''The Price Is Right'' is an American game show produced by
Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions
Mark Leo Goodson (January 14, 1915 – December 18, 1992) was an American television producer who specialized in game shows, most frequently with his business partner Bill Todman, with whom he created Goodson-Todman Productions.
Early life and ea ...
, wherein contestants placed successive bids on merchandise prizes with the goal of bidding closest to each prize's actual retail price without surpassing it. The show was a precursor to the
current and best-known version of the program, which premiered in 1972 on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
's daytime schedule. It makes ''The Price Is Right'' one of only a few game show franchises to have aired in some form across all three of the
Big Three television networks
In the United States, there are three major traditional commercial broadcast television networks — CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), NBC (National Broadcasting Company), and ABC (American Broadcasting Company) — that due to their longev ...
.
The series, hosted by
Bill Cullen
William Lawrence Francis Cullen (February 18, 1920 – July 7, 1990) was an American radio and television personality whose career spanned five decades. His biggest claim to fame was as a game show host; over the course of his career, he host ...
, premiered on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
's daytime schedule on November 26, 1956, and quickly spawned a primetime series that aired once a week. ''The Price Is Right'' became one of the few game shows to survive the
rigging scandals of the late 1950s, gaining even more popularity after other game shows had been canceled when exposed for being rigged.
The show was sponsored primarily throughout its run by
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
, then known as Lever Brothers Corporation, and the specific products that were often featured were Imperial margarine, Wisk laundry detergent, Handy Andy liquid cleaner, and Dove bath and beauty bar.
The four contestants of the week would usually receive a complimentary supply of Dove beauty bars.
An alternate sponsor was Speidel watchbands, notably their then-new Twist-O-Flex bands.
In 1963, ''The Price Is Right'' switched networks and both the daytime and primetime series moved to
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
. On September 3, 1965, the show aired its final episode after nearly nine years on the air.
Game play
![Bill Cullen The Price Is Right 1963](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Bill_Cullen_The_Price_Is_Right_1963.JPG)
On the original version of ''The Price Is Right'', four contestants – one a returning champion, the other three chosen from the studio audience – bid on items or ensembles of items in an
auction
An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...
-style format.
A prize was presented for the contestants to bid on. A minimum bid was specified. After the opening bid, contestants bid on the item in turn with each successive bid a certain amount higher than the previous bid. A contestant could freeze his/her current bid instead of increasing it if he/she believed his/her bid was close enough to win. A later rule allowed contestants, on their opening bid only, to "underbid" the other bids, but it automatically froze their bid and prevented them from later increasing the original bid. Some rounds were designated as "one-bid" rounds, where only one round of bidding was held (the format used on the current version of
''The Price is Right''); sometimes the minimum-bid and higher-bid threshold rules also were waived.
Other than in one-bid rounds, the bidding continued until a buzzer sounded, at which point each contestant who had not yet "frozen" was given one final bid. Bidding also ended when three of the contestants had frozen, at which point the fourth contestant was allowed one final bid unless he/she already had the high bid. Cullen then read the actual retail price of the prize. The contestant whose bid was closest without going over the actual price won the item. If everyone overbid, the prize was not won; however, Cullen sometimes had the overbids erased and instructed players to give lower bids prior to reading the actual price (similar to what is done on the current CBS version and its syndicated spinoffs).
After most one-bid rounds, a bonus game was played, in which the winner of the one-bid prize would play a random game (such as wordplay or tune-matching) for additional prizes.
After a set number of rounds (four on the nighttime version, six on the daytime), the contestant who accumulated the highest value in cash and prizes became the champion and returned on the next show.
Home Viewer Showcases
''The Price Is Right'' frequently featured a home viewer "Showcase", a multi-prize package for which home viewers were invited to submit their bids via postcard. The viewer who was closest to the actual retail price without going over won everything in the Showcase, but one item was sometimes handmade so the viewer could not check the price of all the items. The term "showcase" was later replaced by "sweepstakes".
Very often, home viewers were stunningly accurate with their bids, including several viewers who guessed the price correct down to the penny. In such a case, the tied contestants originally were informed via
telegram
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
and asked to give the price of a specific item and continuing until one broke the tie. Re-ties and all-overbids were thrown out. By the time of the ABC run, the tiebreaker changed so that the person who was first to send in the correct bid won the prize.
