A documentary that is more entertaining than it might sound.
After watching The Price is Right on television for years, I never thought about it much. It was just one of those game shows that I’d watch if I was home sick from work or school. It never dawned on me that someone could be so obsessed with the show that he might actually catalog all the prizes and their prices in a database. But not only did someone do it, he actually used that knowledge to help contestants win prizes. He also helped change the show forever.
For those of you not familiar with The Price is Right, it’s a game show that appears on weekday mornings in the United States. It’s been on the air since 1972 in various incarnations. The basic premise has always been the same: Contestants bid on what they think is the retail price of a prize. The contestant who is closest without bidding higher than the retail price wins that prize and a chance to compete in the Showcase Showdown, playing for a collection of prizes at the end of the show. There are various games of chance and skill that involve the prices of other products which are also given away as prizes.
Ted (Theodore) Slauson became a fan of the show at an early age. He noticed right away that the same prizes appeared fairly regularly on show. He began to catalog and memorize the prices of those prizes. As he got older, he began putting the prices in a database he could cross-reference and use to quiz himself. He even programmed a computer version of the game, including the skill challenges, in Visual Basic on his PC. Once he was old enough, he began attending tapings of the show with the hope of being chosen as a contestant and using his mental database of prices to bid accurately and win big.
Filmmaker C. J. Wallis chronicles Slauson’s obsession in Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much, a documentary that is more entertaining than it might sound. Wallis includes interviews with Slauson as well as long-time Price is Right host Bob Barker, and former show producer Roger Dobkowitz to illustrate not only Slauson’s unique obsession but the genuine affection Barker and Dobkowitz had for the show’s countless fans.
Slauson tells his story in minute detail. From the first time he watched the show to his appearance as a contestant and the many times he assisted other contestants by yelling out prices from the audience, Slauson remembers everything. His attention to detail is no surprise considering the fact that he memorized the prices of hundreds (if not thousands) of items.
Barker and Dobkowitz each give some historical perspective on the show and what kind of thought process goes into selecting contestants, warming up the audience, and so forth. They appear to have genuinely loved working on the show over the course of 35 years. (No mention is made of the lawsuits aimed at Barker for sexual harassment and wrongful termination of a staff member, however.)
However, it is Slauson’s anecdotes and stories that power the film. What a viewer will get out of the documentary depends solely on how much one is interested in learning what made the show tick. Slauson’s experiences with the show are interesting but I couldn’t help wondering if they would mean much to someone who’d never seen an episode of the game show.
The title of the documentary implies that Slauson may have been involved in something sinister or malicious. Slauson was directly responsible for changing the way the show handled pricing of the prizes but I won’t spoil what happened other than to say it’s amusing to see current show host Drew Carey recount the incident in archival footage.
A documentary about a contestant’s obsession with a game show might not sound like entertaining viewing but there’s a certain charm to Slauson’s stories that might change your mind. If you’re looking to throw yourself a mental curve-ball, check out Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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