This article was originally published on WHerMoments
Bob Barker’s without doubt America’s quintessential game show host. During his lengthy tenure on The Price Is Right, he led the players and viewers through the challenges with ease. The guy was great at his job! But sometimes, even a legend like Barker would drop the ball. And his most significant gaffe arguably came in an episode from 1984...
Fifty years and counting
The Price Is Right made its TV bow back in 1972 — yep, it’s been on the air for five decades now. What an achievement!
And Barker was host for much of that spell. He held the position from the first episode up until his retirement in 2007, becoming one of the most recognizable faces on the small screen in the process. Yet a few things did go wrong during his time in charge.
The show’s blunders...
Yes, The Price Is Right experienced some wild blunders with Barker at the helm. For instance, remember the old Penny Ante challenge?
It was one of the best-looking games on the show, as the set boasted eight colorful “lanes” containing different prices. Mind you, the elaborate staging came at a cost. Quite simply, there were times when the game didn’t always work properly.
The end of Penny Ante
The biggest issue was that the set would sometimes reveal the right answer too early, throwing the challenge into disarray. Thankfully, though, Barker never lost his composure when this particular gaffe cropped up.
What a pro! Anyway, Penny Ante was eventually removed to allow the crew to work on its glitches, only for a passing rain shower to wreck the machine. It never came back.
The Flip Flop gaffe
But mechanical issues couldn’t be blamed for this next mistake. Flip Flop’s one of the simplest games on The Price Is Right, making its debut in February 2000.
After being shown an item on stage, contestants are presented with a four-digit number on two separate boards, from which they have to figure out the price. Now, the opening figure’s never correct. Remember that, folks!
Outlining the rules
The player can either “flip” the first two digits or “flop” the second pair, which reveals a new number. And if they fancy it, the contestant may also do both at the same time — hence the game’s name.
So, with that in mind, this brings us to an episode from April 2005. In it, Barker outlined the rules to a contestant named Breton, who was hoping to win a digital piano.
A huge mistake
Breton assured Barker that he got the gist of the game, before approaching the set. From there, the contestant played up to the crowd as he teased the “flip” or “flop,” with the cheers indicating that the audience thought the latter was the correct choice.
But then, Breton did something that caught everyone off guard. Incredibly, he hit the buzzer while the original price was still on the board.
“I’m going home”
“No!” Barker cried in sheer disbelief. He couldn’t believe it — and neither could the shocked audience.
How did that happen? The host then comically walked off the stage while muttering, “I’m going home.” He held off, though, and went on to award Breton the digital piano despite the massive blunder. As far as game show gaffes go, this one was gold.
Lucky $even mishap
Yet faulty equipment and confused contestants weren’t the only cause for howlers during Barker’s run. One of the show’s models made a memorable mistake ahead of the Lucky $even game, in which players try to win a car.
On that occasion, the vehicle in question was an eye-catching Ford Mustang convertible with yellow paint. It was a beauty of a motor.
Crash!
Anyway, as the model brought the car out on stage, she didn’t hit the brakes in time. So it proceeded to roll into the side of the set, leaving her completely red-faced.
Barker then quipped, “This is the second time in 32 years that a model has been smiling at the camera and crashed! You did it beautifully.” Talk about taking a blunder in your stride.
Barker’s big blunder
But as we noted earlier Barker wasn’t a stranger to making mistakes himself on The Price Is Right, though it certainly didn’t happen very often. So, let’s head back to the 1984 episode that we flagged up earlier.
It was a festive edition of the popular show and a contestant named Albert earned the right to play for an awesome prize: a trip to Japan.
Playing Pick-A-Pair
Now, to bag the glamorous trip, Albert had to successfully navigate a round of Pick-A-Pair. As Barker explained, “To win this game, you have to pick a pair of products that have the same price.”
Sounds simple enough, right? All the items were sitting on a rotating wheel and the name of each of them would be read out before the challenge got started.
Albert’s choice
In this instance, the products were a box of raisins, a bottle of honey, mascara, a pack of candy, garlic bread, and a bag of Texas chili. Quite the mix!
