Pick a Pair

1982 - Present

Pick a Pair is a game played with six grocery items. Among the six items, there are three sets of two items that have the same price. The contestant picks two items and hopes that they have the same price. If they do, s/he wins a bonus prize. If not, the contestant gets a second chance. With the second chance, the contestant keeps one of the items s/he picked originally and then attempts to find the correct match for that item. If s/he is right the second time around, s/he wins the bonus prize; if not, the game is over.

Pick a Pair holds the honor of one Bob's biggest flubs in TPiR history. In a Christmas, 1984 episode, a contestant picked two items on his first chance that did not match. Forgetting that the contestant had a second chance left, Bob proceeded to tell him which item would have correctly matched the first one the contestant picked. Halfway through his spiel, Bob realized his mistake. Needless to say, that contestant won his bonus prize!

Set Changes: Pick a Pair wins the award for most radical set change ever (Danger Price would be a close second). The original Pick a Pair setup involved an elaborate ferris wheel in which the six prizes spun around slowly with festive carnival music playing. Two things made this setup extremely annoying. First off, the contestant had trouble remembering all of the six items because the ferris wheel displayed only two prizes at a time; the other four were spinning somewhere off-camera. Secondly, once the contestant chose his/her items, everyone had to wait for both prizes to spin around to the front. The prices of the product were concealed with a card in front of the prize. To eliminate the time wasted in this game, Pick a Pair was completely overhauled into a table game with a completely different logo and color motif. This current setup involves a simple row of the six products. The chosen items are lifted up on raised pedestals that include a blue window dispalying the price. A definite improvement.

Here's the old Pick A Pair board from 1983. This ferris wheel was cool but it wasn't very practical.	Here's the first prize our contestant may pick, a lovely (I use that term loosely) kitchen container.

Nice split screen here...those preserves are $1.29.	Now, can you find the item that matches that?

Well, it's not the honey; that's $1.79. Which of these items do you want to stick with for your second chance?	Bad news. The drink mix does not match the honey.

Here's the second Pick-a-Pair board. It looks like a different game!	You haven't lived until you've heard an entire Price is Right audience shout "Nudit!"

The spray starch is $1.29...	...and so is the candy! He wins.