Stars for A Day ~ Carolyn & Lolly

My name’s Carolyn Campbell, I’m from Overland Park, KS and this is my Grandma Lolly Campbell.

And this is my lovely nametag. My Grandmother went this past October for her 80^th birthday~ she’s watched it for her whole life. My Aunt & Uncle took her. And they also got a signed picture of Bob Barker, ‘To Lolly- Happy 80^th Birthday, Bob Barker.’ So that was a good trip.

After I won when I was there I was like, ‘I gotta call my Grandma,’ so I get back to the hotel and get my cell phone and I’m like, ‘Grandma! Are you sitting down- yes- I was on The Price Is Right today,’ she was like, ‘oh Carolyn,’ ‘And they called me to Contestant’s Row,’ ‘Oh Carolyn!,’ ‘And I got up on stage,’ ‘oh Carolyn,’ ‘and I won $7600 worth of stuff,’ ‘oh Carolyn that’s wonderful!

I like to guess the prices, I’m very price-conscious in everything I do, and everything I buy, it has to be on special sale, or clearance rack or something. And now my husband sits and watches it with me, and we try to outdo each other, you know, who’s going to be the winner today?

I know this guy through another friend who I think two years ago he made a Plinko costume- the game Plinko as a costume. He always likes to do really interesting and odd costumes and they have to be really time consuming to make cuz Halloween I think is his favorite holiday. So he made this Plinko costume that’s just this big board and you put the things in and it has these little sticks and pokes down and then the whole night at Halloween people got to play Plinko on my friend Jay.

A Star For A Day ~ Ben & Melissa

I was at a coffee shop with a friend and instead of doing anything really productive I looked up information about going on The Price Is Right. And Ben’s always wanted to go and has tried to go multiple times with a bunch of friends and it never worked out so he came to meet us there and so for his Xmas present I told him that um, that I was gonna take him on The Price Is Right.

These are the shirts that we wore and we got them made and we are students at the University of Texas, the Longhorns, so we took these shirts and we made- it says uh ‘Bob Barker #1.’

He comes to me and he’s like, ‘Well Benjamin, tell me a little bit about yourself,’ and I was like, ‘My name’s Benjamin Howell, I watched this show my entire life with my grandfather, I love this show so much, it’s so exciting, I guarantee if I get called down you will not be disappointed because I will be so excited, I will be so enthusiastic, you will not be disappointed at all,’ And he was like, ‘oh, well thank you very much, Benjamin.’

So I’m sittin there and I’m thinkin’ to myself, ‘ok, I’m the very first person called down there’s still five games left.’ I’ve always wanted my whole life to go up and say, $1 Bob. I’ve always had a dream of going up and bidding $1. That’s just kind of The Price Is Right tradition.

My love for The Price Is Right kind of goes way back as far as I can remember- it’s been kind of a family thing with my Mom’s parents especially. They were big time game show watchers and their favorite one was The Price Is Right. And I can remember, you know you know, being three or four and going and spending the night over there and you know, we’d wake up and watch The Price Is Right- and maybe sometimes my mom would come and pick us up in the middle of the show, but we definitely couldn’t leave until it was over, we had to watch and see who was gonna win, what was gonna happen in the end, so it was a big deal for my grandparents and it was a really special time that we were able to have as a family and time I got to spend with them and that was a real special time for us, and that continues even to this day.

News and Update Fall 2010

"Team T.P.I.R." has been very, very busy preparing the new edit of "Come On Down!" We have some wonderful surprises in store, as we have recently added some fantastic new interviews to the film, adding more depth about the history of the show and the perspectives of some of it's originators. Stay tuned for many announcements this fall as we put on the final layers of sparkle and shine. We can't wait to get the film in the hands of T.P.I.R. lovers and friends across the country! Please join our facebook page, and help us spread the word to the many fans of the show out there by suggesting the facebook page to ALL of your friends. (Just under our picture on the top left of our page, you can click suggest to friends and send a message to all at once). You never know who is secretly obsessed with The Price Is Right! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Come-On-Down/134235046613698?ref=ts
Thanks for your continued support of the film. In the meantime, enjoy this classic showcase starring Roger Dobkowitz.