Home Viewer Showcases have also been featured on the CBS version, in 1972, 1978, annually from 1980–1987, 1990, and in 2011. Its format was unchanged through 1990, but the 2011 version, because of the advance in technology, changed to a ten-prizes-in-a-week format, with two prizes appearing per episode during the week. Each day the price of one of the prizes was revealed to the home audience, and the price of the second prize (which was in either of the two Showcases) was not provided. Instead of postcards, the bids had to be submitted through the show's website.
Prizes
While many of the prizes on the original ''Price Is Right'' were normal, standard game show fare (e.g., furniture, appliances, home electronics, furs, trips, and cars), there were many instances of outlandish prizes being offered. This was particularly true of the nighttime version, which had a larger prize budget.
Some examples:
* A 1926
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
with chauffeur
* A
Ferris wheel
A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsules ...
* Shares of corporate
stock
In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...
* An island in the
St. Lawrence Seaway
* A
Piper Caribbean airplane
* A
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
Sometimes, large amounts of food – such as a mile of hot dogs along with buns and enough condiments (perhaps to go with a barbecue pit) – were offered as the bonus.
Some other examples of outlandish or "exceptionally unique" bonus prizes:
* Accompanying a color TV, a live peacock (a play on the NBC logo) to serve as a "color guide"
* Accompanying a barbecue pit and the usual accessories, a live Angus steer
* Accompanying a prize package of items needed to throw a backyard party, big band legend
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his dea ...
and His Orchestra
* Accompanying a raccoon coat worth $29.95, a sable coat valued at $23,000
* A bonus prize of a 16'x32' in-ground swimming pool, installed in the winner's back yard in one day's time
* A bonus prize of a trip to Israel to appear as an extra in the 1960 film ''
Exodus
Exodus or the Exodus may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible
* The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan
Historical events
* Ex ...
''
In the early 1960s, the dynamic of the national economy was such that the nighttime show could offer homes in new subdivisions (sometimes fully furnished) as prizes, often with suspenseful bidding among the contestants.
In the last two seasons of the nighttime run, the series gave away small business franchises.
In some events, the outlandish prizes were merely for show; for instance, in one episode contestants bid on the original retail price for a 1920s car, but instead won a more contemporary model.
History
''The Price Is Right'' was created and produced by
Bob Stewart for
Mark Goodson
Mark Leo Goodson (January 14, 1915 – December 18, 1992) was an American television producer who specialized in game shows, most frequently with his business partner Bill Todman, with whom he created Goodson-Todman Productions.
Early life and ea ...
–
Bill Todman
William Selden Todman (July 31, 1916 – July 29, 1979) was an American television producer and personality born in New York City. He produced many of television's longest-running shows with business partner Mark Goodson, with whom he created ...
Productions. Stewart already had created one hit series for Goodson-Todman, ''
To Tell the Truth'' and he later created the enormously successful ''
Password
A password, sometimes called a passcode (for example in Apple devices), is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of ...
''. In 1964, Stewart left Goodson-Todman to strike out on his own as a producer. (Frank Wayne, who later served as executive producer for the Barker version of ''The Price Is Right'', took over Stewart's ''Password'' producer duties.)
Bob Stewart attributes the creation of ''The Price Is Right'' to watching an auctioneer from his office window in New York City, auctioning off various merchandise items.
In 1959, shortly after the
quiz show scandal
The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American television quiz shows. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearrange the s ...
broke, most game and quiz shows lost their popularity rapidly and were canceled. ''The Price Is Right'' was an exception; Goodson and Todman had built a squeaky-clean reputation upon relatively low-stakes games. Thus, as the more popular competition was eliminated, ''The Price Is Right'' became the most-watched game show in the country, and remained so for two years.
ABC
When the series moved to ABC in 1963, three studio contestants – including the returning champion – played. The fourth chair was filled by a celebrity who played for either a studio audience member or a home viewer. If the celebrity was the big winner of the show, the civilian contestant who had the most winnings was considered the champion; it is unknown what would have happened in the event of a shut-out with the celebrity winning.
As
Don Pardo
Dominick George "Don" Pardo (February 22, 1918 – August 18, 2014) was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades.
A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with ...
was still under contract at NBC, he was replaced by
Johnny Gilbert
John Lewis Gilbert III (born July 13, 1928) is an American show business personality who has worked mainly on television game shows. Originally a nightclub singer and entertainer, he has hosted and announced a number of game shows from various e ...
