The Price Is Right / Tropes F to O

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F

• Failed a Spot Check: On this playing of Grand Game, one of the prices had accidentally been revealed at the beginning. Bob even points this out. Somehow, the contestant doesn't pick that item first... yet he goes on to win, prompting this exchange:
  Bob: When we revealed this game, [the label] was hanging down. Didn't you see that?
  Sean: I thought it was already picked. I didn't think—I thought it was already—
  Bob: You thought it was already chosen?
  Sean: Yeah.
  Bob: By whom?
• Fake Difficulty: Pay the Rent is frequently accused of this, mainly because its challenge mostly comes from completely subverting typical Price psychology. Whereas typical pricing games involving ordering items from least to most expensive (like Hole In One or Eazy as 1-2-3) are Exactly What It Says on the Tin, the strange way that Pay the Rent works means that the least expensive item should actually go somewhere in the middle of the order. Players who follow the traditional way of thinking and put the least expensive item on the bottom (which is to say, almost everyone) are almost always doomed from the start.
• Fanservice:
  • The models, particularly when they break out the swimsuits or leotards. There's a reason the show offers an average of at least one pool/spa or boat per episode...and a reason why those prizes get the most cheers from the audience, likewise with leotards and exercise equipment.
  • One Showcase Framing Device during Barker's era was notably heavy on the fanservice. "The Reading of the Will" featured one model as a nerd, one model as a Dolly Parton lookalike, complete with a fake chest sewed into her dress, and one model as a Hospital Hottie in a somewhat Naughty Nurse Outfit.
  • Dian Parkinson. Posing for Playboy, wearing hundreds of swimsuits, wearing cheerleader outfits, dressed as a "June Bride" (June 20, 1980)…
  • Also during the late 1980s and early 1990s, before Barker's affair with Parkinson blew up in the press, the models were often asked to pose in a way where only bare shoulders showed while modeling such prizes as hot tubs, boats and saunas (and sometimes, cars), and Barker would imply to the audience that said model was completely naked.
  • The retired pricing game "Bump" which became better known for the way the models, particularly Dian Parkinson, would wind up their hips, more so than the game itself.
  • The women contestants getting to fish $100 out of Bob Barker's jacket pocket for a perfect bid. This practice ended around 1992, when the show tried going in more of a "family friendly" route and Bob/Dian's affair ended.
  • On the Cullen show, the models wore nautical outfits with extremely short skirts whenever a boat was wheeled out as an IUFB.
  • Around 2012, the show has started to use male models and yes, the guys have appeared shirtless at some point. They don't appear as frequently as the female models. Funnily enough, the male model mostly appears in a shirt and tie for a more professional look rather than dressing up for eye candy — then again, a neat shirt and tie is eye candy to some women.
• Flawless Victory: In some pricing games, it's possible to win on the first try, win without making a mistake, or win for the maximum amount possible. In the $1,000,000 Spectacular episodes, winning the million dollar bonus requires a victory of this sort. In the daytime episodes, there's usually no bonus prize, but Bob or Drew will point out the rarity of such a performance, and proclaim the player an all-time great of that pricing game. For example, see Walter's perfect Dice Game.
  • Also, a perfect bid from Contestant's Row.
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • Averted and defied by Shell Game: if a contestant wins all four small prizes, there is still an additional bonus for correctly guessing which shell conceals the ball. ^note (Originally $500 cash, now the value of the main prize in cash.)
  • In the now-retired game Trader Bob, contestants had to choose the more expensive of two products in four different pairs. The price is revealed for the product that was not chosen, while the chose product is moved aside and lined up, and the four prices must be in ascending order to win the game. On the fourth pair, anyone who remembers the unchosen product's price will instantly know if the game is won or lost when the third chosen product's price is revealed. If the fourth unchosen product was less expensive than the third chosen product, it would be a win, since the chosen product for the fourth pair would have to be higher, and vice-versa. Bob would sometimes acknowledge incoming wins or losses by recalling the fourth unchosen product's price before the final reveal.
  • Contestants in the Showcase who win with a difference of less than $250 (or $100 in earlier seasons) on their own showcase are always revealed second, including a very rare occurrence on March 24, 1975. This suggests a precedent that if a contestant who misses by a small amount is revealed first, their opponent will either tie or be even closer.
  • Likewise, when one Showcase bid is under and the other is over, the overbid will almost-always be revealed second. If the first reveal is an overbid, it usually means either a double overbid, or the underbid is by an impressively small amount (even if not enough for a Double Showcase Win) In some episodes, Bob would poll the audience on who to start with. If he went against the audience consensus, it usually meant that contestant overbid. In recent years, when Drew reveals an overbid first, he'll often say, "It better not be a double over."
  • If both Showcase bids are an even multiple of $1,000, there will not be a Double Showcase Win. Since Season 40, with only one known exception, Showcases are priced such that the last three digits fall between 251 and 999, meaning that a bid ending in 000 will never be close enough to win both.
  • Although the host does not know in advance who will win the Showcase (or if neither contestant will), the producers will advise the host as to which showcase to reveal first to ensure maximum excitement.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In 1957, the daytime show tested a format which would eventually evolve into the basis of the current show's Bonus Game. Bill Cullen would read a price of an item but it was the wrong price. The contestants had to tell whether the correct price was either higher or lower than the wrong price.
  • Occasionally, a car accessory will come up as an item up for bid right before a game awarding a car as a prize.
  • On a February 2023 "Superfan" special, a game of Ten Chances was played. The smaller two prizes, a Zero board game and zero gravity chairs, foreshadowed/lampshaded the "last digit is always 0" rule in said game.
• Framing Device: A good number of Showcases over the years had these, varying from a frog prince story to a soap opera parody.
• Freudian Slip: One contestant who wanted to pick Tidy Cats kitty litter in Grocery Game referred to it as "Titty Cats".
• Fur and Loathing: When Bob Barker joined PETA, furs were no longer offered as prizes. This would be understandable, but he went as far as to ban every episode that contained a fur prize from ever being redistributed or rebroadcast during his lifetime (at the very least). This, unfortunately, rules out the very first episode from 1972, as well as the near-entirety of the 1972-80 nighttime run.