A Star For A Day ~ Ryan

I had gone out to California because I was having a rough time in my life and I needed some time away. And I knew I that I was going on "'The Price Is Right." You have 10 seconds to make this great impression, so the first thing I spit out of my mouth is... I've waited 30 years to get here.

I was expecting Bob to do a little banter and I wanted to let it be known that I was from Massachusetts and I wanted to say hi to my boys, Aaron and Grant- I never did I was so nervous.

I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. He's holding the blank cue card and he pulls the sucker back, and there's my name. I'm just like, oh my God, I'm really here. I'm really freaking on contestants row for "The Price Is Right."

One thing you don't see is that I tripped over a cord trying to get on stage. So I get up there and I tell him that I have waited thirty years to get here.. he replies back that he has waited thirty years for me to get here.

I get up to spin the wheel and it was like, there's Ryan... one of the best clock game players in the history of "The Price Is Right." The producers are all very excited for you. I am literally still shaking- you know, national tv, The Price Is Right, Bob Barker... It's like, oh my god.. did this really happen?

The curtain opens and he starts walking out saying "welcome to The Price Is Right.. Here is your first item up for bids."

And this is the hammock I bid on to get up on stage at "The Price Is Right." I am fortunate to the producers, I'm fortunate to Bob Barker- he was very gracious to me. He was very genuine- the real deal. It's such a neat part of Americana and I am very, very happy that I was a part of it.

Trailer for "Come On Down!"

The trailer is available for viewing upon request. Please email comeondowndoc@gmail.com

"Come On Down!!" Trailer 2010 from Caryn Capotosto on Vimeo.

“Come On Down!” is a film about game show culture, the American dream, and the once-in-a-lifetime experience of hearing the words, “Come on down!”



Produced & Directed by Caryn Capotosto & Jeruschka White

Director of Photography Tuan Le

Editor Seana Carroll

The Film

"Come On Down!" follows "Real Barker", a Grandfather from Maine, as he pursues his lifelong dream of being on "The Price Is Right." For almost thirty years, Real has staged a family “Price Is Right” tournament on Christmas Eve as a device to keep the family together. Despite several un-successful attempts to go to the show in the 1980’s and 1990’s, the Credit family once again sets out with hopes of being on the show.

In addition, the charismatic cast of characters that we interviewed includes housewives, rock bands, college students, scholars, grandmas, fanatics, and "regular Joe's." The “TPIR-stories” that we have collected offer a hilarious and lighthearted glimpse at a truly unique staple of American popular culture as devotees live their "American dream." As one fan proclaimed, “I compare it to Canterbury Tales… I think it truly is an American pilgrimage.”

Just as the show that inspired it, “Come On Down” provides a welcome reprieve from the many grave and serious issues that we face in the world today. In all seriousness, the film reminds us that family, laughter, and good, clean fun are also endangered in our modern world, and invites us to laugh at ourselves, meet our neighbors, and remember to “help control the pet population…. Have your pet spayed or neutered!” ~ Bob Barker

A Star For A Day ~ "Plinko" Jay

My name is Jay, and I’m from Tampa FL, and this is a Plinko board that I made for Halloween 2004. It kinda stemmed from being a kid, I used to make Plinko games for other kids in the neighborhood.

I wrote a song, about the Samoan experience on The Price Is Right, (Plinko chip drop), it’s called ‘Samoans Is Right,’ and it’s a little avant-garde but it’s something close to my heart.

This was ultimately a box that I took from work- I don’t recall what was in the box originally, but it was this size and it was entirely made out of cardboard including the strap, and then I did some research, and used the actual colors of the Plinko board, it’s comprised of the font and I went so far as to get the actual $$ sign of The Price Is Right.

I tried to make everything as accurate as possible. I looked up the Plinko logo and painted that just as it appears on the board itself, the number fonts I just found the closest resembling font as I could, and of course the Plinko chip has the $$ font on that.

The pegs are made out of glue sticks and they have a little bit of a nice wear and a little bounce, so when you do drop it, … so whenever you do drop them they have a little bit of a bounce to it and then when people stick their hands in there it’s ok it’s flexible.

I think it’s just the math of Plinko that is so exciting to me- the other themes of The Price Is Right were really more about- you had to be a little bit more domestic- you had to know, like, this can of Campbell’s was less then the box of detergent.

