The Price is Right: The Barker Era on Pluto TV

[pricefan18]

EDIT: Disregard this......6AM episode may be new......

[The Big Wheel]

People involved with the current iteration of the show ought to watch these early 1980s episodes. They serve as a reminder of the program’s high production values and excellent direction and camerawork.

Couldn't agree more and it's so good to see these shows again. It's truly a reminder of the quality the show should still be today. I catch clips of the current run of the show every now and then but I've never watched a full episode since Bob retired.

These shows are what the older members of this site (and former incarnations of this site) grew up watching. I started watching the show then regularly in Season 7.

[tpirfan28]

FYI if there is not a skip the 9AM show will lead off with Super Ball.

[UltraPrice]

Is it airing new episodes right now?

[SamJ93]

Looks like #4601D is airing right now, so it would appear so.

[Mr. Weatherman]

It will never happen for a number of reasons (royalties, advertiser agreements, tracking down master tapes, etc.), but how cool would it be if Pluto could air some of the old commercials that would have aired alongside Price back in the day?  Even if it’s just existing Pluto TV advertisers who agree to have their old ads shown for nostalgia’s sake, it would be so neat to see. 

I’m asking way too much here.

[PunchABunchFan]

I've only seen a few of these, and was too young to watch these first-run, but one thing that is surprising me is how much the turntable was used during the showcases compared to now.

[pannoni1]

We're up to 4602D now, also new to Pluto. For those who don't know, an episode highlighted in gray on the tpirstats.com calendars like this one indicates that the games listed are not confirmed to be in order as shown. In fact, every game listed as of this post is out of order from what was actually played. 

[mellongraig]

And they are back to 4592D so we're going to get this batch of 4592D to 4602D until the next morning.

[pannoni1]

For those who like to follow the cars and their prices of this era and maybe play along better, I'd highly recommend this resource: https://archive.org/details/carsconsumerguid00cons

In addition to providing a standard profile of all the cars seen for the 1983 model year, it also provides the prices for the various body styles, trims, and for many vehicles, even a list of the options. You'll see that although there were some packages offered, most of the options were available individually. Many cars have well over a page of options with their prices provided.

[actual_retail_tice]

The quick guide to car prices at that time:

$10,000+ cars were pretty nice and out of the ordinary except in Hole in One or Golden Road. Usually convertibles, full-size sedans or nicely-outfitted trucks.

$8,000-$9,000: Nicer than ordinary but not really luxury cars, either. Jeeps, cheaper "sports" (not really) cars  and mid-size sedans, usually.

$7,000: The typical car price range in 1982. Everyday compact cars in the decent range with some options.

$6,000: The cheaper small cars; subcompacts like the Chevette.

By this point, I´m not sure that they played games for cars under $6,000. I haven´t seen one. It was a given by this time that the first number in Dice Game would be 6, at least until the Deluxe version entered the scene.

Interestingly, showcases at this time could go much lower, with $5,000 showcases not being uncommon; occasionally they even dipped into the $4,000s.

[pricefan18]

This is just a hypothetical thing, but am curious what you all would think about this. In show 4594D that just aired again, the runner-up in the Showcase Round Yvonne, was found to be ineligible after the show. Now as it was, she didn't end up winning her showcase, but she came within about $90 of doing so, so she almost did. If she had......what do you think the production staff woulda done? Do you think it's possible they may have scrapped the show and replaced it with another? I don't know that they'd want to air something, in which the big winner of the day ended up not being an eligible contestant after the fact. It wouldn't have been the greatest look. What's your guys' take?

[Nick]

Well, I guess I'll just have to sit outside on the sidelines up here in Canada (Seriously, why is geofencing still a thing, especially when they're making their YouTube clips available outside the U.S.?  No, I'm not going to backdoor it.  That would be illegal.).  Perhaps they'll reconsider at some point, but regardless, but the fact is it is extremely impressive to see these reruns happening in Barker's lifetime.  Sure, let's hope someday even more common sense prevails that we'll get to see shows from the first ten seasons, nighttime shows and episodes on demand (not sure what the sense is in a 24-hour channel with the same episodes cycling over and over, which will probably still be the case even when they have more episodes digitized).  For now, this move is long overdue and much appreciated.

It's great to see so much of the "old guard" around here trotting out in excitement, and now that we will be inundated with steady access to crisp quality copies of episodes from the show's glory years, it really makes no sense to me how anybody can look at the show now compared to then and still say it's good.

Look at the bright and vibrant colours of the set.  Doesn't it look much more pleasing to the eye than a set the looks dead if it's not plugged in?  The reactions out of the contestants are a hundred percent genuine.  No coaching, no staging.  It's live theatre in action.  The directing is stunning.  Breslow knew closeup shots of contestants faces make for the best way to deliver excitement on screen (He also knew to keep these shots instead of just panning around the audience).  The contestants have brains and know how to bid quickly.  The audience knows when to keep hush and what times call for a cheer.

I could go on, but I would say I have made the point clear.  This was The Price Is Right.  This was The Price Is Right in its prime, and this is what The Price Is Right is meant to be.  There is no reason why the show cannot be this great today.  Seeing as the powers that be wish to maintain this "different direction", we (most of us anyway) are at least at long last able to enjoy the best of "television's most exciting hour of fantastic prizes".

[Spmahn]

Do you think it's possible they may have scrapped the show and replaced it with another? I don't know that they'd want to air something, in which the big winner of the day ended up not being an eligible contestant after the fact. It wouldn't have been the greatest look. What's your guys' take?

I’m guessing they would have just aired it as is with a disclaimer, it would be too expensive to just toss an entire episode. Is it known what happened that created this situation? I assume the contestant was related to someone at CBS or Goodson Toddman and wasn’t up front about it?

[therealcu2010]

It's great to see so much of the "old guard" around here trotting out in excitement, and now that we will be inundated with steady access to crisp quality copies of episodes from the show's glory years, it really makes no sense to me how anybody can look at the show now compared to then and still say it's good.

Because tastes evolve over the years. These shows from the 80s are Price in their prime, yes... but that was the 1980s. This is 2020. Times change. Technology changes. The host has changed, and has made the show his own. The show is still the highest-rated show in network daytime, so clearly people still enjoy the show.

Also, I find the set more vibrant and colorful today... watching these retro episodes in upconverted HD, that set clearly hasn't aged well. Not only do a lot of the props look rough (many of which looked equally if not even more rough when the show actually went to HD in 2008), but the set actually looks so much darker with all that black space around the doors and turntable, and the relatively bland color scheme of everything else makes the whole thing look dull. Granted, the set today has many issues- mostly that everything clashes with one another and it has little coherent identity- but overall is much more pleasing to look at in 1080p HD in the year 2020.