Telephone Game

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This article is about the retired pricing game from "The Price Is Right". For the children's play, see Chinese whispers.

Telephone Game was a pricing game on the American television game show, The Price Is Right. It lasted from November 1, 1978 to November 29, 1978. Three prizes were available, only one of which could be won: a car or one of two small prizes (usually worth between $40 and $70). This game used grocery items.

[edit] Gameplay

Telephone Game was a two-part game – one involving grocery pricing, the other having the contestant choose the price of the car.

In the first part, the contestant is given a $1 credit and shown four grocery items. He/she used that credit to select two groceries. After both prices were revealed, there were two possibilities:

If the two items added up to 90 cents or less – thus, allowing him/her to have the requisite dime left over to use a pay telephone – the game continued to the second part.

If the two items exceeded 90 cents, the game automatically ended in a loss.

In part two, Barker handed the contestant a dime and took him/her over to a pay telephone, and then showed him/her a phone book with three large, unlabeled four-digit telephone extensions in it (for example, "6339," "6886" and "6605"). Each number corresponded with one of the prizes: one with the car in dollars, the other two to the two-digit prices in dollars and cents (but no decimal point showing in the phone book).

The contestant selected one of the extensions and – after placing the dime in the coin slot – dialed that number on the phone. Each prize had a telephone sitting next to it, the models stationed nearby waiting to answer; whatever phone rang, that is the prize the contestant won. The most desirable outcome, of course, was winning the car.

[edit] Trivia

Telephone Game was one of only two games where winning all of the announced prizes was impossible. The other one is Any Number.
Telephone Game was the first grocery product/car game in which the price of the car was actually relevant to gameplay.

[edit] Retirement

Telephone Game was retired after only three playings, making it the second-shortest-lived pricing game after Professor Price. The explanation: "It was lame," according to the producers.