The Price is Always Right hits big

By Nora Hicks
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

The longest-running game show in television history, “The Price is Right,” was brought to Brockport Thursday, April 10. Flyers urged students to “Come on down because you’re the next contestant on … The Price is Always Right!”

The free event was hosted by Steven Raff, a junior broadcasting major and member of Brockport Television Club at 9 p.m. in the Seymour College Union Ballroom.

The show included more than $1,500 in cash and prizes, paid for by the Brockport Student Government mandatory fee. Raff promised the crowd of more than 50 students that any prizes contestants lost would be raffled off at the end.

“The other noticeable difference from the real ‘The Price is Right’ is that I’m not Drew Carey,” Raff said.

Raff and the executive staff of BSG made the game show as authentic as possible, complete with “The Price is Right” music and nine various games throughout the hour-and-a-half show.

“I got involved because I love the art of entertainment,” Raff said. “I also love game shows, my favorite of course being ‘The Price is Right.’”

To begin, four people were randomly called to a table near the front of the room. The contestants then bid on a prize brought out from behind the curtain by a “beauty,” played by off-campus representative Lindsay Geyer.

The contestant who bid the closest to the retail price of the prize went up to play another game for the chance to win a bigger prize. The first player won a sound system.

The contestants sometimes had a hard time picking an amount, because an enthusiastic crowd was shouting out what they thought was the right number.

Each set of three winners spun a wheel to get under and as close to a dollar as they could.

The three winners were offered a showcase at the end of the show. In order to win the athletic, home or camera showcase, they had to bid within $10 of the overall price.

All three contestants bid more than $10 off the price and did not win. Raff said the contestants also overbid at last year’s show, and nobody won the showcase.

This year’s show required a lot more prep work and a bigger location, Raff said.
The staff number also increased, with backstage manager Megan Bell, a programming assistant for BSG, and a full backstage crew.

“[She] really made sure everything in the back went as smooth as I was keeping everything in the front,” Raff said.

Darnell Pierce, who took down names to record contestant’s prizes, also had a major hand in supporting the show, Raff said.

Prizes ranged from amounts of Easy Money, to grocery foods such as mayonaise, linens, an iPod and even a bicycle.

“I’d say the first time you ever do an event of this magnitude it’s going to be a learning experience,” Raff said. “We learned from our mistakes and put them to use this year, and ‘The Price is Right’ went even better.

“I … had a great experience and can’t wait to bring it back again next year for the student body to enjoy.”

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