The Price Is Right Timeline -- Season 4

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Season 4 ('75-'76)

Pricing game calendar for Season 4, hosted by Scorpz.


Week 1 (157): September 1-5

  • Sometime this week, Richard Dawson and Charles Nelson Reilly appear (not necessarily on the same show) to congratulate Price on its third anniversary -- a landmark which, oddly enough, Price itself does not celebrate until next week, despite it occurring this Thursday.
  • On Friday, Bonus Game returns to the daytime game rotation, presumably with its color scheme updated to better mesh with the show's new set.


Week 2 (158): September 11-12, 8-10

  • Originally scheduled for September 8-12.
  • This week of shows introduces the hour format. Six pricing games are played each day instead of three, and the Showcase Showdowns are introduced to determine which contestant from each set of three games will advance to the Showcase.
  • As a result of the trial hour episodes, the show commandeers Gambit's timeslot each day this week, running from 10:30-11:30 Eastern/9:30-10:30 Central.
  • In the opening, Johnny refers to this week's episodes as "super anniversary show specials": "A fortune in fabulous prizes may go to these people today if they know when, in our super anniversary show special, The Price Is Right!" By Friday, this has changed slightly, to, "A fortune in fabulous prizes may go to these people today on this super anniversary week special if they know when The Price Is Right!" He also states during his sign-off on Monday that he is speaking for "The Price Is Right Anniversary Specials."
  • On all shows this week, the words "ANNIVERSARY WEEK" are hung on the frame atop Door #2.
  • This week's openings introduce the light border, which begins its existence as a simple ring of chasing light bulbs a short distance into the screen; by Friday, an opaque yellow border has been added around the lights that extends to the edges of the screen. After Johnny calls the fourth contestant, the light border moves outward and leaves the screen as the show's logo appears.
  • This week establishes the mid-show bumper that occurs on hour shows after the fourth game. During the commercial break, a camera pans the audience as Johnny says, "Stay tuned for more pricing games and the fabulous Showcases, which are coming up on the second half of this special one-hour edition of The Price Is Right!" with consolation prize music playing; as he finishes talking, the show's logo zooms onto the screen in the same fashion as at the end of the opening.
  • By Friday, the procedure for the bumper has changed slightly; it now occurs at the end of Act 4, before the commercials, and it includes the light border, which also mimics its behavior from the end of the opening.
  • The Showcase Showdown uses a sideways-spinning wheel that has come to be known unofficially as "the Rainbow Wheel." The leader's podium/scoreboard is positioned to the right of the wheel.
  • On Monday only, the contestants line up to spin the "Rainbow Wheel" in Contestants' Row, which has its bid displays replaced with wheel-like markers numbered for the first, second, and third spinners. From Tuesday onward, the contestants simply line up onstage to the left of the wheel.
  • A series of odd noises plays as the "Rainbow Wheel" spins.
  • No fanfare is played when a dollar is spun in the Showcase Showdown.
  • As with all pricing game segments, the show's theme plays while going to commercial after the Showcase Showdowns.
  • This week establishes that hour-long shows have no commercial during the Showcase. The descriptive labels are placed in the podiums during the course of the second showcase.
  • The consolation prize plugs this week are done before the first Showcase Showdown; at the end of the plugs, Johnny throws back to the commercials with, "Coming up next, our fabulous, exciting Price Is Right Showcase Showdown!"
  • By this point, the show is giving two consolation prizes in each episode; in the first episode, only one was given. We really don't know when this changed.
  • On this week of shows only, Janice and Dian are assisted by a third Beauty named Barbara.
  • By Monday show, the curtains behind the audience have changed to a pattern of vertical stripes; going left to right, they are colored red-blue-green-yellow-red-blue-green-yellow.
  • On Monday, Golden Road is still using its original, lever-based price reveals.
  • On Monday, Grocery Game is still using its short-lived striped table.
  • On Monday, Most Expensive's second set is introduced; the game no longer shares props with Five Price Tags.
  • On Monday show, Any Number uses its original prize reveal; this may have been a staging issue, as the 3-digit prize on this playing was a chaise lounge.
  • By Monday, the base of the Range Game board has become blue.
  • By Monday, the Give or Keep board has become green.
  • Tuesday show features the debut of Poker Game.
  • Poker Game does not appear again after this episode for several weeks.
  • Poker Game originally allows the contestant to make whatever hand he wants from his selected prices and does not allow him to pass his hand to the house.
  • On the game's earliest appearances, the background of the number lights in Poker Game is white.
  • Thursday show features the debut of 1 Right Price, at least as far as the daytime show goes; it had previously appeared on two early Season 1 nighttime shows with a different, three-prize format.
  • As such, Thursday also marks the debut of 1 Right Price's normal rules.
  • Thursday also marks the introduction of 1 Right Price's second set; its first set was only used on the Season 1 nighttime playings.
  • After Thursday, 1 Right Price does not appear again until the permanent hour conversion.
  • Card Game appears on Friday for the first time since July 24; this is its only appearance of the season until the permanent hour conversion.


