The Price is Right: The Barker Era on Pluto TV

[pannoni1]

#5074D (11/10/83) is really one of the most entertaining episodes in the batch. We have a Holly blunder with a piece of fitness equipment where she slides down, a Master Key playing where the contestant tries the first lock and despite not opening, opens up later after being successful with the first lock, a Double Prices prize that was less expensive (a $1000 Grandfather Clock) than the $1160 IUFB that preceded it, one of the highest at the time gifts offered on Temptation (over $2600), and a Range Game playing where the ARP very briefly flashes before disappearing. Great wins in Grandy and Race Game also round up the package. That Master Key BTW was actually the first one to omit the prize package announcement, not the following playing like I previously mentioned.

The Hi-Lo playing on 5073D also had a rare occurrence of the featured prize being announced before the GPs.

Ready for some Christmas in June tomorrow!

[SeaBreeze341]

Can't wait for the 1983 Christmas episodes!  Those include a couple unknowns in terms of lineups.  The previous year's lineup, and really the whole week, was a blast.


We'll know by Midnight or 2 AM EST what's airing at 5 AM Eastern, but nonetheless, the first show announced from the social media page is rather outstanding, as mentioned.  Might rival 4792 on one hand, but maybe not.   Definitely worth the watch!

[gsn93]

5111D is currently airing and not being skipped.

[holdme]

Looks like 5142D will be skipped. Fortunately this is one that can be seen online.

[plinkowin2010]

The 1983 Christmas episodes were great. Janice, Dian, and Channel looked spiffy in their outfits during that week. That's the first time i heard Channel talk. The episodes the aired 2 weeks before was Channel forced to wear a black wig to look like Holly? Dian wore a black wig when she first started to look like Anitra Ford.

[SeaBreeze341]

Looks like 5142D will be skipped. Fortunately this is one that can be seen online.

It's still available.  I guess random tape damage prevented its Pluto airing.


I sorta had to laugh at the wig to look like Holly thing.  It was a nice gesture I guess

[holdme]

I noticed they liked using car prices ending with 1s and 9s A LOT in Lucky Seven back then. I haven't watched the show in recent years, but I hope it's not something they still consistently do. Not good television at all, but a good way for them to stay on budget.

[JayC]

^Not so much 1, but 9 is pretty often used as the last digit in the game. More often than not they will use lower or higher numbers in the prices rather than numbers in the middle.

[pricefan18]

So watching 5155 now....and saw something that I've never seen before or woulda expected to be offered as a prize. They gave away a bucket of Washington Red Delicious Apples with the 5th IUFB. That couldn't have been common, could it? I know fruit was offered in Showcases even many years after this, but feels really odd to see some offered there. It threw me for a bit of a loop.

[SeaBreeze341]

^Not so much 1, but 9 is pretty often used as the last digit in the game. More often than not they will use lower or higher numbers in the prices rather than numbers in the middle.

Of course, the previous season on the channel (Season 11) featured at least 3 people losing off of a 1 for saying 5 for the 4th digit with $4 remaining.  Nonetheless, I love winners and winning, but I love business too.  You have to have a car that features a ton of low and high numbers in that game

[FanOfDrew87]

I haven't been following this thread much due to my greater interest in the modern-day episodes, but I did develop an interest in the Pluto stream recently, and I have a program which allows me to record episodes from the stream.  I would like to find out what times a different episode is shown on the stream.

I agree, the show gets better and better as we headed into 1984.

[pannoni1]

^

I actually feel that the quality curve of the show is pretty much at its full potential by this point after taking a big rise over the late 1970s and early '80s, starting shortly after the permanent hourlong expansion when the 1976 music package, the addition of new games, the increased chemistry between Bob/Johnny/the Beauties/the contestants, the rise of Bob's enthusiasm for wins/losses, as well as gradual jump in prize quality (although we're currently in the peak in terms of the rising quality curve for prizes). This peak quality pretty much remains until around 1993 or so, when Dian was fired and Bob starts to slowly but surely begin to be set in his ways, along with fewer set/design changes making the production start to seem a little stale in an environment where more modern production designs were taking off, and also where the new games don't premiere quite as often.

1984 will find lots of set/production changes though to look forward to. Among them, in rough chronological order:

*The Plinko sign being moved from the back of the audience to the Turntable (We just saw that in the last batch)
*The second Race Game Curtain with yellow Super Ball!-style dollar signs
*Penny Ante's board being refreshed, most notably on the game's name
*New blue and red neon Most Expensive podiums
*The "New" being dropped from Card Game
*The debut of the Tugboat (AKA "Tuggs")
*An all-new Clam including an exterior featuring a big yellow Super Ball! dollar sign
*The second generation Showcase Podiums
*A revamped light border with orange/red bulbs replacing the yellow ones
*An all-new Contestant's Row with pink borders (the pink would remain on the backside until the end of the end of the Barker era)
*A new sportstype Showcase Showdown scoreboard
*Hi-Lo's asterisks being revised from 8 to 6 points
*The first usage of the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour theme as a cue

Most of these changes will occur around September/October unlike 1983's changes, which were more gradual through the year.

Of course, we'll see the debuts of Balance Game, On The Nose, and One Away in that order. But we'll probably have to wait until the fall to experience most of these changes with the next 100 shows. There's also the possibility that we'll see things like the Carnival Music "American Patrol" added to Pick A Pair as well.