G

• Game Show Host: Bill Cullen on the 1956-65 versions, with occasional substitutes (as was the case back in the day when TV shows aired live). Bob Barker helmed the show for an amazing 35 years before Drew Carey took over in 2007. Dennis James hosted a nighttime version from 1972-77 (replaced by Barker from 1977-80), Tom Kennedy hosted a revival for the 1985-86 season, and Doug Davidson hosted a short-lived one in the 1994-95 season. ^note Dick Van Dyke was asked to try out as host for the original show in 1956. He replied by saying he didn't see any entertainment value in watching four people guess prices for a half-hour.
  • The Cullen-era substitutes included Jack Clark, Sonny Fox, Arlene Francis, Merv Griffin, Sam Levinson, Robert Q. Lewis, and Jack Narz. The announcers of each network have also substituted at least once.
• Game Show Winnings Cap:
  • The show was formerly under the cap CBS imposed on their game shows: $25,000 until 1984 ^note (with an absolute maximum of $25,000 until 1978, and an ability to keep up to $10,000 over the cap until 1984); $50,000 until 1988 ^note (with the ability to keep up to $10,000 above that); $75,000 until the 1990s, when it increased to $125,000. The cap was done away with in 2006 on the daytime show; the Million-Dollar Spectaculars were exempt from that rule before then.
  • During the Barker era, contestants were limited to one appearance in their lifetime, even if they never left Contestant's Row. Since Drew Carey became the host, contestants can now return after 10 years.
  • The only known loophole during the Barker era for appearing on the show twice were contestants that were chosen at home to compete in The Phone Home Game from 1984-1992. These contestants were still eligible to compete on the show in person, though it's unknown how many, if any, did.
• Genre Savvy: In the early-mid 80s, a common prize offered was a set of season tickets to all the major Los Angeles teams - the Raiders, Dodgers, Kings, and Lakers. Bob would occasionally drop hints about needing to consider how many home games each teams is expected to play in a season. Less sports-savvy contestants would often overprice the Raiders tickets, when in actuality they were by far the lowest price of the four. While an individual game ticket to the Raiders might be the most expensive of the four, they play far fewer games each season (only eight) than the other teams.
• George Jetson Job Security: Once Barker became Executive Producer in 1988, lots of people were often fired from the show for rather hazy reasons. The most frequent excuse for the models was claiming the girl was getting too fat, although nobody seemed to notice it but Bob.
• Generation Xerox: On the November 26, 1962 daytime show, the prizes up for bids were the prizes given away on the debut show, six years to the day (refrigerator, Caribbean cruise, pedigree collie, women's ensemble, Florsheim shoes, china set, dishwasher, color TV). The prizes won were substituted with modern versions of the same.
• Giant Novelty Check:
  • Appears on "Check Game", where the contestant is shown a prize and must write a check to themselves such that the value of the check plus the value of the prize is between $8,000 and $9,000; the contestant gets the check win or lose, but a losing contestant gets his or her check stamped with a large "VOID".
  • All three million-dollar winners in the Million-Dollar Spectaculars were filmed carrying one in a promo.
• Gone Horribly Right: After the Carey-hosted Million-Dollar Spectaculars decreased the difficulty of winning the million dollars, this happened an unprecedented three times which led to them being canned.
• Golden Snitch: The original Bill Cullen primetime version had a very expensive item up for bid at the end of each game. These included everything from rare jewels, artwork, furs, one-of-a-kind items, luxury cars, business franchises and houses.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Bob Barker during Money Game. Whenever a two digit combo started with 0, he would call it El Cheapo.
• Grumpy Old Man: Barker took on this persona once he let his hair go gray in the late 1980s. To younger generations this just increased his Cool Old Guy appeal, especially after he delved heavily into this trope during his appearance in Happy Gilmore.
• Guest Host:
  • The 1950s version had several people fill in for Cullen; this was standard operating procedure at the time, since the shows taped live and often had others fill in to give the regular host a break. (Interestingly, this newspaper article from October 1976 mentions that Cullen hosted Price before Barker, George Fenneman, and James. Yes, in that order. ^note There's no other evidence that Fenneman ever hosted any incarnation of Price, which means his being listed might just be the result of bad research.)
  • Dennis James guest-hosted four daytime episodes (December 24-27, 1974) because Bob was ill on the tapedate (December 5).
  • The models took turns hosting and announcing during the April 1, 2013 episode, and made Drew and George be the models.
  • For April Fools' Day 2014, Craig Ferguson of The Late Late Show switched places with Drew Carey
  • Lots of guest announcers:
    • After Johnny Olson died, the guest announcer rotation consisted of Rod, veteran announcers Gene Wood and Bob Hilton, and rookie announcer Rich Jeffries. A then-retired Gene returned to do some post-production work on reruns in Summer 1998.
    • Rod had to undergo cancer treatments three times between 2001 and 2003. Burton Richardson (formerly of the 1994 version) filled in for him most of the time, although Paul Boland (formerly of the 1998 Match Game) did one week in 2002.
    • In Season 32, Rod only announced on days that he felt healthy enough, with his good friend Randy West taking the mic in between (plus Burton for one week).
    • After Rod died, a rotation of guest announcers^note (in order of appearance: Randy and Burton; Daniel Rosen, a former comedian/juggler who announces the Live shows; Art Sanders, then a news anchor at KOMO Seattle; voice actor and former VH-1 VJ Roger Rose; former weatherman and Flamingo Fortune announcer Rich Fields; Don Bishop of WLQM-FM in Virginia; and Jim Thornton, a former LA radio traffic reporter who became the announcer of Wheel of Fortune in 2011) occurred. Another rotation ^note ( Shop 'Til You Drop host JD Roberto, Whose Line Is It Anyway? alumni Jeff B. Davis and Brad Sherwood; author/actor/radio host David H. Lawrence XVII; former The Weakest Link host George Gray; and comedian/actor Steve White) occurred between Rich Fields' firing and George Gray's joining.
    • Rich only missed one episode during his tenure, in December 2006 when he came down with laryngitis. Burton returned one last time to fill in for him.
    • Shadoe Stevens (who was Craig Ferguson's announcer) replaced George Gray during the aforementioned April Fools Day 2014 episode (on the other half of the crossover, Gray replaced both Stevens and Ferguson's robot skeleton sidekick Geoff).
  • The large rotations of guest models. Among the more notable included Kyle Aletter^note daughter of former Miss America Lee Meriwether, a onetime contestant who later became a recurring substitute model for over a decade as well as one-off substitute Barbara Hunter, normally a producer who was pressed into service for the December 23, 1980 episode after Holly Hallstrom injured her knee.

