Simple Questions & Answers Thread

[Timotheus]

What counts as a win for Super Ball? Did they have to win all three prizes or was just the prize for Ball 3 enough to count it as a win, since it was the highest value and sometimes a car?

According to the FAQ's General Questions section:

The show’s official defintion of “winning” is as follows: a car game is won if the car is won; a cash game is won if the big prize announced at the beginning of the game is won (this means that Plinko has never been won); any other game is won if all of the main prizes being played for are won.

However, there are many cases in which you can not win a game but not really lose it, either; for instance, winning $8,000 in It’s in the Bag, winning only one or two prizes in Race Game, or winning the 3-digit prize in Any Number. The show recognizes these as “partial wins;” just as Bob or Drew will not declare a perfect show if there are five wins and $41,000 given away in Plinko, they will not declare them skunked if there are five losses and $100 given away in Plinko. Also, because it seems so goofy to say that Plinko has never been won, a lot of people consider it a “win” if the center slot is hit at least once. For an episode to truly be “winless,” nothing can be won in any of the pricing games beyond small prizes (a la Cliff Hangers or Switcheroo), insignificant amounts of cash in certain games, and the first prize in Ten Chances. The next entry in this section gives a more detailed description of partial wins.

In addition to this, Super Ball!! and Walk of Fame sometimes blurred the above distinctions between types of games; they weren’t car games, but in each game, the final prize was a car sometimes. Under these circumstances, the games’ normal requirements prevailed, meaning that it was possible to win a car in your pricing game and still technically not win the game.

[pricefan18]

According to the FAQ's General Questions section:

$100 in Plinko isn't seen as an insignificant amount of cash as to the definition of a winless show? I see that as quite interesting. I'd have guessed the line woulda been like $500 or maybe even $1,000, but not $100 since that's besides 0 it's the bare minimum you could win in a playing.

[SteveGavazzi]

$100 in Plinko isn't seen as an insignificant amount of cash as to the definition of a winless show? I see that as quite interesting. I'd have guessed the line woulda been like $500 or maybe even $1,000, but not $100 since that's besides 0 it's the bare minimum you could win in a playing.

It varies from game to game, really.  Every game has some circumstance that counts as a full loss, even if it doesn't actually mean the contestant didn't win anything.

[gamesurf]

$100 in Plinko isn't seen as an insignificant amount of cash as to the definition of a winless show? I see that as quite interesting. I'd have guessed the line woulda been like $500 or maybe even $1,000, but not $100 since that's besides 0 it's the bare minimum you could win in a playing.

Gotta draw the line somewhere.

The official definitions of "win" and "loss" in edge cases are limited to exactly those--"official" definitions. I doubt they're used for anything besides internal record keeping. The guy who wins $1,000 playing Plinko doesn't care whether the show marks him down as a "partial win" or a "loss", he cares that he got to play Plinko and won $1,000.

Speaking of which:

The show’s official defintion of “winning” is as follows: a car game is won if the car is won; a cash game is won if the big prize announced at the beginning of the game is won (this means that Plinko has never been won); any other game is won if all of the main prizes being played for are won.

Do we even know for sure if the show is still using this as their rule for their official records? This may have been true when Roger/Scott were in charge of the records, but it's totally possible over the last decade the show's official records have switched to tracking (or not tracking) "partial wins" using a completely different metric.

[RatRace10]

In a playing of Any Number on Pluto TV today, Bob remarked that the contestant became close to becoming the first contestant to not light up any numbers in the car price before ending the game with the smaller prize or piggy bank. Has this ever happened since then?

[pricefan18]

In a playing of Any Number on Pluto TV today, Bob remarked that the contestant became close to becoming the first contestant to not light up any numbers in the car price before ending the game with the smaller prize or piggy bank. Has this ever happened since then?

Considering this was 1982 or 1983 depending where they were in the cycle when it aired today, not only do I imagine it has since then, I bet it happened before then too given it was the 1st game played on the show ever 10 years before. Remember the Game Show Network promo about Bob's "erring" memory around historical moments even back in this era?

[TPIRfan#9821]

^I was going to bring up the most recent Any Number wipeout, 10/15/2012, but Any Number was the car game for a long time, so I'd guess that's factually wrong as well.

around the 34:30 mark.

[pricefan18]

^I was going to bring up the most recent Any Number wipeout, 10/15/2012, but Any Number was the car game for a long time, so I'd guess that's factually wrong as well.

Yeah I can't imagine it could be accurate 11 seasons in, considering the frequency in which it woulda been played, particularly in those early years with so few other games yet.

[RatRace10]

Has anyone ever wiped out Punch-a-Bunch? As in, got all four SPs wrong and failed to earn a single punch?

[blozier2006]

Has anyone ever wiped out Punch-a-Bunch? As in, got all four SPs wrong and failed to earn a single punch?

Supposedly happened once, back in Season 7 (the same season the game debuted).

[JhayPrice]

Has there been a Stack the Deck win, even with a GP pricing wipeout in Bob's era?

[TPIRfan#9821]

I believe you're asking if anyone's ever won by nailing the price exactly with no help, and the answer is no.

(Also worth noting is that STD was played 19 times in its debut season... and 14 of them had all three GPs won. There was only one case of getting one free digit, and one case of a GP wipeout)

[pricefan18]

Seeing the 4th of July episode (the first one really of its' kind in Price's history, as far as a themed show specifically to that date complete with set decor), from Season 36 posted tonight...I am wondering.....why was this never a regular thing in Barker's era? Did Bob just not want to do them, did the staff not....or what? I know the date itself would fall in the Summer Rerun period but...even as a one off it would seem to make sense to make it the annual thing its' become in the Carey era akin to the Christmas themed shows each year (or every other at least).

[JayC]

Early in the Barker era there would be new episodes into the summer and even until just prior to the start of the new season but I believe once they began ending the season in June it would be only reruns until the season premiere in September. except for previously preempted episodes that were held over to after the end of the season. It might've just been they weren't able to tape an additional episode to air for the 4th because of how the episode order from CBS went. It would also depend on what programming CBS had on for the 4th that would've prevented a new episode of Price from airing.

[actpir]

When the first four contestants are called down (pre-COVID with an audience present), do they have to stand at the podiums based on the order they were called (first called goes to red, second called blue, third called yellow, fourth called green)?

Or, do they just go to whatever podium they want to when running down to the podiums?

- actpir