The New Price Is Right (1994)

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Not to be confused with the daytime The Price Is Right, which used the name The New Price Is Right for its first several months on the air.

The New Price Is Right was a short lived nighttime version of the hit American game show The Price Is Right, which aired from September 12, 1994 to January 1995 in syndication. Doug Davidson, one of the stars of the soap opera The Young and the Restless, hosted the show with Burton Richardson as the announcer. The show had its own set of prize models -- Julie Lynn Cialini, Ferrari Farris, and Lisa Stahl.

The show was produced by Mark Goodson Productions and was distributed by Paramount Domestic Television.

Contents

[edit] Format

The New Price Is Right differed greatly from its sister show in several ways. The first and most obvious way was how contestants were chosen. Instead of being called down to Contestants' Row, which this version of the program did not use, the contestants were called from the audience and came right up on stage to play the pricing games. To make up for this change, three episodes were taped with each audience, so that each audience would still produce a total of nine contestants.

The second was the prize budget for the show, which rose to fairly high levels.

Only three pricing games were played per episode, just like the daytime show when it was a half-hour long, followed by a Showcase Showdown and a one-player version of the Showcase (the only incarnation so far to ever use such a Showcase round). Some of the pricing games were played differently than they were on the daytime show. A few examples:

  • Plinko: While the top prize remained the same, the value of the outermost slots on the board was increased from $100 to $2500. Also, the small prize pricing was changed to a higher/lower pricing format, since the game frequently used items with three-digit prices.
  • Clock Game: The game became digitized, with no prop on stage for it, and the contestant was provided with a $1000 range to guess the price in for the prize. The game frequently used prizes with four-digit prices, and on some occasions, a third prize was awarded as a bonus for winning.
  • Barker's Marker$: The name was changed to "Make Your Mark" the single time it was played on this version of the show.
  • Hole in One and Grand Game: Instead of using grocery items, these games were played with small prizes; they were also the only grocery item games played.
  • Cliff Hangers: The mountain climber was given the name Hans Gudegast, the birth name of Davidson's Young & Restless costar Eric Braeden.
  • Safe Crackers: As in the daytime show, two prizes were shown, but the smaller prize (the one whose price matched the combination of the safe) was placed outside the safe.
  • Golden Road: Played the same, except that it began with a small prize or a fishbowl of cash.
  • 3 Strikes: The first number was given for free. Also, that number could repeat in the price of the car.
  • Range Game: This game was not featured in the regular rotation; instead, it was used for the Showcase. (See below for information.)

Three pricing games were played per episode; each taping lasted for three shows, so a single audience would still produce a total of nine contestants (which equaled the total number seen on the daytime show).

[edit] Showcase Showdown

Main article: Showcase Showdown (The Price Is Right)

Unlike the other half hour Price Is Rights before it, The New Price Is Right had a Showcase Showdown. Two different versions were used:

The Price WAS Right: The Showcase Showdown used on most of the episodes. The three contestants were placed at three podiums at the front of the audience (a quasi-Contestants' Row) and were shown an old TV commercial. After the ad was shown, the players would bid on what they thought the product being advertised had cost at the time the commercial had originally aired. The person who was closest without going over won and advanced to the Showcase. To aid the contestants, host Davidson would give a clue stating how much a different item would have cost in that time period.

The Big Wheel: Played mostly the same way as on the daytime show, except that the contestants spun in order from highest to lowest winnings instead of the other way around. Getting a total of $1.00 in one spin or a combination of two spins earned a contestant $1,000 and a bonus spin; in the bonus spin, he would win $5,000 more if the wheel landed on a green section and $10,000 more if it landed on $1.00. A spin that did not go all the way around would not count and would have to be redone; redos were not permitted on bonus spins. The contestant whose total in one spin or a combination of two spins was nearest to $1.00 without going over won and advanced to the Showcase.

The producers had originally intended to use The Price WAS Right on every episode, but when the time came to start taping, the staff hadn't been able to research enough commercials for that to happen; therefore, on about 20% of the shows, the Big Wheel had to be used instead.

[edit] The Showcase

With only one person playing the Showcase, the pricing game Range Game was modified for the New Price Is Right showcases. A new prop was built with a $60,000 scale ($10,000 to $70,000); during the show's final commercial break, the winner of the Showcase Showdown chose rangefinder length at random from somewhere between $4,000 and $10,000.

A showcase was then presented; once it was finished, the rangefinder was started up the scale, with the contestant pulling a lever when he thought it was covering the showcase value. If he was correct, he won the Showcase.

[edit] Notes and Trivia

  • The New Price Is Right did not use the traditional losing horns that its predecessors did. Instead, a faint "groan" on an electric guitar was heard, along with several sound effects of glass breaking.
  • Burton Richardson would go on to sub-announce for Rod Roddy on the daytime show during his illness and after his death. Since 1999, he has served as the announcer on the current run of Family Feud, as well as the John O'Hurley version of To Tell the Truth.
  • The Big Door panels from Davidson's show were repainted at the start of Season 25 for use on the daytime show after the original panels began to wear out.
  • While this show's theme song was virtually the same as that of the daytime show, it was done in a smooth jazz arrangement. The theme song would carry over to Bruce Forsyth's Bruce's Price Is Right in the UK (as well as El Precio Justo in Spain and O Preco Certo Em Euros in Portugal). The "come on down" cue was also heard on Bruce's Price Is Right.
  • The show's set differed drastically from that of the daytime show. The Big Doors had diamond patterns, gold logos, and marbled doorframes with no lights; the Turntable was replaced with a large video wall; and the floor was covered with a shiny, black surface (that same floor would later be used for Hollywood Squares).
  • The pilot for the series was hosted by LA news personality Mark Kriski, with Bob Hilton doing the announcing. Shots of the set from this episode, which used the colored spolights from the '86 Specials around the Big Doors and a repainted Range Game board for the Showcase, can be seen in the opening sequence on early episodes.
  • This version of The Price Is Right is one of two versions that has not aired in reruns anywhere since its original run, as Game Show Network never had the rights to this version. The Dennis James/Bob Barker 1970s syndicated version is the other (due to veto issues).
  • Many of the show's music cues have been used on the daytime show since early in Season 25.
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