H

• Halloween Episode: Beginning with Drew Carey's first season, the show has also done Halloween-themed episodes, including one where Drew, Rich, and the models dressed as props and games (Drew was the Yodely Guy, Rich was the wheel), one where everyone was dressed as and referred to as Drew Carey (complete with a Credits Gag of everyone having "Drew" as their first name), one was The Wizard of Oz-themed (complete with Golden Brick Road), one was a carnival, and the 2017 edition featured the crew forming a Super Team to combat the evil Losing Horns Trombone. The episodes in 2011 and 2021 (the 40th and 50th seasons respectively) featured a 70's theme, with both featuring the contestants dressed (stereotypically) in Totally Radical outfits, and throwbacks to the show's look and feel of the era.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: In between seasons, Drew lost—and kept off—nearly 100 lbs.
• Helium Speech: Rich Fields once inhaled helium before reading the prize copy as part of a Drewcase skit. He then did it again when he signed off.
• Home Game: Despite the show's complexity, several board games were released along with several DVD and video game adaptations. In a unique subversion of the norm, you can't get the home game as a Consolation Prize, although the 2010 edition did pop up as a small prize in various pricing games during Season 38 and was frequently shown on computers presented as prizes.
  • Other home games have been made by Lowell (1958), Milton Bradley (1964, 1973-75, 1986), GameTek (1990), and Endless Games (1999-2000 and two DVD games).
    • A review/look into the 1990 GameTek version can be found here. Needless to say it could be better.
  • There was also a Tiger handheld version in the late 1990s featuring just 4 pricing games (Any Number, Lucky Seven, 3 Strikes, and Squeeze Play). It's incredibly unwieldy to play, since with the unit you get a huge stack of prize cards, and although there's a space in the unit to store one card (the one you're currently bidding on) there's nothing there to hold it in place.
  • The most recent video game version, The Price Is Right Decades (for Wii, DS, Xbox 360, and PS3), uses the respective system's avatars, contains tons of retro clips (most of which "probably won't be things you've seen before"), and features retired pricing games (including SuperBall!!, Walk of Fame, Penny Ante, Hurdles, and Professor Price). However, it probably would've been better if Ludia hadn't developed it, given their track record.
• Home Participation Sweepstakes: Both network versions offered viewers a chance to bid on special Home Viewer Showcases — on a regular basis on Cullen's version, during the Christmas season on Barker's, and most recently on Carey's. The long-since-retired Phone Home Game was a pricing game built around this Trope, and went on a three-month hiatus each season from 1983-88 so it wouldn't conflict with the Home Viewer Showcase.
  • Cullen's home sweepstakes went through three different formats:
    • 1956-60: The first sweepstakes singled out all exact bids on the Showcase, with ties broken through a bid-off on one of the Showcase prizes. In late 1960, an extra bonus was added for the rest of the run where the Showcase winner would be flown to New York to be a contestant on the show. Ties (which this version had plenty of) were broken by the tied players sending a telegram with the price of a particular item from the Showcase, which continued until the tie was broken ^note (it is not known what happened if the tie remained after all items in the Showcase had been used for the telegrams). Unfortunately, perfect bid ties got far too plentiful (one nighttime Showcase in 1958 had 14 perfect bids, and another in 1959 had 62 perfect bids), and so the format was changed...
    • 1960-61: Used 48 fishbowls, each representing a state in the contiguous U.S., and each with a sampling of postcards from that state. Ten states were randomly chosen and one card from each state drawn and placed on a board. The exact bid (or closest without going over) was the winner.
    • 1961-65: The final format had a random sampling of cards in five rotating drums. One card from each drum was drawn and placed on a board, after which the Showcase price was revealed.
  • The CBS version had a few formats as well:
    • 1973/1980-88/1990: A hybrid of the original series, usually with a Christmas-themed skit used to tie together the prizes, always very opulent for the daytime version. Most often, a fully loaded Cadillac was one of the grand prizes. Contestants were directed to send their bids to an address, with the closest bid without going over winning. All perfect bids and/or ties were placed in a random drawing, with that winner getting everything. The Showcase was introduced in November, with the winner announced on the last first-run program before Christmas. Johnny Olson – and later, Gene Wood and Rod Roddy – played Santa or some grandfatherly figure, while the models played the daughters (if they weren't playing it straight and simply modeling the prizes).
    • 1993: The week of April 12-16 featured the Home Viewer Showcase Showdown. ^note Yes, they meant "Showcase Showdown", as in the round where the wheel is spun. Viewers were instructed to keep a running tally of the value of all spins that week (excluding those that didn't go all the way around) and send in the total for a chance to win a Jeep Wrangler, a Chrysler Imperial, or a cruise.
    • 2011-: The current home viewer contest entreats viewers to call the number on the TV screen when prompted and guess the price of an item from among three prices. Right or wrong, the caller is entered for a chance to win a big prize. ^note (And receive special third-party offers, the real reason for the call-in.) There have also been tie-in sweepstakes on the show's website, which often involve entering to win certain items (often "special" items related to a Showcase).
    • In 2011, the Home Viewer Showcase was briefly revived with a slightly different format; using two prizes per day during a week of shows (one from the Showcase, one IUFB) instead of a single presentation, and entering through the show's website. The week after, they also trialed a "Prize of the Week" contest where users bid on an item from Monday's Showcase.

L

• Laugh Track: Although the show has been "sweetening" the audience reactions from the beginning, it was turned up to eleven when the show began taping with no audience, then later a small, limited audience, during COVID-19. Canned loops of an audience shouting suggestions, cheering, or groaning are constantly played at a low volume.
• Let's Just See What WOULD Have Happened: Several pricing games have an option to quit and keep accumulated prizes...but Bob was the kind of guy who just had to know what could have been. Drew has continued this practice.
  • Justified to confirm to the audience and the gaming regulators that it was possible for the contestant to win and the game wasn't malfunctioning or missing the correct price/options.
  • One of the most heartbreaking versions of this particular trope occurred during the "Salute to the Military" episode aired on Veterans Day 2010. A contestant bailed out with $10,000 on Pay the Rent, end it was shown that they would’ve been the pricing game's first ever winner if they hadn’t.
• Lovely Assistant: Barker's Beauties in the US. After Drew Carey took Barker's place, they started simply being referred to by name.
