Take "off!"
After months of hints and teases in this blog, it finally happened...the premiere of "Half Off," the game I created for the greatest game show in the world..."The Price is Right."
To those of you on the West Coast or to those of you who have not seen the game yet and don't want spoilers, you'll probably want to read the rest of this after you've seen the show. So behold, the obligatory...spoiler space
H
A
L
F
O
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F
I cannot express enough in words how happy and how dumbfounded I am that this has actually happened. Almost five years ago, I came out here to Los Angeles with no job waiting for me. I was sleeping in an apartment on an air mattress with barely any furniture, and now here I am having created the latest game on television's longest-running game show.
I mean, just the fact that I was able to pitch an idea to Roger Dobkowitz and get his feedback was cool enough. Seeing it actually become a reality and witnessing the enthusiasm the staff and Bob Barker had for the game was beyond anything I ever imagined.
This game may never have happened had I not had a long commute or rush hour traffic to deal with. I had initially come up with the game while sitting on Sepulveda Blvd. racking my brain as to what hadn't been doing pricing game-wise on "The Price is Right." I started going through things everybody encounters while shopping...Pricing games have covered clearance sales, using your credit card, writing a check, shopping at the grocery...but then it hit me. We're always being bombarded with sales touting items that are "half off." That was it...a game about items that were "half-off." Over the next day or so, I married the concept of finding items that were half-off to finding the grand prize in a box. It was sort of an homage to a retired pricing game I was a fan of, "Fortune Hunter."
So I did some research and found six "small prize" items a la "Cliff Hangers" and printed out some index cards to play test the game. I play tested the game with my roommates Ted and Larry and my friend Jim. There were some slight differences in how the game originally played...
* The game was originally a car game where the contestant would try to find the "KEY" to the car in one of the sixteen boxes.
* The six items were presented all at once. Three of them had the correct price attached to them while the other three had a price that was "half off" of the correct price. The contestant picked three items one at a time, with the hopes of picking the "half-off" items.
* There was originally bailout option. After the box was picked and brought down center stage, Bob would have offered the contestant $1,000 for every "half off" item that was picked in exchange for looking in the box. So, if a contestant played the pricing part perfectly, s/he could walk way with $3,000. If s/he found two of the three "half off" items, the offer would be $2,000, and so on...This would guarantee that the contestant would have an opportunity to leave with something after playing the pricing part of the game perfectly.
After play-testing the game with my friends, they gave me their feedback and they all really liked it as is. So, the next morning, I showed it to Roger along with another idea I had for a pricing game. He picked "Half Off" as the one to take to Bob saying it was unlike any other game they've had on the show. Within a few weeks, he showed the game to Bob and the morning after he did, I got a voicemail message from him saying that Bob really liked it and it was slotted as the next game to be made for the show!
Roger asked me if I had any ideas as to how the game should be presented. He said that for this one, he wanted it to be big. I had mentioned that I had envisioned something with the boxes dropping out of sight as they were eliminated. He said he was thinking of something similar and thus the general idea of the set piece was born.
Set designer Bente Christensen fleshed out the ideas and after I saw her sketches for the game, I was blown away. This game was BIG. Not only that, it had chase-lights and a big sign with the name of the game. And there was a breakaway money tag wall!!! This was turning into something that was very "classic" in nature. To put it simply, it really looked like a game show!
The game went through months of construction and parts being ordered and adjusted, and in April, the game was finally ready to be rehearsed. After the first look onstage, only a few revisions had to be made. The early concept of the box had no number on its front side and the name displays for the small items were slightly different. Other than that, the game was pretty much ready to go! In the midst of initial rehearsals of the game, I was able to get a pic with Bob Barker himself in front of the game (Thanks to Scott for snapping this pic...)...
Flash forward to last Tuesday. Needless to say, I was nervous as hell. Here's the chowderboard with the list of the games...
Seeing it on the lineup board was where it really sunk in that my game was going to be played...
