"Wheel of Fortune" star Vanna White recalled being a contestant on "Price is Right" with Bob Barker before she became a host on her own popular game show.
Back before Vanna White had become the undisputed queen of revealing giant letters on
The Price Is Right.
A clip from the June 20th, 1980 episode of
Price Is Right shows a 23-year old White embracing the show’s amphetamine-like atmosphere as her name is called and she gets to “come on down” for a shot at winning a dream exercise set. Bob Barker singles her out from the contestants for her “Get Serious” t-shirt, which he explains, without much beyond the barest, creepily unstated context, attracted the attention of one of “fellows on the crew” who read her shirt and said, “I am! I am!” Stay tuned for latter in the clip when Barker uses similar charm to chastise her for not knowing what other contestants have bid, incorrectly claiming she’s too busy looking at herself in the monitor.