  • In late 2012 the show broke its Always Female mold by hiring their first male model — although they had been having male celebrities as "guest" models for some time prior (including a contestant who joked about being one on his shirt).
• Honest John's Dealership: Drew will often portray the model for "Pocket Change" as this.
• Hotter and Sexier: The show played heavily into the "sex appeal" of Bob Barker and Barker's Beauties starting in the late 1970s until about 1992. Examples of this include Dian Parkinson's skimpy swimsuits, the models' Bump windups, and Bob's "hundred dollar pocket" routine when a female contestant makes a perfect bid. The fallout of Bob and Dian's affair, plus a request from CBS to make the show more "family friendly", curtailed this focus significantly.
• Iconic Outfit: For most of his career, Rod wore custom-made Thai silk suits.
• Idiosyncratic Wipes: Several pricing games have wipes themed to the game's motif (e.g., a hexagonal wipe for Spelling Bee, an octagonal one for Danger Price, one with dice for Dice Game, a giant 3D Plinko board to introduce...well, Plinko, the "Yodely Guy" climbing up his track as it wipes for Cliffhangers, etc.)
  • There are also a few physical versions of this practice for revealing games and prizes. The most prominent are the "giant price tag", and the "Race Game curtain" — which is typically used to reveal larger sets, such as Plinko, Race Game, and the Big Wheel (the latter is occasionally seen on-air during the preceding sponsor plug).
  • Toward the latter half of his time as director, Paul Alter would use wipes shaped like the make of the car being played for in car games (e.g. a blue oval for Fords).
• In-Series Nickname:
  • Frequently, Bill Cullen referred to the contestants as "the bargain hunters."
  • "El Cheapo", coined by Barker, is the lowest number pair (usually less than 10, but not always) in Money Game.
  • The Cliff Hangers mountain climber has had several names.
    • Doug Davidson dubbed him "Hans", after one of his The Young & The Restless co-stars.
    • Drew Carey usually calls him "Yodely Guy" or "Yodel Guy", but called him "Hans" at least once.
    • Those at The Price Is Right LIVE! typically call him "Johann".
    • Dennis James once called him "Fritz", in a "too soon" moment for Janice Pennington (her mountain-climber husband, Fritz Stammberger, had gone missing before the beginning of the 1976-77 season). Even worse, Dennis shouted "There goes Fritz!" as the contestant lost...which sent Janice running backstage in tears and not coming out for the rest of that taping.
• Instant-Win Condition:
  • Pretty much the point of Bonus Game.
  • In Bullseye, finding the bonus bullseye behind a product with which a contestant hits anywhere on the board is an instant win. Also, getting a price for an item from $10-12.
  • In Master Key, one of the five keys—the titular Master Key—wins all the prizes.
  • In Pocket ¢hange, choosing the $2.00 envelope is virtually a guaranteed win. The only way to lose is to give nine or ten incorrect guesses and pick three other low amounts of change, as the sale price of the car will never exceed $2.75.
  • In Spelling Bee, the two cards (out of thirty) that say "CAR" are this. To a lesser extent, bidding perfectly on any one of the three small items instantly wins all three items and all three extra cards even if the contestant missed previous items, though this in no way guarantees actually winning the car.
  • In Cover Up, it is possible for one to earn enough chances to the point where a correct digit choice is the only remaining card in that digit's column. On rare occasion, this has led to an automatic win.
  • In Dice Game, rolling all ones and sixes (or the correct digit for that roll) guarantees a win, and no decisions need to be made. The game has also been won at least once by rolling all four correct digits.
  • In the new game To The Penny, if the contestant does not end up spending any of their five pennies to eliminate wrong answers or take a second chance after a wrong guess, the last item turns into an instant win since there are six options, and Drew will even have the contestant spend all of them and declare the game a win. This happened in the very first playing, no less.
• The Klutz:
  • Janice Pennington once infamously modeled an overstuffed Amana refrigerator in early 1976, and occasionally wrecked cars into the Big Door frames.
  • Holly Hallstrom was quite disaster-prone and, on at least one occasion, held a price card upside-down. Most famous are her three bouts with kitchen appliance packages, including a "rogue cantaloupe".
  • Lanisha Cole seems to be a modern-day Holly — in Season 38 alone, she crashed a little scooter into Door #3 (Fall 2009) and had to deal with a refrigerator whose doors kept opening in a very similar manner to Holly in a 1980s Safe Crackers playing (April 22, 2010).
  • George Gray's infamous attempt to share the details on a treadmill during a Contestant's Row bid while running on it backwards. It did not end well.
  • In 2017 a stagehand showing off a coffee maker display as an IUFB on the Price is Right Train knocks it all over by starting the train up too fast when it comes time to move it off stage.
  • George Gray showed in 2019 he still has no luck with demonstrating moving items as he tripped up while showing off a pair of electronic roller skates.
• Large Ham:
  • Dian Parkinson always utilized exaggerated, cheesy dance moves when modeling jukeboxes. It became such a familiar sight that Barker once quipped that "She's going in for disc surgery next week".
  • Holly Hallstrom was good for exaggerated hammy antics, especially during the Showcase sequences, where they were often Played for Laughs. She also copied Dian's cheesy dance moves whenever she modeled a jukebox.
• Large-Ham Announcer: This show is likely the Trope Codifier on the game show front, mainly thanks to Johnny Olson and Rod Roddy.
• Last of His Kind: Daytime network games used to be as ubiquitous as Soap Operas, especially in the mid-1970s. From the end of Caesar's Challenge in January 1994 until the return of Let's Make a Deal in October 2009, Price was the only daytime network game on the air. That said, Let's Make a Deal has done little to nothing for the whole Last of His Kind aspect, as it and Price are still the only daytime network games on the air.
• Leitmotif: The trope-naming Losing Horns, heard when someone loses a pricing game or there's a Double Overbid in the Showcase. If you've seen the show, you probably just heard it in your head by its mere mention.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Averted with Secret "X". Although you can win up to two extra X's, you can't place them all on the left or right side of the board — the three-in-a-row must involve the middle column.
  • Also averted with Pick-a-Pair. If the contestant missed their first attempt, they're supposed to commit to one of those two prices before picking the item to pair it with. Some contestants have tried to skirt this rule by picking an item, expecting to match it to either price, but none have succeeded.
  • In the retired Phone Home Game, a rule that contestants could not mention the name of a product was strictly enforced. Otherwise it would be all too easy for the home player to "accidentially" start saying the name of the product, correct themselves, and then give out the price, which would spoil the answer for the studio contestant.
