The Price Is Right

The Price Is Right is a television game show franchise originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and created by Bob Stewart, and is currently produced and owned by FremantleMedia. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also includes merchandise such as video games, printed media and board games. The franchise began in 1956 as a television game show hosted by Bill Cullen and was revamped in 1972. This version was originally hosted by Bob Barker. Since 2007, Drew Carey has hosted the program.

In the show, contestants compete to win cash and prizes by guessing the pricing of merchandise. The program has been critically successful and remains a stalwart in the television ratings. It also managed to break away from the quiz show format that has been used in other game shows. Since the current version premiered, it has also been adapted in several international formats around the world, most notably in the United Kingdom, Australia and Mexico.</p>

In 2013, TV Guide ranked it #5 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.

1956â€"65

The original version of The Price Is Right was first broadcast on NBC, and later ABC, from 1956 to 1965. Hosted by Bill Cullen, it involved four contestants bidding on a wide array of merchandise prizes, whose values ranged anywhere from a few dollars, (in many cases, "bonus" prizes were attached after the fact, to the winner) to thousands, doing so in the manner of auctions except that Cullen did not act out the role of auctioneer (contestants tried to bid closest to the product's actual retail price without going over that price). Depending on the prize, contestants were allowed, in proper turn, to make multiple bids; or only allowed one bid. In the case of the former, each contestant would bid on the displayed item, until a buzzer sounded. They could make a final bid, or "freeze." The contestant whose bid was closest to the correct value of the prize â€" and had not gone over that value â€" won it. There was also a special game set aside for the home viewer, which offered several prizes in a package, which usually included a luxury vacation trip, and/or a new car as part of the package. Viewers would submit their bids via post cards; the winner being announced on the air. At the end of each episode, the contestant who had won the most (by dollar value) was declared the winner and became the returning champion, entitled to play again in the next episode. This version began humbly enough, as part of NBC's daytime schedule. An alleged series of technical problems made the pilot episode look bad enough for NBC to decline buying the show, but after an appeal from the producers, citing the fact that at that time all TV shows were given up to an initial 13 weeks to succeed or fail, it aired anyway. NBC were still all but convinced it would bomb. It would become successful enough, however, to warrant a second version of the series to begin on prime time in the fall of 1957. Shown weekly, that version also had the distinction of being the first TV game show to be broadcast in color. After being a Top-10 prime time show for some time its ratings would gradually but noticeably decline, and by 1963, NBC would cancel it, only to have it picked up by ABC. ABC's primetime version ran for one full season (1963â€"64), and the daytime version ended in 1965.

1972â€"present

Format

In this "New" version, four contestants place a single bid on an initial product, in dollars only, as the production company will round off all retail prices to the nearest dollar; the contestant who bids closest to the product's actual retail price without going over wins the item and then gets to play one of several mini-games, which are called Pricing Games in most countries, including the United States, for an additional and more substantial prize or group of prizes. One contestant, through various elimination formats, could later win a large showcase of prizes at the show's conclusion by predicting the total price of a "showcase."

Originally thirty minutes in length, the show was expanded to its current hour-long format on November 3, 1975. At this time, a new feature, the "Showcase Showdown," was introduced and remains in use. The three contestants who make their way on stage in each half of the show are asked to spin a large wheel, which is labeled from five cents to one dollar in five cent increments. The contestants spin the wheel once and then optionally a second time, and contestant with the total score closest to $1.00 without going over is brought back to compete for the Showcases at the end of the show. If one of the contestants gets exactly $1.00, either on the first spin or by the total of both spins, that contestant wins an extra $1,000 and gets a bonus spin. On the bonus spin, the hosts resets the wheel to the first green section (5 cents). If the wheel lands on 5 or 15 cents, then the contestant wins an extra $10,000. If the wheel lands on $1.00, then the contestant wins an extra $25,000. The wheel must complete at least one full revolution on each spin. On the bonus spin, if the wheel fails to complete a full rotation, the bonus spin is forfeited.

