It’s hard to believe this, but The Price is Right has been around for 52 years. I honestly thought it had been much longer than that! But I guess since for Gen X and Millennials, it was the ultimate “stay home sick from school” show, so to us, it feels like it’s been around forever. I’ll never forget when OG host Bob Barker died (RIP) at age 99, and it just felt like one of the biggest winks from the Universe ever. Drew Carey has been hosting the game show since Barker’s retirement in June 2007, which is also something that is bonkers for me to wrap my head around. Over the years, there have been some memorable contestants and some great moments. In a recent interview with TV Insider, Drew shared that over the course of his 17 years as host, he’s noticed that many contestants, um, self-lubricate prior to taping. In fact, He says having a contestant appear while drunk or high is “not unusual.”
“That happens here all the time,” Carey said. “They’ll have a gummy, or I’ll smell alcohol on their breath. Not unusual. There was a guy here that was tripping on mushrooms. He came with a bunch of friends. He was a sketch [comedy] guy. I found out later when I went to UCB [sketch improv theater, Upright Citizens Brigade] to hang out and they were like, ‘Did you see that guy who claimed to be a skateboarding rabbi?’ I asked him what he did for a living. And he goes, ‘I’m a skateboarding rabbi.’ He didn’t think he was going to get picked, and he totally tripped.”
Well, I’m certainly never going to watch The Price is Right the same way again! I wonder if that’s been happening with contestants ever since the show began. If so, my 5th grade mind is blown. I bet what Drew shared is on the low-hanging-fruit end of the stories he could tell about Price is Right contestants. This isn’t the first time someone has shared behind-the-scenes gossip from the show, either. 10 years ago, former Barker’s Beauties Kathleen Bradley wrote a book, titled Backstage at The Price Is Right: Memoirs of A Barker Beauty which spilled a lot of crazy stuff that happened off-camera. I remember hearing about it when it came out, but never thought to follow up on it until now. Anyway, does anyone have any guesses as to which contestants since 2007 have been memorable enough to have been inebriated during their appearance? I don’t watch the show as frequently as I did during the Barker days, but now I kinda want to start up again so I can play my own personal game of “Guess which contestant isn’t sober” bingo.
photos credit Getty and the top image is a screenshot from YouTube/The Price is Right