1976 - 1983 (Retired)
Hurdles was a really creative game that was retired prematurely in my opinion. The game began with a grocery item with a displayed price represented by a hurdler. The contestant was then shown three sets of two grocery items and was asked to pick the one item from each set that was lower than the hurdler's price. Bob placed a small flag next to the item the contestant believed was lower. After all three items had been decided on, the gun was fired and the game started. The hurdler moved across the board and a hurdle, which represented the item the contestant believed was less expensive than the hurdler, moved up the board to face the hurdler. If the hurdler's price was higher than the hurdle, he moved on to the next set of items. If the hurdler made it to the end of the board, the contestant won a bonus prize. If, however, the hurdler could not overcome a hurdle (i.e., if the contestant chose a prize that is higher than the hurdler's value), the Hurdler crashed and the game was over.
When Hurdles was an active game, it was played quite frequently. But Hurdles was an extremely complicated mechanical game and that probably led to its demise. Often times, the Hurdler would not be in sync with the hurdles and it became quite obvious ahead of time whether or not the hurdler would beat the hurdle. Other times the hurdle wouldn't come up in time or wouldn't come up at all. However, when the game was in sync, it provided a lot of excitement for the viewer. The William Tell Overture was played as background music as the hurdler made its way across the board; quite a fitting tune.
The gun that signaled the start of the Hurdles game was a problem in and of itself. Bob offered the contestant the opportunity to shoot the cap gun and many of the contestants had the tendency to shoot it too close to their faces, causing them quite a start!
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| Here's the Hurdles board, one of the biggest and most complicated games every played. | It looks like our hurdler is ready to go! Today he's representing a 65 cent bag of spaghetti. |
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| The blue flag indicates that the contestant believes the olives are less than 65 cents...that ice cream looks expensive, right? | The Hurdler's got this hurdle beat by a long shot! |
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| Here's an example of a Hurdles error...the third hurdle never came up! She was a winner in this case. | This woman nearly shot herself in the face with the Hurdles gun! |
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| CRASH! The hurdler couldn't overcome this hurdle... | ...no wonder! He's only worth 70 cents and that hurdle is 95 cents! |