• Lovely Assistant:
  • The models on Cullen's version were June Ferguson, Toni Wallace, Gail Sheldon, and Beverly Bentley.
  • Barker's Beauties (Carey doesn't have a nickname for them, although the occasional reference to "Carey's Cuties" will show up). Special mention must be made of the "Classic" Barker's Beauties trio of Janice Pennington, Dian Parkinson, and Holly Hallstrom (which became a quartet when Kathleen Bradley joined in 1990), as well as the "new" classic group of Lanisha Cole, Amber Lancaster, Gwendolyn Osbourne, Manuela Arbeláez, and Rachel Reynolds. Since Carey took over, a few male models have shown up too (Rob Wilson, James O'Halloran, Devin Goda). Alexis Gaube, one of the two dealers of the 2019 version of Card Sharks, debuted as part of the 50th Anniversary specials.
• Luck-Based Mission: Skill is often not enough for some games.
  • ½ Off comes down to a random choice between two boxes if you get everything else right, Three Strikes can easily be Unwinnable if the Strike chips are pulled too quickly, Secret "X" still has a 1-in-3 chance of being lost even if both small prizes are priced correctly, and in Plinko and Punch-A-Bunch you're just as likely to get a Zonk as hit the big money. The only game that can usually be won without luck is Clock Game.
  • Pocket ¢hange is also a huge luck-based game in two flavors. The first part, you have to guess a number on the board that goes with the specific place value of the car. Every wrong guess raises the price of the car (score needed) by 25 cents, so it's possible to get nothing but bad guesses and make the winning target for the car be over $2.00. The second part of the luck is every time you do get a number right, you pick an envelope off the board, which can contain values of $.00, $.05, $.10, $.25, $.50, $.75, or $2.00. The contestant then has to hope all their envelopes will match or surpass the target price. Unlucky contestants can get a string of low values and come up short.
  • Any game that requires contestants to guess the tens or ones digits for prizes with three/four/five-digit prices (One Away, Ten Chances, 2 for the Price of 1, etc.) can easily become this.
  • This is actually what got Joker retired — Roger Dobkowitz acknowledged that it was possible for the contestant to successfully earn all four small prizes and still lose the game if the Joker was the remaining card on the board. The Dob figured then-incoming host Drew Carey wouldn't like that, so rather than have a fight about it, he took it out of the rotation permanently and had all its scheduled Season 36 playings replaced. (For all intents and purposes, this game is similar to Five Price Tags, but unlike 5PT, the cards have no prices on them and are completely arbitrary.)
• Lucky Charms Title:
  • Pocket ¢hange has had a cents sign in its title since the beginning.
  • As the show's central theme is pricing, it's almost a given to see dollar signs in certain game titles. Examples include Barker's Marker$ (later Make Your Mark) and $uper $aver, with the latter's logo featuring both words housed under the same "$" (both games are, coincidentally, retired). Lucky Seven and Most Expensive added a dollar sign to their titles over the years — Lucky $even by May 30, 1986 and Most Expen$ive on February 12, 2010 (although the first taped playing with the new title didn't air until February 18).

M

• Made in Country X: After Operation Desert Storm, Bob mandated that all cars offered on the show be from American brands (however, any imported cars sold under those American companies as captive imports were not affected). The rule lasted until Drew took over.
• Match Cut: At the start of the show after the first four contestants were called, the logo appears, which then dissolves to said logo on one of the doors which opens to introduce the host.
• Middle Name Basis: A contestant on September 14, 1982 insisted on being called by her middle name of Colleen instead of her first name of Muriel shown on her nametag (the show always uses a person's legal first name for the nametags even if said person does not commonly use that name). Bob asked her in return to call him by his middle name (William, coincidentally the first name of the host of the 1956-65 version), then called the models by their middle names (Dian = Lynn, Janice = Maurine, Holly = Anne). After the commercial break, he asked a reluctant Johnny his middle name (Leonard) to call him by.
• Minigame Game: The show's format in two words.
• Missing the Good Stuff:
  • The debut of Cover Up (also the Season 22 premiere) was interrupted by a CBS News special report. Only a few East Coast markets where Price aired an hour earlier actually got to see it.
  • Atlanta viewers never saw the debut episode of either the original series or the CBS reboot. In 1956, when Price first premiered at 10:30 AM EST, the NBC station in Atlanta (WSB-TV, now with ABC) aired a movie from 9:30-11:00 AM. When New Price premiered, the CBS affiliate (WAGA-TV, now Fox owned, alongside several others around the country) was running the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon.
• Monty Hall Problem: The retired pricing game Barker's Marker$ imposed a four-way dilemma. The game board had four prices, three of which matched prizes on display. The contestant marked three prices and, after two were revealed, had the option of switching the last marker to the other price at a cost of $500 given to the contestant at the start of the game. The decision brings the problem into play where the contestant, after blindly picking three prizes, has a 75% chance of winning if the choice is made to switch.
• Motor Mouth:
  • One of the biggest criticisms of Carey's hosting style. He has toned this down after his first year of hosting.
  • Also invoked in the above-mentioned "Drewcase" skit above, which involved Rich reading the copy in various ways. He read the first prize while being held upside down, while the second required him to do this to get through an entire description without taking a breath.
• Mystery Box: Used in Half Off, and formerly used in Fortune Hunter.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In April 1976, Bill Cullen and then-current Price model Janice Pennington appeared as panelists on Match Game '76. At the start of the first show of the week, Gene Rayburn points to Bill and says "This is the face you see on The Price Is Right?"
  Bill: Not if you've watched lately!
  • The April Fool's Day 2009 episode introduced the show as being in the "Bill Cullen Studio".
  • The January 13, 2016, episode's Cover Up placeholder Running Gag featured five versions of the Price is Right logo in chronological order: the first was the Cullen logo.
  • The refresh of Double Prices introduced in Season 46 features the stylized dollar signs from the Barker era Big Wheel as a motif.

N

• Negated Moment of Awesome:
  • Prior to Season 37, any time a contestant playing Punch a Bunch bails with $5,000 only to discover a $10,000 split was subsequently punched.
