The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: AH3RD on November 24, 2003, 03:28:15 PM
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NOVEMBER 26, 1956
The NBC Television Network launches the very game show which in a later incarnation would become the pinnacle of Goodson-Todman's game show repertoire and continue to thrive to this day: The Price Is Right.
This earlier incarnation was a more sedate version than the one we currenty know today; there were no pricing games, no boisterous announcer beckoning contestants to "Come On Down!!", nor did Bob Barker emcee either (he was at the time emceeing Truth Or Consequences). It did, however, have a contestants row, onstage, and its original emcee was game show TV's reigning king, Bill Cullen.
In this first version, four contestants one a returning champion competed throughout the show. After a merchandise item was shown (often by beautiful models), the contestants, one at a time, bid on the item (sound familiar?). Unless otherwise stated, each bid had to be higher than the previous bid; each contestant could "freeze," or stop bidding, if they believed their next bid would cause them to overbid, thus disqualifying themselves from winning the prize. The bidding continued until an undefined time limit ran out. Host Cullen then gave the price of the item; the contestant who bid closest without going over won it, and occassionally, won either a bonus prize or got to play a bonus game. The last prize of the day was usually the most valuable, and often determined the day's champion, who got to return to the next show (something which isn't the case on the new and current version!). A special feature of the original Price Is Right let home viewers bid on special showcases.
After a sensational 7-year run on NBC Daytime, it defected to The Alphabet Network, ABC, where it lived out its last 2 years; there, contestants competed against a celebrity player, who played for a home viewer. 7 more years later, CBS brought back TPIR as part of 3 game show premieres on its daytime schedule September 4, 1972 (sandwiched between The Joker's Wild and Gambit), renamed---with magnificent originality!---The New Price Is Right, emceed by the unconquerable Bob Barker. This, of course, is the current version (the New having been dropped from the title in June 1973), which has earned its title as the longest-running network daytime game show in television history, and, at this time, it seems there is no end in sight!
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Minor quibble: Bob Barker didn't start hosting TorC until 12/31/56 when the show started a daytime run on NBC. That was his national TV debut, thanks to Ralph Edwards.
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Bob Barker didn't start hosting TorC until 12/31/56 when the show started a daytime run on NBC. That was his national TV debut, thanks to Ralph Edwards
...and Bob always liked to tell the story that he called Ralph every year at 12:05 p.m. on Dec. 21st (I think I've got the date and time right) to thank him for offering him "Truth or Consequences".
Unfortunatly there's not much of "Truth or Consequences" around right now, but luckily Bob's first episode is one that we still get to enjoy today.
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You also forgot these facts;
1). The theme song would later be re-used for Snap Judgment (1967-69 NBC).
2). Arlene Francis was a guest femcee. The next femcee would occur in 1977 when Sarah Purcell hostessed The Better Sex.
3). Don Pardo announced (& even guest HOSTED on camera) on NBC while Johnny Gilbert had the ABC honors.
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[quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 02:45 PM\'] You also forgot these facts;
[/quote]
You have to ask yourself...did he FORGET those facts, or did he simply choose not to bury us in a sea of minutae?
2). Arlene Francis was a guest femcee.
Femcee? Good lord, man, you need to get past your gender issues.
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Question - as there was no "Come On Down" as such in this version, was there any way the players being selected from the audience contributed to the proceedings? Was it even mentioned outside of the opening speil?
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[quote name=\'tommycharles\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 03:19 PM\'] Question - as there was no "Come On Down" as such in this version, was there any way the players being selected from the audience contributed to the proceedings? Was it even mentioned outside of the opening speil? [/quote]
No, they were just contestants, selected like any other contestants of the day were. They were already seated behind the contestant desk when the show started.
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The one thing I find interesting is that every bid had to be HIGHER than the one before. Of course, they played multiple rounds of bidding, but you didn't find anyone going back and bidding a dollar because they thought the others were too high.
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 02:25 PM\']they were just contestants, selected like any other contestants of the day were. They were already seated behind the contestant desk when the show started.[/quote]
Were all contestants of the day taken out of the audience?
[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 02:55 PM\']you didn't find anyone going back and bidding a dollar because they thought the others were too high.[/quote]
It happened from time to time. Contestants were allowed to "underbid" the first time around the block, if they felt an opponent started the bidding too high.
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My favorite ep was the one where they gave away "The Thinker." "Gosh, Bill that sure would look good next to the fireplace. My wife is really gonna like that. Gosh, that sure is nice."
