by Michael Frissore

Created on: July 10, 2008

The wonderful, long running game show The Price is Right may not have ever had the same impact in American pop culture as, say, "Wheel of Fortune" or "Jeopardy!" Nonetheless, it is a vital part of our very silly culture. You can't begin to discuss The Price is Right's role in popular culture without mentioning one of my first crushes from my childhood, showcase model Dian Parkinson. The beautiful Dian made waves in 1991 when she appeared nude in Playboy, proving to me and many others that God does indeed answer prayers now and again. Dian, having been a Price is Right model since 1975, is six years older than my own mother; yet, she delighted me with every price she revealed.

Anyway, enough of that. In the 1996 movie "Happy Gilmore," host Bob Barker, for some reason, appeared playing golf with Adam Sandler. A fist fight ensues, and Sandler shouts at a fallen Barker, "The price is wrong, bitch." LOL. With "Gilmore" being on every youngsters list of classic comedies right between "The Breakfast Club" and "Tommy Boy, this was surely an important moment for "The Price is Right."

Perhaps the greatest aspect of the show in our culture, even surpassing the wonderful phrase, "Help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered," is the ingenious game "Cliff Hangers." This is the game in which you get, of course, to guess the price of something. However far off you are is exactly how far up the mountain the little yodeling guy goes until he falls off of the cliff. The Yodeling Guy, though once given the name "Hans Gudegast" by Doug Davidson in 1994, is more or less nameless. Yet he has appeared in many places outside of The Price is Right. There are two occasions in particular that should be mentioned.

The night prior to Barker's last episode, "Hans" was a guest on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." He was rather depressed at possibly being out of a job. With bottles of booze surrounding him, Hans had climbed him mountain to the top of the GE Building and then leaped off the roof in an apparent suicide attempt.

On an episode pf Family Guy, Peter Griffin remembers the family vacationing with Hans. The gang was mountain climbing and Peter thought Hans was journeying too far up the mountain, suggesting that he stop, stating that, "There's no way that microwave costs more than 300 bucks." The li'l yodeler and Griffin Family then fall over the edge of the cliff to the sound of the sad You lost" horns. Peter then says that they "should have gone to Plinko."

Of course, now, with everyone's favorite comedian Drew Carey hosting the primetime "$1,000,000 Spectacular" of the show, it's bound to make waves within our culture for years to come. Whether it does or not, I'll always love that little yodeling guy.

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