  • April 9, 1984: A contestant starts off Grocery Game with five bags of Tootsie Pops at $1.29 each. The cash register flashes "WIN!" and the dings and theme music play, until Bob stops the celebration to point out that her total is only $6.45, 30¢ below the winning range. Bob continues the game, and the contestant hopes to secure an actual win with one pack of ramen... which only costs 25¢, meaning she can only spend 5-30¢ and has clearly already used the least expensive item. Knowing it's a Foregone Conclusion, she dismissively picks the leftmost remaining item (a 79¢ pack of sponges) and goes over $7.00.
  • November 11, 2010: A Veteran's Day special leading off with the new extremely-high-stakes game Pay The Rent, which offers $100,000 as its top prize. The contestant playing it left with $10,000, but he actually managed to put the items in the correct order and could've had $100,000; the staff hopes most contestants aren't that lucky/smart and gutsy.
    • It happened again on March 27, 2013. Drew even made reference to the first time.
  • December 27, 2012: 5 pricing game wins out of 5, and a 6th on the way with a contestant setting the Safe Crackers combination to the correct price of $680...but then he is convinced by the audience to change the combination to $860, consequently losing the game. To add insult to injury, a Double Overbid in the Showcase.
  • In at least one game of Plinko, the contestant won all 5 Plinko chips, but dropped all 5 into the $0 space.
• New Year Has Come: In 2009, the show began to occasionally hold New Year's themed episodes, usually highlighting the best moments and prizes from the past year. These have sometimes featured the return of notable prizes from special episodes (most often special sports, luxury, or classic cars). Since 2019, Range Game has often been featured in this special, with the rangefinder reskinned to look like the ball in Times Square, and going down instead of up.
• Nintendo Hard:
  • Seasons 37 onward have been accused of this, as the staff apparently seems to prefer upgrading set pieces and having celebrity guests. Roger Dobkowitz, who generally knew how and when to both avoid this trope and play it straight, was fired by Fremantle after Season 36 to "take the show in a new direction".
    • Kathy Greco's setups from Season 37 to mid-Season 39 were accused of being this trope in general. She also wound up getting sacked by Mike Richards, to again take the show in a different direction.
  • Add 'em Up only lasted in the rotation for two years, and it's no surprise why it was scrapped. The contestant had to figure out the car's price only knowing what the individual digits in the price added up to. Even with one of the numbers being given out for free, there were different probabilities that could add up to the total. Contestants frequently had to be "hand held" throughout the game, and wins were often anti-climatic. It was no surprise that the show's staff scrapped it due to it apparently not being too popular with them.
  • Bullseye '72, the only pricing game that never had a winner. The premise was to guess a car's price to the dollar within seven tries, with Bob saying "Higher" or "Lower" after each bid. Attempts to make the game easier (adding a $500 bidding range for two playings, then ditching the range in favor of the price being rounded to the nearest $10) didn't help. Neither did playing for a boat, which it only did once (and on #0013D(R), at that!).
  • In Dice Game, whenever the price doesn't contain a 3 or 4 in the last three digits. Even harder if all three digits are 1 and/or 6. Both cases can only be avoided by rolling a 1, a 6, or the correct number.
    • In its first year or so in the rotation, it was even harder - 1-6 were not the only numbers that could show up as the price of the car. These were, in fact, the intended rules of the game because the producers wanted it to be challenging - unfortunately it proved to be too challenging to be fun that way. The rules were altered so that the only numbers that could be in the price of the car were numbers that could be found on a six-sided die.
  • Fortune Hunter was retired because of its low win rate, having gone winless in its final season of use.
  • Golden Road, which befitting the name usually has the highest-value prize in the show (usually an exotic sports or luxury car worth well north of $60,000 or even $100,000) is this by design.
  • Hi-Lo requires the contestant to be perfect in choosing the three highest priced items out of six. You can expect that even a knowledgeable contestant will slip up by picking an item slightly less expensive than one they didn't choose. During its couple years, there could be a small difference between the Hi and Lo rows!
  • Let 'em Roll initially inverted this aspect. Roger said the grocery portion was set up to be easy on purpose because the idea of the game was to have the contestant roll three times. Played straight since Season 37 where the rolls are not always guaranteed.
  • Lucky $even is this most of the time. You need to guess each digit and lose $1 for each number you're off by (guess 2, and if it's 6, you lose $4). You can only lose up to $6 through four digits. If the price of the car is something like $19,655, you'll probably win. If it's something like $22,891, have fun being on TV.
    • Perhaps one of the more extreme examples of the latter, April 24, 2018 featured a Subaru Impreza 2.0i worth $19,987. The contestant won with $1 left.
  • Pathfinder is a difficult game to win at due to having to work with 4 different numbers surrounding you; you have to pick one of the numbers and if it's wrong, then you have to guess the price of a small item in order to keep playing and there's only 3 items in the game; four mistakes total ends the game in a loss. The game gets slightly easier if the player stands in a corner or at the edge of the game board since there's less numbers to work with at that spot. Not helping matters is these days, all four choices for the second digit will always be consecutive. For example, if the first number is 1, count on having 6, 7, 8 and 9 as your the choices for the second digit.
  • Pay the Rent is basically designed to be this, mainly because there's only one correct solution and contestants usually try to put the lowest-priced item in the mailbox (which would require more than one correct solution to work).
    • Averted during Season 41, when the number of solutions began to increase. While it began around 2-4 correct solutions, for three playings in a row it was clear they wanted to get a winner. On March 27, April 8, and April 25 the most expensive item cost more than the total of the second and third most expensive items. As a result, the first two playings had eight solutions, while the third had ten. The latter also ended up being the first $100,000 win. The very next playing, on June 4, went right back to having just one solution.
  • Plinko has never been won and isn't statistically likely to be, either. Most people consider it a win if the contestant hits the big-money slot once, but Word of God says the full $50,000 must be won.
    • Plinko is also simultaneously an aversion as, statistically, someone with at least two Plinko chips is likely to walk away with some money.
  • Punch a Bunch, which has only been won once since its top prize was increased to $25,000 in Season 37. When the top prize was $10,000, two slips with that amount were on the board meaning the game was usually won at least once a season. One $25,000 slip is in play under the current format, even in prime time specials.
  • Stack the Deck is also noted for being difficult to win; many contestants who got all three number picks still lost.
  • Take Two isn't hard by design, but it can become more difficult the closer the target price is to the middle.
  • Temptation was notorious for going without a win for five years, mainly because it's much safer for contestants to bail out with the four prizes than risk all of them to get the car when even one wrong digit in the price of the car leaves them with nothing. Originally, contestants couldn't change the numbers in the price of the car, making it more difficult to decide whether they should go for the car or walk away.
