What is a good lineup.

[namnhu12]

I know that we have done a topic in the past, but we have not done this recently.  If you had Chris Donnan’s job (game producer), what would be a good lineup for you?  Be creative.  With 80 games (including Magic # and Pay the Rent), the sky’s the limit.

Nam’s dream lineup:

1) Clock Game
2) Temptation
3) Grocery Game
4) Race Game
5) Shell Game
6) Lucky 7

For today’s restrictions:

1) Easy As 1-2-3
2) Spelling Bee
3) Double Prices
4) Safe Crackers
5) Hi Lo
6) Money Game

Now, let’s see what you can come with.

[SeaBreeze341]

I don't have a dream lineup, at least this second.  Several of my "dream' lineups were actually dream-come-true lineups.  To be clear, those were legit line ups, and not something that violates an "unwritten rule".  To be more specific, episodes featuring Hole In One/Hit Me or Trader Bob/Superball weren't realistic.  Barring specials, and a lot of other reasons, the expectation of two SP/GP PGs in one show was slim to none.

It's rather tough to have an outright dream line up, since there is at least someone that holds one of 112 games as his or her favorite.  That, and with over 100 games in over a half century, there are several options, but only a half dozen is the ceiling.

Not to sound old, but I wasn't a big fan of the move to have fee games fourth, and later car games.  It's not a big deal for the most part unless something like Pass the Buck or Master Key shows up there.  I guess I'm a fan of "balance" where there are two car games in each half, one GP in one half, and one SP in the other half.  While times have changed, for me it felt like it was too much to have a cash game, car game, fee game right after the first SCSD.  Which was technically the final segment of the first half hour.  Just a me problem, but I prefer excitement during the 5th & 6th acts.

At the end of the day, there are a lot of people that are much better than yours truly in terms of what makes an elite lineup.  To be fair, as long as the show is exciting & the contestants are great and exciting, that's what matters the most.  While winning is decent, if it doesn't work out, so be it.  As long as you're having fun & there's effort.

I will admit that seeing something like Golden Road & Triple Play sixth is awesome, but only just for the sake of it.  Other than that, I'd prefer those 2 to be in the first act.  The flow is important I think.

I apologize if the following is an issue, but I admired the work here from Mallory as it relates to lineups.  It's been a minute, but I thought this was pretty neat!

[Nick]

The best lineup ever is:

Triple Play
Half Off
Eazy az 1 2 3
Double Prices
One Away
Bullseye

Especially on a Friday.

OK, jokes aside, before I submit a list, do we have a compilation of the official timings for all the games?  The only list I can remember seeing would be so out of date now, and what was the total time to play with before, 28 minutes?  I'm sure it's much shorter now, but if I'm going to put together a list, I'd want the timings so I can have some realism to it.

[whowouldeverhurtawhammy]

If you ask me, a good line up has to have the right balance of cars and cash.

Here's my impression of such a lineup:

1. Any Number
2. Plinko
3. Lucky $even
4. Spelling Bee
5. Pay the Rent
6. It's In The Bag OR Hot Seat

Then again, it would take an anniversary show for such a lineup to come true, because it's not every day TPIR does an all-car game or all-cash game show unless something big is happening (Bob's 5000th show in 1998 for an example).

[gamesurf]

OK, jokes aside, before I submit a list, do we have a compilation of the official timings for all the games?  The only list I can remember seeing would be so out of date now, and what was the total time to play with before, 28 minutes?  I'm sure it's much shorter now, but if I'm going to put together a list, I'd want the timings so I can have some realism to it.

26.5 to 28 minutes. This list is almost a decade old, but it still works pretty well for estimating. I didn't do any comprehensive testing but tried a handful of episodes from the past month and all came in within that range, which feels about right.

If you ask me, a good line up has the right balance of cars and cash.

