The Price is Right: The Barker Era on Pluto TV

[UltraPrice]

From February 1984 until June 1987, there a lot of dates in that time period with unknown Pricing Game slotting.  It will be nice to have the correct slotting for all those dates when the time comes

[pricefan18]

Of course, the combination of sponsorship obligations, pricing game running times, show’s budget, and type of prize being offered means that same games come up more often than others, and I think that has a lot to do with it in the episodes we’ve seen so far.  Three Strikes and Take Two sure have shown up a lot more then than they do now. 
JBK

3 Strikes makes total sense, given it wasn't for luxury cars at this time. When did Hole in One switch to regular cars? They weren't luxury anymore by this point were they? I say that because it's been played a few times already too within first 18 shows aired, and this was still the 1 putt era for it vs. 2.

[pricefan18]

Hope this is okay here since it's not channel related specifically, and he has his own thread in OILF troo, but since Hurdles was mentioned earlier, thought it was worth mentioned. In honor of the launch of the channel, Wink Martindale posted a playing of it from October 1980 on his YouTube channel. Also, in addition, check out the legs on the models! Pretty hot stuff lol, watch for what would turn out to be a rather ironic comment from Bob too on that.

[MSTieScott]

Owning an aquarium doesn't require needlessly killing animals, as is the case with fur coats, so I can see why Bob wouldn't have cared about those as much at first...

I don't remember where I heard this, so don't take my word as gospel, but the story I recall hearing was that when it was time for an aquarium to go back to storage in the prize warehouse, the crew would empty it by dumping it into the drain, fish and all. When Bob found out about that, he said no more aquariums as prizes.

Also, is it me, or did they not turn it all the way around for games often back then? Maybe it's the angle of the camera shot (creativity that again stands out a lot here relative to later years), but the games seemed to be set-up a little crooked many times when they stopped turning it, that'd be the best word I could use.

Back in the day, there was a switch on the turntable controls that allowed it to stop in one of two places: perfectly "flat" for pricing games and slightly "off-center" for One Bids (so the prize wasn't at such a steep angle compared to the camera shooting it). I haven't had time to watch much of the Pluto channel yet (much to my frustration), so I don't know if the angles match, but perhaps they were using the One Bid setting for pricing games for some reason?

[pricefan18]

I don't remember where I heard this, so don't take my word as gospel, but the story I recall hearing was that when it was time for an aquarium to go back to storage in the prize warehouse, the crew would empty it by dumping it into the drain, fish and all. When Bob found out about that, he said no more aquariums as prizes.

Wow that's terrible if true...as much as I don't like some of Bob's off camera actions/general attitude, I couldn't blame him a bit for reacting like that to this. Was the upkeep that bad otherwise? No other method to switch it out better?

Back in the day, there was a switch on the turntable controls that allowed it to stop in one of two places: perfectly "flat" for pricing games and slightly "off-center" for One Bids (so the prize wasn't at such a steep angle compared to the camera shooting it). I haven't had time to watch much of the Pluto channel yet (much to my frustration), so I don't know if the angles match, but perhaps they were using the One Bid setting for pricing games for some reason?

That seems about right, and thanks for that explanation, that makes lot of sense. Would that button still exist/be in use even today that you know of? Even with the new tech/designs since then? Or something similar if not?

[pricefan18]

If anyone cares, I did the math, and Season's 11 through 14 (aka the final season Johnny Olson would appear on and the season Rod would replace him), amount to a total of 788 episodes. Going by 30 aired a week, and then taking away 6 this week since they launched on Tuesday and only are airing 24 this week as a result before the weekend repeats, it will be roughly the 3rd week of June assuming nothing is skipped from now to then and they continue to go straight through with no deviation, to get to Season 15 and the beginning of Rod's era proper as far as his first full season with the show. So will take a 6 and a half month period to go through the end of Johnny's era and the transition to Rod's.

If they don't air the Season 11 premiere week for whatever reason, they'll end up reaching the Season 15 premiere the Tuesday of that 3rd week, and if they do decide to, it'll be on the Wednesday that they do instead.

[actual_retail_tice]

Last couple of Range Game playings I've seen, the rangefinder has looked crooked. In the current show, they actually had a bit of trouble with it.

[actual_retail_tice]

The episode circulating today with Golden Road has a notable paying of 3 Strikes...it will be on again at 1pm, I think.

[SeaBreeze341]

The episode circulating today with Golden Road has a notable paying of 3 Strikes...it will be on again at 1pm, I think.