Week 3 (159): September 15-19

  • On Monday, the show returns to the half-hour format.
  • The light border is not used in the opening during the final seven weeks of half-hour shows.


Week 4 (160): September 22-26


Week 5 (161): September 29-October 3


Week 6 (162): October 6-10

  • After Monday, Bonus Game vanishes from the game rotation again.


Week 7 (163): October 13-17

  • On Tuesday, Poker Game enters the pricing game rotation permanently.


Week 8 (164): October 20, 22-24

  • Only four shows; Tuesday has October Magazine.
  • Wednesday show is the first episode for which Fingers is on the staff.


Week 9 (165): October 27-31

  • By Monday, Anitra has returned.
  • All this week, Janice and Anitra wear "Hour Power" shirts to promote the upcoming format change.
  • On Monday, Bert Convy appears to congratulate Bob on the upcoming hour expansion; on Tuesday, Charles Nelson Reilly appears for the same purpose. It seems likely that a CBS or Goodson-Todman personality appeared every day this week.
  • By Monday, Poker Game's rules have been changed to automatically make the contestant's hand the best one that can be made from the prices he has selected and to allow the contestant to pass his hand to the house.


Week 10 (166): November 3-7

  • On Monday, the show expands to an hour permanently. Half-hour shows are still done on occasion when CBS's schedule calls for it up through February of 1994.
  • On Monday, Dian officially joins the cast as the third permanent Beauty.
  • The show now airs from 10:00-11:00 Eastern/9:00-10:00 Central.
  • The light border returns on Monday, now with transparent gold trim around the lights.
  • Beginning on Monday, the phrase "One Hour" flashes on the screen in blue (or on occaison, red or green) script while Johnny does the opening spiel.
  • On Monday, the opening spiel changes to, "And here it comes! The first, big, hour-long game show in television! The fabulous, new, 60-minute Price Is Right!" (On Monday, this is preceded by, "Starting today.")
  • By Monday, Golden Road has replaced its original, lever-based price reveals with a push-button system.
  • By Monday, Grocery Game's table has changed again, this time to a red-brick appearance.
  • By Monday, the side of the Any Number board has become green.
  • As of Monday, the Big Wheel replaces the "Rainbow Wheel" in the Showcase Showdown; the numbers appear in the same order on both wheels.
  • The Showcase Showdown's regular spin-off rules are now in place; in the trial hour shows of Week 1, contestants could take two spins in a spin-off.
  • The Big Wheel's original, weak-sounding beeps are used for the first few years of the hour format.
  • The ticket plug, when it is done, is now placed before the first Showcase Showdown.
  • Starting on Monday, Bob tosses to the mid-show bumper with the phrase, "There is more Price Is Right coming up!"
  • On Monday, the text of the mid-show bumper is shortened to, "Stay tuned for more pricing games and the fabulous Showcases, coming up on the second half of The Price Is Right."
  • As of Monday, the background of the number windows in Poker Game is black.
  • On Monday, the Top Winner still stands at the green Showcase podium.
  • On Thursday, Bonus Game returns to the game rotation permanently.
  • On Thursday, 1 Right Price enters the pricing game rotation permanently.
  • On Friday, Card Game returns to the pricing game rotation.


