Day 24 - Tuesday, July 29th - Come on Down!

We found a Wal-Mart to sleep in last night outside of Los Angeles, and Dave and I set phone alarms to wake up around 5:15 AM. We had tickets to The Price is Right (or "The PIR" as the Long Beach guys called it). The ticketing system is long and complicated, and it offers no guarantees of being in the studio audience until you are actually in your seat. They start handing out priority ticket numbers at 6AM, and then begin handing out available tickets at 8AM based on your priority ticket number. There are 2 shows, a 1:00 and a 4:00, and we had "tickets" for the 4:00 show. This means we can only get a ticket to the 4:00 show if tickets are available. Knowing the complexity of things, we wanted to get there early enough to ensure our chance to "Come on Down!". I'd also like to make note that it has been my lifelong dream to see a taping of The Price is Right, even more so to be an actual contestant.

We arrived at the CBS studio around 6:15 AM, but they have no parking. They recommend parking in a neighboring shopping center, however there is no RV parking there. Complications arose, and the line for priority numbers looked pretty long as we passed by. I was anxious to park the RV and get to the studio, but we couldn't find anything. Finally, many blocks away, we found a 4 hour parking limit section on the street side. We got to the studio at 6:45 AM, and received priority numbers 306-308. We later found out that the studio seats 325 people per show, so being 306-308 of 650 total seats available got our spirits pretty high.

Turns out groups greater than 15 persons automatically have tickets, and we were waiting for whatever remaining seats were available. We were also told that "there are significantly more groups for the 4:00 show than the 1:00 show". They start handing out tickets around 8AM, and after only a few minutes, the tickets to the 4:00 show are sold out. This means we will be on standby, with about 250 people still ahead of us. Somehow there were over 100 people that ended up on standby for the 1:00 show, and we became standby #'s 39, 40 and 41 for the 4:00 show. As standby's, we were told to come back at 1:00 PM, and this is when we would find out if groups didn't show up that would allow standby's to receive tickets.

We started our 15 minute walk back to the RV and tried to figure out how to kill the next 4 hours of time, since it wasn't even 9AM yet. Passing a movie theater in the shopping mall, we noticed that Batman played at 9:20 AM. "Sure, why not see it a third time" was all of our reactions. So we did. The movie wasn't quite as great as in IMAX, but still a great movie, especially when the theater provided interactive seats for us. The 5.4 magnitude earthquake was the largest in Southern California since 1992.

After the movie ended, we put our Tiki shirts on and tried to figure out where to park the RV, since it needed to be moved at noon. There was nowhere to put the RV, since all spots were taken, so we put a note on the windshield wipers saying that the RV wouldn't start, but we were working on having it fixed. We hoped Charlotte wouldn't take it seriously and decide not to start when we returned. Being standby 39, 40 and 41 was a little upsetting, however, because it didn't seem likely that we would get into the audience.

We arrived to see a lot more people waiting in lines. After they arranged all of the groups, they put the standby people in lines on the benches as well. We got excited when the announcer was searching for a group that apparently had not shown up yet. The green tickets that they hand out are numbered, and we saw the people on the next bench receive #'s 235 and 236. Knowing they were the last people before standby's meant we should get a ticket. And we did get a ticket! Kyle was 268, I was 269 and Dave was 270. My excitement for the rest of the day can be seen in how much I'm writing about it. Of course there are many more lines and waiting before we could get into the studio. We had ID checks, then waited for our name tags to be written. Dave had a guy that took his time and did it right, while Kyle and my name tags look like a 6 year old wrote them. It didn't look like I had always dreamed it would. We then waited another hour for our group interview with Stan. They do a 3 minute interview with 12 contestants, so the only information Stan gets is where you're from and what you do. The interview was uneventful despite our Tiki shirts, so I didn't think it was likely that any of us would get on the show.

We then waited to go through security clearance, and heard a bunch of screaming and yelling. Drew was walking past everyone headed for the studio! Of course I joined in the screaming and yelling, and saw Drew give us a thumbs up, saying "I like your shirts". Stan also came over afterwards saying that he would like to record us saying "The Price is Right Rocks!" on his camera because he liked our shirts so much. Things were looking up!

Walking into the studio was surreal, and I was somewhat surprised by how small the audience section was. It made me wonder how come it took people so long to get down to contestant's row when they were called. I was filled with energy and jumping up and down for a while. We then find out that they needed audio clips of the audience in different scenarios. They would use this for future shows if an audience isn't being loud enough during a certain part of the show. We, as a part of the audience, would be a part of The Price is Right future, our screaming or clapping used whenever there were lame audiences. How exciting! (I hope they weren't lying to us and did this at the beginning of every show!?!)

The show was a lot of fun, but slowly got more disappointing as it came to a close and none of our names were called. It ended that way...a wonderful experience, but none of us able to take home anything more than our name tags. The show will air on Thursday, September 25th, the first week they will be offering the show in High Definition. Get your DVR's ready. We are towards the rear of the audience, slightly left of the middle. There will be no pictures of The Price is Right because cameras are prohibited, as well as cell phones and Drew Carey glasses (unless they are prescription).

We headed back to the RV exhausted, but glad to return to our cell phones. The block we parked on didn't allow parking past 6PM, towing enforced, and it was now 6:05. We had been parked there for over 12 hours in a 4 hour space. Charlotte was the last vehicle on the block, and much to our joy, she did start up without any problems. We ate at In-N-Out Burger, the first time for Dave and me, and then headed for Long Beach, CA. Our convention starts Wednesday, and we are in desperate need of a shower. After sweating all day Monday on the drive from Vegas, and all day Tuesday because of The Price is Right, I don't think we smelled the best. Parking on a street under the shadows of the Hilton Long Beach (our home from Wednesday through Sunday morning), we turned in for the night.

Total miles driven: over 5400