#925 Watching ‘The Price Is Right’ when you’re at home sick

At an early age, it is possible to learn the price of life through The Price Is Right.

How many eight-year-olds know a can of chickpeas costs sixty-nine cents? How many twelve-year-olds can rattle off the features of a new solid oak armoir? And how many fourteen-year-olds can estimate the value of an ice-cream maker, new speedboat, set of maracas, and trip to Puerto Rico?

Well, I’ll you who, man: Any kid with the flu.

See, The Price Is Right is great when you’re sick because it comes along at 11:00am, which is about the time when your enthusiasm for missing school is sort of deflating into a boring day on the couch with a stomachache. By mid-morning, whoever is taking care of you has either headed upstairs or just put a blanket on you and gone grocery shopping. You feel too sick to do much of anything, so you just lay on the couch and flip channels endlessly, trying to understand why there’e nothing good on TV at ten in the morning.

Then finally — just as you finished counting the cracks in the ceiling, tried and failed to nap several times, and mindlessly gobbled down a pack of saltines — the clock strikes 11:00am and it’s time for the show.

That’s when the music starts kicking, the lights start flashing, and it’s time to come on down. Because it’s The Price Is Right, baby. So sing it with me and let’s get in the game. It’s just such a great time.

And, you know, I think it really helps that everybody on The Price Is Right is just so happy — people are running and jumping, laughing and screaming, and they’re all wearing homemade T-shirts to boot. Basically, they feel the exact opposite of how you feel and it’s sort of contagious.

Yes, The Price Is Right is just one massive climax of fun, prizes, games, and tuna fish ads. But you find yourself cheering along — guessing the price of the leather ottoman, yelling for the big wheel to stop on $1.00, and crossing your fingers for the announcer to unveil a game of Plinko or, yes … a new car!

And yeah, I know there’s a new host now, but come on — for how many years did The Price Is Right represent some solid, rock-like consistency in this mad, mad, mad, mad world? There was Rod Roddy’s sequined blazer, the wildly panning camera looking for the next contestant, Bob Barker’s skinny microphone, and shots of the family in the audience madly screaming advice to help our hapless contestant win that bedroom set.

It just never changed.

And so, whether you were six with the chickenpox, nine with the flu, twelve with a broken arm, or fifteen with menstrual cramps, you could count on sixty solid minutes with the company of that old seventies set, lots of one dollar bets, and advice to neuter your pet — all crunched into the best sick-day game show yet! And that’s a little something we like to call

AWESOME!

RIP good friend

Photos from: here, here, and here

51 thoughts to “#925 Watching ‘The Price Is Right’ when you’re at home sick”

  1. The Price Is Right was the best. My sister would watch it religiously every morning during summer break. I would be upstairs and she would come to the bottom of the stairs and SHOUT that they were finally playing Plinko! And I never understood why the contestants always looked to their friends for help. With everyone yelling at the same time there is no way they could tell what their friends were screaming! Then there’s always the little bit of saddness when those 60 minutes had flown by and you were forced to channel surf again!

    Definitely … Awesome!

  2. Sigh. I miss being home sick JUST FOR THAT.

    Okay, not having to work for a living was also nice, but I like to think that my time spent watching The Price Is Right helped me learn budgeting. That may be a justification.

  3. I’m just curious, did you LIVE my life? Because I’m beginning to feel very oddly related to you in that we have the same dictionary of awesome…
    Thought: is Bob Barker still alive? I thought he was 90 when I was a toddler….

  4. as a child and a grup this is my favorite time of weekday. Especially now when the wife and kids are at school and work and I’m home alone.

  5. They really do have a magic formula. Perfect time slot, catering to the perfect audience. How anyone could watch The Price is Right and get bored is beyond me.

  6. I agree wholeheartedly! Whenever I’m feeling down I just wait for the next episode of Price is Right. The nostalgia and giddiness cheers me up in no time!

  7. This one made me laugh out loud! This is way too funny and so true. I still watch it today as an adult when I am home sick, its the only thing decent on the TV (I can’t watch those court shows). Thanks for a good laugh each day.

  8. Man … a.m. kindergarten. 1992. Dad picks me up from school at 10:30. Get home and set up shop for 11:00 Price is Right, noon Brady Bunch.

    What a weird fucking kindergartner I was.

  9. That is so true! Whenever I was a kid home sick with the flu, I TOTALLY watched The Price is Right…I would be stuck on the couch, while my mom mopped the floor or did the dishes or something, and The Price is Right always hit the spot. This is a definate good call addition to your list.

    KIA
    http://www.48longstems.com/

  10. I think this is a totally American thing! I remember the few times I was home sick from school and that was the best part of my day. I had no idea that any other kid watched it until I was in high school. I had my German class around that time, and whenever my teacher didn’t feel like teaching, she’d let us all watch The Price is Right. The whole class would get into it, shouting bets and cheering when the person would win.

    I had a chance to go see Bob Barker’s Price is Right in January of 2007 with a group of college kids, but unfortunately didn’t have the money.

