RIP - Bob Barker (end of an era)

My wife and her best friend from Tennessee met up in California to see if they could press their luck and get into a taping of an episode of The Price is Right. (I think it was the last month or maybe even the last few weeks with Bob Barker.) My wife and her friend camped out on the sidewalk with a bunch of other fans outside the studio to see if they could get tickets. They ended up getting tickets for the next days taping. The next morning the audience had to go through an interview process. The shows producer's will interview each audience member to see if you would be a good fit for the show as a contestant. My wife has a fun bubbly personality. Her sticker name tag kept falling off during the interview process and her and the producer kept playing off one another on how she wasn't going to be picked since she didn't have a name tag that stayed on. So I think they saw her personality and could see what type of contestant she'd be. After the interviews they were brought in the studio for the taping. My wife said the studio is much smaller than it appears on TV. The show starts and they call a couple contestants down. The next thing she hears is her name being called. She says it's all so surreal. It's loud, fast, bright, and hard to focus. So my wife ends up winning one of the bids and goes up and gets to meet Bob Barker. She's super excited and gives Mr. Bob Barker a kiss on the cheek and says, "You're so cute!" He hushes the crowd and says, "I don't know if you guys heard what she just said but she said, I'm cute! I haven't been cute for 40 years!" So my wife's winning bid to get on stage was for a $4,000 Presidential globe. (The same globe that was in the Oval Office at the time) Once up one stage she had a chance to win an SUV. I believe she was off with one of the numbers. Later in the show my wife got to spin the big wheel. She ended up landing on a $1.00 which equals $1,000 and got to be one of the final two contestants for the final show down. I can't recall exactly what her prizes were. I think it was a Play Station something, a set of golf clubs, and two jet skis. My wife put in her bid and they went to commercial break. So they come back from break and Bob tells her that she overbid by $200! Ouch!

Overall she loved every minute of the trip. She was super excited for the other lady who won the final show down as she won a big camper and it was always a dream of her family to own one. So she said it couldn't have happened any better. So her trip was essentially paid for with the $1,000 she won spinning the wheel and we have a $4,000 light up globe that is still in the cardboard box that it was shipped in. I've tried to get her to sell it several times with no luck. She said it's going to be a family heirloom. I don't get it but it's hers to do whatever she wants to do with it....