Just before Dave Rinehart '95 was to place his winning bid on a $900 prize package of a doormat and pair of lamps on the Price is Right last Thursday, President Bill Clinton broke into the broadcast with a special news report.
Rinehart won a six-day trip to Australia in the Check-out game while the President told of the United States mistakenly shooting down two of its own helicopters over Iraq.
Viewers never saw Rinehart on the show again.
Rinehart, who filmed the show during a Spring Break trip with the Aires a capella group, is now in Germany on a Foreign Study Program and could not be reached for comment.
"Indeed he had won a number of outstanding things," said David Rinehart, Dave's father, in a phone interview. "From the part of the show [aired] you would think he was a loser because he lost the first two bids," said David Rinehart.
Dave told his father he jumped up and down when his bid won him a chance to play a game on stage, David Rinehart said.
David Rinehart said he was disappointed he and his wife did not get a chance to see their son on television.
"We were very disappointed. We had told friends who had planned to video tape it. It certainly was an unbelievable surprise when the President came on at exactly the same time as Dave," David Rinehart said.
But David Rinehart qualified his disappointment.
"Although we were disappointed that Dave did not get on T.V. we did feel compassion for the families of the people who were shot down," David Rinehart said.
David Rinehart said he will hopefully receive a video tape of the entire show from the network.
David Rinehart said his son had not yet decided when to take his Australian trip when the two discussed it before Dave left for Germany.