History

Bob Barker hosted from September 4, 1972 to June 15, 2007. During his 35-year reign of TPIR, Barker won numerous awards and honors including Daytime Emmys and a Lifetime Achievement Award. Directors of the show included Mark Breslow, Paul Alter, and Bart Eskander, with Eskander receiving a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Direction of a Game Show. Producer Roger Dobkowitz won a Daytime Emmy for his work on the show, which included the development of many of the show's games that are still being played today.

After a season-long search for a successor, Drew Carey took the helm of the show, with production resuming in August 2007, and his first episode airing on October 15. It is believed to be the second longest-running game show on television, trailing only the Spanish-language variety show Sábado Gigante; it is also the longest running five-days-a-week game show in the world. The Price Is Right is the only game show franchise to be seen nationally in either first-run network or syndication airings in the U.S. in every decade from the 1950s onward. CBS has occasionally aired extra episodes of the show for short periods between the cancellation of one daytime program and the premiere of its successor. On occasion since 1986, special episodes have occasionally aired during prime time hours, most notably to fill in gaps between the Survivor series, and the 2007â€"08 Writers Guild of America strike.

On September 22, 2008, Terry Kneiss made game show history by bidding the exact amount of his $23,743 showcase. Taping of the show immediately stopped, with Drew Carey and show staffers concerned that cheating was taking place. It was later learned that Kneiss and his wife Linda, who was in the studio audience, had, by constantly watching the show, noticing the frequency of certain products showing up on the show, and using statistical analysis, legitimately determined the exact prices of the items in the showcase. The Kneisses were awarded the prizes, and the show subsequently discontinued featuring certain products.

On April Fools Day, 2014, Craig Ferguson and Drew Carey switched hosting duties, with Carey hosting the The Late Late Show and Ferguson taking over the hosting duties on TPIR. The episode also featured Shadoe Stevens as announcer, and sidekicks Geoff Peterson (a robot skeleton), and "Secretariat" (a pantomime horse). Bob Barker appeared on the April Fools Day episode in 2015, hosting the first item up for bids and the first pricing game (Carey hosted the remainder of the episode).

Broadcast history

Specials

A number of special series have aired, beginning with The Price Is Right Special, a primetime summer series which aired on CBS in 1986, hosted by Barker. In 2002, a number of special episodes titled The Price Is Right Salutes (2002) aired in primetime, saluting the branches of the United States armed forces, and the police and firefighters of America in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular was a series of primetime specials airing from 2003 until 2008 featuring chances at winning $1,000,000, as well as more expensive prizes than on the daytime counterpart.

Licensed merchandise

Endless Games, which in the past has produced board games based on several other game shows, including The Newlywed Game and Million Dollar Password, distributes home versions of The Price Is Right, featuring the voice of Rich Fields, including a DVD edition and a Quick Picks travel-size edition. Ubisoft also released a video game version of the show for the PC, Nintendo DS, and Wii console on September 9, 2008. An updated version of the game (The Price Is Right: 2010 Edition) was released on September 22, 2009. Both versions feature the voice of Rich Fields, who was the show's announcer at the time of the release of the video games in question.

In September 2010, Ludia released the official Facebook version of The Price Is Right game. The game had two million monthly active users only two months after the launch.

In October 2011, Ludia (now owned by RTL Group) released The Price Is Right Decades, a video game featuring production elements from various decades of the show, for the Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 to celebrate their 40 years on the CBS network.

International versions

The 1972 revised format appeared on Australian television the following year and debuted in the U.K. in 1984. The format has also been adapted elsewhere around the world. Hosts and models from the versions in other countries have made appearances on the U.S. version, usually sitting in the audience and acknowledged by the host during the broadcast. Barker and then-music-director Stan Blits appeared on the Carlo Boszhard-hosted Cash en Carlo at the start of the 200th episode.

     Currently airing        Ended  

See also

List of television show franchises

References

External links

• Official Fremantle website and video social network community for The Price Is Right
• Official CBS website for The Price Is Right
• The Price Is Right at the National Film and Sound Archive
• The Price is Right-related interview videos at the Archive of American Television
• description of "Der Pries Ist Heiss" from 1989â€"97 from Grundy Light Entertainment (New Website) (Germany)
• description of "DPIH" from its (old website) (Germany)