Once everything was identified, Barker then asked Albert to pick out an item to kick-off the game. “Well since I’m from Texas, let’s start with the chili,” the contestant replied.
High stakes
At that stage, Barker unveiled the chili’s price, which came to $1.59. The host said, “Now, if you can pick out another product that’s $1.59, we’ll give you a trip to Japan.”
To say the stakes were high would be a major understatement! So, the ball was back in Albert’s court. What item did he have in mind?
The unthinkable
Well, after giving it a bit of thought, Albert went with the garlic bread. Unfortunately for him, though, the prices didn’t match up — its price only came to $1.19.
Yet this wouldn’t spell the end of the game for the Texan, as he had another chance to get it right. Bur before Pick-A-Pair could continue the unthinkable happened. Barker made a massive error.
“The raisins”
“Do you know which one of them is $1.59?” Barker asked. At that point, you’d have expected Albert to give him an answer.
But he didn’t get a chance. A split-second later, the host responded to his own question. The Price Is Right legend said, “The raisins, the raisins are $1.59.” He then continued to speak as if nothing had gone wrong.
“Making a fool of myself”
Mind you, Barker soon stopped himself. He cried, “Oh wait a minute!
What am I doing? The game’s not over! I tell you what — I think you’ve got a good chance of winning this game, Albert. I’m going to make this a happy New Year for you.” The host then joked, “Don’t stand there and laugh at me — I’m making a fool of myself!”
Joking around
“I’ve been here for all these years playing this game, you know it well enough,” Barker added. “You knew I was goofing, why didn’t you stop me there?!” It was all very much tongue-in-cheek, despite the significance of the blunder.
So, with the answer now out in the open, Albert naturally decided to keep the chili on the board and swap the garlic bread for the raisins.
Winner!
Barker chirped, “That comes as a big surprise to me!” The winning buzzer then sounded, with the host confirming that Albert had indeed bagged the vacation to Japan. What a way to do it, right?
This was a classic moment that again showcased Barker’s charisma and skill, as he made the best of an uncharacteristic gaffe so that it didn’t turn into a disaster.
“Santa Claus Barker”
Plus, the mishap also highlighted that Barker wasn’t afraid of self-deprecation. As the segment came to a close, he added, “Well, Santa Claus Barker will be back with the second Showcase Showdown after this message.”
While he might not have been so “giving” again on the show, incidents like these demonstrate why this iconic figure is still beloved by TV fans all these years later — and why the show has continued to draw huge crowds...
Gaming the system
Yes, The Price Is Right has continued to be a popular game show staple. In fact, people travel from far and wide in hopes of trying their luck on the show.
Most people walk away from these shows with empty pockets, but from time to time, a clever individual will figure out how to game the system... even with hosts like Bob Barker and Drew Carey watching their every move.
Terry's triumph
One of these clever individuals was a middle-aged man named Terry Kneiss. His moment of truth came on an otherwise ordinary episode of The Price Is Right in 2008.
Terry and his wife, Linda, cheered with the rest of the studio audience when he was selected to be part of Contestants' Row. He was smiling — but it wasn't just for the cameras.
An ace predictor
See, Terry felt like a The Price Is Right ringer. He'd been mastering the art of analysis his entire life, actually.
He began his career as a Nevada TV meteorologist and quickly set himself apart from other weathermen by making startlingly accurate forecasts.
A bright future
Terry was so good, in fact, that he quickly moved to better, higher-earning jobs, and he eventually found himself in Atlanta. He then earned two Southeast Regional Emmy Awards in the early '90s...
before homesickness caught up to him and his wife. They shuffled back to Nevada, and Terry applied his skills to a different industry.
Busting cheaters
Back in Vegas, Terry landed a job in casino surveillance. Using his genius for pattern recognition, it was his job to watch the entire casino floor for cheats and card counters.
And wouldn't you know it, even the pros couldn't get past him.
Turning heel
He learned all the ways tricksters tried to exploit loopholes in casino games. And Terry became hooked.
He figured out how to count cards, and his skills quickly surpassed those of lifelong gamblers. Soon enough, Terry became one of them.
