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Episode 120: Fred Richardson, come on down!

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·9m 23s·analyzed·Apr 6, 2018
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.020

TL;DR

Pinball Profile hosts attend Price is Right taping, Fred wins, discuss Indisc tournament prep.

Summary

Fred Richardson and fellow pinball players from the Pinball Profile group attended a taping of The Price is Right in Los Angeles before competing at Indisc tournament in January. Fred was called first and won his showcase showdown game (Shopping Spree). The group discusses their experience on the show, custom t-shirts made for the outing, and speculates on how classic tournament games like Theater of Magic, Whodunit, and Junkyard 2 will be adjusted for competitive play at Indisc.

Key Claims

  • Fred Richardson was the first name called on The Price is Right and won his showcase showdown game (Shopping Spree).

    high confidence · Fred directly confirms: 'They called my name. First!' and later states he won the Shopping Spree game after correctly identifying expensive items.

  • Seven members of the Pinball Profile group attended The Price is Right taping in January, including Phil Birnbaum, Donovan Stepp, Nate Hart, Jason Wardrick, and DJ Reels from Pittsburgh.

    high confidence · Jeff states: 'There were seven of us that went there' and names multiple attendees throughout the episode.

  • The Price is Right has the most excited audience and party-like atmosphere compared to Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.

    medium confidence · Phil Birnbaum's opinion: 'This has the most excited audience, the most excited contestants. This is like a party.'

  • Indisc tournament includes vintage games Theater of Magic, Whodunit, and Junkyard 2 that require rule modifications for tournament play.

    medium confidence · Group discusses upcoming challenges: 'Some of the games in Indisc, they've got Theater of Magic' and speculate on how organizers will adjust rules.

Notable Quotes

  • “They called my name. First!”

    Fred Richardson @ ~3:30 — Highlights Fred's unusual luck being called first on The Price is Right, setting up his successful day.

  • “My first words ever were, come on down.”

    Donovan Stepp @ ~7:20 — Personal anecdote showing lifetime devotion to The Price is Right, fitting full circle moment of actually attending taping.

  • “This has the most excited audience, the most excited contestants. This is like a party.”

    Phil Birnbaum @ ~18:00 — Comparative assessment of The Price is Right's energy versus other game shows he's attended.

  • “I have no voice from doing just that.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~21:30 — Captures the excitement and screaming from audience members watching Fred compete on stage.

  • “I'm a restaurant manager. It was stainless. And honestly, I priced it out about $556. Turned out it was $800.”

    Fred Richardson @ ~31:00 — Shows Fred's practical approach to pricing items during the game but also reveals he lost that particular choice.

Entities

Fred RichardsonpersonJeff TeolispersonDonovan StepppersonPhil BirnbaumpersonNate HartpersonJason WardrickpersonDJ ReelspersonThe Price is RighteventIndisc

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Profile group organized social outing to Price is Right taping in Los Angeles before Indisc tournament, creating shared memorable experience.

    high · Jeff: 'There were seven of us that went there. And it all started when Phil Birnbaum said, yeah, I'm going to go to Price is Right.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Discussion of tournament adaptations for vintage games (Theater of Magic, Whodunit, Junkyard 2) at Indisc, indicating ongoing evolution of how classic machines are competitive-balanced.

    high · Group discusses zipper flippers, tight shots, bumper placement, and disabling modes like dog video to make vintage games tournament-viable.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.028