Here's my impression of such a lineup:

1. Any Number
2. Plinko
3. Lucky $even
4. Spelling Bee
5. Pay the Rent
6. It's In The Bag OR Hot Seat

Then again, it would take an anniversary show for such a lineup to come true, because it's not every day TPIR does an all-car game or all-cash game show unless something big is happening (Bob's 5000th show in 1998 for an example).

This lineup would be around 33 to 34 minutes. You could cut out both Showcase Showdowns from the episode and it'd still be too long to air on daytime with current commercials.

For today’s restrictions:

1) Easy As 1-2-3
2) Spelling Bee
3) Double Prices
4) Safe Crackers
5) Hi Lo
6) Money Game

At 26 minutes, there's actually room to slot one or two longer games if desired! It's a good two minutes shorter than a show that aired this week.

[Thatgameshowguy]

Is it just me or is there entirely too much focus on "the lineup" these days? Greco and FPG are fun but the average viewer isn't going to care what games are "due" or what games were just played last week. I'm 99% sure you could get away with a 2 Plinko week and no regular viewer is going to notice, much less care.

As for my suggestion, pick 2 car games, a cash game, a multi-prizer, a fee game, and a quickie, make sure it fits to time, and there you have it. The perfect lineup. Repeat 195 times and you have your season. If you want to mix it up drop one of the car games and play a second cash game. Or drop the cash game and play a 3rd car game. Play all 6 games from the turntable for all I care.

Lineup analysis is a fun thing to do but sometimes I think some of y'all take this show entirely too seriously.

[Flerbert419]

Greco and FPG are fun but the average viewer isn't going to care what games are "due" or what games were just played last week. I'm 99% sure you could get away with a 2 Plinko week and no regular viewer is going to notice, much less care.

Agreed that average viewers don't care about what's "due". You also picked Plinko to repeat and there would be no complaints about more Plinko (see my quote).

But I think where this crosses over is if I'm on vacation for the week or my schedule only allows me to watch every Tuesday. If I kept seeing the same games over and over it would make the show get stale and cause me to watch more infrequently, because the uniqueness of an episode would be gone. I also have less of a chance to see my favorite pricing game, whatever that may be.

Play all 6 games from the turntable for all I care.

This is anarchy.

[Alfonzo]

Is it just me or is there entirely too much focus on "the lineup" these days? Greco and FPG are fun but the average viewer isn't going to care what games are "due" or what games were just played last week. I'm 99% sure you could get away with a 2 Plinko week and no regular viewer is going to notice, much less care.

As for my suggestion, pick 2 car games, a cash game, a multi-prizer, a fee game, and a quickie, make sure it fits to time, and there you have it. The perfect lineup. Repeat 195 times and you have your season. If you want to mix it up drop one of the car games and play a second cash game. Or drop the cash game and play a 3rd car game. Play all 6 games from the turntable for all I care.

Lineup analysis is a fun thing to do but sometimes I think some of y'all take this show entirely too seriously.

Most people on this board AREN'T normal viewers. Nothing wrong with that, unless they start thinking that the show is life or death.

[rowlande]

Danger Price, 3 Strikes, Shell Game, Double Prices, Hi Lo, One Away

[htmlcc92]

Play all 6 games from the turntable for all I care.

I’m trying to remember, but wasn’t the first perfect show in years (2013 I want to say) something crazy? I believe it was the first five games were played on the same spot on the stage, then they closed out the show with Bullseye on the turntable. Was a pretty cool lineup in that regard.

[MSTieScott]

Coming up with one lineup that scratches all of your itches is fun, so long as everyone understands the difference between a fun fan hypothetical and the reality the show faces -- not only in getting an individual episode to come in on time but also to come up with five different lineups each week, week after week, for roughly 38 weeks a year.

I'm not saying there aren't things the current lineup-maker does that I would do differently (and did!), but when it comes to creating lineups for the season as a whole, there are going to be quality tradeoffs that in a perfect world, you wouldn't want to make but need to make anyway.

Play all 6 games from the turntable for all I care.