Week 11 (167): November 10-14


Week 12 (168): November 17-21


Week 13 (169): November 24-26, 28

  • Thanksgiving week; only four shows.
  • Although it is not stated outright, the rule that the Big Wheel must go all the way around at least once for a spin to count seems to have been implemented by Wednesday.
  • By Wednesday, the "right answer" cards in Ten Chances have become blue.


Week 14 (170): December 1-5


Week 15 (171): December 8-9, 11-12

  • Only four shows; Wednesday has December Magazine.
  • By Monday, the apparently misnamed 1976 music package has debuted.
  • On Tuesday, the show's theme is still being used while going to commercial from the Showcase Showdowns.
  • On Thursday, the opening titles still read "One Hour".


Week 16 (172): December 15-19

  • Tuesday is likely the first episode where the opening titles read "Hour Power" instead of "One Hour".
  • By Friday, the opening titles have been changed to "Hour Power", and their first standard font has debuted.
  • On Friday, Johnny is not yet being shown while calling contestants.
  • On Friday, the Showcase winner's difference is exactly $100; this leads to an awkward moment where Bob has to explain that, since the rule states "less than $100 away," she has not won both showcases.


Week 17 (173): December 22-26


Week 18 (174): December 29-31, January 2

  • New Year's week; only four shows.


Week 19 (175): January 5-9

  • On Tuesday, the opening titles still exhibit their original behavior; not long afterward, they are altered to begin small in the middle of the screen and gradually grow larger, flashing all the while.
  • Thursday show is a half-hour episode.
  • Thursday show features the debut of Danger Price.


Week 20 (176): January 12-16

  • On Tuesday, the "Walking" cue is used instead of the usual songs for the opening and the come on downs. "Walking" permanently replaces the original cues several weeks later, likely on February 19.


Week 21 (177): January 19-23

  • Monday's show was taped immediately after the December 9 episode; as such, any changes that have occurred since then are not present on Monday.
  • In Thursday's first Showcase Showdown, Bob mistakenly counts contestant Rose's first spin despite having correctly predicted that it would not go all the way around; this leads to her next spin, which lands on the dollar, making her go over instead of tying her for the lead and winning her $1,000.
  • Thursday's second showcase, a Bicentennial Salute to General George Marshall, includes an autographed photograph of General Marshall; this is regarded as a bonus, and the contestants are instructed not to include it while bidding.


Week 22 (178): January 26-30

  • On Wednesday, the opening titles are pink.
  • By Wednesday, the Showcase Showdown's original split-screen arrow graphic is in use.
  • Prior to the adoption of the split-screen graphic during the Showcase Showdown, the show had briefly used a close-up shot of the wheel, with the camera gradually tilting downward as it came to rest; this shot would resurface 28 years later, during the winter of Season 32.


Week 23 (179): February 2-6

  • On Monday, the opening titles are pink.


Week 24 (180): February 9-13

  • Thursday show features the debut of 3 Strikes.


Week 25 (181): February 16-20

  • As of Tuesday, the original opening and "come on down" cues are still in use.
  • On Tuesday, the infamous Patricia Bernard incident occurs, with Johnny calling a contestant while she is in the bathroom. Although this has happened at least two other times in the show's run, Patricia's is by far the best-known.
  • Around this time, and most likely on Thursday, the opening and "come on down" cues are replaced with the cue called "Walking." The version used in the opening is more fully orchestrated, with more instruments, than the one used during the body of the show.
  • Thursday show features the debut of Hurdles.


Week 26 (182): February 23-27


Week 27 (183): March 1-5


Week 28 (184): March 8-12


Week 29 (185): March 15-19

  • On Friday, then-Miss USA crown holder and future $ale of the Century hostess Summer Bartholomew is in the audience.