0:00
It's another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teolis. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com. And please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. Live in L.A., although this has been recorded three months ago because we weren't allowed to say anything. Whoop, whoop. Fred Richardson here and Donovan Stepp. I'm also with Phil Birnbaum and Nate Hart, too. We are some of the people that went to go see the prices right before we decided to go to Indus. It was a good idea to do it. I think it was. Fred, why was it such a good idea? Well, you know what? They called my name. First! What? I was the first name called. I went down there. I got to sit in contestant's row, bid on things. I was so good at bidding, I got to stay there for four rounds.
0:52
Yeah, the originals went up before you, but you had a chance. What's it like when someone bids $1 over you? I saw you turn around. Oh, my God, twice. Twice I got capped like that. And I'm like, that's my move. Oh, well. You know, honestly, I feel good about the bids I put up. I didn't feel bad. And it's just hard to hear when you're up there. You can't really hear what the other people are bidding sometimes. So, you know, you've got to ask. But, no, it was a total blast, man. There were seven of us that went there. And it all started when Phil Birnbaum said, yeah, I'm going to go to Price is Right. I put on Facebook, I just got my ticket. And then you jumped in, Fred and Donovan. And, Donovan, you love this show. You've been watching it for a long time. I've been watching Price is Right for 40 years.
1:31
Do you want to know a true story? My mom told me this a long time ago. My first words ever were, come on down. That's awesome. That's so cool. My babysitter used to watch it, and I used to get so excited. Come on down. You'd think I'd say mom or pa. No. Loving Bob Barker. Look at the circle of life. You come right around. Here you are. You got to hear it live. Fred, the excitement of this is that your name was picked first, but you finally did get up there. I did. And, in fact, everybody went over when you finally got up there, didn't they? So you got a second chance. Got a mulligan. Yeah, what happened was we were bidding on bikes, and they looked pretty decent. So, you know, all my friends are avid bikers. My roommate's an avid biker. And I'm like, okay, I better not screw this one up. And the first round, everybody overbid. So when we came back and we got to re I came down a little bit but enough where I had a nice cushion I thought for sure the gal next to me was going to me and she didn She went under and I ended up winning We'll post these online on Pinball Profile, but Nate, you made the coolest t-shirts. We all had to jump in. They're great. Thank you. Now, what made you do these? What made you think, okay, pinball theme, obviously we're here for Indisc, but what made you come up with the, I came to Cali to play Plinko and pinball. Good idea. Yeah, Donovan helped me pick the, he said, Plinko and Pinball. And I thought, well, why not? I came to Cali to play Plinko and Pinball. It's hard to say that. It is hard to say it. I'm a professional announcer. I can't even do it. So, Nate, great shirts and a good keepsake, too. I mean, the fact that you got called up, Fred. I mean, everybody knows Funky Fred. So, the fact that you got called up, we were all, it made the show so much better. You guys were going nuts back there. You, like, made me excited. I turned around and you guys were all screaming. I'm like, I better win. And I'm recording this, like, honestly, 20 minutes after the show. I have no voice from doing just that. My voice is also very roach.
event
Theater of Magicgame
Whodunitgame
Junkyard 2game
Pinball Profileorganization
Drew Careyperson
3:17
But it's a lot of fun. Now, Phil, you've been to a few shows. You've been to Jeopardy, you've been to Wheel of Fortune, and Price is Right. Which one's the best? This has the most excited audience, the most excited contestants. This is like a party. Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune were fine, but this is like a party. This was just a lot of fun. It had to be good because Alex Trebek is all Canadian, so you must be serious when Drew Carey... Oh, yeah. Drew Carey's awesome. The audience is awesome. Everybody loves each other. Everybody's hugging. Everybody's cheering. It's great. Good interaction, too, from the crowd. I mean, they really get you going. A quick show of the taping. I mean, it's bang, bang, bang, and the way the sets move. It's almost real time. And honestly, Drew does such a good job. In between, like during the commercial breaks and stuff, he talks with the audience. He makes jokes. Him and George go back and forth, the announcer. And it's a great experience. It's a lot of fun. I mean, definitely, I recommend people coming down here. So we're recording this January 11th, even though you're listening to this now, in April, we weren't allowed to say anything. Yeah, we weren't allowed to say anything because, obviously, you signed disclaimers. But we're very, very excited. We want to kind of capture the moment. Yeah, go ahead. We haven't even talked about that. Yeah. So I ended up going up there, and I played a game that I did not know