Ted Talks

Today marks the 7,000th episode of The Price is Right on CBS Daytime. There won’t be any special episode to mark this occasion as previous milestone episodes (4000, 5000, 6000) were ceremonial in nature…

Approximately 1 month ago Terry Kneiss created a minor furor when he gave an exact bid on his Price is Right showcase. However, it came to light that Terry had an assist from the man simply known as “Ted.”

I contacted Ted and asked him about the incident. He spoke candidly about his prior experience as a Price contestant, the rumor that he “studies” the prizes/prices and the big one…Does Ted think he did anything wrong?

TV: What was your previous Price experience?

Ted: I was chosen to be a contestant on my 24th visit to the show. The date was July 15, 1992, and the show aired that October. I was surprised that my name was the first one called that day, especially since Phil Wayne Rossi (the producer who was choosing the contestants that day) knew that I had a history of knowing a lot of the prices of the prizes and products used on the show. I always assumed that if I was chosen, I would be called as the last contestant of the day and that the one-bid prize would be something brand new to the show. I missed winning the first one-bid, but won the second one (a recliner) with a perfect bid of $599. I got up on stage and played Punch-A-Bunch. I won all four small prizes (a coffee/tea maker, baby clothing, a dumbbell set, and a photo laminator) and won $1,000 on my first punch. I chose to keep the $1,000, and the remaining punches were (in order) $500, $250, and $50. Best of all, I got to kiss Holly Hallstrom on the air during my onstage game. She was and still is my favorite model on the show.

I was first to spin the wheel in the Showcase Showdown, and ended up with only 55 cents after two spins. The second contestant to spin the wheel ended up with 70 cents, thus dashing my hopes for being in the showcase.

After the taping, while I was waiting to fill out my paperwork to receive the prizes I won, somebody handed me something. I looked at what I was being handed and then looked up. Holly was personally delivering to me an autographed photo of herself. The caption included the line “Theodore, it was a great television kiss!” This moment meant more to me than the $1,962 in cash and prizes I had won in the previous hour, and cemented my feelings that Holly was the most “real” of the models on the show. I still have the photo, which has been framed and hangs in my office at home.

TV: How often do you watch the show?

Ted: As with most everything, this varies. When I was a kid (and in school), I could only really watch during the summer and whenever school was not in session. When my Dad purchased our family’s first VCR, I began to record the show every day and would watch the tape when I got home from school. From probably 1982 until 1995, I watched just about every episode, unless I forgot to set the VCR the night before. From 1995 until about 2002, I didn’t watch the show much, due to a very busy work schedule and since I was no longer eligible to be a contestant, it didn’t seem like a good investment of my time to continue to track the prizes and prices.

TV: Is it true that you study and memorize the prizes and their prices?

Ted: My feeling has always been that if chosen as a contestant, I don’t want to play a guessing game and hope for the best; I want to have every advantage possible while staying within the rules of the game. I am once again an eligible contestant, since the contestant eligibility rules for The Price Is Right have changed (and since more than ten years have passed since I was first a contestant on the show). I used to write everything down before I got my first personal computer. I keep records of all the shows, as well as the prizes and products used on each show. I usually begin to study the prizes and prices a few months in advance of attending a taping in order to memorize as many as possible.

TV: How did you come to meet Terry?

Ted: I got in line at CBS at about 1:15 A.M. on September 22nd. There were 3 people in line ahead of me, but one of those people wanted a specific place in line, so he allowed people to move ahead of him in line. Terry arrived at about 2:15 A.M. and was next to me in line. Terry’s wife joined us later in the morning. The first two people in line were an older couple who had been to many tapings of the show. The five of us struck up many conversations about the show and Terry’s wife impressed me with her knowledge of prices. In fact, three of the grocery items she priced correctly in line were used in that day’s playing of “It’s In The Bag”. I thought Terry’s wife had a good chance to be chosen as a contestant, as she seemed to be in a very good mood, and that’s usually what the producer is looking for when selecting potential contestants.

TV: So, why Terry and not someone else? Or everyone else?

