Professor Price

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Professor Price was a pricing game on the American television game show, The Price Is Right. Played on November 14, 1977 and November 21, 1977, it was played for a car.

[edit] Gameplay

Professor Price involved up to five questions asked of the contestant. In order to win the car, the contestant had to correctly answer three of the five questions. The centerpiece of Professor Price was an animatronic professor who nodded or shook his head to indicate whether an answer was right or wrong. He also kept score, with right answers on his upward-pointing right hand, and wrong answers on his downward-pointing left hand.

The first question was a general knowledge question with a numerical answer between zero and nine. After this question, the contestant was shown the last two digits in the price of the car. The second question was whether or not the answer to the first question was one of the first two digits in the car's price.

Question three was another trivia question, and question four, if needed, asked whether the answer was the remaining digit in the price of the car. The fifth question, if needed, was another trivia question.

The revelation or non-revelation of the car's price was inconsequential towards winning the game, and only served as part of the trivia questions.

[edit] History

Professor Price was created by then-Executive Producer Frank Wayne. [1]

After the game was retired, the "Professor Price" puppet made a few appearances throughout the remainder of the 1977–1978 season in prize displays. The prop later found its way into the hands of a collector, who sold it on eBay a few years ago billed under the name of "Mr. Wiggles."^{[citation needed]}

At the beginning of the game, Pomp and Circumstance played as the professor was introduced.

Professor Price is the only pricing game to ever maintain a perfect win-loss record, not including Double Bullseye - a two-player game which guaranteed a win in each playing.

[edit] Retirement

Professor Price was retired after only two playings, making it the shortest-lived pricing game in history. It is also the shortest-lived pricing game in terms of calendar days: only one week. The game was retired because it had little to do with The Price Is Right's core concept of pricing items; it was more of a trivia contest, and a contestant's chances of winning or losing depended on general knowledge.