Come on down, you’re the next contestant on The Price is Right!”
Not many people can say they’ve heard this famous line first hand. But College freshman Elan Gordon has.
The episode of the famous game show featuring Gordon is scheduled to air at 11 a.m. today on CBS.
The trip to California — an 18th birthday present — was made possible by a loving father and a benevolent airline.
“Every year I said as a joke that we ought to go see” The Price is Right, Gordon recalls. Finally, this past summer, his father’s frequent flyer miles and love for his Penn-bound son made the childhood birthday wish a reality.
Merely getting to California, however, was only the beginning. Competition for slots on contestants’ row — indeed, competition simply to enter the studio — was intense.
“People camp out overnight in the parking lot…,” Gordon remembers. “We came at 4 in the morning and were number 135 in line.”
Though dedicated, the hopefuls were far from unfriendly. Waiting in line overnight, a block-party mentality set in.
“You really make friends” in the line, Gordon says. “You get to know the people behind you, the people in front of you…. One day we waited behind a group of female college students, and they were pretty friendly…. It was fun.”
Once the doors open, the entire 300-person studio audience was marched past the show’s producers, who conducted brief interviews of each audience member to select contestants. Having gone to four tapings during his stay in California, Gordon’s understanding of the system became expert.
“By the third day, we were pros,” he says. Though there are no hard and fast guarantees in the struggle to be discovered by a producer, Gordon devised an experience-based strategy: “They really like college students,” he explained, “so by the third day I was wearing my Penn shirt, which is actually what I’ll be wearing on TV….”
Still, it would be a starchy side dish that would ultimately set Gordon apart.
“You really have to make a point out of yourself to get on,” Gordon says. “By the third day, the producer already knew us, already knew our story…. I decided to go all out.”
Apologizing that he had nothing more to tell after three days of interviews, Gordon looked the television executive in the eye and said, “What sets me apart is that I really like mashed potatoes.” After a pause, the producer turned to Gordon’s father, telling the elder Gordon that he had “better keep an eye on this kid” before moving on.
Each taping began with sequin-studded Rod Roddy, the show’s announcer and host Bob Barker’s loyal sidekick, explaining the rules of the TV studio.
On his final day in California, Gordon sat with his father and listened to the routine he had heard three times before.
“Don’t hug everyone, just run right down the aisle,” Roddy said, according to Gordon. “A lot of people like to kiss Bob, but the rules are no tongue and no men.”
As the taping progressed, the time remaining in the show and, consequently, the odds of being invited to “come on down,” dwindled. Finally, the last audience member to be called down, Gordon got his chance.
Sadly, only one pricing-round remained. Also, as the rookie on the row and the first to bid, he was in an unenviable strategic position, as “the others could bid around” him.
Bidding $100 too low on a side-by-side refrigerator, Gordon missed his chance to win a brand new car in the final stage-game of the show.
“I played along in my head, and I would have won,” he muses. “But who knows what would have happened if I had been up there?”
Defeated, Gordon went home with a vacuum-sealing food preservation system valued at $320 and a gift certificate to Jennifer Convertibles as consolation gifts, both of which he intends to sell. Still, the trip yielded many far more meaningful prizes for Gordon.
“I was Bob Barker’s best friend for five minutes,” Gordon remembers.
Though the aging host mistook Gordon for a Native American, the future Penn student listened to Barker’s tales of his own youth near an Indian reservation in South Dakota without correcting him, acknowledging, “I was an Indian for him.”
Gordon’s father, a professional drycleaner, also struck a chord with a member of the cast. He and Roddy discussed the latter’s large collection of silk suits and the difficulties of maintaining them, a problem Roddy reportedly sidesteps by purchasing a new suit for each show.
“He sells the old ones on Ebay… and gives the proceeds to charity,” Gordon says. “I guess he probably autographs them, too.”