Ted: In Terry’s case, proximity was the key. His wife was two seats away from me and Terry had been sitting next to me. His wife and I were both trying to help him get up on stage. However, I also offer my opinion on prices to everyone, especially if I’m pretty sure I’m right. Sharon won the car in One Away as a direct result of taking my advice. If you watch the tape of the show, you’ll see that although the camera shot shows her friends in the audience who were off to one side of the audience pit (as if she’s looking to them for advice), you can clearly tell she’s taking advice from somebody in the center section. But, in general, I’ll help anybody who’s willing to take a chance on the bids I’m giving them.

TV: According to an interview with a radio station (and subsequently reported on TMZ.com), Terry is taking the lion’s share of the credit for the prefect bid. How do you feel about that?

Ted: I’ve communicated with Terry a few times since the show taped. He has consistently stated that he was in a state of “numbness” during the whole taping. I can tell you that I told his wife the price of his showcase, so we were probably both “fingering” the price to him. Although, even at that point I realized what a backlash there might be for a perfect showcase bid, so I backed off and signaled “$23,500” to Terry. Right after I did that, he uttered that now famous bid of “$23,743”. Whether he doesn’t remember that his wife and I were telling him that bid, or whether he was encouraged to tell people that he did it himself is a question I can’t answer. They’re both very nice people, though, so I’d like to believe that there’s no malicious intent, whatever the reason for Terry taking the credit. For me, it’s not about receiving notoriety; I just like helping people win. It’s an awesome feeling to see somebody win a car just twenty feet away from you and think, “I just helped that person win a car!”

TV: At the taping, how did CBS and the production team react once Terry had made his bid?

Ted: The moment Terry uttered his showcase bid, one of the show’s producers, Kathy Greco, walked over to the “puppet booth” (the panel behind which some of the production folks sit) and stared directly into it. I assume she was talking on her headset during this time, but her back was to me. I knew then that Terry had an on-the-nose showcase bid. When they went to commercial, I noticed that there were groups of people all over the stage having conversations. It was obvious to me what was going on, but I can only imagine what the rest of the audience was thinking when the stop-down continued for such a long time. At one point, I noticed that a camera was pointed right at Terry’s wife, and a few seconds later, I noticed that the same camera was pointed right at me. At one point, Kathy Greco was explaining to Drew Carey what was happening, so it’s pretty clear he knew before he revealed the price that it was on the nose. I didn’t time the stop-down, but I don’t remember it lasting 45 minutes. It felt more like 20 minutes.

As soon as the taping ended, Terry’s wife came back down to her seat from the stage and Kathy Greco called out to her and took her backstage. I assumed I would be whisked off somewhere and interrogated, but that didn’t happen. For those who have never attended a taping, 300+ people have to crowd through one set of double-doors and down a staircase, so it takes a while to get out of the studio, especially if you are in the front row. As I was starting to make some progress toward the exit, I noticed Terry’s wife waiting in the audience pit area to my right and I asked her if she had been interrogated. She said she hadn’t and that Drew Carey had wanted to autograph her shirt.

TV: Speaking of reactions, what is your opinion of Drew’s?

Ted: I think he could have been a little more excited, but from everything I’ve read, the staff was still unsure if the perfect showcase bid was the result of cheating. It still would have been nice if he had played up that moment a bit more.

TV: When Drew took over hosting duties, they re-opened the eligibility to people who had been contestants 10 or more years ago. How many times have you been since becoming re-eligible?

Ted: I have only been to CBS this one time since Bob Barker retired at the end of season 35. I have not yet returned to CBS since the day this show taped.

TV: Do you think you’ve been banned from attending future tapings?

Ted: Since there were tickets still available for the second taping, I got back in line and went through the interview process again. When we were let into the studio, I was seated in the center section in one of the rows near the back of the audience. I noticed a member of the production staff peek out from behind the curtains and look right at me. A few minutes later, the person next to me said that the pages were looking for me (they were looking for the person who had contestant card #269). I identified myself to a page, and he had me follow him. He walked over to a woman who I have since learned is in charge of audiences and guest relations. I assumed I would be escorted out or at least questioned about the “incident” at the first taping, but instead she walked me over to one of the side sections and had me take a seat there and moved another audience member to my original seat. I wasn’t sure what the purpose of this was until the taping had begun—from my seat, I would be unable to see the contestants during the Showcase round. After seeing the show on the air, I realized I might have been able to get the price of first showcase on the nose, but due to the noise level in the studio, I was unable to hear all the descriptions of the prizes.

TV: So, has anyone from CBS contacted you directly?

Ted: I haven’t heard anything at all from anybody associated with CBS or The Price Is Right. I’m hoping I haven’t been forever banned from the studio. Since I’m again eligible to be a contestant, I might want to go to tapings in the future. If I spent money on airfare and hotel and was then informed that I was not welcome at CBS, I think I would be pretty upset, especially since they had the opportunity to tell me this when I attended the second taping on September 22nd.

TV: As of today, there have been 14,000 showcases offered and no one has ever gotten it exactly right before. (The one time it did happen was with host Dennis James.) Does that seem surprising?

Ted: I am a little surprised. People study and prepare before going on other game shows. I guess not too many people prepare as much as I do before attending The Price Is Right, although over the years, I have seen a few other folks in the audience, and as contestants on the show, who have good memories when it comes to knowing prices.

TV: The on-line fandom has been less than kind and even some MSM outlets picked up this story. Has any of it disappointed you or dampened your enthusiasm for the show?

Ted: It’s disappointing to read so many negative posts online about the perfect showcase bid and about me. However, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just disagree with many of the negative opinions. I’m fortunate that the reaction from my family and friends has all been very positive. While I haven’t watched many of the shows that have aired since December 18th, due to traveling for the holidays, I’m sure I will be catching up on the back episodes I’ve missed in the near future.

Some people feel that the showcase was “rigged”. I was able to determine the exact price of the showcase based on knowledge I had from regularly watching the show and the contestant decided to go with my bid. It’s as simple as that. No rigging was done by the show and there was no impropriety on my part or anybody else’s.

Some people feel that what I did was somehow cheating or cheapens the feel of the show and should not be allowed. I was able to determine the exact price of the showcase based on knowledge I had from regularly watching the show. The Price Is Right pretty much has always relied on audience participation, with the exception of one game (Clock Game). In fact, at the tapings I attended on September 22nd, one of the pages encouraged audience members to offer bids and advice. Am I not allowed to participate as an audience member because I have done more preparation than the average audience member? Should Terry’s wife not have been allowed to provide advice to the contestant who played “It’s In The Bag” because she knew three of the prices of the products used in the game that day? For that matter, if a family member or my significant other was chosen as a contestant, should I not be allowed to help him or her out? In other words, where does the line get drawn

TV: Do you think you did anything wrong?

Ted: I know I didn’t do anything wrong. Had I done anything wrong, I’d probably be in prison, as the CBS pages make it quite clear during the contestant processing what the rules of the game are and that it is a federal crime to bring price lists into the studio. If anybody at the studio was suspicious of me, I would think that they would have had me searched to make sure I didn’t have price lists on me. But I think one of the producers remembers me and knows my history with getting prices on the nose and probably decided it would be pointless.

TV: Thanks for your time Ted. If there’s anything else you’d like to say, the final word is yours…

Ted: I think the show has encouraged me in the past to share my knowledge of prices with the contestants. Bob Barker once chided me on the air for yelling out a bid for the first one-bid prize before the contestants had a chance to bid. When he read the actual retail price of the prize and realized I had been on the nose, he had me stand up and acknowledged that I was exactly right. For the next two years, whenever I returned to CBS for a taping, the producer in charge of selecting contestants always greeted me by name and welcomed me back. In at least two or three cases, he selected the person sitting right next to me as a contestant, which leads me to believe they wanted me to help contestants win.

Some people have referred to me as “an obsessed fan”. I fail to see how watching a program on a regular basis and using information provided on the show as a method for preparing to be a potential contestant on that show is evidence of me being “obsessed.”

I can’t force anybody to take a bid from me. Contestants literally have 300 people screaming bids at them, and have to decide whose bid they should take (or make up their own minds). Generally, contestants notice that I’ve gotten a price on the nose before they decide to go with my bid. And even then, there’s no guarantee that they’re going to win.

As a final note, there have been plenty of times where I accidentally helped a contestant lose, so I’m not infallible at all. I just give provide what I think is helpful advice and hope for the best. It doesn’t always work, though, as was evident when Terry lost his pricing game, “Switch?”. For this reason, I generally don’t advertise to fellow audience members that I’ve spent time memorizing prices, since I don’t want anybody to depend solely on my bids.