In Plinko you’re rewarded for just the sheer dynamics of placing a chip, and it just falls, and I just won probably zero dollars, but someone on the real game might win like $5000 and it’s pretty exciting.

A Star For A Day ~ Melanie

I went out there for a bachelorette party. My best friend in the world was getting married and her favorite show of all time was The Price Is Right.

I was the very first name that was called and I just kind of sat there. I couldn't believe it was my name and I wanted it to be my friend's name- it was awful!

We wore these tee-shirts, "Falcons Cheerleaders Love Bob," trying to get ourselves some attention. We all had cheered for the Falcons- I had cheered for five years.

This is a picture of me taken after the show. You can't bring anything in there- they confiscate everything. We even had pom-poms, cuz we were going to try and shake our pom poms to get attention in the audience, and they wouldn't let us take them in, so it was very sad.

I gave Bob a kiss on the cheek and he commented on my shirt. It's pretty surreal that you are standing there next to Bob Barker, who's just a legend.

A Star For A Day ~ Joe

I gotta be honest, I never was a huge fan of The Price Is Right, never watched it, I knew that my dad and my sister were both pretty obsessed with the show. I was much more of a ‘View’ type of girl- I preferred watching that.

While we were in LA the day after the taping, Allison and I went down to the Hollywood ‘Walk of Fame’ and I got a picture taken with Bob Barker’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, just kind of as a tribute to all which is he.

My family has kind of a weird history of being on game shows. Both my aunt and my uncle were on Scrabble back in the day- they did a horrible job and they didn’t win anything I think- that it almost felt like my duty as a Hollendoner to bring good name back to game shows for us.

I had this shirt made for me cuz I knew if I ever got on stage this would be my father’s crowning moment in his life. Now mind you I’ve graduated with my Masters program at the age of 23, I’ve been pretty successful in life but, for my dad this is the story he starts off with when he starts talking about his son Joe, right.

I have our nametags, both Allison’s and mine. I was so impressed with the woman who made out the nametags that I asked her ‘did you have to have good handwriting to get this job’ and she assured me that, "no," but we thought that she had just the most pleasant handwriting in the world.

And Allison starts shaking me saying your name was called your name was called, I was like ‘you are gonna play me for a fool’, I am not gonna go down like that.

So she’s shaking me saying your name was called your name was called, and so eventually I just have this leap of faith moment- I don’t see a card with my name being held up or anything, but I say, I’m goin for it. So I get up, I’m about four rows away from Bidder’s Row, and so I made the most horribly ugly face I have ever made in my whole entire life screaming and shouting and running down to Bidder’s Row. Making this horrific face that looks like I have been released from some hospital of sorts.

So the following weekend Allison and I host a brunch for all of our friends and family to come so we could serve em’ breakfast foods, watch the screening together and just re-live the experience because it was an experience.

A Star For A Day ~ Chad

When I turned nineteen I moved to L.A. I would always say to my friends, “Come on you guys, come with me to the Price is Right.”Everybody was like, “No, no.We don’t want to go to the Price is Right.” So I kept harassing everybody and then finally one day, two friends agreed to go with me. I always dreamed that some day I would go on the Price is Right. I knew that it wasn’t just a dream; it was going to become reality. I just knew. Some things in life you just know.

At the time, Janice Pennington, the model, had written a book.She had written a romance novel. She was outside of the theater signing copies. Me being cocky, I walked up to her and I said, “Hi Janice. My name’s Chad and I’m going to see you later on stage.” She kind of laughed, and I walked away.

So I got up there and the first item up for bid was a diamond necklace. Janice came out and she was holding it. I don’t think it really registered at that point that I was the guy that said that to her. She’s showing it to me, and I don’t know why but I just thought in my mind fifteen hundred dollars. We all bid and I bid fifteen hundred dollars. Bam! I won. It was fifteen ten. Just luck

They start the second half of the show, and I remember there was like one kid in particular.He is the exact reason why I love this show. He was a young kid, and they surprised him and gave him the chance to win a car. He actually won the car, and he did back flips on stage for like thirty minutes. It was the funniest thing you’ll ever see. And that is totally why people love the show.

So here I am, living out one of my life dreams, and I made it to the Showcase Showdown of the Price is Right.