  • Ten Chances is notoriously hard by design due to the contestant only having ten tries to correctly guess the prices of two small prizes and a car. The first small prize has priced with two digits and the contestant has three numbers to choose from. The next prize has three digits in its price and the contestant has four numbers to work with. The price of the car is always five digits and the contestant has to use all five digits. If the contestant keeps screwing up on the smaller prizes, they can potentially lose their shot at winning the car.^note (To be fair, though, this really only applies to those players who have no clue what they're doing; Genre Savvy players usually find this game to be a walk in the park.)
  • Even without a sixth digit, Three Strikes can be next to impossible to win. If you pull the numbers out often enough, you will figure out the price of the car, but good luck placing all of the numbers without grabbing all three strikes. Appropriately, the car being played for tends to be a high-end model.
  • Another retired game example was Trader Bob. It was essentially similar to Give or Keep, but there was absolutely no room for error involved. The contestant was shown one small prize at a time, but they were not shown its price. Then they had to pick out between two other small prizes. If the contestant guessed wrong, then the game ends. It was retired after 1985 for apparently being too difficult to win.
  • During Big Money Week in October 2016, Hole in One was played for $100,000, so they added a windmill to it. The contestant could reduce the prize to $20,000 if they wanted it turned off. Of course, Drew manages to sink it perfectly on the demonstration.
  • The Australian version uses a very different Showcase format. First, the two contestants played the Showcase Playoff, essentially Double Bullseye on the price of the entire Showcase (with a range, of course). The winner had to then order each item in the Showcase by their price, lowest to highest (with the largest prize, usually a car, automatically placed on the bottom). Even better, the producers just knew how tricky it was: during its 2003-05 revival, the show offered a "Mega Showcase" that included a condominium on the Sunshine Coast as its top prize, taking its total value in excess of AU$600,000! A 2005 Mega Showcase win valued at AU$664,667 was the largest win on any version of Price in the world ever until Adam Rose's Million-Dollar Spectacular win in 2008.
• No Indoor Voice:
  • Paul Boland, who previously announced the 1998-99 Match Game, filled in for just five shows in 2002; he didn't do any more because the staff wanted him to tone it down and he refused.
  • Rich Fields in his later years tended towards this as well.
• Nonstandard Game Over: Several pricing games – those involving the pricing of groceries or small items – have this clause if the contestant is wrong with all questions or fails to meet any conditions on his/her given choices (usually three), and the contestant had to earn all picks. A few examples:
  • Bullseye: If the contestant is outside of the $2-$12 range on all three items, meaning they are unable to win even by finding the hidden bullseye (An item MUST hit the target in order for the contestant to be able to earn the hidden bullseye it it's behind it.)
  • 5 Price Tags: If the contestant is wrong on all four true-false pricing questions. At least one correct answer was needed to be able to pick from one of the price tags they thought was the correct price.
  • Master Key: If the contestant is wrong on both either-or pricing questions, meaning no pick of which one of the five keys. At least one correct answer was needed to try to pick the right key and (attempt to) win at least something.
  • One Away: If the contestant gets every number wrong on the first guess, meaning they don't get a second guess due to the fact that changing all five numbers at this point would result in the correct price; this rule is in place to prevent an alternate Instant-Win Condition.
  • Rat Race: If the contestant is wrong on all three pricing questions, meaning no selection of the rats and no running of the colorful rodents. At least one was needed to participate in the race.
  • Secret X: If the contestant is wrong on both pricing questions, failing to earn additional X's. Although the contestant is given a free X, two are required for a chance to win the game.
  • Shell Game / Bonus Game: If the contestant is wrong on all four higher-lower pricing questions; they had to have at least one correct to be able to win (by placing a chip by the shell with the ball, or by getting control of the BONUS window).
  • This also applies to some retired games:
    • Joker: If the contestant is wrong on all four pricing questions, meaning they cannot discard any cards to remove the Joker.
    • SuperBall!!: If the contestant is wrong on all three pricing questions and the SuperBall bonus, thus not being able to win prizes or money.

O

• Obvious Rule Patch:
  • In the Cullen era, if all four players went over, nobody won the prize. Once in a while, Bill would silently look at the price, tell the contestants they were all over, have the bids erased, and allow them to make one bid with all required to be lower than the lowest original frozen bid. In the earliest episodes, those who overbid could not bid on the next item. If everyone overbids, that item becomes a bonus prize for whoever wins the next item.
  • The October 14, 1959 show had a game where the contestants were asked to write down what bonus prize they wanted. The returning champ wrote down a new home and won it by coming closest without going over the price of a Polaroid camera. He was the night's top winner, but as the bonus was subject to estimated value, the second place contestant was allowed to return on the next show along with the champ.
  • When the show returned in 1972, if both contestants bid more than their Showcase price, they were told this and allowed to make new bids until at least one of them was not over. Seemingly out of the blue, beginning on the sixth taped episode (#0022D) the show started to allow for the possibility that neither Showcase would be awarded. We know of this rule as the Double Overbid.
  • When Race Game debuted in 1974, it used magnets to connect the pricetags to the stands...which didn't always work (at least one playing had the tags keep falling off). The more familiar holes and hooks were introduced sometime between March 1975 and March '76.
  • A contestant on November 3, 1975 spun 60¢ in the Showcase Showdown, then tried to spin the Big Wheel only a few pegs in an attempt to hit the 40¢. By the end of the month, a rule was added where the wheel has to make at least one full revolution in order to count.
    • Sometimes Bob/Drew helps the contestant spin if they are is physically unable to spin it a full rotation, usually if the contestant's handicapped or very old - although several have admirably tried to do it themselves, and a few succeeded.
  • Clock Game has tried four-digit prizes several times. After finding out that four digits ate up too much time against the clock, they tried offering a $1,000 range, but it didn't help. They tried four-digit prizes again in late 2008, but after a six-month span in which nobody won any of said prizes (barring a single technical win), the game was changed so that the contestant only bid on two three-digit prizes as before, and if they got both, they would win a four-digit prize as a bonus. Many times, the second three-digit prize could be considered part of the four-digit prize, such as a Blu-ray player for a large TV; the contestant only bid on the Blu-ray player.
  • Early on, Dice Game's car prices had 0's and numbers higher than 6. Because these often made the game too hard, the game was quickly altered to include only prices with 1-6. Roll a 1 or a 6, and you either get that digit right or know for sure which way to call it.
