Mom lost a car on 'The Price Is Right' while pregnant — 40 years later, her daughter came back for it
Her mother fell short of a goal in winning a Volkswagen Rabbit, ending up with a trash compactor instead
Game shows rarely come with second chances, but sometimes, a story finds its way back. Forty years after Lana Dalton’s run on "The Price Is Right" was cut short, her daughter Emily Moffat found herself on the same stage, stepping into the moment her mother never got to finish. Jacob Moffat (@jacobmoffat), Emily’s husband, shared an Instagram reel documenting an almost surreal story of how Emily became part of a full-circle moment that began decades earlier.
How it all started
It was 1983 when Dalton was called upon the stage to play “Hole in One,” a golf game that required contestants to sink a putt to win. Dalton, who was a resident of Boston with her husband Paul, was pregnant with her second child, Emily, at the time. After purchasing the tickets, she watched the show “faithfully” for three months to learn the tricks of the pricing game. But her pregnancy proved to be a challenge. As TODAY describes, her center of gravity changed, and she had to lean further over her belly to see the ball. She ended up a few inches too short and stepped down, winning only a trash compactor, even though she played for a Volkswagen Rabbit.
Four decades went by, and in 2022, her daughter Emily reappeared as a contestant on the stage of the same show, playing for a brand-new Volkswagen Taos. “Watching her name get called was unreal. Total chaos, cheering, lights, cameras. She spun the wheel, met Drew Carey, lived the dream every kid has watching daytime,” Jacob described in the reel.
A win that seems impossible
On the show, Carey joked that she was back for revenge, but Emily confessed that revenge wasn’t exactly what was on her vision board. Her friend Sarah had invited her to attend a taping, and she was set to play a number-guessing game called “Cover Up." Leaping her way through the game, she got the numbers right and scored the booty, a coal-colored Volkswagen. “It took forty years for this story to come full circle,” Jacob said and confessed, “I couldn’t believe it. My in-laws couldn’t believe it.”
Viewers react to the coincidence
Game shows like "The Price Is Right" may look simple, but research shows they’re built on probability and split-second decision-making. A study on the show highlights how the show’s games are built around numerical estimation and probability, where contestants must guess prices as closely as possible without going over. Because outcomes depend on precise numerical judgment rather than certainty, even small differences in estimation can completely change the result, making repeat or connected wins like this highly unusual.
The cosmic coincidence of game shows and cars would have made viewers believe in synchronicity and patterns. “It was meant to happen, it just took its time,” remarked @makatron. @ahmadvsky8 joked, “See you again at 40 years.” Others joked that this is literally the second time Emily visited the show, the first time inside Dalton’s belly.
A monumental 'ride'
After they broke the good news, Dalton and Paul traveled from Arizona to visit the Moffats in California. Emily offered a ceremonial car ride to her mother in the front seat. Although after three years, she let go of the car, trading it for a special edition Disney model. Emily, who once was the voice behind Disney’s Cinderella, convinced her parents to switch to a new car by telling them that it played “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” each time the ignition is turned on.
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