The Price is Right

An ultra successful game show based on pricing and values.

It's success can possibly be from the fact that contestants are picked right from the studio audience as well as the numerous minigames played for prizes.

One Bid
Bidders in Contestants' Row awaiting the announcement of the winning bid.One Bid is a qualifying game, played with four contestants standing at the foot of the stage ("Contestants' Row"). A prize is shown and each player gives a bid for the item. The contestant who bids closest to the actual retail price of the prize, without going over, wins it and advances on to the stage for an individual pricing game. A contestant that bids the exact price also receives a cash bonus – $500 on the daytime episodes (originally $100 until 1998) and $1,000 on the prime time episodes. If all four contestants overbid, they all must bid again. Four initial contestants are chosen from the audience at the start of the show to play the first One Bid round; before each subsequent One Bid round, a new contestant is chosen from the audience to replace the previous winner.

Pricing games
Each winner of the six One Bid rounds is called onto stage to play a pricing game to play for a prize or prizes valued at least several thousand dollars. There are currently over 60 pricing games in rotation. Regardless of whether or not the pricing game is won, all One Bid winners on advance automatically to the Showcase Showdown, which occurs twice in each hour-long episode, after every three pricing games.

Prior to the expansion to 60-minute episodes, each 30-minute episode featured only three One Bids, each followed by a pricing game. After three pricing games had been played, the two on-stage contestants with the greatest winnings faced off in the Showcase.

Showcase Showdown
Used since the show expanded to a 60-minute format in 1975, and only in 60-minute formats, the Showcase Showdown determines which contestants will compete in the Showcases at the end of the show. There are two Showcase Showdowns in each episode, one each after the third and sixth pricing games. Each Showcase Showdown features the three contestants who played the preceding three pricing games.

Each contestant spins a large wheel which is segmented and marked with the values from five cents to a dollar, in increments of five cents. The winner of each Showdown is the contestant who spins the highest value closest to one dollar in one spin or the total of two spins without exceeding one dollar. A total of exactly one dollar wins $1,000 and a bonus spin for a potential cash prize of either $10,000 (for landing on the one of the two green sections consisting $0.05 & $0.15 values) or $25,000 (for landing on the $1.00 value). Originally from the late 70s to 2008, the prizes were $5,000 for a green section and $10,000 for one dollar.

The two Showdown winners in each show compete in the Showcase following the second Showdown. In the event of a tie, a spin-off is held in which each of the tied contestants is given one spin. The contestant with the highest value advances to the Showcase. If the tie happens to be between multiple players who scored $1.00, each player's bonus spin also counts as their spin-off. This is disadvantageous for the contestants, since two of the three prize-awarding spaces ($0.05 and $0.15) also happen to be two of the three worst tie-breaking spaces.

The Showcases
The two qualifying contestants are shown a large prize package. The contestant with the larger total of cash and prizes (the "top winner") may either bid on that showcase or pass it to their opponent (the "runner-up"). A second prize package is then shown, and whichever contestant has not yet bid must bid on that showcase. The contestant who bids closer to the combined "actual retail price" of the items in their showcase without going over wins that showcase. If both contestants bid higher than the actual price of their own showcases, referred to as a "double overbid," neither contestant wins.

If the winning contestant bids within $250 of the price of their showcase, he or she wins both showcases. This rule was introduced in 1974 for a winner whose bid was "less than $100" under the price; the threshold was raised to "$250 or less" in 1998.

In 60-minute episodes, the Showcase participants are the winners of the two Showcase Showdowns. In the 30-minute format, the top two winners from the pricing games automatically advance to the Showcase.

1994 Davidson Version
Play is similar except that the one-bid round is not present, the player called to come on down gets to play a pricing game immediately.

The showcase showdown had two formats. Some episodes had players spinning the wheel. Others had a segment called "The Price Was Right" where the three contestants are shown a vintage commercial and then have to bid on the actual price of the item advertised at the time the ad was aired.

For the Showcase, another "rangefinder" was brought out and after the player is shown their showcase, they have to play a modified Range Game and if the price of the prize falls within the range, they win.

2006 Gameshow Marathon
The only real difference is that in the Showcase Showdown, the top two highest scoring players get to proceed to the showcase since only three games were played.

Music
2nd Main (1956) - by Bob Cobert - Later used on Snap Judgment

1972 - Shelia Cole

1972 (fast) - Edd Kalehoff

1994 - Edd Kalehoff

2007 - Edd Kalehoff

The second run uses over 100 cues in its numerous games and situations with cues by numerous composers as well as cues from other Goodson shows. listen to most of the show's cues here

Inventor
Mark Goodson & Bill Todman

Merchandise
A board game based off of the 1956 version was made in 1958 by Lowell. Another board game based off of the 1972 version was made in 1973 by Milton Bradley with a second edtion made in 1974. Another version was released in 1986 by Milton Bradley. A home game was made in 2004 by Endless Games. A DVD game was released in 2007. A DVD compilation set featuring 20 episodes was released in 2008. Games for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and PC were released in 2008 and again in 2009 by Ubisoft.

Trivia
This is the longest running game show in America with the second version running for 38 years, over 7,000 episodes and counting.

Taglines
"Bob Barker reminding you to help control the pet population, have your pet spayed or neutered. Good-bye everybody!" - Bob Barker (mid-80s-2007)

"Don't forget to spay and neuter your pets, it's very important/it's the right thing to do. Thanks for watching The Price is Right, we’ll see you next time, Buh-bye! - Drew Carey (2007-present)

Links
Official Site Official Site (CBS) Golden-Road.Net: The Unofficial Price is Right Fansite The Price is Right Fanpage - Set graphics, music cues, photos and much much more!