  • Range Game has always had the "Find the price in a $600 spread" rule, but when it premiered, the range finder only had a $50 spread, which made it Nintendo Hard to get the price, naturally. This range was doubled to $100 after a few playings, and then shortly was converted to the $150 spread, which is the standard and gives (technically) a 1 in 4 shot at winning.
  • Check-Out started off Nintendo Hard as well; the contestant's final total for the first decade could only be up to 50 cents away from the correct total. This was doubled to a single dollar, but it only marginally helped and the game remained Nintendo Hard. In the 2000's, the range was doubled a second time to $2 (which is where it is at now), although Drew still claims whenever it's played that Check-Out is a hard game.
  • It's "Hole in One...or Two!"
  • The price-reveal button of Flip Flop was eventually moved to the side of the board, where it's not nearly as easy for the contestant to hit, whether accidentally or otherwise.
  • On at least two occasions, the rules of Switcheroo were relaxed to accommodate a physically challenged contestant. A wheelchair-bound contestant was given 45 seconds instead of the usual 30, since he could not place the blocks himself and had to issue verbal instructions. When a 99-year-old man played, Barker made a big show out of saying the timer was "broken", and let him play an untimed game.
  • Card Game has had a lot of issues because of inflation. When it first started, there was no starting bid. Then it increased to $2,000/$8,000/$10,000/$15,000^note first set in 1983, 1993, 2001, and 2008, respectively as the seasons went on to accommodate with inflation. In 2023, to accomodate not only inflation, but a wider variety of cars, the opening bid is now a variable multiple of $5,000 that depends on the price of the car. It's usually $20,000, but may be scaled back to $15,000 for economy cars, or $25,000 for SUVs and midsize cars.
  • Averted with Cliff Hangers, which can easily be won by guessing $25/$35/$45 on the three items. As of January 2021 no patch has been introduced.
  • For Race Game, contestants who are wearing flip-flops, sandals or high heels are allowed to kick them off and go barefoot.
  • In the 80s, in the interest of her safety, Bob allowed a pregnant contestant playing Race Game to simply hand the models the price tags instead of having to affix them herself; she declined this offer and managed to win on the first try in under 10 seconds.
• Once a Season: Drew Carey's tenure has brought along a new slate of annual traditions to the show, sometimes as Sweeps stunts, including:
  • "Big Money Week": a week of shows where one pricing game per-day is played for an absurdly large amount of money (such as Million-Dollar Plinko with a $200,000 space). There are sometimes other cash bonuses and larger bonus prizes in the Showcase Showdown too.
  • "Dream Car Week": similar to Big Money Week, except with expensive sports or luxury cars.
  • A week with a daily Special Guest celebrity who gets to help out.
  • A Publishers Clearing House promotion week with a bonus cash prize for the first winner of the day.
  • "Pet Adoption Week": Normal episodes, but with a short segment showcasing an animal from a Los Angeles-area shelter.
  • Multiple episodes featuring couples, children, or veterans playing.
• Opening Narration:
  • NBC Daytime: (later modified) "Today, these four bargain hunters match their shopping skills as (sponsor's products) present...The Price Is Right, the exciting game of bidding, buying, and bargaining."
    • In its infancy days, the opening was: "Do you think you're a good shopper? How much do you think (item) is worth? How about this (item)? What would you bid for this (item)? All this and a (item) will be yours if you make the best estimate of the price of all these beautiful things. Someone watching the program from home this week will win it all as NBC Television presents an exciting new game of bidding, buying and bargaining...The Price Is Right."
  • NBC Primetime: "Tonight, these four people meet to compete for the prizes of a lifetime on...The Price Is Right."
  • ABC Daytime: "Today, (celebrity name) bids for prizes with these contestants on The Price Is Right." (The ABC daytime show employed celebrity players starting March 30, 1964. It is not clear what the opening was prior.)
  • ABC Primetime: "Backstage are some of the most exciting prizes on television. On our panel tonight is (superlatives; celebrity name). Stand by for The Price Is Right!"
  • Seasons 1-3 (CBS): "A fortune in fabulous prizes may go to one of these people today^note (On the 1972-1980 Syndicated show, the word "Today" was replaced with "Tonight".) if they know when the price is right!"
  • Seasons 5-37 (CBS): "Here it comes, (from the Bob Barker Studio at CBS in Hollywood [added when Bob Barker had Studio 33 named for him on the ceremonial 5000th broadcast in 1998]), television's most exciting hour of fantastic prizes, the fabulous 60-minute Price Is Right!"
  • Syndicated (1985-86): "Here it is! All-new! (And this audience is/A show) sparkling with excitement because a fortune in fabulous prizes can be (theirs if they know when/won tonight if) the price is right!"
  • Syndicated (1994-95): "Get set, America! It's time to come on down!" (montage of clips from both this and the daytime Price is shown) "From Studio 33 in Hollywood, home of America's favorite games and the world's most fabulous prizes, it's The New Price Is Right!"
  • Seasons 38-51: "Here it comes! From the Bob Barker Studio at CBS in Hollywood, it's The Price Is Right!" The narration was changed slightly in March 2019 to add "famous" before "Bob Barker Studio" and remove the mention of CBS, as Television City was sold to another company around that time.
  • Season 52: "Here it comes, from Hollywood, television's most exciting hour— it's The Price Is Right!" This is the opening being used for the show's current home, Haven Studios in Glendale, CA; it's an abridged version of the best-remembered opening used by Johnny Olson, Rod Roddy and Rich Fields.
• Overly Long Gag: April 1, 2011. Drew turns the ticket plug into one with extremely-detailed instructions on how to get to the show's website. It carries over into an interstitial break two minutes later, where he finally finishes; the whole time, the crew is seen putting away the Big Wheel and rolling in Balance Game behind him.
• Overly Long Name: The fifth contestant on January 24, 1983 was called down with the initial "K". When Bob asked about it, she gave him a tag with her full first name: Kamukealeianuvenuekipalileileilanimunuetaire.
  Bob: [reading the tag] Oh my God... is all of that your first name?
  K: My mother has a good sense of humor.
  Bob: Well, she must've! Her name is [spells out part of the name]... that's half of it. Is that a Hawaiian name?
  [K gives the proper pronunciation of her name.]
  Bob: Now wait a minute! She can't say that on television, can she?