. Coincidentally, both Pardo and Gilbert also had long runs as announcers for another game show, ''
Jeopardy!
''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
''
When the show moved to ABC, several CBS affiliates took up ABC secondary affiliation to show ''The Price Is Right'' (especially if its market lacked full ABC affiliation), in part because of the still-high ratings the show enjoyed in daytime.
Goodson-Todman wanted ''The Price Is Right'' to be ABC's first non-cartoon color show, but the network could not afford to convert to color. This meant that the nighttime version reverted to black-and-white.
Afterward
After the success of ''The Price Is Right'', ''To Tell the Truth'', and ''Password'', producer Stewart left Goodson-Todman in 1964. Stewart's follow-up to ''The Price Is Right'', his first independent production, was ''
The Face Is Familiar
''The Face Is Familiar'' is an American game show which aired in color on CBS as a summer replacement show from May 7 to September 3, 1966. The show was hosted by Jack Whitaker and featured celebrity guests including Bob Crane, Dick Van Patten, ...
'' with Jack Whitaker as host. Later, Stewart created other successful shows such as ''
Eye Guess
''Eye Guess'' was an American game show created by Bob Stewart and hosted by Bill Cullen, which aired on NBC from January 3, 1966, to September 26, 1969. The game combined a general knowledge quiz with a ''Concentration''-style memory element, wh ...
'', a sight-and-memory game with Bill Cullen as host, ''
Jackpot!'' and ''
The $10,000, $20,000, $25,000 Pyramid''.
In 1972, Goodson-Todman proposed a reformatted version of the game. In the new version of the game, the auction rounds were eliminated, with every round becoming a one-bid round. The bonus games were reformatted as
pricing games, as most involve the pricing of either the prize itself, grocery items, or small prizes under $100. Each winning bidder was removed from the game and replaced with another contestant, all of whom were drawn from the studio audience. A new round, borrowing the Showcase name, brought back the two biggest winners to bid on their own three-prize package, with the top winner choosing to either bid or pass on the first showcase in hopes of a better deal on the second. The pricing games, contestants from the audience, and the bid-or-pass on prizes hidden behind doors were all previously used on another hit game show of the era, ''
Let's Make a Deal
''Let's Make a Deal'' (also known as ''LMAD'') is an American television musical comedy variety-game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created an ...
'', and Goodson-Todman's first choice of host for ''
The New Price Is Right'',
Dennis James
Dennis James (born Demie James Sposa, August 24, 1917 – June 3, 1997) was an American television personality, philanthropist, and commercial spokesman. Until 1976, he had appeared on TV more times and for a longer period than any other televi ...
, was ''Let's Make a Deal's'' regular guest host at the time. James would end up hosting five weekly seasons of ''The New Price Is Right'' in
first-run syndication
Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...
; when
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
picked up the show for daytime, it insisted that the show be hosted by
Bob Barker
Robert William Barker (born December 12, 1923) is an American retired television game show host. He is known for hosting CBS's ''The Price Is Right'' from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American televis ...
, who hosted 35 seasons of daily episodes (plus three seasons of weekly syndicated episodes after James's retirement and several prime-time specials) until his retirement in 2007, after which comedian
Drew Carey
Drew Allison Carey (born May 23, 1958) is an American comedian, actor and game show host. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, he gained stardom in his own sitcom, ''The Drew Carey Show'', an ...
assumed hosting duties. Further alterations to the format were made in 1975 when the show expanded to a "fabulous 60-minute" time slot. Various other versions of ''The Price Is Right'' have aired over the course of American television history, including a daily syndicated version hosted by
Tom Kennedy Thomas or Tom Kennedy may refer to:
Politics
*Thomas Kennedy (Scottish judge) (1673–1754), joint Solicitor General for Scotland 1709–14, Lord Advocate 1714, Member of Parliament for Ayr Burghs 1720–21
* Thomas Kennedy, 9th Earl of Cassilis ...
in 1985 and a
radically altered version hosted by
Doug Davidson
Douglas Donald Davidson (born October 24, 1954) is an American Emmy Award winning television actor. He has portrayed Paul Williams on the CBS soap opera ''The Young and the Restless'' since May 1978, making him the series' longest-serving cast ...
in 1994; the latter was notable for eliminating the central conceit from the original series of bidding on prizes. Counting all incarnations, ''The Price Is Right'' has aired for more hours than any other nationwide game show in American television history.
