Drew Carey Tweets Season 38 “Price” Changes
Drew Carey joined the blogosphere this weekend, with a new blog and Twitter account. Between the two, we’ve gotten word of some very “big” changes to Price for the upcoming 38th season. First off, the season premiere (EDIT: this episode will air on September 21) will feature former Drew Carey Show colleague Craig Ferguson, now the host of the Late Late Show. Also, there are some major and minor upgrades to the set. First, the one bid displays are going “unpasteled,” and getting LED lights inside of them. The lights on the edge of the stage for Drew’s recent Million Dollar Spectaculars are present for the premiere, but as of right now are not known to be permanent for the season (but my guess is they are). But the most obvious change will be the addition of what looks like a video wall (called “Door 5″, to join the 3 doors and the plasma screen in the back) stage right of the turntable, where the producers’ box used to be. Check out the pictures below to see these changes in action.
EDIT 6/23/09: Okay, it’s not actually a video wall, but each of the brand-new showcase podiums seem to have an LCD screen inside…
Smart move on the new one bid displays — even though I've yet to see numbers on said displays. They were showing their ages — especially the yellow one, which was getting a bit hard to read.
I take it that there will be no changes to the big doors.
Sounds like some good changes are on the way.
True, Mandy my darlin' but there may be changes that others may not like. We'll need more info & pics from his Twitter page to really get the scoop on Season 38.
http://img3.yfrog.com/i/p7n.jpg/
Doesn't look like a video wall to me. It looks like they took one 4:3 LCD screen to make the 2 different displays on each showcase podium.
I wonder if these changes won't be limited to just the set…
I can certainly envision a few pricing games going digital (though I worry that it'll put a few games that rely on hand-made price tags out of work…and onto eBay).
Just so I'm clear on this…the readouts in Contestant's Row are going LED. Is this as in "eggcrate" display, or more like what we're seeing on some scoreboards in stadiums and arenas? And, as for those LCD displays on the Showcase lecturns…are we talking, like what's on "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel"?
Mr Quiz, the best guess I would have is that the display would look like the numbers from present-time Any Number, just different colored, obviously.
Thanx, Canyon! I guess that means that the digits will still be basically of the "slant block" style (which is also incorporated on the tote board used with the Showcase Showdown wheel).
I'll have to check out GR and see how bad the pissing and moaning is….I bet the thread is up to 15 pages already, right?
lmao
Close…it's only at 14 pages at the moment.
The whole "It's a video wall!" thing really freaked some people out…
“GR.net has already been given an admonishing by Drew (and in fact, one of the morons there caused Drew to turn off posting on his blog)” -Concerned GSN Viewer
“What bugs me the most is that it was all spill-over from a TPIR “fan” site that seems, at first glance, to be chock full of people that are metaphorically out on the street with their pants down yelling at a telephone pole. It’s not, totally. But like it always happens, a few people start screaming at telephone poles and next thing you know you can’t hear yourself talk. And a couple of them were treating my blog like it was nothing more than another thread on their message board, and then the one guy went over what, over there probably isn’t even a line, but over here is. I’m trying to have fun here and let fans in on what’s happening on the show, okay? Not moderate your arguments. Seriously. You can hate what I do, hate the show, whatever. But let’s be civil and have a reasoned discussion. I won’t tolerate people pooping in my pool while I’m trying to splash around with my friends and get some sun.” -Drew Carey
Nice to know the Encyclopedia Dramatica article on Golden Road.net (if it still exists; I haven’t been there in a while) is still relevant. -_-;
On a much lighter note, I like how Drew is being “in tune with the times” and trying to connect with the people personally through the Internet. Bob only connected with the people through the show. Of course, Bob is a self-professed moron at technology who said he’d “die never knowing how to use a computer”…
As for these proposed changes…as much as I’d love the Contestants’ Row and Showcase readouts to resemble Wheel of Fortune’s and Jeopardy!’s scoreboards, even if it just looks like a glorified version of Any Number’s displays, it’s still about time.
Am I interpreting those pictures correctly, or did they actually change the Turntable? It looks like they combined the left-most two walls into one! D:
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Golden_Road.net
Asspies and all! You're welcome.
The new turntable looks really nice! I can't wait three months for season 38 to start, can I? I certainly hope the "classic feel" of the show is maintained, and we'll still see the same fonts on the Contestants Row and Showcase podiums. To "Wheel of Fortune"-ize them would be an insult to longtime "TPIR" viewers (don't get me wrong, I love "Wheel"). I actually posted on Drew's blog the day after I first noticed it. He had to disable the comments because someone sad something hateful about someone Drew used to work with. It wasn't me! Is this "Door #4" I've been hearing about supposed to be in between the turntable and doors? I've watched "TPIR" since age 3 and would accept changes to the show if they're subtle (plasma screens for trips) instead of drastic (Hollywood mural, anyone?).
In what way is a change of display from a 50-year-old dinosaur of a technology to a more efficient modern technology an "insult to longtime TPIR viewers"? As long as it can be read and doesn't effect the gameplay, who the frak cares?
I was a game show producer earlier this decade. It was hard finding an electronic display company that still made the old "egg crate" displays. (Heck, they were using those on Bill Cullen's TPIR!) Everything now is either LEDs or LCD screens…both of which use less power and have longer shelf lives than incandescent bulbs.
I'm finding the posts here and about the Pyramid pilot quite baffling. It's like some people believe their world will come to an end if there aren't 7-segment digits on Contestants Row or trilons on the Pyramid. I realize change is difficult sometimes, but c'mon! Aren't there more important things to get our panties in a bunch about?
Wet Paint? Is that a new Pricing game or something?
So exciting! This is the wave of fresh, new changes thatt so many people have been waiting for since the old stale regime was ousted. Way to go Drew and Mike, Bring it on!
PS. And I love the peeks backstage Drew!
its called a joke you know haha lol
I think the eggcrate displays getting replaced by LCD monitors is a good idea. The Wheel of Fortune ones weren't bad, just took a while to get used to. As for Pyramid (if it gets picked up), I hope they use monitors to simulate the turning.
I don't like drastic changes to a show JUST to be changing things, like the door border around the turntable.
Then it must really bother you that Family Feud still uses eggcrate in the family lecterns.
Actually, that DOES bother me, but only in that they're unnecessary and make the lecterns look ugly IMO.
They use video projection to put the family names behind them…why not put the score there, too?
I REALLY hate those old eggcrates Family Feud still uses in the family podiums. The main reason I hate them is because they're unnessesary. The scores are on each side of the board in modern technology readouts. The best thing to do is replace the eggcrates in the family podiums with LCD readouts so you can see the "Bullseye Bank" and use the readouts on the left and right sides of the big board for the main game.
Also for the new season, I read the video projection screens that hide the furnature and show the family names aren't going to be lowered for Season 11. That means you won't see the family names. Yet another unnecessary pointless change JUST to be chaning things.