I was doing quite a bit of pacing backstage much like a dad-to-be in the waiting room of maternity ward. I wondered...what would my friends in the audience think? Hell, what would the audience think? How will the contestant play the game? Will they understand the game? That was all laid to rest as Box #7 was opened and a big wad of cash fell out giving "Half Off" its first win. As the bells rang, the audience leapt to their feet and I sat next to Roger and Kathy Greco at the producers' table looking out at the audience...and I was stunned. Then I looked to the smile and excitement on the big winner's face. THIS is what it's all about: fun, excitement, and people just having a damn good time...seeing the happiness of the contestant as she won herself $10,000...hearing the roar of the crowd.
To top it all off, as Bob talked to the audience in the break after the second act, he asked for their opinion of the game and they cheered. He had very nice things to say about the game and then introduced me to the audience as the creator! I took a bow and thanked Bob and sat back down in disbelief of what had just transpired. :-)
What a wild ride this has been...It's moments like this that make me even more grateful for where I am in life and the position I'm in. "The Price is Right" was one of the shows that inspired me to get into television, especially game shows and now here I am having created something that's now part of it. It's just freakin' awesome...
And what made this whole experience more than perfect is the support and kindness of "The Price is Right" staff, crew, and of course, Mr. Bob Barker. They were so great to me during the whole process of getting this game off the ground. Without a doubt, knowing and working with these people has been such a privilege and honor...it's also been an experience that I'm never going to forget.
Some final tidbits particularly for those die-hard game show fans out there...Some people who've been following this game's journey to reality have asked me why the game became a cash game and why certain rules changed from the original pitch. I honestly can't answer that. As this game and really any game goes through the development phase, changes are bound to be made. Also, I feel that the game now is a bit more streamlined than my original pitch. Another thing to keep an eye out for...you'll notice that there's a lot of symmetry in the game. Half-off items leading to removing half the boxes...Half of the items being "half-off"...and playing the pricing part perfectly leads you to a 50/50 (half and half) chance at the ten grand.
So there you have it...a look at another wonderful dream come true. Will there be more pricing games from me down the line? I hope so. The big hurdle (no pun intended, "Price" fans) is coming up with something that hasn't been done before on the show. I've come up with about a half dozen other ideas for games but some of them end up being an off shoot of "One Away" or "Squeeze Play" or some other game. Coming up with "Half Off" was one of those fortunate incidents where everything seemed to just gel together quickly. Hopefully, something will come to mind that's even a "half"-way decent followup...
To those of you on the West Coast or to those of you who have not seen the game yet and don't want spoilers, you'll probably want to read the rest of this after you've seen the show. So behold, the obligatory...spoiler space
H
A
L
F
O
F
F
I cannot express enough in words how happy and how dumbfounded I am that this has actually happened. Almost five years ago, I came out here to Los Angeles with no job waiting for me. I was sleeping in an apartment on an air mattress with barely any furniture, and now here I am having created the latest game on television's longest-running game show.
I mean, just the fact that I was able to pitch an idea to Roger Dobkowitz and get his feedback was cool enough. Seeing it actually become a reality and witnessing the enthusiasm the staff and Bob Barker had for the game was beyond anything I ever imagined.
This game may never have happened had I not had a long commute or rush hour traffic to deal with. I had initially come up with the game while sitting on Sepulveda Blvd. racking my brain as to what hadn't been doing pricing game-wise on "The Price is Right." I started going through things everybody encounters while shopping...Pricing games have covered clearance sales, using your credit card, writing a check, shopping at the grocery...but then it hit me. We're always being bombarded with sales touting items that are "half off." That was it...a game about items that were "half-off." Over the next day or so, I married the concept of finding items that were half-off to finding the grand prize in a box. It was sort of an homage to a retired pricing game I was a fan of, "Fortune Hunter."
So I did some research and found six "small prize" items a la "Cliff Hangers" and printed out some index cards to play test the game. I play tested the game with my roommates Ted and Larry and my friend Jim. There were some slight differences in how the game originally played...
* The game was originally a car game where the contestant would try to find the "KEY" to the car in one of the sixteen boxes.
* The six items were presented all at once. Three of them had the correct price attached to them while the other three had a price that was "half off" of the correct price. The contestant picked three items one at a time, with the hopes of picking the "half-off" items.
* There was originally bailout option. After the box was picked and brought down center stage, Bob would have offered the contestant $1,000 for every "half off" item that was picked in exchange for looking in the box. So, if a contestant played the pricing part perfectly, s/he could walk way with $3,000. If s/he found two of the three "half off" items, the offer would be $2,000, and so on...This would guarantee that the contestant would have an opportunity to leave with something after playing the pricing part of the game perfectly.
