I got an e-mail this afternoon about the first 19 episodes (or in a way, the first 20 episodes) of The New Price Is Right. The person who sent it asked me not to identify him, but he's somebody you guys all know, and if you did know who it was, you'd trust him. (And no, it's not Sally or Roger.) All of this is going in the FAQ, but pretty much everything here is totally new to all of us, so I think it also merits a new thread.
Here we go!
First, the big shocker. We now know why the third episode's production number is #0013D(R): it isn't the original third episode. After episode #0013D was taped, the staff discovered that they'd called an ineligible contestant on it. It was never aired, and episode #0013D(R) was created to replace it. The two episodes apparently aren't very similar -- the original episode's pricing games are Any Number, Bonus Game, and Double Prices, and all of its prizes are different.
Incidentally, although I can't say anything about this for certain, CBS apparently has paperwork for all of the contestants on episode #0013D, so our friend thinks that the eligible ones probably received their prizes.
We've always known that the first week's episodes were taped out of order; in fact, we now know that that order was 1, original 3, 4, 2, 5, and then replacement 3 as the second taping of the second week (the first taping was episode 7). What we didn't know was that they were also aired in a different wrong order -- 1, 5, 2, 4, 3.
The first four contestants who played Grocery Game received supplies of all five products in the game. The amounts awarded varied, but they always totalled at least $100, and they counted toward the contestant's winnings.
Clock Game debuted on September 11, on the sixth episode. There's already a thread about that, but I'm saying it again here for the sake of completion. I'd also like to credit OldPrice75 for noticing that on the game's earliest playings, it appears that only the top half of the Clock Game board existed and that it was somehow attached to the front of Bullseye.
The 2-player version of Bullseye, which I had previously stated was named "2-Player Bullseye", is now definitively confirmed to be named Double Bullseye. It debuted on September 19, on the 12th episode. I can also confirm that the playing of Double Bullseye that reran on GSN was not its debut; the first playing offered a $2,494 Chevy Vega and ended after six guesses. (Our friend also pointed out to me the irony of the game that was created to replace the impossible-to-win Bullseye ending in less guesses than the maximum number Bullseye had allowed.)
As an aside, I love the name "Double Bullseye." It kicks the butts of all of the game's unofficial names.
Finally, Five Price Tags debuted one week after Double Bullseye -- the 17th episode, on September 26.
That's all I've got for now. Be sure to keep an eye on this thread -- there's a very good chance we'll be getting more information about 1972 over the next several days!
And to...well, you know who you are: Thank you.
