The New Price Is Right (1994 game show)

The opening title to 1994's The New Price Is Right.

The New Price Is Right was a nighttime version of the American game show The Price Is Right, which aired from September 12, 1994 to January 1995 in syndication. Doug Davidson hosted the show with Burton Richardson as the announcer. The show had its own set of prize models -- Julie Lynn Cialini, Ferrari Farris and Lisa Stahl.

The show was produced by Mark Goodson Productions and was distributed by Paramount Domestic Television.

Format

The New Price Is Right differed greatly from its sister show in several ways. On the whole, the entire concept, which had not been radically updated since the 1970s, was given a massive update in an attempt to appeal to a younger generation. Doug Davidson was at the time a popular actor on The Young and the Restless, and Burton Richardson had made his mark as the announcer for The Arsenio Hall Show.

Among the most

The first and most obvious way was how contestants were chosen. Instead of being called down to Contestants' Row, which this version of the program did not use, the contestants were called from the audience and came right up on stage to play the pricing games. To make up for this change, three episodes were taped with each audience, so that each audience would still produce a total of nine contestants (which equaled the total number seen on the daytime show since 1975).

The second was the prize budget for the show, which rose to fairly high levels. Cars not from General Motors, Ford Motor Company, or Chrysler Corporation would appear as prizes, a practice prohibited from the daytime show by producer Roger Dobkowitz since 1991. Daytime show associate producer Kathy Greco was in charge of this syndicated version.

Only three pricing games were played per episode, just like the daytime show when it was a half-hour long, followed by a Showcase Showdown and a one-player version of the Showcase (the only incarnation so far to ever use such a Showcase round). Some of the pricing games were played differently than they were on the daytime show. A few examples:
- Plinko: While the top prize remained the same, the value of the outermost slots on the board was increased from $100 to $2,500. Also, the small prize pricing was changed to a higher/lower pricing format, since the game frequently used items with three-digit prices. Finally, on the first playing only, an alternate pattern was used for the game board: $2,500-$1,000-$0-$5,000-$0-$5,000-$0-$1,000-$2,500. The highest amount won was $16,500.
- Clock Game: The game became digitized, with no prop on stage for it, and the contestant was provided with a $1,000 range to guess the price in for the prize. The game frequently used prizes with four-digit prices, and on some occasions, a third prize was awarded as a bonus for winning.
- Barker's Marker$: The name was changed to "Make Your Mark" the single time it was played on this version of the show, as Bob Barker was not the host of this version. This name for the game was adopted on the daytime show 13 years later, when Drew Carey took over the hosting duties for Season 36.
- Magic #: Davidson coined his own grammar for this game, calling the lever a "leever" and the game board a "geezmo." The setup was also different: The game used, for the price reveal, a refurbished Double Prices board with the price tags on top and bottom, and the Magic # superimposed in the middle.
- Hole in One and Grand Game: Instead of using grocery items, these games were played with small prizes; they were also the only games played where the daytime version used grocery items.
- Cliff Hangers: The mountain climber was given the name Hans Gudegast, the birth name of Davidson's Young & Restless costar Eric Braeden. The "Hans" name has since been frequently used on the daytime show in Season 36.
- Safe Crackers: As in the daytime show, two prizes were shown, but the smaller prize (the one whose price matched the combination of the safe) was placed outside the safe. The daytime show's current think music for this game was initially used in this syndicated incarnation of the show. (During the time this incarnation was in production, the daytime show was using the think music initially used in the 1985-86 syndicated version with Tom Kennedy.)
- Golden Road: Played the same, except that it began with a small prize or a fishbowl of cash.
- 3 Strikes: The first number was given for free. Also, that number could repeat in the price of the car.
- Any Number, Money Game, One Away: These games used the same car reveal as Lucky $even, with the car being pushed out onto the stage instead of being behind one of the Big Doors.
- Range Game: This game was not featured in the regular rotation; instead, it was used for the Showcase. (See below for information.)

In keeping up with modern times, The New Price Is Right did not use the traditional losing horns that its predecessors did. Instead, a faint "groan" on an electric guitar was heard, along with several sound effects of glass breaking.

Showcase Showdown

Unlike the other half hour Price Is Rights before it, The New Price Is Right had a Showcase Showdown. Two different versions were used:

The Price WAS Right: This was the Showcase Showdown that was used on most of the episodes. Effectively the same as One Bid, the most important difference was that the contestants from the three pricing games "bid" on an old item (which they did not get to win or keep) as revealed in an original commercial for the item instead of an actual prize. The three contestants were placed in Contestants' Row and were shown an old TV commercial. After the ad was shown, the players would bid on what they thought the product being advertised had cost at the time the commercial had originally aired. The person who was closest without going over won and advanced to the Showcase. To aid the contestants, host Davidson would give a clue stating how much a different item would have cost in that time period.

The Big Wheel: Played mostly the same way as on the daytime show, except that the contestants spun in order from highest to lowest winnings instead of the other way around. Getting a total of $1.00 in one spin or a combination of two spins earned a contestant $1,000 and a bonus spin; in the bonus spin, he would win $5,000 more if the wheel landed on a green section and $10,000 more if it landed on $1.00. A spin that did not go all the way around would not count and would have to be redone; redos were not permitted on bonus spins. The contestant whose total in one spin or a combination of two spins was nearest to $1.00 without going over won and advanced to the Showcase.

