Author Topic: New Price Is Right 1972 sales demo  (Read 12066 times)

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Online Ccook

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New Price Is Right 1972 sales demo
« on: May 17, 2006, 02:12:45 PM »
This unusual recap will entail the film that Goodson-Todman prepared for stations for The New Price Is Right, explaining how it will be different from the Bill Cullen edition. It was filmed on February 11, 1972.

It opens with Mark Goodson at a board meeting table, as he introduces himself. He tells that Price will be available for once-a-week syndication. He says the show will have the classic base Price was known for while building a base of variations around that premise. He also tells that the host will play a special role for his experience in game shows and contestant relations, Dennis James.

Dennis comes out and compliments the Goodson-Todman staff for making top notch shows and he is proud to be a part of The Price Is Right. He runs down how Price originally played (erroneously pointing out that there were only three players) and says that the premise will be a springboard for who ever bids best to play another game for bigger prizes. He demonstrates two games on two small propped-up boards that Mark plays as a contestant:

The first game has the price of a 26-ft. boat, four prize cards with the prices hidden, and a price card that reads $3278. The price of the boat is $2658. The object is to pick one of the four prize cards whose value added to the price of the boat equals $3278 total. Select correctly and you win the boat and whichever prize you select. Incorrect and you only get the selected prize. This game actually went unplayed (if it did get played, it was edited).

The second game had three items--an 8mm movie camera, a 21-in. color TV and a Ford Mustang. Each prize has its price jumbled--the camera has a 9 and a 7, the TV has a 9, 4 and 5; and the Mustang has a 7, 2, 5, and 3. The object is to place the numbers in their correct order. The player can stop after making each item correct but risks it if any of the others are wrong. Mark priced the camera at $97 and was correct. He priced the TV at $549 and was right as well. He priced the car at $2375 and was right again.

One element that was bantered about is to have the two top players have their children bid on five items, with the best bidder winning his/her parent a big prize, like a kitchen ensemble. To show how Dennis is capable in his role as an emcee, a kinescope of him substituting for Monty Hall on Let's Make A Deal was shown, with the contest involving a pricing game for a car. Dennis chose a couple dressed as a baker and his wife and the car they played for was a Plymouth Satellite Sebring worth $3614.59. The couple had to arrange five items from least expensive to most expensive. The items:
* - a Motorola 8-track tape player for travel
* - a General Electric upright vacuum
* - a 10-lb. hickory-smoked ham from Rath
* - a Sears 12-speed mixer/meat grinder
* - a Samsonite ladies' beauty case.

How the couple did:
First choice--the ham, which was $10.75. Dennis told the couple that he'll give them $100 to bail out now in case they were wrong down the line. They went on.

Second choice--the beauty case, which was $43. Dennis now offered them $200 to quit. The audience was split on what they should do, and the pair went on.

Third choice--the mixer/grinder, which was $54.95. Dennis' offer is now $300. They went on.

Fourth choice--the vacuum, but unfortunately it was $47.95, so the game ended there. The stereo was $59.95. As a consolation, Dennis gave the couple the five items.

The film ends with Goodson assuring stations that The New Price Is Right is guaranteed to be a hit come the fall of 1972.
"No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately."
--Michel de Montaigne

Offline Briguy

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Re: New Price Is Right 1972 sales demo
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2006, 02:56:41 PM »
What a find! Great detail of a sales demo we don't get to hear about every day.

The game where the contestant had to correctly order the digits in a price from a jumble sounds exactly like 10 Chances. Good thing they threw in the extra digit in to make it more challenging; but even though this playing was a piece of cake, the concept was there.

Interesting, too, that based on the first-season recaps I've seen so far, there were no Ford Motor Co. automobiles played for early in the series. I wonder when the earliest they played for a car other than a Chevrolet or foreign make (as TPiR also gave away Volkswagens, Hondas and Mazdas).

Same with the game that went unplayed (or was edited out) for a boat — just like Take Two, only one of the prizes is given and the challenge is to find the one prize whose price added up to a given sum. Hope Goodson won the game if played.

Interesting how they added in the kineoscope from LMaD, which had TPiR-type pricing games of its own (such as the one where they ordered prizes in ascending order of price to win a grand prize).

I didn't catch whether they planned to air the pitch film on TV or release to home video.

Brian Rathjen

Online Ccook

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Re: New Price Is Right 1972 sales demo
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2006, 04:08:34 PM »
Shokus Video has it on a two-disc set of game show pilots (many never making it past the pilot stage), but it was on a special circular to select past customers. Lucky for me, I'm a select customer so I wasted no time in ordering it.
"No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately."
--Michel de Montaigne

Offline OldPrice75

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Re: New Price Is Right 1972 sales demo
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2006, 07:57:50 PM »
Very cool, Ccook.  The show sure evolved in the next 7 months!  It didn't mention anything about Bob, did it?

Online Ccook

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Re: New Price Is Right 1972 sales demo
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2006, 08:03:48 PM »
Nope, because it was originally intended to air just once a week at night during the then-imposed "prime time access" periods, which in many areas was 7:30 PM. The thought of putting on daytime on CBS came at almost the last minute, and that's when they presumably tapped Bob to host it.

Bob said he was admittedly nervous about the first show, and he met with original host Bill Cullen who merely told Bob to "have fun with it." The rest, as they say, is history.
"No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately."
--Michel de Montaigne

Offline OldPrice75

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Re: New Price Is Right 1972 sales demo
« Reply #5 on: May 17, 2006, 08:24:50 PM »
Bill gives pretty good advice.  :-)

Offline Forrest20

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Re: New Price Is Right 1972 sales demo
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2006, 09:56:39 PM »
Wow!  Incredible stuff Ccook!  

Interesting story about how the daytime version came about also, I never knew it was a last minute deal to do.

Online Ccook

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Re: New Price Is Right 1972 sales demo
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2006, 01:02:12 PM »
Yep. In fact, the first daytime show was taped about two weeks before it premiered.
"No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately."
--Michel de Montaigne