Paul Alter
Paul Alter (March 11, 1922 – June 11, 2011) was an American television director, specializing in game shows for Mark Goodson Productions. Alter was best known as the original director of ''Family Feud'' from the show's origin in the mid-1970s ...
, who directed the original version of the show, became the director of the current version in 1986, replacing
Marc Breslow
Marc Breslow (July 7, 1925 – December 1, 2015) was an American television director, specializing in game shows for Mark Goodson Productions. Breslow was the director throughout the CBS and syndicated run of ''Match Game'' during the 1970s and ea ...
, who had been in that role since its start in 1972; he continued to hold the position until 2000.
Origin
The show originated from NBC's
Hudson Theatre
The Hudson Theatre is a Broadway theater at 139–141 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. One of the oldest surviving Broadway venues, the Hudson was built ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, also home to ''
The Tonight Show
''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...
'' and other NBC shows with a studio audience. A year later, after
Abraham Hirschfeld
Abraham Jacob Hirschfeld (December 20, 1919 – August 9, 2005) was an American real estate investor, Broadway producer and political candidate from New York City. He was the owner of several buildings in Manhattan. He served as treasurer for the ...
bought the Hudson Theatre, the show moved to NBC's
Colonial Theater at 66th and Broadway, with the Ziegfeld Theater used for a few shows as well. When the show moved to ABC, the Ritz Theater became the show's broadcast origination.
In addition to his hosting duties on ''The Price Is Right'' and his weekly appearances as a panelist on ''
I've Got a Secret
''I've Got a Secret'' is an American panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show, ''What's My Line ...
'', Cullen also hosted a popular weekday morning radio show for
WNBC
WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...
in New York.
Substitute hosts
Over the nine-year run, various people sat in Cullen's place while he was on vacation.
*
Sonny Fox
Irwin "Sonny" Fox (June 17, 1925 – January 24, 2021) was an American television host and broadcaster who was the host of the children's television program, ''Wonderama''. Through his career, he had hosted other children's educational and ent ...
(June 10, 1957; first substitute host; he was also
Bud Collyer
Bud Collyer (born Clayton Johnson Heermance Jr., June 18, 1908 – September 8, 1969) was an American radio actor and announcer and game show host who became one of the nation's first major television game show stars. He is best remembered for ...
's "designated" substitute host on ''
Beat the Clock
''Beat the Clock'' is an American television game show that involves people trying to complete challenges to win prizes while faced with a time limit. The show was a creation of Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions.
The show began on radio as ' ...
'' through 1960; it went off the air at the end of January, 1961)
*
Sam Levenson
Samuel Levenson (December 28, 1911August 27, 1980) was an American humorist, writer, teacher, television host, and journalist.
Personal life
Born in 1911, he grew up in a large Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from ...
(March 11, 1958– for 2 weeks)
*
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 he hosted his own ta ...
(August 5 & 12, 1959 nighttime) – also filled in daytime during those two weeks
*
Jack Narz
John Lawrence Narz Jr. (November 13, 1922 – October 15, 2008) was an American radio personality, television host, and singer.
Early years
Narz was born to John and Ado Narz, in Louisville, Kentucky, along with sister Mary, and younger brothe ...
(month of May, 1960; Bill's brother-in-law, later that year he began hosting ''
Video Village
''Video Village'' is an American television game show produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions, which aired on the CBS network in daytime from July 11, 1960, to June 15, 1962, and in primetime from July 1 to September 16, 1960. It was notable for ...
''; his brother
Tom Kennedy Thomas or Tom Kennedy may refer to:
Politics
*Thomas Kennedy (Scottish judge) (1673–1754), joint Solicitor General for Scotland 1709–14, Lord Advocate 1714, Member of Parliament for Ayr Burghs 1720–21
* Thomas Kennedy, 9th Earl of Cassilis ...
later hosted a syndicated version of the 1972 ''The Price Is Right'' revival during the 1985–86 season.)
*
Arlene Francis
Arlene Francis (born Arline Francis Kazanjian; October 20, 1907 – May 31, 2001) was an American actress, radio and television talk show host, and game show panelist. She is known for her long-running role as a panelist on the television game s ...
