Simple Questions & Answers Thread

[pricefan18]

No. And no.

I wonder if he was thinking of the unused sped up version of the theme recorded in 1983, why was that decided to be not used anyway at the time?

Also on a different subject, seeing Now and Then (or Now or Then now), pop up on the penultimate Christmas show just a little while ago, got me wondering....how were/are the Then years determined? Was/is any particular method or reasoning used?

[JayC]

That is a good question-- I can only think of a couple of times when they used a Then date for a specific reason: the Survivor primetime episode in 2016 where the Then date was when Survivor debuted and for Decades week when the Then date (and the two Then products I believe) were when the game debuted. Otherwise they're seemingly random. A follow up question: Has a Then date ever been repeated, or is it different every playing?

[MSTieScott]

Back around the end of Barker's run and season 36, the show kept cycling through the same three "then" dates. Then a TPIR employee came in and revamped the system used, creating a wider variety of dates. But it's expected that the dates will still sometimes repeat.

With rare exception (such as the examples mentioned above), the "then" date is simply chosen based on what would work well in that particular playing. The only times I remember a "then" date being chosen for a specific gameplay reason while I was there were when the game was played during Christmas week. Obviously, the "then" date needed to be from December -- it would make for a pretty easy game to determine whether any Christmas-themed groceries were from, say, June.

[pricefan18]

Back around the end of Barker's run and season 36, the show kept cycling through the same three "then" dates. Then a TPIR employee came in and revamped the system used, creating a wider variety of dates. But it's expected that the dates will still sometimes repeat.

With rare exception (such as the examples mentioned above), the "then" date is simply chosen based on what would work well in that particular playing. The only times I remember a "then" date being chosen for a specific gameplay reason while I was there were when the game was played during Christmas week. Obviously, the "then" date needed to be from December -- it would make for a pretty easy game to determine whether any Christmas-themed groceries were from, say, June.

This is kinda funny, considering I think the products in the game I saw last night, which was again from Christmas week, were from June of 1977. Interesting how practices woulda changed decades later.

And as to dates that worked well for the particular playing, I'd assume that to mean based on what products were used for the game (ie: making sure each product actually existed in the Then period)? That would make sense.

And while we're on that subject....with regards to the products, how difficult a task was it to scope out Then prices in the past? I imagine nowadays with the internet and all the job is much easier, but can see it being a challenge way back when. Would they have had some sort of master list based on what they used at the time to refer from? Or was there another way they'd have gone about it?

[Flerbert419]

Would they have had some sort of master list based on what they used at the time to refer from? Or was there another way they'd have gone about it?

From the FAQ - and I'm guessing this is what Scott is talking about as far as revamping the system:

"Many “then” prices these days are taken from old episodes of Price, but until the late '00s, Fingers found most of them by looking through old newspaper ads."

[pricefan18]

From the FAQ - and I'm guessing this is what Scott is talking about as far as revamping the system:

"Many “then” prices these days are taken from old episodes of Price, but until the late '00s, Fingers found most of them by looking through old newspaper ads."

Ah that would make sense, thank you.  Kinda amazing it took that long to revamp things, since using old episodes woulda been/would be much easier and less time consuming surely.

[Counterpoint]

Two random things I've always wondered...

How do they prevent the Safecrackers door from opening if the contestant gets it wrong and pulls?  (On the latest playing Drew said something like "there's no latch" or something like that.)

Are you allowed to play 3 X's in a vertical line on Secret X?  I know that would give you a 0% chance of winning if you didn't win all three X's, but I was just curious!

[TPIRfan#9821]

Of the top of my head, for Safe Crackers, there should be a rod that is removed if the contestant enters in the right combination, so if one gets the combination wrong, they have to fight against the rod. And no on Secret X; Bob explains it better when he spells out that a contestant can win three on the top, middle, bottom, or diagonal.

[DylanBe]

After watching Christine from this past Thursday almost think about what to do with the $10,000 she found on "Punch-a-Bunch", this got me wondering, has anybody ever given up $10,000 in hopes of finding the $25,000 card in the next hole(s)?

[Counterpoint]

Of the top of my head, for Safe Crackers, there should be a rod that is removed if the contestant enters in the right combination, so if one gets the combination wrong, they have to fight against the rod. And no on Secret X; Bob explains it better when he spells out that a contestant can win three on the top, middle, bottom, or diagonal.

Thanks!

[JhayPrice]

After watching Christine from this past Thursday almost think about what to do with the $10,000 she found on "Punch-a-Bunch", this got me wondering, has anybody ever given up $10,000 in hopes of finding the $25,000 card in the next hole(s)?

Well I only remember one instance like that, but it's within the $10K era that happened in 1996 with epic gambler Bryan returning the $5,000 slip, only to discover he'd won the $10,000.

[pricefan18]

Here's a good little question for those who may possibly know. I got to wondering looking at the one from 1984 a moment ago, back when they did the occasional half hour episodes in Bake-Off years after going to an hour on a permanent basis and prior to that when they had a Magazine show running in the other half hour, did they tape 2 episodes using the same audience to compensate for this, similar to how The New Price is Right in 1994 would tape 3 to account for the fact that there were only 3 contestants picked per show with no IUFBs? Or were the half hour shows treated the same way as the regular hour ones despite the smaller chance of being picked if you attended it?

[Disneyfreak]

I'M Curious, does anyone know if someone who isn't eligible to be a contestant and doesn't appear on stage still receives consolation prizes? 

[blozier2006]

I'M Curious, does anyone know if someone who isn't eligible to be a contestant and doesn't appear on stage still receives consolation prizes?

Why would they? If they weren't eligible, they likely wouldn't get called down to Contestant's Row to begin with (and certainly wouldn't now, with the "no audience" setup they've got these days).

[pricefan18]

Why would they? If they weren't eligible, they likely wouldn't get called down to Contestant's Row to begin with (and certainly wouldn't now, with the "no audience" setup they've got these days).

He's meaning if they made it to CR and were found to be ineligible. I imagine same rules would apply though to those as it has to any who did get on stage, but that's only a guess.