A Star For A Day ~ Jami

"I chose to go because it was my bachelorette party and I thought that, okay, going to the Price is Right was going to be pretty drama free – you can’t get into too much trouble. So, I made these “I DO Love Bob” t-shirts - totally cheesy, playing off the idea of getting married."

"So we are running down the road and all of a sudden this Middle Eastern guy at a bus stop says, I DO BOB, and he looked down at our shirts and we said, oh my gosh, there is a total sexual induendo in this entire thing. It was really funny."

"He was explaining the directions to me and all I heard was “womp, wommmmp, womp…” I didn’t hear anything."

"And then at our wedding, when we were announced, I had them play the Price Is Right. And there is a picture of me at our wedding and I don’t have a bigger smile on my face at any other time of the day than when that like “doot, doot, ta doo” was playing. It was the best."

A Star For A Day ~ Mardell

We were about to go in for the four o'clock show and then there was a bomb scare because someone found a shoe-box in the set so everybody had to get out and then we're: "Oh, should we ditch this?

My brother's high-fiveing everybody in the crowd that he doesn't even know 'cause it's so crazy, you just don't even know what's going on. Um - you're just happy to be there, pretty much. And that was the first time that I'd ever gone to Price Is Right.

People are like: Oh, Mardel, you're so lucky," and say: "Well, i think luck is - people that are lucky are basically people that are prepared for the unexpected. If that's possible." and I think I am.

A Star For A Day ~ Jim

"The doors opened, and it was like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

"I’ve been watching the show since I was just a baby and seeing it live in front of you it’s, it’s such a cliché but it truly is amazing."

"ok ladies and gentlemen, lick your lips and sit up straight cuz we’re on The Price Is Right and you’re gonna be in front of millions of people.."

"They got to me and they were like ‘what’s your name and what do you do,’ and I was like ‘My name’s Jim Glaub and I’m in THEATER!!’ GLITTER!!!"

A Star For A Day ~ Scot

I woke up one morning, arms flailing up in the air, freaking out, thrilled that I had won $43,500 on The Price Is Right. I just was havin’ a great time. Then I realized that I had woken up and that it was just a dream. So I was a little disappointed and bummed out, and instead of just letting it go, I decided that it wasn’t like a dream, but yet like a vision into the future.

So in my dream I was wearing a shirt, a tye dye shirt of course, it was red yellow and orange and it looked like I was on fire on stage.

I knew I was going to win and I wanted to document everything. I had a great day that day we woke up I got dressed headed to the airport, brought a couple cameras with me from the store. Took pictures of all my friends who were on the airplane with me there was like 20-25 of us all wearing matching shirts.

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

Recent News

In 2009-2010, we embarked upon a complete re-edit of "Come On Down!" We recognized the importance of creating a tightly-edited, refreshing and positive film that focused on the charming cast of characters that we met and the shared cultural experience that they had.

The stories we have woven together share these devotees personal HISTORIES with the game show, their JOURNEY West to get to the show, THE MOMENT that they became one of the chosen few called to “come on down,” and their unique TAKEAWAY from the experience.

“The Price Is Right” holds a special place in the hearts of four generations of Americans- regardless of age, race, class, or gender. For many people, affection for the show stems from childhood or a family memory. For others, the possibility of a televised “15 minutes of fame” or valuable prizes is the attraction. But for the lucky few who hear their name before the iconic phrase, “come on down,” the priceless “Price-Is-Right-story” becomes the most cherished reward. The story becomes part of their identity as they re-tell it over and over again and re-live the experience throughout their lives.

As we continue to shape the final cut of the film, we hope that you will stay tuned and continue to support "Come On Down!" We are looking forward to a screening party near you!

Woo Woo!! They Loved It!

"A love letter to rabid PIR fans, the sheer awesomeness of Plinko, that mountain hiker/yodeling game, etc"

"What fun! Anyone who loves Price Is Right, Bob Barker, TV, or just the US of A. Whoot!"

"I seriously cried with laughter."

"I had tears in my eyes. I've never heard a whole theater just roaring with laughter! Really awesome!"

"OMG! Totally worth the time. We saw this on a whim because we grew up watching TPIR. I want to own this film. It was funny and so true! I thought I was the only person who loved this show this much!!"

"Totally awesome. Too funny. I want to see it again."

"What a fun movie! I just wanted it to keep going once it was over. Then I wanted to see it again!"

Buzzzzzzz

In 2007, as we were wrapping up production we were interviewed by a writer who was preparing a story about Price Is Right fans (our tiny contribution to the article is in red below). What is most fascinating about the article is the comments and replies. So many people love Bob Barker!

End of an Era: The Price is Right — Mar 26th 2007

By Dakota Smith

Like a Broadway show in the midst of an endless run, The Price Is Right has changed little in the last 35 years. The three female models collectively known as Barker's Beauties still introduce dining room sets, trips to Fiji, and new cars. Specific games have come and gone, but longtime favorites like Plinko, Cliff Hanger, and In the Bag remain. And while Rich Fields may be the third announcer in the show's history, he still issues the classic invitation: "Come on down! You're the next contestant on The Price is Right!"