(January 25th, 1961-February 8th, 1961 nighttime & January 25th-February 12th, 1961 daytime episodes)
*
Bob Kennedy
Robert Daniel Kennedy (August 18, 1920 – April 7, 2005) was a right fielder/third baseman, manager and executive in Major League Baseball.
From 1939 to 1957, Kennedy played for the Chicago White Sox (1939–42, 1946–48, 1955–56, 1957), Cle ...
(May 1-12, 1961/June 22, 1961)
*
Don Pardo
Dominick George "Don" Pardo (February 22, 1918 – August 18, 2014) was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades.
A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with ...
(December 31, 1959/December 28, 1962)
*
Robert Q. Lewis
Robert Q. Lewis (born Robert Goldberg; April 25, 1921 – December 11, 1991) was an American radio and television personality, comedian, game show host, and actor. Lewis added the middle initial "Q" to his name accidentally on the air in 1942, ...
(February 1-12, 1960/December 27, 1963 )
*
Jack Clark (January 8-15, 1962/April 16-May 7, 1962/August 21-September 3, 1962/December 31, 1962-January 1, 1963/January 22-February 15, 1963/August 12-23, 1963/February 15-March 12, 1965, ''
Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour (born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton; December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for having appeared in the '' Road to...'' movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing ...
'' was the celebrity guest)
*
Johnny Gilbert
John Lewis Gilbert III (born July 13, 1928) is an American show business personality who has worked mainly on television game shows. Originally a nightclub singer and entertainer, he has hosted and announced a number of game shows from various e ...
(June 19, 1964; Ed Jordan filled in as announcer)
Models
Throughout the nine-year run of ''The Price Is Right'', the show also employed models, whose duties were similar to those of the models in the current version.
June Ferguson and Toni Wallace were the regular models, while Gail Sheldon also made frequent appearances. Ferguson, Wallace and Sheldon were featured during the show's entire nine-year run. Other models appearing included
Beverly Bentley
Beverly Bentley (February 26, 1930 – September 13, 2018) was an American actress. Her career began during the Golden Age of Television in the 1950s and continued on stage and in film into the first decade of the 21st century.
Background
Born ...
and Carolyn Stroupe; various other models either assisted Ferguson and Wallace or appeared during their absences.
Announcers
During the NBC run,
Don Pardo
Dominick George "Don" Pardo (February 22, 1918 – August 18, 2014) was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades.
A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with ...
was the main announcer. Whenever he was off or filling in for Cullen as host, substitute announcers included
Dick Dudley,
Vic Roby, Edward Haeffor, Roger Tuttle and
Johnny Olson
John Leonard Olson (May 22, 1910 – October 12, 1985) was an American radio personality and television announcer. Olson is perhaps best known for his work as an announcer for game shows, particularly the work he did for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman P ...
, who would go on to announce the 1972 version until his death in 1985.
Following the move to ABC (due to Don Pardo being under contract to NBC),
Johnny Gilbert
John Lewis Gilbert III (born July 13, 1928) is an American show business personality who has worked mainly on television game shows. Originally a nightclub singer and entertainer, he has hosted and announced a number of game shows from various e ...
became the announcer; two fill-ins were
Johnny Olson
John Leonard Olson (May 22, 1910 – October 12, 1985) was an American radio personality and television announcer. Olson is perhaps best known for his work as an announcer for game shows, particularly the work he did for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman P ...
and ABC staff announcer Ed Jordan.
Theme songs
The first theme song (used from 1956–1961) was an arrangement of
Charles Strouse
Charles Strouse (born June 7, 1928) is an American composer and lyricist best known for writing the music to such Broadway musicals as ''Bye Bye Birdie (musical), Bye Bye Birdie'', ''Applause (musical), Applause'', and ''Annie (musical), Annie''. ...
's "Sixth Finger Tune", originally written for
Milton Scott Michel's 1956 play ''Sixth Finger in a Five Finger Glove''. Follow Your YouTube Link For Sixth Finger Tune!
The second theme song (used from 1961–1965) was called ''Window Shopping'' and was composed by
Robert Cobert
Robert Cobert (October 26, 1924 – February 19, 2020) was an American composer who worked in television and films. He is best known for his work with producer/director Dan Curtis, notably the scores for the massively popular, now-cult 1966–7 ...