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 04:06 PM\']
2). Arlene Francis was a guest femcee.
Femcee? Good lord, man, you need to get past your gender issues. [/quote]
As Steve Martin would say...
EXCUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSE ME!
The proper term would be hostess, sorry!
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[quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 08:07 PM\'] [quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 04:06 PM\']
2). Arlene Francis was a guest femcee.
Femcee? Good lord, man, you need to get past your gender issues. [/quote]
As Steve Martin would say...
EXCUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSE ME!
The proper term would be hostess, sorry! [/quote]
*VRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!*
...as Flight 407 non-stop to Clueville roars overhead....
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 05:06 PM\']You have to ask yourself...did he FORGET those facts, or did he simply choose not to bury us in a sea of minutae?[/quote]
Personally I never tire of any reminder of Don Pardo's role on this show. Especially considering I once mentioned it on an email list and someone condescendingly shot me down, trying to tell me Johnny O did it from '56 to '65 and I must have gotten "confused."
Come to think of it, I never tire of being reminded of Don Pardo's role in *anything.* But that's just me.
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[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 05:55 PM\'] The one thing I find interesting is that every bid had to be HIGHER than the one before. Of course, they played multiple rounds of bidding, but you didn't find anyone going back and bidding a dollar because they thought the others were too high. [/quote]
Question: were contestants allowed to bid just one dollar higher, or was there a minimum?
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[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Nov 25 2003, 12:19 AM\'] [quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 05:55 PM\'] The one thing I find interesting is that every bid had to be HIGHER than the one before. Of course, they played multiple rounds of bidding, but you didn't find anyone going back and bidding a dollar because they thought the others were too high. [/quote]
Question: were contestants allowed to bid just one dollar higher, or was there a minimum? [/quote]
IIRC, there was a minimum... sometimes. There were some special items where many rules were thrown out or included, like the one-time bid.
Brandon Brooks
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[quote name=\'gameshowsteve\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 06:10 PM\'][quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 02:25 PM\']they were just contestants, selected like any other contestants of the day were. They were already seated behind the contestant desk when the show started.[/quote]
Were all contestants of the day taken out of the audience?
[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 02:55 PM\']you didn't find anyone going back and bidding a dollar because they thought the others were too high.[/quote]
It happened from time to time. Contestants were allowed to "underbid" the first time around the block, if they felt an opponent started the bidding too high.[/quote]
And you could underbid or, if it was in force, bid under the minimum increase, but that was considered an automatic "FREEZE! FREEZE!"
And the audience shouting of "HIGHER! HIGHER!" and "FREEZE! FREEZE!" was something that supposedly was started spontaneously early on--Bob Stewart, being no dummy, made it part of the show from that point forward, despite the mocking, tut-tuting and pronouncements of the end of Western civilization as we know it from the press (including Steve Allen's obvious contempt when "IGAS" did a "TPIR" bit involving Bill during Allen's stint as host).
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 05:06 PM\'] You have to ask yourself...did he FORGET those facts, or did he simply choose not to bury us in a sea of minutae? [/quote]
Wrong on both counts.
Actually I was totally unaware of these facts. Thanks, GSWitch!
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[quote name=\'gameshowsteve\' date=\'Nov 24 2003, 06:10 PM\']Were all contestants of the day taken out of the audience?
[/quote]
Well, yes...as Bill says in one the episodes still around, the contestants for the next day's show were chosen from the current day's audience.
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[quote name=\'tomobrien\' date=\'Nov 25 2003, 10:42 AM\']as Bill says in one the episodes still around, the contestants for the next day's show were chosen from the current day's audience.[/quote]
I know that was the case on TPIR. My question was about other shows of the era. Chris said TPIR contestants were "selected like any other contestants of the day were," and I asked if that meant that most shows picked their contestants right out of the audience.
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It was a very common custom for the game shows of the sixties to get contestants out of a previous day's studio audience. I couldn't tell you specifically how many or which ones (Concentration did for a long time) but it was a normal procedure.
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Well, then, were there really shows that did like the one on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and picked contestants moments before air?
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[quote name=\'AH3RD\' date=\'Nov 25 2003, 12:09 PM\'] Wrong on both counts.
Actually I was totally unaware of these facts. Thanks, GSWitch! [/quote]
You're welcome, my pretty (CACKLING!!!).