Evolving into a gambler
Clearly, Terry never made his fortune at the casinos. But he did play, and he believed he had what it took to beat the house.
In 2008, though, a personal tragedy forced Terry and Linda to refocus their minds.
The Price Is Right obsession
Terry actually became obsessed with The Price Is Right right after his family's dog died. He and Linda were so upset by the event that they found themselves adrift.
So, if they were ever going to move on from their grief, they figured they needed a purpose. And that purpose soon became studying The Price Is Right.
A shared passion
Yes, the couple developed into armchair The Price Is Right pros. They aimed to appear on the show after they had tirelessly memorized the patterns and prices of various items.
The couple taped the show in the morning and studied it later at night.
His key observation
Over a four-month period, Terry and Linda determined that the game show used the same prizes over and over again — at the same prices.
They figured out the patterns inside and out, and both swooned at the thought of actually competing themselves.
Look for the patterns
They wouldn't be cheating, necessarily. They'd be taking an approach similar to Michael Larson, who had memorized the prize sequence of Press Your Luck in 1984.
In fact, Larson had figured out which flashing squares were always safe — and won over $100,000.
Waiting for their time
In September 2008, Terry and Linda arrived to Television City and waited to be admitted into The Price Is Right studio.
They had no control over whether they'd be randomly called down to play, of course — but announcer Rich Fields eventually did call out Terry's name.
The Big Green Egg
Terry quickly got off to a winning start, too. He faced the challenge of guessing the price of a very familiar product: the Big Green Egg.
Yep, Terry wowed everyone by listing the exact retail price of $1,175.
Drew's suspicion
The audience cheered, of course, and even host Drew Carey seemed to be on Terry's side. He liked it when people won, and in this taping, everybody seemed to be doing well.
Little did he know that people were getting nervous behind the scenes as Terry advanced to the final Showcase.
Number cruncher
Terry faced a sterner test here. His Showcase package included a camper, a pool table, and a karaoke machine.
His sharp mind quickly added the value of those up to $23,000. Then, for fun, he added on 743 — his and Linda's PIN number.
Right on the money
Astonishingly, Terry was exactly right. He had achieved a feat that most people thought was impossible.
But before it could be announced to the live studio audience, Drew Carey cut to a commercial break... and the producers brought the episode to a halt. They smelled a rat.
A possible conspiracy
A producer came to talk with Carey and spelled out the situation. "I thought somebody had cheated us, and I thought the whole show was over.
I thought they were going to shut us down, and I thought I was going to be out of a job," Carey told Esquire in 2010. By that point, though, they had remembered a notorious figure was in the audience.
The game show villain
Ted Slauson emerged in the late 1980s as the most formidable The Price Is Right contestant ever. He only appeared as a contestant on the show once — and then only won $1,000.
But then he began showing up in the audience for other tapings and shouting out correct answers to the contestants.
Ted's shadow
And supposedly by pure chance, Ted was in attendance that fateful day when Terry won the Showcase.
He didn't get called down to compete — likely because the crew knew to avoid him — but he undoubtedly would have been in Terry's corner.
Hand signals
Was it possible that Ted had made secret hand signals to Terry, and that they had a secret partnership going back months? That seemed to be Carey's explanation — Terry later denied ever meeting this game show ace.
He asserts that he won by his own merit. Pretty quickly, fans started making comparisons to another infamous game show scandal.
The shady duo
In 2001, married couple Charles and Diana Ingram were in tremendous debt. That's perhaps why, months prior to Charles' appearance on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Diana had actually appeared on the UK show herself — and successfully won £32,000.
This fact alone wouldn't raise too many eyebrows — but, not unlike Terry, Charles had a few skeletons in his closet that would soon be exposed to the world.
Sky-high expectations
Originally, it seems, the plan was not to cheat. When the couple arrived on set, they were reportedly confident in Charles' potential.
However, after the first few rounds, it would have become obvious that their expectations were a bit too high.
Early stumbles
Charles nearly bombed the first few questions. In fact, he crawled his way to £4,000 — using up two of his lifelines in the process.