. This theme was later used on another Goodson-Todman game, ''
Snap Judgment'', and later found its way back to Bob Stewart's stable with the short-lived game ''
You're Putting Me On
''You're Putting Me On!'' is an NBC game show in which celebrities tried to communicate the identities of famous people through odd and interesting clues. Bill Leyden was the original host, with Larry Blyden taking over halfway through the run. Th ...
''.
Episode status
Although ''The Price Is Right'' became Goodson-Todman's first regularly aired game show to be broadcast
in color on September 23, 1957,
no color
kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 1940 ...
s or
videotape
Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassett ...
s are known to exist from the nighttime run.
Many monochrome NBC nighttime episodes (plus at least one ABC episode) aired on
Game Show Network
Game Show Network (GSN) is an American basic cable channel owned by Sony Pictures Television. The channel's programming is primarily dedicated to game shows, including reruns of acquired game shows, along with new, first-run original and revive ...
from 1996–2000, at which time the network's contract to air the show ended; it has not been renewed since. The 1961 episode hosted by Francis aired on
Buzzr
Buzzr is an American digital terrestrial television, digital broadcast television network owned by Fremantle North America, a unit of the Fremantle (company), Fremantle subsidiary of RTL Group. The network serves as an outlet for the extensive li ...
on March 8, 2019 as an homage to
International Women's Day
International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...
; Buzzr added the program to its weekend lineup in September 2019, with its package also including episodes hosted by
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 he hosted his own ta ...
.
Most of the daytime run is believed to be
wiped
Lost television broadcasts are mostly those early television programs which cannot be accounted for in studio archives (or in personal archives) usually because of deliberate destruction or neglect.
Common reasons for loss
A significant prop ...
; the UCLA Film and Television Archive lists the first and third episodes from 1956 among its holdings.
UCLA Archive: The Price is Right
A few NBC daytime episodes with commercials intact, originally broadcast in the late spring/early summer of 1957, have been around the "collector's circuit." They are now available for viewing on YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
Home media
Four episodes, including the 1964 nighttime finale, were released on "The Best of ''The Price is Right''" DVD set (March 25, 2008). Despite pre-release assumptions that each of the four unique runs would be represented, as it was announced that there would be four Cullen episodes, none were of the ABC daytime run despite the existence of episodes from that era; a second NBC prime time episode instead filled that slot.
Many noticed that the four Cullen episodes lacked commercials, as well as the fact that all three NBC episodes had already been spotted prior to the DVD release. Both NBC primetime episodes (January 13 and 27, 1960) had aired on GSN before, while the daytime episode (February 21, 1957) had been available in the public domain for several years; the daytime episode is notable for not only missing its opening, but for Cullen promoting Charles Van Doren's match against Vivienne Nearing on '' Twenty One'' – which eventually led to Van Doren's defeat.
The Fremantle
Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...
logo animation was added after each episode, as the production company currently owns all Mark Goodson properties.
The episode listing included with the DVD set states the daytime episode aired March 10, 1957, and the ABC episode aired September 4, 1964 (with guest Jose Ferrer
Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods.
* Jose ben Abin
* Jose ben Akabya
*Jose the Galile ...
); however, the former actually aired on February 21, 1957, and the latter is not actually present on the DVD set but had been aired by GSN. The 1964 finale featured Pat Carroll as the celebrity player, and the night's champion was invited back to appear on the following Monday's daytime episode.
In popular culture
In a 1962 episode of ''The Flintstones
''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighb ...
,'' Barney Rubble
Barney Rubble is a fictional character who appears in the television animated series ''The Flintstones''. He is the diminutive, blond-haired caveman husband of Betty Rubble and adoptive father of Bamm-Bamm Rubble. His best friend is his next d ...
is invited to be a contestant on ''The Prize is Priced'', a parody of ''The Price is Right''. When it's his turn to bid, Barney says, "I'll just put in my two cents, and–" but before he's able to give his actual bid, his "bid" of two cents is locked in. (Season 2, episode 29, "Divided We Sail", original airdate April 6, 1962.)
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Price Is Right (1956 American game show), The
1956 American television series debuts
1965 American television series endings
American Broadcasting Company original programming
1950s American game shows
1960s American game shows
Black-and-white American television shows
English-language television shows
NBC original programming
Television series by Fremantle (company)
Television series by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions
The Price Is Right