A shake-up, however, is on the way. This coming June, host Bob Barker will retire. And on the Los Angeles set-Stage 33 at CBS Television City-there's some trepidation about the future. As the network auditions such potential replacements as George Hamilton and George Lopez, even executive producer Roger Dobkowitz, who started working at the show in 1972, is in the dark about what's next.

"After 35 years, what's CBS going to do now?" says Dobkowitz. "No one wants the show to change."

Indeed, tinkering with the Price is Right formula seems sacrilegious. The top-rated and longest-running game show in America, and the top-rated daily show in the world, its fan base includes everyone from grandparents to college students (a demographic Barker secured during his beat down of Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore).

Barker's impending departure has made the show more popular than ever. In previous seasons, ticket holders would line up in the early morning hours along Fairfax Avenue, the main drag outside Television City. Now the fans hit the sidewalk at 9:00 PM the night before, just for a chance to see Barker in his final run.

"It's the saddest thing, because it's end of an era," says Ken Ratliff, 52-year-old resident of Cle Elum, Washington. Having spent the night on the street, Ratliff and his 24-year-old son Adam were ensured two spots in the 330-seat theater. Yet they still had to wait outside in a concrete holding area until the taping began. Also waiting outside: Donna Devault and Christine Perenich, former college roommates who had flown in from Maryland and spent the night playing Scrabble and knitting in a tent on Fairfax Avenue.

Hopped up on lattes, these sleep-deprived and giddy women were hoping to be picked as contestants. Should they be so lucky, what pricing games did they intend to play? "Roll in the Die!" Perenich shouts. "Golden Road!" says Devault, who was wearing a t-shirt that read, Kiss My Mommy, Bob.

In fact the producers do pick the show's nine contestants from this concrete holding pen. They begin by asking people where they're from and what do they for a living. A simple process, perhaps. But as Dobkowitz explains, no other show selects its contestants on such short notice-and most vet and coach them beforehand. "We really are reality television," he says.

What they are looking for, says the producer, is contestants "who are happy, who are just themselves." Avoided are people who ham it up for the camera. "We've been doing this long enough so we know when people are faking it," Dobkowitz notes. And although 90 percent of the crowd shows up wearing some sort of homemade t-shirt paying homage to the show or its host, apparel is not a factor.

As for Barker himself, he looks older, but certainly not frail. During commercial breaks at the taping, he chats with the audience, accepts gifts (ties, t-shirts), and autographs a woman's arm, which bears a large tattooed image of Barker's face. When the audience begs him to repeat the notorious line from Happy Gilmore, he feigns innocence. "Oh, I don't know if I can say that," Barker tells them, turning to one of his producers. "Can I say, The price is wrong, bitch?" The audience goes nuts. The producer nods; obviously, she's heard this shtick before.

The most surprising thing about a visit to the set is the sheer noise. From the very start of the taping to the Showcase Showdown, the crowd screams, yells, and shrieks out numbers and prices, making it nearly impossible to hear the interaction onstage between Barker and the contestants.

According to Jeruschka White and Caryn Capotosto, who have interviewed hundreds of contestants for a documentary-in-progress called Come On Down!, about half the winners sell off their prizes immediately, unable to afford the tax bite. Others hang on at any cost. "Even if people don't like the car," says White, "they keep it for sentimental reasons."

Across the Web, countless fan sites track minute details about the show's history, such as the date that Barker's hair went gray (October 15, 1987). YouTube boasts a decent library of clips, including one episode with a major wardrobe malfunction-a contestant's tube top slipped down when she ran toward the stage. ("She came down, and out they came," exclaimed Barker at the time.)

Additionally, the show's official website maintains an encyclopedic Q-and-A section, recording such factoids as the biggest winnings to date ($147,517, won on September 19, 2006) and explaining why only American-made cars are given away. (Too many complaints from viewers, says the site, noting that the decision was made after the first Gulf War.) Diehard fans can also look forward to the publication this September ofCome On Down! Behind the Big Doors at The Price Is Right, a memoir penned by longtime producer Stan Blits.

According to Dobkowitz, the show's amazing longevity is due to several factors, including Barker's popularity and its relatively simple premise: knowing how much an item--be it a bottle of Aspercreme or a Ford Fiesta-costs. "What's happened now is that we're like comfort food," he says. "It reminds people of when they were seven years old and watching the show."

And what's his favorite part of the job? Dobkowitz says it's shepherding contestants offstage after they've played one of the pricing games. "It doesn't matter whether they've won or lost, they're so happy," he says. "They tell me they've been waiting to get on the show for the last 25 years."

Buzzzzzzz

The making of "Come On Down! Has been a labor-of-love for the filmmaking team. Along the way we have had some great shout-outs and buzz for the film.

