Pick-a-Pair
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Pick-a-Pair is a pricing game on the American television game show The Price Is Right. Debuting on April 12, 1982, it is played for a prize worth more than $3,000, and uses grocery items.
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[edit] Gameplay
The contestant is shown six grocery items, all having the same price as one other item on the display (hence the "pair" notation).
The contestant has two chances to pick two items with the same price. If he is correct on the first try, he wins the prize. Should the contestant's picks be in error, he is given a second turn.
In that second turn, he decides which item to keep, and then picks one of the remaining items he believes is the same price. A correct answer at this point still wins the prize; however, being wrong again means the contestant loses.
[edit] Set change
Pick-a-Pair holds the distinction of having the most radical set change of any pricing game. The first Pick a Pair set, used from 1982 to October 1988, had each of the grocery items rotating on a miniature Ferris wheel.
While some fans maintained the Ferris wheel (along with carnival-type music) provided the game some character, this slowed up the game considerably, and made the contestants prone to forgetting what the grocery items were. In September 1990, a new set -- with the products sitting on an elongated table -- was in place. Between the last show with the ferris wheel and the first show with the table, the game was not played for nearly two years. Until Penny Ante returns, this game will hold the distinction of having the longest gap between two playings.
- Incidentally, the game's title was written without hyphens on its original set.
With the current Pick-a-Pair set, the chosen items are lifted up on raised pedestals. Each pedestal includes a blue window displaying the price.
[edit] Trivia
- On a playing of Pick a Pair near Christmas, 1984, the contestant did not find a pair on his first attempt. Forgetting that the game was not yet over, host Bob Barker attempted to point out a problem with the game's set by immediately saying what the contestant should have picked. Once he realized what he'd done, the contestant notched an easy win.