I might be a rare occasion these days, if at all but having Golden Road & 3 Strikes on the same show is just one of those things that you didn't think twice of back in the day but one could do a double take given what the latter has become.

IIRC, 3 Strikes + was a year or two away so even with it, you'd see both within the same set of games; I don't know if they ever had both within the same half before 1994

[GRWHAMMY the 2nd]

on one of today's shows, a Flokati Rug makes a rare pre Press Your Luck appearance... which makes me wonder what other shows had it as a prize

[jhc2010]

Is there a set rotation the channel has settled on? The first day's schedule was posted in this thread and it was not exactly straightforward. Is the channel going in order of production number? Have any episodes been skipped thus far?

[pricefan18]

Is there a set rotation the channel has settled on? The first day's schedule was posted in this thread and it was not exactly straightforward. Is the channel going in order of production number? Have any episodes been skipped thus far?

Yes, they do 6 at a time, 4 times a day beginning at 6am EST, and have gone in order from Week 2 since Wednesday (rotating back in a few shows they first ran Monday as part of doing that), skipping Week 1 for whatever reason, still unsure why that is or if they'll air it during this run of things. They said on YouTube they'd check and see if the Premiere was in their programming schedule, but I'd not hold my breath to see it honestly at least not now, or the rest of the week either. Time will tell though.

[actual_retail_tice]

I really suspect that there was some kind of breakdown in Range Game that necessitated some prizes being switched around in #4623. Why?:

1) Grocery Game is played for a backgammon table. Bob says "We had one of those on the show just the other day", or words to that effect, which gets laughs from the audience.

2) In previous episodes, Range Game had been having problems, including "getting jammed" mid-game.

3) Earlier in the show, a living room is presented for Range Game, to which Bob cryptically comments "That has everything in it but a pinochle table.", which gets inexplicable laughter from the audience. (Yes, he gets the game wrong.)

4) Bob makes some comments during his explanation of the game that also bring laughs from the audience "That rangefinder will start moving slowly up the scale...we hope..." and later "Well, you already know all this." (to the contestant) All the laughter makes me think the rangefinder didn't work the first time through and they had to replay it.

5) If you think about it, a living room is kind of an odd prize for Range Game because it's typically played in the fee games (like Grocery), and likewise, a backgammon table is not typical for Grocery.

6) The show ends with an "edited for broadcast" disclaimer.

So, my ears perked up back when Bob made the pinochle table remark just because it was a very odd thing to say. His comments for the rest of the game and Grocery got me wondering more. Does anyone else think they swapped those games' prizes?

The only hole in my conspiracy theory here is...why would the rangefinder not moving necessitate a prize change? Unless the price got revealed for some reason, they could just replay for the original prize once they got the rangefinder moving again.

THe episode airs again at 4pm EST, I believe, if you want to check it out and comment.

[pricefan18]

I really suspect that there was some kind of breakdown in Range Game that necessitated some prizes being switched around in #4623. Why?:

1) Grocery Game is played for a backgammon table. Bob says "We had one of those on the show just the other day", or words to that effect, which gets laughs from the audience.

2) In previous episodes, Range Game had been having problems, including "getting jammed" mid-game.

3) Earlier in the show, a living room is presented for Range Game, to which Bob cryptically comments "That has everything in it but a pinochle table.", which gets inexplicable laughter from the audience. (Yes, he gets the game wrong.)

4) Bob makes some comments during his explanation of the game that also bring laughs from the audience "That rangefinder will start moving slowly up the scale...we hope..." and later "Well, you already know all this." (to the contestant) All the laughter makes me think the rangefinder didn't work the first time through and they had to replay it.

5) If you think about it, a living room is kind of an odd prize for Range Game because it's typically played in the fee games (like Grocery), and likewise, a backgammon table is not typical for Grocery.

6) The show ends with an "edited for broadcast" disclaimer.

So, my ears perked up back when Bob made the pinochle table remark just because it was a very odd thing to say. His comments for the rest of the game and Grocery got me wondering more. Does anyone else think they swapped those games' prizes?

The only hole in my conspiracy theory here is...why would the rangefinder not moving necessitate a prize change? Unless the price got revealed for some reason, they could just replay for the original prize once they got the rangefinder moving again.

THe episode airs again at 4pm EST, I believe, if you want to check it out and comment.

Sounds like it was an odd episode all around (I only caught last 20 minutes of it now), between all this and the $35,000 bid (had to be the highest one ever made by far at this point) in the Showcase. Couldn't quite believe that when I heard it.

[Ton80]

I had forgotten just how bad the original ferris wheel version of Pick-a-Pair was.  Wow it's tough to watch today!!