at all. What was the game, Donovan? The game was Shopping Spree. They put up four prizes and you pick the three most expensive So you basically don pick the cheapest thing up there which was the dishwasher in fred case but i know that you think there going to be a lot of communication between your guy that up on stage and you in the audience but like fred said you can't hear a thing and the cameras were blocking like you couldn't see yeah and you also can't even hear the announcer for to hear what type of brands and stuff is on there either which is something you don't realize when you're watching at home donovan that's so funny because when every time there was a car on there you're like i gotta I hear the, you know, is it two-wheel drive? Is it four-wheel? What's the interior like? You know what was really cool about mine, though? They actually were holding up cars. So Drew turns, because you can't hear anything. It's so loud. Drew turns to me, and he goes, just pick the three most expensive things. And then I turn around, and he pointed at the cards. And the guy was holding the cards that had the brands and the sizes. So I didn't even look at anything. I just looked right at those, and I'm just like, did it? Did it? And right away, I knew the pool table was up, and I knew the lady's handbag. So what I want, I want a Diane Forsberg shoes and bags. He says like he doesn't know. You pronounced that pretty well. Yeah, I did. So I knew those were expensive. I knew the pool was. I turned around at that point, and I did one of these. Yeah, we were all doing keyboard commando. Yeah, yeah. And the third one, I'm like, I'm thinking computer. I turned around. Donovan's doing this. He's like pretending he's on a keyboard. I'm like, there it is. We're good. But you thought the dishwasher had to be the lowest because, again, your industry. Yeah, I'm a restaurant manager. It was stainless. And honestly, I priced it out about $556. Turned out it was $800. It'll be on eBay soon. Yeah, man.
6:12
For $550. What a great time. Well, we're here for InDisc. Now, we haven't played yet, so the results are going to be out after here. Who do you think's got the best shot out of the seven of us here? And, again, there's Jason Wardrick, great player, too, and also DJ from Pittsburgh's here. DJ Reels here. I don't know, man. You've already won. You've got to lay down a little. My money's on Donovan, man. He's been so hot lately. Out of our group, that's the guy I'm putting a bet on. Mr. Colorado. Now, here's the one thing we were talking about as we're getting ready for Indisc, too. Some of the games in Indisc, they've got Theater of Magic, and we haven't played it yet. Again, this is recorded January 11th. How are they going to make that a tournament game? Ah, you know, pull posts and maybe some zipper flipper. Or not zipper, but lightning flippers.
6:56
Zipper would really be tough Zipper would be tough or little stubbies you know two flippers would be a real trick But you know just some stuff like that I mean it always interesting to see how they adjust the games to deal with the players And if they do a poor job, then the line itself becomes your enemy because everybody's blowing it up and it takes too long to try and qualify. And the other thing, too, is another game, whodunit. Now, we're trying to figure out how do they make that a tournament game? because don't you remember what Kaylee did years ago? I do, and I did some similar stuff at Pinberg that year. What, elevator, elevator, elevator? No, I played it and got about seven bill in the same bank that we were playing for A Division that year. And, you know, but whodunit can be drainy, especially on the outlands and stuff. It can eat your lunch, but, I mean, if you get into your roulette early and then play the game and then get in there and do the win. And head-to-head, it'll be interesting to see what happens and where strategies fall. Another game that's in there is Junkyard 2, and we already assume they're going to remove the dog video mode. They must have to do that because that's what you do all day. Yeah, we'll have to see how they adjust that because those are early-on games. There's not a lot of software adjustments you can do as opposed to now. You can go into the newer machines. I would imagine what they could do is maybe just make the shot somehow really, really tight. Add some bumpers or posts so that that dog shot is super tight to get up in there. That's all I do on that game, to be honest. Well, but if you can't, it's like when they do mousing around and they put the super fat post and make the shot barely as wide as the ball. If they can somehow modify the shot to start that dog mode to make it super, super tight, that might make it okay. So if you missed The Price is Right, make sure you check out episode 82-84K. That's the episode in which Fred Richardson was a big, big winner on The Price is Right. And you'll see all of us there. Calm down. And I'm sure the Indisc results have been posted by now. And I want to thank you guys all for congratulating me for my big win. Absolutely. Congratulations. Absolutely. Good job.
9:07
Indisc. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. and please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. I'm Jeff Teolas.