History of The Price is Right The Price is Right began on November 26, 1956 on NBC. Bill Cullen was the host of The Price is Right, and Don Pardo was the announcer. The show was made in New York City. The game was always about pricing merchandise items, and being the closest one to the manufacturer's suggested retail price of the item without going over. In the 50's version, there were two kinds of "Contestants' Row"-style bids. The first one was like today's Contestants' Row, where each person gets one bid on getting as close to the actual retail price without going over. The other style of bidding was "open bidding", where each contestant bid, and then the next bid, etc., etc., etc., until someone froze the bidding, believing that the next guess would put them over. On this version, the person who won the most money came back on the next day's show. A weekly occurrence on this version of The Price is Right was a home viewer contest. In that, home viewers mailed in their bid on a showcase of prizes. The Price is Right moved to ABC from NBC in September 1963. With this move, they introduced a weekly celebrity guest, who played for home viewers or members of the studio audience. On September 3, 1965, The Price is Right went off the air, being replaced by a talk show called The Young Set.
The Price is Right made a successful return to television on CBS on September 4, 1972. This version was completely overhauled, but the emphasis still remained on pricing merchandise items. In this version, Bob Barker hosted the show, and Johnny Olson was the announcer (after Johnny Olson's death, Rod Roddy became the announcer). There was also another edition of this version that way syndicated that ran in the evenings once a week. This was hosted by Dennis James. This version of The Price is Right is the version that you can still catch at 11 AM Eastern, 10 AM Central. However, originally, the show was only a half hour. Then, you had three pricing games, and the top two winners went to the showcase. On November 3, 1975, The Price is Right became a full hour - in other words, "The Fabulous 60-Minute Price is Right". This is also when the showcase showdown with its big wheel was added.
The Price is Right was revived in syndication for a third time with The New Price is Right on September 12, 1994. It featured Doug Davidson (from The Young and the Restless) as host, and Burton Richardson from Arsenio Hall as the announcer. The set was very modernized, and the format changed. In this version, there was no contestants' row. The contestants were called directly out of the audience just like on the regular show, but went straight up to the stage to play a pricing game. This version of The Price is Right ended January 27, 1995. |
