Unlike his character Sylvester on CBS’ Scorpion, Ari Stidham would probably never win big on The Price is Right. However, for actor/musician Stidham the opportunity to share The Price is Right stage with Drew Carey for an episode of season two of Scorpion was like fulfilling an item on his bucket list. Stidham, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Robert Patrick, and executive producer Nicholas Wootton made the trek to downtown Los Angeles for the 2016 WonderCon over Easter weekend and during roundtable discussions, Stidham explained why he enjoyed filming The Price is Right scenes.
“It was so much fun. I had a lot of anxiety, really, Ari did that day but my parents were in the audience and you can actually see them in the back of the shot. There’s a guy, my father is of Moroccan descent so his skin tone is a little bit darker than mine. His eyes are bugging out of his head. My friend and assistant and my parents are all there. They’re all wearing pink shirts that say ‘Pick Me’ and you can see them right on the edge of frame. His eyes are going crazy! So, it was fun. My family was there, Drew Carey – I’ve been an improviser since I was 13, 14, so pretty crazy. Grew up on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, got to do comedy with Drew Carey, what an amazing day. Probably one of my favorite days,” said Stidham.
Asked if he’d be good in real life on The Price is Right, Stidham replied, “I don’t know. I don’t think so. My character had to memorize a bunch of stuff and I’m good at memorizing things but I don’t know if I could tediously memorize. Going on The Price is Right and just sort of saying, ‘Okay, well that will be x and that will be y,’ I don’t know if I could do that. I’d probably be like, ‘What is everybody else saying? I’ll do a dollar under that.'”
Stidham teased that the final two episodes of this season will involve events set in motion from his time on The Price is Right. “I can’t really talk too much about it but the things that got [started] in that episode and following, because of The Price is Right Scorpion might have a little too much publicity on them.”
Eddie Kaye Thomas is also anxious to talk about the finale of season two, but didn’t go into detail so as not to ruin the experience for fans of the series. He did say there’s a very exciting Toby/Happy development coming that’s not what you’re expecting. “I don’t know how to not spoil it,” said Thomas. “It’s really cool what the writers came up with. It’s something that I know Nick Santora had in mind from a long time ago. Questions are answered and also a lot more questions will be asked, and there’s a serious cliffhanger that will, I think, get social media all aflutter.”
Speaking of the Toby and Happy (Jadyn Wong) relationship, Thomas said, “The team itself is kind of a house of cards in that they all need each other and they found each other and they’re vital to each other’s existence because they all feel so alone in the world. Depending on each other is how they get by. And on top of that, Toby and Happy just had this natural connection. They each have something the other person wants and just the spark. But they are so intellectual and lead with logic so much that it made romance so much more difficult. Love doesn’t make sense. If you were just going to use logic and pluses and minuses, no one would ever get involved in a relationship. But we get into relationships just because it just feels right. It’s something we want to do. So they’re battling logic and their intellectual brains and just allowing love to happen. I think this season has just been that struggle of letting go of logic and allowing love. It’s been a slow, steady wonderful development.”
As for season three, Stidham said the writers love cliffhangers. “It’s such a fun show. I think doing what they’re doing is great. I trust them,” said Stidham.
Watch the full interviews with Eddie Kaye Thomas and Ari Stidham on Scorpion season 2:
