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Daytime television fans won't want to miss The Price is Right Thursday morning when local resident Dianne Foster will appear as a contestant on the long-running game show hosted by comedian Drew Carey.
Foster and a friend recently took a four-day vacation trip to Los Angeles specifically for the chance of appearing on the show. For Foster, it was the realization of a little girl's dream.
As a child she often watched the show with her grandmother, who lived on a farm in northeastern Nodaway County. And for years competing for thousands of dollars' worth of prizes on national television has just been one of those things she wanted to "check off the bucket list."
So Foster went online and ordered tickets, which the show gives away free; and then she hoped for the best, since merely having tickets is no guarantee of getting on the show or even being in the audience.
Just before flying west, however, Foster was notified that she had two guaranteed seats in the studio. She suspects the courtesy was offered because she was traveling so far.
Getting inside the studio, however, was still an ordeal — about five hours' worth of waiting in lines and going through interviews before the doors to the tiny set finally opened. Only 325 people made the cut.
But the wait was worth it, Foster said. At around 12:30 p.m. the countdown from five seconds blinked over a monitor, and then the Nodaway County native heard her name called by the announcer: "Dianne Foster, come on down!"
"It's so loud it's hard to hear," she said. "I think I was the first one called down. It was crazy. Everything happens so fast, and I was so excited. You can't even think once you get down there."
But down there she went, and soon the Maryville dental technician was bantering away with host Carey, dapper in his trademark suit and glasses. She describes Carey as "phenomenal, just a super-nice guy."
And there was one other thing -- she won.
Foster said she isn't supposed to talk about her prizes before the show airs at 10 a.m. Central time this Thursday on CBS. But she did say the cash and merchandise now on its way to Missouri adds add up to "a hair over $6,000."
Daytime television fans won't want to miss The Price is Right Thursday morning when local resident Dianne Foster will appear as a contestant on the long-running game show hosted by comedian Drew Carey.
Foster and a friend recently took a four-day vacation trip to Los Angeles specifically for the chance of appearing on the show. For Foster, it was the realization of a little girl's dream.
As a child she often watched the show with her grandmother, who lived on a farm in northeastern Nodaway County. And for years competing for thousands of dollars' worth of prizes on national television has just been one of those things she wanted to "check off the bucket list."
So Foster went online and ordered tickets, which the show gives away free; and then she hoped for the best, since merely having tickets is no guarantee of getting on the show or even being in the audience.
Just before flying west, however, Foster was notified that she had two guaranteed seats in the studio. She suspects the courtesy was offered because she was traveling so far.
Getting inside the studio, however, was still an ordeal — about five hours' worth of waiting in lines and going through interviews before the doors to the tiny set finally opened. Only 325 people made the cut.
But the wait was worth it, Foster said. At around 12:30 p.m. the countdown from five seconds blinked over a monitor, and then the Nodaway County native heard her name called by the announcer: "Dianne Foster, come on down!"
"It's so loud it's hard to hear," she said. "I think I was the first one called down. It was crazy. Everything happens so fast, and I was so excited. You can't even think once you get down there."
But down there she went, and soon the Maryville dental technician was bantering away with host Carey, dapper in his trademark suit and glasses. She describes Carey as "phenomenal, just a super-nice guy."
And there was one other thing -- she won.
Foster said she isn't supposed to talk about her prizes before the show airs at 10 a.m. Central time this Thursday on CBS. But she did say the cash and merchandise now on its way to Missouri adds add up to "a hair over $6,000."
Of course the state of California and the IRS will get a chunk of that, though Foster says she thinks she won enough money to take care of the sales taxes on the other stuff.
But merely winning prizes was hardly the point. Foster just wanted to be part of it all. Hosted for many years by TV legend Bob Barker, The Price is Right is an iconic program — the longest-running game show in television history. And now a small part of that history includes Dianne Foster.
It you're a fan, and even if you're not, it's a big deal, big enough that Foster's employer, Compass Dental, will close from 10-11 a.m. Thursday so her co-workers can join her in the clinic's basement, where there happens to be a wide-screen television.
"I'll be so anxious to see how I look on TV," Foster said. "I was just so excited it was unreal."
