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 was syndicated
and 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.
Now lets leap forward to the present!.............................
Here is a "cut and paste" from the
cover letter of our invitation to continue our appearance in
representing the best dollar/value ratio in Cozumel Mexico as it relates
to "The Price Is Right"! This letter was received on October 17th, 2008:
Dear
Bob,
We’re contacting you regarding the 37th
season of “The Price is Right” starring Drew Carey. It’s an exciting
time for the show, with our new high-definition look and more great
games than ever; we would love for you to continue to be a part of it.
Per our records, the contract we have with you is up for renewal and we
would like to extend it for another year of promotions.
Attached is the
renewal contract for 2009. Please confirm that all retail prices and
details are correct or make any necessary corrections, sign and fax the
contract back to us
at your earliest convenience. If you have any questions, do not hesitate
to call or e-mail me.
Since we are taping in high-definition, we are slowly updating our
marketing library with HD film or high-resolution still images. Our
records indicate that we are using still images from you. If you have HD
footage (Sony SRW, Sony HD Cam, or Panasonic D5 formats), please send it
to my attention at: CBS Promotional Placement and Awards,
7800 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036.
Alternatively, you may mail a CD-Rom with at least four high resolution
images of the property. The images should be at least 300dpi, horizontal
in nature and 2000x2000 pixels in size. You may send JPEG, TIFF, or EPS
files.
Thank you once again
for being a part of “The Price is Right”. We look forward to
working with you for many years to come.
Kindest regards,(Name omitted on
purpose)
CBS Television – Promotional Placement
and Awards
7800
Beverly Blvd.,
Los Angeles,
CA
90036
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