12   Recorded September 14, 1972  

Pat Carroll, Arte Johnson, Anita Gillette, Richard Dawson

Jim Kilingbeck from Seattle, Washington has invented: “A rocket-powered Frisbee”

Killingbeck attaches two small rockets to a standard disc, one underneath (for lift) and another on the side (for rotation).  He shoots the discs from a launcher, the way one might shoot off fireworks.  Due to the speed at release, it’s not particularly practical and could even be dangerous. (A safety net has been lowered to protect the blindfolded panelists.)  Still, according to one newspaper story, a demonstration disc “shot up about 40 feet and landed 100 feet away,” hardly a remarkable distance even by human-powered standards.  Not surprisingly, nothing really came of Killingbeck’s device.  

Mr and Mrs Decker from Salem, Oregon: “Spiro Agnew hit us both with a golf ball”

Separate from his political travails (he would resign from office in October 1973), the vice-president under Richard Nixon had a reputation as an errant golfer, a reputation solidified in February 1971 at the Bob Hope Desert Classic in Palm Springs, when his very first tee shot managed to ricochet off both Mr and Mrs Decker.  Agnew’s next attempt hit a third spectator who had to be taken to the hospital. Agnew was participating in the event’s pro-am tournament, in a foursome that included Hope himself, baseball legend Willie Mays, and pro golfer Doug Sanders, whom Agnew had struck in the same tournament the previous season.  

Special guest Bob Barker plays The New Price Is Right with items taken from the panelists’ homes.

Barker’s updated version of The Price Is Right (1972-present) had debuted only a few days earlier on September 4.  Steve congratulates Bob on the ratings of the brand new series.  With the innovative “pricing games” still mostly unfamiliar to the viewing audience, Barker plays the tradition one-bid game with four studio audience members and items such as Arte’s nightshirt and Anita’s bikini.  The panelists ask questions between the bids to figure out what each item is, leading to a long, complicated and not very interesting game, very similar to the one played with Monty Hall earlier in the season.  The Price Is Right would, of course, become an institution, and would make Barker a legend.  He would retire from the series in 2007.  

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