  11. I loved that show as a kid. I don’t watch it much anymore. It was fun to see the people getting all excited all the time to meet Bob Barker.

  12. Even though I didn’t LOVE the price is right, I do have to agree that it was an AWESOME feeling when I’d be at home (sick, or just faking it) in my jammies lounging on the couch watching the price is right.. It felt like being apart of something special :-D

  13. Man, even as a college student, I live for “The Price is Right” when I was at home for random one-week breaks that weren’t worth the effort of coming off of leave from work just to go back on 6 days later & getting a whole lousy 40 bucks for all the trouble.

    Obviously it was 1000x better when Bob Barker was still on, but I still love that show. Especially since I’m even better at guessing prices and stuff now.

    AWESOME :)

    Also, I love this blog!

  14. When my daughter was a few weeks old, the Price is Right is all she would sit still for. At 11 every morning I would put her in her bouncy chair and she would be content for an hour.
    I also remember watching that show with my great-grandpa. Great memories…..AWESOME.

  15. I used to watch it with my Gpa before he passed. When he was in the hospital he pleaded with the nurses that he wanted to go in his favorite chair, right after an episode of “The Price is Right”. They refused because of his poor health (duh, he knew he was going to die!). His heart stopped about ten minutes after the show would have started if he would’ve been home. It was a big part of his life. This brings back memories.

  16. “it comes along at 11:00am, which is about the time when your enthusiasm for missing school is sort of deflating into a boring day on the couch with a stomachache.”

    “Bob Barker’s skinny microphone.”

    Spot-freaking-on!

    And you were either ready for that nap or starting to feel better by the time you heard “The Price Is Right is a Mark Goodson – Bill Todman production.”

  17. one of the most awesome things in life. i happen to do this today, Price is Right never gets old. i even downloaded the app on my iTouch.
    i have to say.. i just discovered this blog and its the most time i have ever spent on a website reading every word. keep it up. and thank you for the great work you guys do.

  18. When I was studying at McGill, a bunch of us (30 or more?) would have a break at the same time that would coincide with the airing of TPiR. We would cram into the tiny cafeteria in the Phys Ed building all cheering on as loudly as those in the audience willing the players to make the right bid.

    Nothing quite like that shared experience! I think I need a sick day.

  19. Cue the clangs and whoops, this one’s a winner. I never missed the show during the summer, which was the only time I could watch it (and the aforementioned sick days). And heck, even though they’re trying new things on the show with the coming of the new era, it’s still the same show at its base. Even now that I’m in college and sometimes have no class on weekdays, why sleep in when I can catch TPIR at 10? It’s a much more productive use of that hour anyway.

    My roommate, for what it’s worth, is still sleeping when I flip it on…

  20. Used to watch that show during the entire summer, then forced to only watch it whilst suffering from the flu when school arrived in September. I don’t anymore because I sleep off my sickness now and also, Bob Barker isn’t there anymore, which is not so awesome.
    But my childhood remembers “COME ON DOOOOOOWN!” clear as a bell. And that IS awesome.

  21. Wow, this is so true! just last year My mom and I were sick, and all we did was lie on the couch and watch the price is right. It provided much needed entertainment during those long sick days. (seriously why does TV suck around midday? Oprah at 4 was my only consolation)

  22. I work in an office with a TV that I can set to whatever channel I want.
    At 27 years old, I still watch The Price Is Right…every single day…at 11am…while I’m eating lunch.

    PRI = <3

  23. Growing up, it sort of made up for all the ills, I won so many prizes~it was Awesome!
    Recently, I tuned in for old times sake and there was Drew Carrie. I like him far better!

  24. Any time I had a day off or was sick I did just exactly this…some chicken noodle soup, lots of crackers, and good ol’ bob barker. The competition at the end was so intense! I always felt I deserved to win the prizes if I was closer than the contestants… :)

  25. Hockey have been my favourite. Everyone is talking about them. I hope winnipeg jets are able to keep it up as I heard their sales #’s are lagging in the future years.

  26. 20 years old, home sick with a sinus infection…and I’m watching The Price Is Right. So what that I’ll have to do twice the work when I return tomorrow? It makes the sick day worth it :)

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  28. I am 13 years old and I still watch The Price Is Right every morning at 11:00am during summer break. It’s just the best. And every time the people play plinko I yell to my sister telling her that they are playing it. And if she doesn’t come and watch I yell out each amount they get. It is truly awesome. Even though the hosts come and go. It’s still an amazing show.
    Awesome indeed : ) <3

  29. I literally laughed out loud reading some of the comments above because YES, do we live the same lives??? I totally second your article about this awesome and super addictive show. My 2-year-old cousin always anticipates the ever famous “A brand new car” segment and my family members just love shouting answers to the contestants as though they can actually hear them. The show is really informative too apart from being entertaining. I can now gauge the prices of different furniture sets, be it a simple storage stool like you mentioned the ottoman or something huge like a bedroom set.

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