And by the time filming wrapped for the day, it must have become apparent to the Ingrams that they needed a plan.
Finding a ringer
After day one of filming, it seems that Diana went to work to find a solution. She apparently found it in the form of Tecwen Whittock.
Tecwen was a college lecturer whom Diana had apparently met while he was doing the rounds at various quiz shows. That seemingly made him perfect.
The professor arrives
It seems that Tecwen had studied the kinds of offbeat questions Millionaire was known for and was hoping to be a contestant himself.
Together, then, the three allegedly devised a way to slip the correct answers to Charles without being discovered.
Strange behavior
When Charles showed up on set the following day, Millionaire host Chris Tarrant informed Charles that the production team didn't think he'd be around much longer.
So what happened next no doubt baffled Tarrant and the watching crew behind the scenes.
The big act
According to their alleged plan, Charles was meant to follow a very specific series of actions. After the host read the question, Charles was supposed to read out the answers one at a time.
Next, Tecwen would apparently use a secret, cheap tactic to reveal the answer.
The secret signal
The alleged play called for Tecwen to send Charles a signal when he read the correct answer aloud. Simple, right?
Except that the signal that was apparently chosen was not exactly subtle.
Coughing up the truth
In fact, a sound technician immediately noticed that each time Charles read aloud the correct answer, a mysterious audience member could be heard coughing up a storm. This audience member was Tecwen.
Yet there was someone else coughing out there as well.
Nearing victory
Yes, people have argued that Diana was also trying to feed Charles answers with her coughing.
But no matter what was happening in the audience, there's no doubt that Charles was displaying some very erratic quiz-show behavior in front of the cameras.
Clowning around
Case in point: the answer to the question, "Who had a hit U.K. album with Born to Do It, released in 2000?" is Craig David.
But Charles' first response was, "I've never heard of Craig David," and his second was that he "thinks it's A1." So when Charles ended up choosing Craig David, the host was understandably curious.
Diana in disbelief
It was quite the turnaround from where Charles seemed to be only moments before. But when Tarrant quizzed Charles on his U-turn, Charles simply said that "most of [his] guesses are wrong."
And that wasn't the only time Charles seemed to be, well, all over the place.
Winning it all
At various points in the show, Charles says, "I don't know what that [answer] is," "I'm sure it's not that," and "I've never heard of that."
Yet after making another "unexpected" change of heart on his final answer, Charles finally hit the jackpot.
Their victory lap
Right after his historic win, Charles seems almost relaxed — unlike most guests in the hot seat. He immediately covered the smile on his face, as did his wife, who was then asked to join him on stage.
Inevitably, though, the trio would later end up reliving the event in a courtroom.
Answering to justice
Immediately after winning, Charles saw his £1,000,000 prize suspended. The Millionaire producers also investigated the couple — and took their case to the authorities.
And after a four-week trial in April 2003, the trio of Millionaire contestants was found guilty of deception. Many may have expected their sentences to be harsher, though.
Facing the consequences
The Ingrams and Tecwen were all given suspended prison sentences and a hefty fine. But their appearance on Millionaire was not the last anybody saw of Charles and Diana Ingram.
In fact, the "Coughing Major" arguably saw his notoriety skyrocket.
Reality stars
Charles was asked to appear on a slew of reality shows, including Hell's Kitchen and Wife Swap, where Diana once again made a TV appearance. This convinced many that the duo cheated simply to attract media attention.
Nevertheless, the couple maintains their innocence to this day. Now, a TV show might just help or hinder their case.
Life imitates art
The miniseries called Quiz centers around the entire Ingram controversy. In the three-part story, the jury hear the evidence and find there is more to the story than they may have thought.
And on the last day of the show’s airing, the real Ingrams announced they were fighting to overturn their guilty verdicts.
Coincidental coughing
According to a statement from the Ingrams' lawyers, “There are some really weird anomalies" in the recordings that prove the coughing was all just a coincidence. But as far as the world is concerned, Charles and Diana are still guilty.
That’s the final answer... so far.