The last 25 of this batch should be dropped next Wednesday, June 16 at 7 PM Eastern.

[FanOfDrew87]

I think the mid-1980s was when the show was at its peak period in the ratings.  We used to see, on average, three pricing game debuts per season back then.  We even saw the first ever prime-time specials on CBS in 1986, and that was a sign of success for the show then.  However, by the end of the 1980s, we'd be lucky to see only two pricing game debuts, and by the mid-2000s we were fortunate to see one pricing game debut at most per season.  Now, we don't see any new pricing games anymore, and in the past few months on the current TPIR, budget mode has been commonplace.  I was pretty amazed to see Golden Road played for a $70,000+ Jaguar on yesterday's show, though.  Maybe 3 Strikes could get one more playing before the season wraps up.

I think the Pluto channel only focuses on the 1980s, from 1982 to possibly 1989, because it was during that period that the show was in its prime in the ratings.  These are ratings that would never be seen again after Dian was terminated from the show and Bob Barker refused to have the show modernize with the times.  At least the models did, in a way, modernize their wardrobes to the fashion trends by the turn of this century.  We may get to see one season with the earliest playings of Spelling Bee and maybe a very small number of playings of Super Saver on Pluto later on down the road, and that would be a very interesting season to finish up the fresh episodes that the 1980s had to offer.  But first, we have to take care of 1984 before we see any of the later years.  I, however, would be quite surprised to see the channel evolve into the 1990s.

As for episodes I am recording as of lately, aside from November 3, 1982, I also recorded February 1, 2, 16, and 18, 1983 today.  I am presently recording two episodes from the latter part of February 1983, and I am planning to record the March 8, 1983 episode with one of the final playings of It's Optional.

My aim is to record episodes with playings of pricing games that were retired at some point in the 1980s.

I don't know how many pricing games were in the rotation in Seasons 11 and 12, but I'd say it was quite low as opposed to the 77 active pricing games played on the modern-day episodes with Drew.

[pannoni1]

^

At the beginning of Season 11, there were 44 games that were in active rotation with eight games having been retired at this point: Bullseye '72, Double Bullseye, Double Digits, Mystery Price, Professor Price, Finish Line, The Shower Game, and the Telephone Game. It's a shame Hurdles and It's Optional were retired since they were by far the longest active games to have ever been retired up until that point, as all of the other games previously retired didn't even last a season, and in many cases, only lasted weeks. Both games became the first to be retired after 4 1/2 years, the longest stretch without a retirement that wouldn't be matched until the '90s between the retirement of Bump in 1991 and Split Decision in 1997. With the latest game currently in the rotation, Walk of Fame, we're currently up to 46 now, and will continue to grow to 50 games at the start of Season 14 with the premiere of Bump before the retirements of Trader Bob, Walk of Fame, On The Nose, and the Balance Game in late 1985 will revert that total back to 46, and won't hit the 50 game mark again until a brief period at the start of Season 17 with Spelling Bee, before hitting a fresh high as the '80s drew to a close at 52 games with Super Saver, MYM, and 2 For The Price of 1, with Add 'Em Up becoming the 15th game to be retired.

Still, considering that there were just 20 active games for the first two months of the hour-long era proved that the variety was missing until the plethora of new games released between 1976-1983 really helped to make the show what it is. That said, regarding a lack of new games, just think of it as an overfilled bookcase with extra books piled on the floor in front of the bookcases; there's basically no more room to grow unless if they retire certain games to make way for more. Still, I find 50 games the "Sweet spot" in terms of a balance of familiarity and variety.

That said, the show had to compete with the very popular Wheel of Fortune at the time, and continued to do so until Pat left the daytime show. Afterwards, while overall ratings may not have changed too much, the gap between it and #2 (Family Feud) continued to grow until Price was the only game in town.

[SteveGavazzi]

I think the mid-1980s was when the show was at its peak period in the ratings.  We used to see, on average, three pricing game debuts per season back then...However, by the end of the 1980s, we'd be lucky to see only two pricing game debuts, and by the mid-2000s we were fortunate to see one pricing game debut at most per season.  Now, we don't see any new pricing games anymore, and in the past few months on the current TPIR, budget mode has been commonplace.

This is fairly ridiculous.  First of all, you're equating the set budget with the prize budget when the two don't have anything to do with one another.  That aside, Season 12 was the last year of the '80s in which three games debuted -- all the rest had either one or two.  Conversely, four games debuted in Season 20 (the only time that's happened since the '70s), and three each were introduced in 22, 24, 26, 27, 30, and 32.

I think the Pluto channel only focuses on the 1980s, from 1982 to possibly 1989, because it was during that period that the show was in its prime in the ratings.  These are ratings that would never be seen again after Dian was terminated from the show and Bob Barker refused to have the show modernize with the times.  At least the models did, in a way, modernize their wardrobes to the fashion trends by the turn of this century.  We may get to see one season with the earliest playings of Spelling Bee and maybe a very small number of playings of Super Saver on Pluto later on down the road, and that would be a very interesting season to finish up the fresh episodes that the 1980s had to offer.  But first, we have to take care of 1984 before we see any of the later years.  I, however, would be quite surprised to see the channel evolve into the 1990s.

What in God's name are you going on about here?  The channel's staff has already made it crystal clear that they plan to run every airable show they have from Season 11 all the way through Season 35.  The only thing that's worth speculating over is whether or not they ever swing back and do Seasons 1-10, because the rest we already know.