The skit was: the girls are out at the beach and they’re digging around for some keys, and they find some keys in the sand.They whip open the doors and it’s to a motor scooter, and I’m like, “Cool!” So then the girls are digging around some more and they find another set of keys! They whip open the doors again and it’s a little wave jumper boat. I’m like, “Wow, this is pretty cool!” Then the girls are digging around and they find ANOTHER set of keys, so they whip open the doors and it’s a car. I had to laugh. It was a Ford Festiva, which is a really really small car. But it’s still a pretty good Showcase. So now in my mind I’m like, “What am I going to do? Am I going to bid? Am I going to pass?” I don’t know. I was freaking out in my mind.Then they’re about to cut to the other Showcase and they say, “Wait a minute . . . the girls found ANOTHER set of keys!!!”They whip open the doors and it’s ANOTHER car, a Chrysler Concorde. Everybody’s like, “Oh my God!!!” That’s two cars, a boat, and a motor scooter in one Showcase Showdown. And here it is for me! I’m up there and it is happening to me! I’m freaking out

A Star For A Day ~ Susan

A long time ago, 1974, I was married in the service and we were in Victorville, California.And my girlfriend came to me and she was a huge Price is Right fan. And she was so excited. She said, “Oh my God.We have tickets for T.P.I.R.!”

This is me . . . when they called me down to come on down.

I went into my closet that day.I looked through the closet and I thought, “What could I find that would look good on TV?" Because I just knew I was going to win.

So I got up on the stage to begin with a trip from LA to Vegas on the Celebrity Train, so it’s round-trip, and they included a two-hundred-fifty dollar gift certificate book with discounts and stuff. That got me up. Then I won the grocery game and from that I won a television set and a sofa.

It was true excitement. True, just fun! It was so much fun to win, to know you were going to be on TV, to want everybody to watch you on TV, and you want everybody to watch you win. It was so cool! It was awesome! It was just fun.

So then my Showcase was a disco bar, which was very cool in the ‘70s. And it was carpeting, and it was a Wal-Vac vacuum cleaning system, and I think that’s all. I can’t remember unless I see something else in these pictures. Oh, a dining room set! A total dining room set, with the hutch and table and chairs, and just a gazillion dishware, place settings. Falscraft, that was the big thing then. The dishes were quite popular. I don’t think you can see them, but they were very popular in the seventies. They were brown and they had this ugly, but I thought they were cool at the time, dripping with white on the edges. They were God awful, but in the seventies it was cool.

Every now and then someone will just start talking about the Price is Right. I don’t know why. Then I’ll just kind of pipe in and go, “I was on.” And then they’ll go, “NO. What, did you win the Showcase?” “Yes!” And they don’t believe it. So I show them the pictures. That’s why I was so glad my brother took the pictures. That’s my proof.

A Star For A Day ~ Derek

"So after many hours of waiting, and more waiting, and more waiting, we finally got to the groups where you line up in front of the producers. They said ‘Derek, where you from, what do you do,’ I told them I was going to school to be a meteorologist, that I was from Wisconsin."

"Because of the fact that our episode would probably air in October or November (the election) we did ‘Bob For President’ and my fiancé, a teacher, did ‘Teachers For Bob’ on her shirt which we made. But once we were in line we noticed that a lot of people did ‘Bob For President,’ so I said "I gotta find somethin’ else" cuz you you gotta be unique to stand out."

"So we were in, I think, Abercrombie & Finch or some store and saw a ‘Wisconsin Smell Our Dairy-Air’ shirt, and decided to go with that because I also noticed that there weren’t a lot of Midwest people there. We ran into a lot of people from California, from the West Coast, some people from the Northeast, but we didn’t really run in to a lot of Midwest people, nobody from Wisconsin or Minnesota or Illinois."

"We decided we’d stay at The Farmer’s Daughter, which is a place where a lot of people who have been contestants on the show went. The Farmers Daughter has had so many people that have been contestants on "The Price Is Right" stay there that they actually have a ‘Wall of Fame,’ and if someone who stayed there happens to get on the show they take a Poloroid picture of you and you write down the date of the show, what you won, anything you want to write on it and you can see all these pictures and there’s you know- an autographed picture of Bob black & white up there, you can see all the different people over the years who have gone there."