An excerpt from the CineSource column, "Kevin On The Scene: DocFest 2008"

"One of the fest’s five world premiere’s – the low budget Come on Down! The Road to the Price Is Right – was an illuminating, giggly delight.

The directors, Jeruschka White and Caryn Capotosto, met DP Tuan Le at the University of Kansas in 1996.

White and Capotosto were invited to observe one family playing their annual Christmas Eve home version of The Price Is Right, giving them a new respect for the fans, which led to them soliciting TPiR fans from CraigsList ‘Missed Connections.’

For six years the pair worked and saved, blocked out mutual vacation time, then set out to do a round of interviews in geographic areas of the country.

True story: On October 13, Antonio Scardina, 44, handed a bomb threat to the receptionist at Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein on the 30th floor of the Embarcadero Center tower at 275 Battery Street. The building was evacuated. Scardina told the employee he was distraught after not getting called to Contestants Row onTPiR. “We don’t know the guy,” said White by phone from her job as a Brooklyn emergency medical technician. “I promise.”

The film covers all aspects of the cult morning TV game show’s fans:

* Practicing to jump up and down while high-fiving others on Contestants Row when one hears Wizard of Oz-like announcer Rod Roddy’s familiar “Come on Down.”

* The audience support-group panel of experts responsible for memorizing consumer product pricing cheat sheets.

* The hotel proprietor next door to Bob Barker Studio (which show vets liken to the ‘pulsating aura’ of Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory) leads a clinic for first-time TpiRattendees.

* The crowd of 600 occupying the sidewalk outside the studio at 5 am.

* Characteristics that producers seek in an ideal Contestants Row player – the uniformed soldier, the busty young gal in a tight T-shirt (preferably expressing her love for Barker, or urging to spay and neuter pets), the grandma, and the strapping young newlywed.

Useful tip: Never accept the bedroom set on Showcase Showdown, because Roddy’s next words are sure to be, “a brand new car.”

Saddest moment: The disillusioned soldier’s expression when he passes up the chance to win a speedboat, only to win a children’s furniture set.

Quirky detail: Tomato, the drummer for punk band Sound of Urchin is a TPiR fan.

Kevin Davis, November 2008

*******

From the SF Weekly:

Docs of the Bay

By Ron Nachmann Wednesday, Oct 15 2008

Tonight’s double feature at the Roxie shows how much the San Francisco InternationalDocumentary Festival has matured and diversified over time. The DocFest pairs Jeruschka White and Caryn Capotosto's Come on Down! The Road to The Price Is Right — a paean to obsessive fans of the game show in the title —with Kurt Kuenne’s Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, a harrowing tale of matricide, child custody, murder, and friendship. So much for the fest’s 2001 pronouncement that “we don't do solemn, we don't do social issues.” This year’s three-week, 60-film program permanently puts that to rest, with subjects like democracy, linguistics, and the environment popping up among the pop culture treats. One of the festival’s locally set gems is the riveting feature Going on 13, made by filmmaker Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and social worker Dawn Valadez and playing at the Roxie on Oct. 22. It skillfully details the emotional and cultural challenges of four East Bay girls of color crossing over from fifth grade to teenhood, reflecting the festival’s mission to keep this grand old film genre fresh.
Oct. 20-Nov. 6, 2008

Bob Retires and Drew Takes The Stage

In 2007, as the "Come On Down!" crew was working on a first edit of the film, Bob Barker announced his retirement and we learned that Drew Carey would take the reigns. One of our final shoots for the film was Bob Barker's last show, where we interviewed fans about the future of The Price Is Right. There was much fanfare surrounding Bob's retirement. The following article about the changing of the guard appeared in the New York Times:

October 25, 2007, 5:01 PM

Drew Carey’s Showcase Showdown

By BRIAN STELTER

The reviews of Drew Carey’s debut on “The Price Is Right” have been mixed.

Many of the comments on the Television Without Pity and TV.com message boards have been decidedly downbeat. But Jonathan Storm gave Mr. Carey a thumbs-up in a review in The Philadelphia Inquirer, concluding: “By the time he was bouncing in excited unison Friday with Leslee (who went on to win a new car!), it was clear that The Price Is Right is on its way to a few more decades of fun.”

Regular viewers are the most important critics, and the ratings for Mr. Carey’s first week suggest that a “Bring Back Bob Barker” campaign isn’t imminent.

Compared with the same week last year, viewership of Mr. Carey’s “Price” premiere week was up 8 percent among viewers aged 25 to 54 and up 10 percent among viewers aged 18 to 49. The program posted gains among both men and women.

If viewers still miss Mr. Barker, they can log onto ThePriceIsRight.com, the official Web site for the long-running game show. The site, unveiled today, includes a section devoted to “Bob Barker’s Classic Moments.” It also features a video blog from Mr. Carey and a variety of online games. The site is the product of FremantleMedia Enterprises (the production company that handles “Price”) and a Web developer called DAVE Networks.