue – probably at Bob’s request.
Pricing Mishaps
On the 3rd of March 1989, the show that aired seemed to be full of pricing miscues. It all started when contestants played Punch-a-Bunch when one woman nearly made a move way too early. Luckily, Bob jumped in to stop her. However, just a few minutes later, a pricing slip seemed to disappear, and he got flustered, and nearly just gave up and awarded the top prize - $10,000.
Of course, Bob never seemed to stay flustered for too long, and he’s always able to bounce back from any mistakes on the show. So, they moved on to the next segment, which is a game of One Away, where someone who’d put the game together had misplaced an entire row of numbers, making it impossible to win. It seems like someone had a rough night before coming in to work that morning.
Off by Just $6
In March of 2020, one woman had a face-off with two showcases that included a Honda Fit, and a trip to Seattle. She placed a bid of $23,450 – and it turns out she was only off by $6. Because of how close she was to the actual price, she won both showcases.
Now, those who are long-time viewers know that it’s exciting when someone comes within $200 of the actual price, much less $6. Unfortunately, Drew Carey’s response to the situation was pretty underwhelming. If you watch the moment for yourself on YouTube, you’ll note the non-reaction – as did many of the commenters.
Come on…Out?
In 1977, one contestant named Yolanda Barker was thrilled to hear the announcer call her name. She jumped up and down and excitedly trotted towards the stage. Unfortunately, along the way, something embarrassing happened – her top fell down – and yes, parts popped out.
Bob Barker, who was used to dealing with all sorts of curveballs during the show, kept his cool. He laughed it off along with the audience, first saying, “my goodness, thank you very much and welcome to Price is Right!“ and followed up with, “she came on down, and they came on out!”