The producers had originally intended to use The Price WAS Right on every episode, but when the time came to start taping, the staff hadn't been able to research enough commercials for that to happen, apparently anticipating only a thirteen-week run. Therefore, on the remaining three weeks of episodes, the Big Wheel had to be used instead.

The Showcase

With only one person playing the Showcase, the pricing game Range Game was modified for the New Price Is Right showcases. A new prop was built with a $60,000 scale ($10,000 to $70,000); during the show's final commercial break, the winner of the Showcase Showdown chose rangefinder length at random from somewhere between $4,000 and $10,000.

A showcase was then presented; once it was finished, the rangefinder was started up the scale, with the contestant pulling a lever when he thought it was covering the showcase value. If he was correct, he won the Showcase.

Running Gags and Jokes

Despite the show's very short run (it lasted only 16 weeks), The New Price Is Right had its own share of running gags. Examples include:

Hole-in-One (or Two) - When a contestant did not sink the ball into the hole on the first putt, Doug would feel sorry for the contestant, wandering aimlessly around the stage until he "accidentally" bumped into the lever to change the "ONE" into "OR TWO" on the game's sign.

Make Your Mark - Doug would give the contestant $100 to keep or give up to start the game, only to have producer Phil Rossi come out on stage to remind Doug to give the contestant $500.

Magic Number - As before, Doug would refer to the prop as a "geezmo" and the lever as a "leever". He would also refer to the game as "Magic Pound Sign" on occasion.

Showcase Showdown (Big Wheel) - When a contestant was ready for the bonus spin, Doug would appear "clueless" as to whether the wheel should be set to the 5¢ space or the $1 space to start.

Plinko - When a disc got stuck, like Bob (and presently Drew), Doug would also use the Plinko Stick. However, he would just bang the stick against the game prop to make the disc fall down instead of merely moving the chip with the stick.

Cliff Hangers - Davidson, as mentioned before, referred to the mountain climber as Hans Gudegast. When the game was lost, after the commercial, Doug would joke and say that Hans was being rushed to the hospital.

Showcase - As with the daytime show, there were very funny running gags in the showcases. One now-famous-among-game show fans showcase involved Burton announcing the prizes (which included a Sanyo TV, Sega Genesis, and Nigel Mansell's Indy Car Challenge to start with) with an "echo" effect, to which Doug questions Burton as to why it was appropriate for him to use an echo, then Burton responds with saying "A CAR!" three times for three cars to appear (a Ford Escort, Pontiac Grand Am, and Mitsubishi 3000GT). This was referred to as "the showcase that has an echo-echo-echo...!". Unfortunately, the contestant did not manage to win the showcase, losing by a wide margin (his $6,000 range did not include the ARP of $56,752 [he set it between $41,000-$47,000]).

Set

The show's set differed drastically from that of the daytime show. The Big Doors had diamond patterns (not to be confused with the 2007 pattern), gold logos (similar to the 1986 CBS primetime specials), and marbled doorframes with no lights; the Turntable was replaced with a large video wall; and the floor was covered with a shiny, black surface (that same floor would later be used for Hollywood Squares (1998), and is currently used for the Drew Carey version of The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular).

Pilot

The pilot for the series was hosted by KTLA news personality Mark Kriski, with Bob Hilton doing the announcing. Shots of the set from this episode, which used the colored spolights from the '86 Specials around the Big Doors and a repainted Range Game board for the Showcase, can be seen in the opening sequence on early episodes.

Theme song

While this show's theme song was virtually the same as that of the daytime show, it was done in a smooth jazz arrangement. The theme song would carry over to Bruce Forsyth's Bruce's Price Is Right in the UK (as well as El Precio Justo in Spain and O Preço Certo Em Euros in Portugal). The "come on down" cue was also heard on Bruce's Price Is Right, El Precio Justo, and O Preço Certo Em Euros, as well as Finland's Mitä Maksaa, even though the latter show's version used a different main theme song.

After The New Price Is Right

The Big Door panels from Davidson's show were repainted 18 months after the end of its run, when the original panels began to wear out on the daytime show. These panels were used through the end of season 35, when the daytime show's set was overhauled with the current door panels.
Doug Davidson was given an audition to replace daytime host Bob Barker upon Barker's 2007 retirement, but nothing came of it and he was not considered after the audition.
Burton Richardson would announce several episodes of the daytime show when Rod Roddy (the daytime show's regular announcer at the time) became ill, and after Roddy died in 2003, he stayed in the announcing rotation, which included eventual replacement Rich Fields. Richardson is the current announcer on another Goodson-Todman/FremantleMedia game show, Family Feud. Richardson also was announcer of the Christmas 2006 episode (Barker's last Christmas show) when Fields was ill.
The Safe Crackers think music from Davidson's show has been used on the daytime version since late April 1995.
The black floor was used for Hollywood Squares, which aired from 1998-2004, and taped at Studio 33, and is also used for the 2008 CBS primetime series of Price.
Many of the show's other music cues have been used on the daytime version since early in Season 25.
This version of The Price Is Right is one of two versions that has not aired in reruns anywhere since its original run. Rebroadcast rights to The New Price Is Right are held separately from the regular series, by CBS Television Distribution. (The other is the 1970s syndicated Dennis James version. Bob Barker, despite having no involvement in the 1970s series until 1977, is said to have banned it because of animal rights issues.)
To date, it is the last version of The Price Is Right to air in syndication. However, it is not the last nighttime version of the show, as primetime specials in 1996 and from 2002 onward have aired on CBS, all following roughly the same rules as the daytime version with more expensive prizes.