All About Pricing Games!
The Pricing Games are arguably the
most exciting part of the Price is Right, which is now entering
its 28th season on CBS! Along with the showcase, they are the
unique element of the show that distinguishes this version of the
show from the successful version of The Price is Right that Bill
Cullen hosted in the 1950's and 1960's. Back then, contestants
bid back on forth on prizes with the closest bidder winning the
prize. Naturally, that element of the game is still seen in
contestant's row today, but there is only one set of bids, with
the winner getting to play a pricing game!
Today there are nearly 70 pricing games in the
Price is Right rotation, but when the show premiered in 1972,
there were only five pricing games to be played. Of course, the
show was only half an hour back then, but it still meant you saw
every pricing game every other day. The "first five,"
as Bob sometimes refers to them, were Grocery Game, Bonus Game,
Any Number, "Bullseye I", and Double Prices. Any Number
was the first pricing game ever played, and it was won on its
first playing! The pricing games were not named on the boards
themselves until a few years later.
As the show began to pick up steam in
the ratings, a few new pricing games trickled into the rotation,
such as Five Price Tags, Money Game, and the Clock Game. Bullseye
I was the first pricing game to be retired, but not before it was
tried in an extremely brief two-player format.
When the show expanded to an hour in late 1975,
six pricing games per show were now played instead of the
original three. By then, over 20 pricing games were in rotation,
but still more were needed to add variety to the new hour-long
format. The late '70s saw the introduction of such popular games
as the Punch Board, 3 Strikes, and Cliff Hangers. Punch Board was
the first pricing game to offer an all-cash prize and its
popularity sparked later cash games such as Grand Game, Phone
Home Game, and Plinko.
The 1980's saw the continuation of the
tradition of new pricing game invention, with the advent of over
30 new pricing game, such as One Away, the forgettable Balance
Game, and Plinko. Introduced in 1983, Plinko quickly became the
most popular pricing game ever played on the show, with its high
cash awards and exciting game play.
The 1990's were not as productive of a time in
terms of pricing game invention, although several popular games
were turned out. It's In the Bag, Cover Up, and Magic # are just
three of the 90's games destined to become legends in the future
on the show.
Of course, with the advent of all
these new games, some games were forced into retirement. With
rare exception, Bob would not mention the retirement of these
games, which would see their lives ends for various reasons.
Mechanical problems doomed some games like Super Saver and
Hurdles, while games like Add 'em Up were axed because of their
difficult rules. The super short-lived On the Nose was a talent
game that was just impossible to win, while the laughable
Professor Price, with its bizarre general knowledge questions,
simply didn't fit in. Sometimes games that work well in rehearsal
aren't nearly as easy for nervous contestants!
While some games were completely
retired, others experienced less serious changes. In the 1980's,
many popular games invented in the 1970's were given touch-ups to
make them look more modern. Inflation was another concern; almost
all car games invented in the 1970's were not five-digit
compliant, making an update a necessity.
Some of these updates occurred prior to the
1986 Nighttime Specials that aired on CBS. In the summer of 1986,
CBS aired a series of six special Price is Right's against summer
reruns of The Cosby Show on NBC. The special series was basically
the same as the daytime version but with a higher budget. Lucky
Seven and Any Number debuted their new setups which allowed for
five digit cars, Danger Price morphed its setup completely, and
Hole in One became Hole in One...or Two to allow for one putting
mistake. These changes were instituted on the daytime version as
well. Some changes were for the specials only, however. Clock
Game winners were guaranteed a cash bonus that could be as much
as $5,000, while perfect bidding in Hole in One won $1,000, not $500.
There is somewhat of a tradition to
premiere new pricing games on the first episode of the new season.
Barker's Markers (23rd), Clearance Sale (28th), and Phone Home
Game (12th) are three pricing games that premiered in those
respective seasons. However, this is not a guarantee. In fact,
pricing game premieres seem to come in spurts. Three pricing
games premiered in the 27th, 24th, and 26th seasons. However, *no*
new pricing games premiered in the 25th season. In 1980, three
pricing games, Trader Bob, Now...and Then, and Hit Me, premiered
within two months of one another. 
How does Bob keep up with all these
changes? Simple: he's a smart guy! He knows the rules to all
these games backwards and forwards and rarely makes a mistake. To
help Bob remember which game is next up, he has two reminders. To
his right (stage left) is a board listing all six pricing games
to be played on that day's show and the order in which they will
be played (see picture on the right). This board even lists the
two showcase showdowns and the showcases, should Bob lose track
of his 
surroundings!
However, since the board is out of the way and rather unnatural
to look at while Bob is on camera, a stagehand to Bob's left
holds up a poster announcing the upcoming pricing game during the
game's preceding item up for bids (look closely in the picture to
the left; it says "Stage Game: Clock Game"). These
reminders are necessary, because Bob tailors his introduction to
the prizes depending on what game is being played. Depending on
where you are sitting in the audience, you may be able to see
either one of these cues, which does detract slightly from the
surprise of what game is up next. Television viewers, however,
rarely if ever see these cues.
The contestants' success on Pricing
Games often determines the entire mood of the show. "Perfect
shows" are episodes in which all six pricing games are won.
"Winning" a pricing game is usually
easy to determine. Wins in games like Lucky Seven, Now...and Then,
and Barker's Markers are all-or-nothing scenarios and are
therefore easily identified. However, games like Master Key and
Golden Road often feature contestants who win some, but not all,
of the announced prizes. In addition, contestants in cash games
like It's In the Bag and Plinko may win a decent amount of money
without winning the most amount possible. So how does the show
determine a 
perfect
game? Well, according to TPiR guru Tony Harrison, the show
defines a pricing game "win" as the contestant winning
the highest-announced prize. For example, a Master Key contestant
would be a winner if s/he won the car regardless of how s/he
performed on the other two smaller prizes and It's In the Bag is
won only if the contestant wins the $16,000 (although $8,000 is
nothing to scoff at!) This rule becomes slightly blurred in the
case of Race Game, where only winning the highest announced prize
is usually no more than $1,500 in winnings. And this rule would
also mean that Plinko has NEVER been "won". The perfect
score of $25,000 (now $50,000) has never been attained. While
this rule may be steadfast in the minds of the show's producers,
most viewers would consider Race Game a "win" only if
all four prizes were won, while Plinko may be a "win"
if the contestant should hit the biggest slot at least once (considering
the plethora of other possibilities on the Plinko board).
To increase interest in the show (not like they
needed it, they were #1 in the ratings at the time), Price is
Right instituted a home viewer contest in 1986 called Play Along.
In Play Along, one pricing game of the day (or the showcase
showdown) would be designated as the Play Along game. Home
viewers sent in postcards and one card was chosen at random for
the game. The home viewers would win exactly the same prize the
contestant won in the designated pricing game. If the contestant
won nothing in the game, the home viewer received a Play Along t-shirt.
The contest was played for brief periods from 1986-1988.
Golden Road has traditionally been the
pricing game that offers the most expensive prizes; in fact, it
is the game that has offered the most expensive ever
shown on the show--an $86,000 Dodge Viper (which was won in 2002). However, the contestant with the record for the highest
single-day winnings on the show didn't play Golden Road.
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