After play-testing the game with my friends, they gave me their feedback and they all really liked it as is. So, the next morning, I showed it to Roger along with another idea I had for a pricing game. He picked "Half Off" as the one to take to Bob saying it was unlike any other game they've had on the show. Within a few weeks, he showed the game to Bob and the morning after he did, I got a voicemail message from him saying that Bob really liked it and it was slotted as the next game to be made for the show!
Roger asked me if I had any ideas as to how the game should be presented. He said that for this one, he wanted it to be big. I had mentioned that I had envisioned something with the boxes dropping out of sight as they were eliminated. He said he was thinking of something similar and thus the general idea of the set piece was born.
Set designer Bente Christensen fleshed out the ideas and after I saw her sketches for the game, I was blown away. This game was BIG. Not only that, it had chase-lights and a big sign with the name of the game. And there was a breakaway money tag wall!!! This was turning into something that was very "classic" in nature. To put it simply, it really looked like a game show!
The game went through months of construction and parts being ordered and adjusted, and in April, the game was finally ready to be rehearsed. After the first look onstage, only a few revisions had to be made. The early concept of the box had no number on its front side and the name displays for the small items were slightly different. Other than that, the game was pretty much ready to go! In the midst of initial rehearsals of the game, I was able to get a pic with Bob Barker himself in front of the game (Thanks to Scott for snapping this pic...)...
Flash forward to last Tuesday. Needless to say, I was nervous as hell. Here's the chowderboard with the list of the games...
Seeing it on the lineup board was where it really sunk in that my game was going to be played...
I was doing quite a bit of pacing backstage much like a dad-to-be in the waiting room of maternity ward. I wondered...what would my friends in the audience think? Hell, what would the audience think? How will the contestant play the game? Will they understand the game? That was all laid to rest as Box #7 was opened and a big wad of cash fell out giving "Half Off" its first win. As the bells rang, the audience leapt to their feet and I sat next to Roger and Kathy Greco at the producers' table looking out at the audience...and I was stunned. Then I looked to the smile and excitement on the big winner's face. THIS is what it's all about: fun, excitement, and people just having a damn good time...seeing the happiness of the contestant as she won herself $10,000...hearing the roar of the crowd.
To top it all off, as Bob talked to the audience in the break after the second act, he asked for their opinion of the game and they cheered. He had very nice things to say about the game and then introduced me to the audience as the creator! I took a bow and thanked Bob and sat back down in disbelief of what had just transpired. :-)
What a wild ride this has been...It's moments like this that make me even more grateful for where I am in life and the position I'm in. "The Price is Right" was one of the shows that inspired me to get into television, especially game shows and now here I am having created something that's now part of it. It's just freakin' awesome...
And what made this whole experience more than perfect is the support and kindness of "The Price is Right" staff, crew, and of course, Mr. Bob Barker. They were so great to me during the whole process of getting this game off the ground. Without a doubt, knowing and working with these people has been such a privilege and honor...it's also been an experience that I'm never going to forget.
Some final tidbits particularly for those die-hard game show fans out there...Some people who've been following this game's journey to reality have asked me why the game became a cash game and why certain rules changed from the original pitch. I honestly can't answer that. As this game and really any game goes through the development phase, changes are bound to be made. Also, I feel that the game now is a bit more streamlined than my original pitch. Another thing to keep an eye out for...you'll notice that there's a lot of symmetry in the game. Half-off items leading to removing half the boxes...Half of the items being "half-off"...and playing the pricing part perfectly leads you to a 50/50 (half and half) chance at the ten grand.
So there you have it...a look at another wonderful dream come true. Will there be more pricing games from me down the line? I hope so. The big hurdle (no pun intended, "Price" fans) is coming up with something that hasn't been done before on the show. I've come up with about a half dozen other ideas for games but some of them end up being an off shoot of "One Away" or "Squeeze Play" or some other game. Coming up with "Half Off" was one of those fortunate incidents where everything seemed to just gel together quickly. Hopefully, something will come to mind that's even a "half"-way decent followup...
