I've never been a really big fan of "The Price Is Right," because I prefer the more intellectual-type game shows -- at one point, when "Scrabble" aired on NBC at 11:30, I'd only watch the first half of "TPIR" and then switch over. Yes, that's a strange thing to do, because then you don't get to see the overall winner on "TPIR," but you do get to see four of the six pricing games and one of the Showcase Showdown wheel spins. You also get to hear the announcer give the same spiel every day: "If you would like to see 'The Price Is Right' in person, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to 'Tickets, "The Price Is Right," CBS Television City, 7800 Beverly Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90036.'"

"Scrabble" has been gone for over a decade, but "TPIR" remains, and yesterday, just as I'd been hearing all those years, I saw "The Price Is Right" in person. I kind of knew what to expect, not only because I'd read various other accounts of "TPIR" tapings, but because I'd been in its studio before, when I saw an episode of "Dennis Miller Live" there in 2001.

The taping was a lot of fun, for no other reason than just about anything is more fun than sitting on uncomfortable metal benches outside a TV studio for several hours. When you're finally getting to sit in the slightly more comfortable upholstered audience chairs in the studio, you'll be wildly excited about a college student winning a hammock and a dinette set, too. Actually, from my perspective, the fun part was seeing the behind-the-scenes action: the cameramen furiously steering their cameras from place to place on the stage, the stagehands and producers pointing the contestants in the right direction when they walk up on stage, and the box with the flashing lights on it that plays such a vital role in the opening of the show. In fact, that was all I had; because I didn't want to ruin my "Jeopardy!" eligibility, I had declared myself ineligible to be called to "come on down," so I knew I wasn't going to get to be a contestant. It was because I was ineligible that I coerced the CBS page into writing my name on my tag as "Jim"; normally, they write your full legal name, which is why you see so many people named "James" on the show.

The episode airs next Friday, May 13th. I recommend watching not necessarily to see me in the audience (I'm about halfway back, a little bit left of center in the middle section, wearing a bright orange T-shirt), but to see the contestant in the second Showcase Showdown who did a spectacular job of finessing the big wheel.

Oh, and something else you may have been wondering about: the winning contestants left with the rest of the audience, albeit clutching stacks of paperwork. They don't make you take the sofa or the spa home with you, apparently.

My contestant number/place in line (the "X" means I'm ineligible)...