Week 30 (186): March 22-26


Week 31 (187): March 29-30, April 1-2

  • Only four shows; Wednesday has March Magazine.
  • Thursday show features an April Fool's "Bicentennial Salute" showcase honoring a great American physician and author named Dr. John Barrett Clapinger, who supposedly disappeared several years ago while on an expedition in Howard Cosell's mouth. The prizes offered include two of Clapinger's books, The Clapinger Report and I'm OK, and I Don't Give a Flying Fig What You Are, the former of which cites Vitamin C as a treatment for broken legs and as an effective bathroom disinfectant and the latter of which "traces existentialist thought from Camus to Bette Midler" and pauses to ask the question, "was Jack the Ripper even as the trees and the stars a child of the universe?"; a trip to Flushing, New York, where Dr. Clapinger was awarded the prestigious Plotkin Prize; a case of athlete's foot personally awarded by Anitra, in honor of the Clapinger Clinic that the doctor had founded to treat said affliction; and an autographed leg cast presented right on the Turntable by the widowed Mrs. Clapinger. At this point, the showcase appears to fall apart, as another woman comes around on the Turntable, claims to be Mrs. Clapinger, and gets into an argument with the first Mrs. Clapinger; in the middle of the argument, Dr. Clapinger himself comes around on the Turntable and is chased into the audience by his two infuriated wives. The real showcase is a Cadillac El Dorado, making this the second of only three known showcases to consist of only one prize. The showcase is also somewhat noteworthy for its appearance by Roger, who played the part of Dr. Clapinger.


Week 32 (188): April 5-9


Week 33 (189): April 12-16

  • Monday show features the debut of Cliff Hangers.
  • Cliff Hangers originally uses four small prizes instead of three.
  • Early in Cliff Hangers's life, the spaces on the mountain are not numbered, and the associated hash marks are noticeably longer than usual.


Week 34 (190): April 19-23


Week 35 (191): April 26-30

  • Tuesday show features the debut of Safe Crackers.
  • On very early playings of Safe Crackers, if the game is lost, one of the Beauties dials in the correct combination and opens the safe.


Week 36 (192): May 3-7

  • On Tuesday, a showcase about "making it in Hollywood" includes a chance to "represent all Price Is Right contestants" at a ceremony for Bob on the Walk of Fame the next day; although the contestants are never instructed not to bid on this, it seems likely that it was a bonus.


Week 37 (193): May 10-14

  • On Friday, the famous Janice Pennington, This Is Your Strife showcase is presented; it features prizes that Janice had trouble modeling over the years -- a pop-up bar that wouldn't pop up, a refrigerator that nearly fell on her when she opened it, and a car that she almost wrecked during Lucky Seven (which is driven by Dian this time around) -- along with clips of her unsuccessful attempts to model them. The staff actually rehearsed a fake showcase before the taping that day so that Janice would have no idea what was happening.


Week 38 (194): May 17-19, September* 20, May 21

  • Originally scheduled for May 17-21.


Week 39 (195): May 24-28


Week 40 (196): May 31-June 4

  • On Tuesday, Cliff Hangers uses four small prizes for the last time.
  • On Wednesday, Golden Road is still using its push-button price reveal method.
  • By Wednesday, Johnny is being shown on-camera once or twice a day while calling the 5th through 9th contestants.
  • Wednesday show features the debut of Dice Game.


Week 41 (197): June 7-11

  • On Thursday show, Cliff Hangers adopts its normal rules.


Week 42 (198): June 14-18


Week 43 (199): June 21-23, 25

  • Only four shows; Thursday has June Magazine.


Week 44 (200): June 28-July 2

  • Season finale week.
  • Season 4 is the first year of The Price Is Right to make use of a long stretch of summer reruns; these begin next Monday, with Season 5 starting on August 30.
  • In all likelihood, Thursday show features the debut of Bullseye '76.
  • If Bullseye does indeed debut this Thursday, it is the only appearance of the game this season.
  • At the beginning of its life, Bullseye's target has a range of $5-$10, with $9-$10 as the bullseye.
  • At the beginning of its life, Bullseye's "hidden bullseye" allows a contestant to win if it is with the product whose marker on the target is the closest one to the bullseye.
  • Bob incorrectly states that Friday's show is the 1,000th episode; in reality, it is only the 950th episode.
  • As of Friday, the Range Game board is still blue.
  • On Friday, in an unusual move, Range Game's prize, a grandfather clock, is concealed in the Clam.


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