That used to be a logistical impossibility because there wasn't enough space behind home base to store six pricing games (and with door 1 also used for storage, it wasn't feasible to bring games in and out during the taping). But now that all of the prizes and props are brought in and out through doors at stage right, could the show do an all-turntable episode just for the sake of amusing themselves (and annoying the stagehands whose job it is to load and unload the turntable)?

[NewsDirector3287]

This was a fun exercise!  It took me about a half hour, but using the list gamesurf linked, I was able to come up with both a lineup that has some of my favorite games, and one that could work today.

Favorite Games (28 mins):
Punch a Bunch(6:00)
Any Number(5:00)
Most Expensive(4:00)
Check Game(4:30)
Range Game(car)(3:30)
Bullseye(5)

Today's show (27 mins, 30 secs):
1 Right Price(3:30)
Pay the Rent(if/when it returns)(6:30)
That's Too Much(4:00)
Danger Price(4:00)
Switcheroo(6:00)
Freeze Frame(3:30)

In both cases, I tried to pick games that utilized the whole stage as far as staging, and not confined to one area for most of the show.  Also, the order of how I think they would work best as far as scheduling goes, as well as different types of games.

In the first list, I'm not really a fan of non car games for a car, but it was the only way to make that work and still get three of my faves (Any Number, Punch a Bunch and Bullseye) in.  For the second list, I wanted to build the half around Pay the Rent.  I know they've played it second a couple of times, so it was just a matter of finding two shorter games to go with it.  You could say the same thing with Switcheroo, a game I'm glad is getting a little boost in play lately.

When it comes to the question, the thing that's important to me is making sure each (non big 3/4) game gets a decent amount of playtime in a season. To me, there's no reason that you can't play each game more than 5-6 times a season.  Obviously timing and budget play a factor, but when a game gets down to less than five playings a season, why keep it around?

[Mallory16]

I apologize if the following is an issue, but I admired the work here from Mallory as it relates to lineups.  It's been a minute, but I thought this was pretty neat!

Thank you!

Anyway, onto the topic at hand, let's try this:

1: Make Your Move
2: Pathfinder
3: Race Game
4: Range Game
5: It's in the Bag
6: Lucky $even

Just games some of my favorites and games I like a fair bit and games that seem to fit. I think that works.

[bonkers77]

My lineup for a week:

PLINKO
any number
BARGAIN GAME
Bullseye
CARD GAME
CHECK GAME

BONUS GAME
DICE GAME
DANGER PRICE
CHECK-OUT
GOLDEN ROAD
CLOCK GAME

Secret "X"
LUCKY $EVEN
DOUBLE PRICES
GRAND GAME
Money game
RACE GAME

5 Price Tags
TEMPTATION
Most Expen$ive
Hi Lo
10 CHANCES
RANGE GAME

Punch a Bunch
3 STRIKES
1 RIGHT PRICE
Hole in ONE
SAFE CRACKERS
SQUEEZE PLAY

[Nick]

Most people on this board AREN'T normal viewers. Nothing wrong with that, unless they start thinking that the show is life or death.

I will also add that the heyday of the FPG (Seasons 33-35) was about the most fun you could have watching at home as a Loyal Friend and True of The Price Is Right and member of this message board.  Part of the genius was that Joe Plinkos were not going to see a crazy lineup on a Friday as anything notable (much less even be aware of how a lineup is put together and the intricacies it involves) but to those of us in the know, it was fun (and sometimes frustrating in a humorous way) to see what Roger would do to mess with us.  Roger knew how to cater to the most dedicated fans in a way that didn't come across as leaving most of the audience on the outside of something only a few people would "get".

Back to the topic at hand, what would be a good lineup?  The one that should have been for Barker's final show:

Five Price Tags
Clock Game
Grocery Game
Double Prices
Bonus Game
Any Number

Yes, I know it breaks the rules with two SP games, but you couldn't have done better than the six oldest active games in reverse order.  As I recall, it timed out perfectly under the official timings too.