The Showcase (The Price Is Right)

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The Showcase contestants and Bob Barker in 2006.
The Showcase contestants and Bob Barker in 2006.

The Showcase is the major prize round on the game show The Price Is Right. The two winners of the Showcase Showdowns in each episode make it to the Showcase; in the show's original half-hour format, the two onstage contestants with the most winnings advanced to the Showcase. The round's two prize packages usually involve several prizes connected by a common theme or a story; they tend to be worth between $12,000 and $40,000, although they occasionally exceed $55,000, and primetime specials in recent years have offered showcases worth $100,000 or more.

One showcase is shown, and the contestant with the greater winnings so far has the option to either place a bid on the showcase or pass it to the other contestant, forcing them to bid on it. After the bid is placed, the second showcase is shown and bid upon by the remaining contestant. The contestant nearer to the price of their own showcase without going over wins the showcase. If both contestants go over, neither player wins their showcase.

In the early shows, the showcases were a fairly straightforward presentation of a succession of prizes, occasionally with a vague prevailing theme such as a prize package including a trip, luggage, money, and a camera. Starting in 1974, the presentation of the showcase prizes became more elaborate, humorously tying the items on bid together in a skit, often a movie parody or a fairy tale involving the prizes. Many times the announcer and models would portray various silly characters whose interactions introduced the prizes. Time constraints have forced the show to cut down on lengthy showcases with extended dialogues and storylines, but often the show still features briefer skit showcases.

Beginning in the spring of 1974, if the winner was less than $100 away from the price of their own showcase, the contestant won both showcases; if the contestant was exactly $100 away, he only won his own showcase. The margin was raised to $250 or less from Season 27 on. If the two contestants are exactly the same distance from the actual prices without going over (a tie), each wins their own showcase; this has happened once in the show's history. If there is a tie where the differences are within the Double Showcase range, both contestants would win both showcases; this has never happened, although there is an episode from 1975 where the contestants' differences were $30 and $29.

Unlike Contestants' Row, there is no cash bonus for a perfect bid in the Showcase. However, there has been one person to have a perfect bid in the Showcase. This is believed to have occurred on the 1970s nighttime run, where the Double Showcase rule was never added; as such, the contestant in question won only their own showcase.

Contents

[edit] Memorable Showcase Themes

As mentioned, many showcases have had interesting themes over the years, but some are memorable and/or recurring. Among them are:

  • The Time Capsule - A recurring showcase theme in the 1980s which started with the showing of a newspaper's front page stating where the time capsule was found (which would also be the destination of the trip offered), then three small pods in the capsule would be cracked open revealing small to medium sized prizes, then finally the entire capsule would be cracked open to reveal the big prize.
  • The Price Is Right Train Depot - A simple theme where the Price Is Right Train comes through the station carrying three cars with the three prizes on them, stopping to show each one individually. This is typically used only for exceptionally cheap showcases.
  • Port o' Price - Identical to Train Depot, only with a dock setting and using the Tugboat.
  • Every Room in the House - A showcase offering four prizes, each prize appropriate for a specific room in the house. Until recently, this showcase began with the lights off. The lights would turn on in sync with the door opening. This showcase typically has relatively cheap prizes as well.
  • Every Trip in the House - A rarely-seen variation on "Everyroom," "Everytrip" uses the same props, but offers four trips instead of four prizes.
  • A Trip Down Main Street - The camera wanders down Main Street, checking out the prizes in specific stores.
  • The Price Is Right Department Store - A theme from the 1970s and '80s taking place in the elevator going up the floors to specific departments featuring the prizes offered. Anitra Ford was the first "elevator operator". When Ford left the show, Dian Parkinson took over the role. For a brief period of time in the '80s, during the "robot companion" craze, the "Price Is Right Robot" would operate the elevator and serve as the prize revealer. The theme was revived with a new set at the start of the 33rd season.
  • Our Girls Hit the Mall - Three prizes are shown in a mall setting; occasionally, a fourth prize, such as a car, is offered.
  • Christmas Wishes - A Christmas themed showcase from the late 1970s where Santa Claus would grant each model their wish, plus gave each of them a new car.
  • Wheels - A showcase theme from the late 70s which included 5 prizes. There was a prize with 1 wheel (an exercising apparatus which could be the forerunner to the Ab-Slide), 2 wheels, 3 wheels, 4 wheels (two bicycles), and 5 wheels (a new car, counting the steering wheel).
  • For the Garage - A showcase which included prizes for one's garage. This was shown once and it offered a garage door opener, a work bench, and two different new cars revealed, separately (a Ford Mustang convertible and a Lincoln Town Car).
  • April Fool's - Every few years on April Fool's Day, the show presents a fake showcase with a ridiculous theme -- for instance, a showcase where all of the prizes get broken, all the prizes are cheap toys, or a set of trips to places nobody has ever heard of. The real showcase is generally either multiple cars or a Cadillac -- the only occurrence in history where the showcase consisted of a single prize.
  • Janice Pennington, This Is Your Strife - A one-time theme in 1976 that showcased Janice's mishaps with prizes. The showcase displayed past clips of those mishaps, and the prizes associated with them were then presented in the showcase. The theme was a total surprise to Janice, as the staff had indeed rehearsed a fake showcase before the taping, per Johnny Olson's opening.
  • The Price Is Right Warehouse - A theme from the 1980s and '90s where three prizes were uncovered in a warehouse.
  • The Price Is Right Cheerleaders - A theme debuting in the 1980s, where the models each do a "Give me a..." cheer for a letter, which is the first letter of a small-to-medium size prize. Usually done three or four times, all the letters are arranged at the end to spell out a final, big prize.
  • Do-It-Yourself - Used for a brief period in 1975, Do-It-Yourself showed the contestant three sets of three envelopes, each of which contained a prize. Each group had three similar prizes in it; for example, one group might contain a living room, a dining room, and a bedroom. The contestant would randomly select one envelope from each group, and the three prizes they contained would then be presented as his showcase. Due to the large potential for something to go wrong with having to cooridinate nine different prizes backstage and having to deal with 27 different possible prices, the theme was done away with rather quickly.

