Simple Questions & Answers Thread

[jlgarfield]

I've noticed a few times in the Barker episodes on Pluto that when they give away a bar of gold, Johnny's copy will say something like "Retail value determined at the close of business on the day of taping." Unless the show was taped after the close of business, which I don't think it normally was, how did the staff determine the price to announce on air? Did they use the price from the previous day? If so, why not just say that instead?

To kind of expand on this, sometime in the early 1980s, this was changed to the "opening of business of day of taping".

[JayC]

Hello

In the game 10 chances. Do the constants really have 10 seconds to write down their choices ?  I remember on an few shows Bob will say "Hurry, you have 10 seconds or you will lose your turn"

It's in the rules of the game and there were playings early on where contestants lost a turn after 10 seconds, though it hasn't actually been enforced in many years.

[FPGWillyT]

To kind of expand on this, sometime in the early 1980s, this was changed to the "opening of business of day of taping".

Funny you bring that up.  Back in the day, I would make a point to find a LA Times on a morning I’d be seeing the show just in case…

[TPIRfan#9821]

I recently did a search for all the Range Game playings for a car, and saw a random 3-car half hour show. This was 1315D, March 07, 1975. The timeline does note it happened, but not why.

On Friday, every game, including both Grocery Game and Range Game, is played for a car. Range Game in particular is noteworthy, as it offers a $9,600 Cadillac. This is one of only four known episodes on which each game is played for a car, the other three being the ceremonial 5,000th episode in Season 26, the "teen drivers" episode in Season 40, and the "sweet 16" episode in Season 43.

Technically that blurb is now outdated because of all the DCW episodes, but does anyone know why this happened on a random March episode?

[SteveGavazzi]

Technically that blurb is now outdated because of all the DCW episodes

I really need to go through the timeline one of these days and update all those things that aren't (nearly) unique anymore.

[pricefan18]

This may have been addressed elsewhere, but with a March 2000 rerun being just posted here...got to wondering, why was there a 2 week period of reruns at NCAA Tournament time at least near the end of Bob's run (appears it was reduced once Drew came aboard from looking)? The actual week of I can understand, but.....why the week before as well? Why would they have not just done one week? Bob's advanced age? Or what?

[SeaBreeze341]

The season in question (Season 28) would have been the only time within that period, if not ever, that there was a two-week break.  Every other year it was one week, if at all.  I figured that it was due to the tournament games amongst the Power Six conferences.  However, while they were played during the day, that would have been an issue earlier in the week.  Moreover, those games would have been on ESPN and the like, not on network television (until the weekend or weeknights maybe).

Plus, 1999-2000 was the year Bob had surgery which resulted in the loss of nearly 2 dozen tapings.  There was a week-long break very early in the 2000 segment of Season 28 in addition to those two consecutive weeks in March

[pricefan18]

What episode during Season 30 woulda been the first one taped post 9/11? Just thinking back to that and am curious. (Sidenote: mea culpa on the NCAA Tournament weeks question, somehow got my timing messed up, realized SeaBreeze was right, only 28 did have such a gap, just looked different to me going through seasons).

[JayC]

Did they cancel taping the day of 9/11 or any days following? There also wouldn't be anything to really tell it was taped just after unless any contestants had the memorial ribbon on or were wearing a shirt with the American flag or had an American flag pin on or something like that.

[pricefan18]

Did they cancel taping the day of 9/11 or any days following? There also wouldn't be anything to really tell it was taped just after unless any contestants had the memorial ribbon on or were wearing a shirt with the American flag or had an American flag pin on or something like that.

Given the rest of Hollywood shut down for a good week (the Late Night shows I know at least all stopped running for about that period of time), I'd imagine as much. And yeah it mighta been although I could see a slightly subdued crowd/feel for at least the first show back.

[SteveGavazzi]

Did they cancel taping the day of 9/11 or any days following? There also wouldn't be anything to really tell it was taped just after unless any contestants had the memorial ribbon on or were wearing a shirt with the American flag or had an American flag pin on or something like that.

I don't believe there were any tapings scheduled for that week in the first place -- if I remember correctly, Rod was having cancer-related surgery the day of the attacks.

What episode during Season 30 woulda been the first one taped post 9/11?

With the above reasoning in mind, it would probably be 1943K, the first show with Burton Richardson announcing.

[pricefan18]

I don't believe there were any tapings scheduled for that week in the first place -- if I remember correctly, Rod was having cancer-related surgery the day of the attacks.

He was. I remember I think the power went out or something day of? I thought I read something like that. They coulda scheduled tapings with Burton before that though, but hard to say.

[MSTieScott]

I don't remember which specific episode it was, but I do remember, as the episode aired a couple of months later, that the audience was noticeably less enthusiastic during the opening. Also, all of the trip prices were dramatically lower because of the airfare.

[JhayPrice]

Are there any photos of the Drew Dollar in existence?  I've been only able to find the clear shots of both sides of the Barker Dollar.

[DylanBe]

Are there any videos anywhere of a third spinner spinning again despite being in the lead trying to get the dollar?