November 26 marks the 60th anniversary of a landmark game show that would be the genesis of a long running classic revival that's still on the air today, The Price is Right.
The Price is Right was the creation of a producer who was hired by packagers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman to develop new shows, Bob Stewart. He would also create the original To Tell the Truth and Password, which would also be landmark shows.
The show was hosted by Bill Cullen, who was also a panelist on another Goodson-Todman hit show I've Got a Secret and the announcer was NBC staff voice Don Pardo, who was best known for the phrases "It could be yours if the price is right" and when mentioning the name of the company of the prize, he would say "Price authority..."
The game was a lot different from what viewers see today on CBS. In the original version, four contestants sat behind tote machines (manufactured by the American Totalizer Company) and made their bid on the featured item. After the first round of bidding, a contestant could bid or freeze. That led to the studio audience shouting "Higher! Lower! Freeze!" After the bids were in the price was revealed and the contestant who came the closest without going over would win the item. If all the contestants overbid, nobody won the prize.
Frequently, a bell would ring after a contestant won a prize that indicated that he/she won a bonus prize. The bonuses came from Stewart's imagination and they included a ferris wheel, a live peacock to go with a color TV, bit parts in TV shows and a mile of hot dogs. One bonus prize was an elephant and it inspired a Simpsons episode when Bart won an elephant in a radio contest.
Several rounds of bidding continued and the contestant who won the most in prizes would return on the next show as champion. Home viewers would also get a chance to send in their bids on showcases with the post card that comes close to the total price of the showcase without going over would be the winner.
The Price is Right was a hit in daytime for NBC and it would also be popular in prime time. It was a premise that home viewers could identify with and that was shopping that enabled them to play along. But in 1963, the ratings began to slip and the network cancelled the show. But lo and behold, the show would return without interruption as ABC picked up the show and aired it in daytime as well as prime time.
When the show moved to ABC, a couple of changes took place. The first was a celebrity guest who played for a home viewer or a member of the studio audience. Second, because Pardo was under contract to NBC, he couldn't continue as announcer so the producers needed to replace him and they did with Johnny Gilbert. Gilbert also served as a substitute host for Cullen on June 19, 1964.
It was also in 1964 that Stewart would leave Goodson-Todman to start his own production company. It would also be a shark jump for the show as it lost its creative force. But by the middle of 1965, the show had run its course and on September 3, 1965, The Price is Right was cancelled by ABC. It would be replaced by a talk show titled The Young Set that would last only 15 weeks before giving way to two new game shows, Supermarket Sweep and the first from Chuck Barris that would be a hit The Dating Game.
In the aftermath of The Price is Right's cancellation, Stewart would hire Cullen to host his first game show Eye Guess that debuted on January 3, 1966. Pardo would go on to announce other shows on NBC, including the original Jeopardy with Art Fleming and a show that would become his longest running stint Saturday Night Live. Gilbert would go on to announce many game shows and his voice is still heard today at the age of 92 on the current version of Jeopardy with Alex Trebek.
As for The Price is Right, it would return to television after seven years on September 4, 1972 in a totally overhauled version after Goodson felt the old format was no longer viable. It would become television's longest running game show that was first hosted by Bob Barker and now under the guidance of Drew Carey that still draws high ratings to this day. But 60 years ago, The original Price is Right would be the birth of a game show classic.
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