[edit] The New Price Is Right

On the syndicated nighttime version hosted by Doug Davidson, the Showcase was played in a different manner, as there was only one contestant at the end of each episode. The contestant would be shown the prizes for his/her showcase. After that, the round took on the format of the pricing game Range Game. The contestant would then randomly select a length for a "rangefinder" that was built for this series. Each length came in at increments of $1,000 and ranged from $4,000 to $10,000; the board covered a length of $60,000 ($10,000 to $70,000). The rangefinder was then started up the scale, with the contestant pulling a lever when he/she thought it was covering the showcase value. If he/she was correct, he won the showcase. This is the only time this has been used on any incarnation of The Price Is Right.

[edit] Foreign versions

While many other versions of the showcase game follow the same rules as the US (often without a Double Showcase rule), some have different changes to their format:

On the UK TPiR (specifically during the Bruce Forsyth and Joe Pasquale eras), the player hits a plunger to stop a flashing light from going all over the board, locking in a range between £1,000 and £5,000 (Bruce Forsyth era) or £500 and £4,000 (Pasquale era). The player is given only one showcase to bid on, and if the bid falls into the range without going over, the player wins the showcase. This format has since carried over to other versions such as Cash en Carlo in the Netherlands, O Preço Certo (em Euros) in Portugal, El Precio Justo in Argentina, and Mitä Maksaa in Finland. The rare Bob Warman version also used this format, but the player chose their range at random from nine vouchers (believed to also be used on another Dutch version of TPiR-- Prijzenslag). Early episodes of Leslie Crowther's version also had a rule stating that the showcase winner could not take home the big prize (usually a car) if the guess wasn't within 35% of the total.

El Precio Justo in Spain and Le Juste Prix in France also used the same format as the UK version's showcase. However, since both shows were an hour-long (a la the US version), two players played instead of one (the top winner from the showcase showdown got to lock in the range). The current Spanish version with Juan y Medio uses this variation.

Australia's TPiR in 1973 used the same rules as the US version (at the time). However, when the show returned in 1981 on the Seven Network with Ian Turpie as host, the format changed drastically. Here, the top two winners were given one showcase and a $100 range to work with (i.e., if the showcase was worth $32,487, the range was $32,400-$32,500). With gameplay similar to the retired American pricing game Double Bullseye, the two players alternated back and forth guessing prices until one got the correct price. That player then arranged the items (seven, later eight) in the showcase in correct order, from cheapest to most expensive (usually a car was the most expensive). If all the items were in correct order, the player won the showcase. This format later carried over to Larry Emdur's two versions on the Nine Network (also believed to be used on another version with Ian Turpie that aired in 1989 on the Ten Network).

Germany's was only slightly different from the US (more similar to the UK's format), in which the two Showcase Showdown winners (or two Pricing Game winners, this version ran only 30 minutes per episode) only bid on one showcase and their bids had to come within DM5,000 to win it.

[edit] Biggest Winners

  • During Season 33, a contestant named Keisha Cloird became a double showcase winner with a difference of exactly $250, winning a total of $90,153, including a Pontiac Sunfire in One Away and a Chrysler 300 and a Chrysler Sebring Convertible in her showcase.
  • On the first episode of the show's 35th season on September 18, 2006, Vickyann Sadowski won both showcases ($239 away with a bid of $89,500) plus her pricing game to become the daytime show's current biggest winner ever. The two showcases were worth a total of $122,828, setting an all-time record for such a win on any version of the show. The winnings included three cars: a Dodge Viper, a Dodge Caravan, and a Saturn Sky Roadster. Her grand total for the show was $147,517 in cash and prizes. The showcases were large enough that even if she had lost her pricing game, Vickyann still would have broken the previous winnings record.
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