Yep, an entire channel of Bob Barker’s era! I’m watching an episode from '81, '82 or '83 right now, given that they tried to give away a car which was only made for the '82 or '83 model years.
I like Pluto, I was watching it last night when I couldn’t fall back to sleep. They keep improving it. I like the Doctor Who Channel a lot and last night I found The lost episodes of Carol Burnette.
Some of my earliest memories are being alone in my parents’ room, lying on their bed and watching TPIR.
I’ll have to check it out if only to see if I could guess prices without 35 years of inflation.
I sort of wish they would show 35 year old commercials with the old shows.
Honestly, I’m not sure if they have licensed his entire run. It’s advertised as the Barker Era but so far I’m only seeing Eighties episodes. The channel has been active since the First.
Even with the relatively recent episodes, seeing old technology is kinda fun. Computers from Texas Instruments and cordless phones with telescopic antennas!
Sadly, they definitely don’t have many episodes yet. I’m already seeing repeats.
I watched a couple episodes. I didn’t realize way back then that Barker is kind of a dick, but he was.
I was with a group of people who were guests in the audience for TPIR. (a college trip, a journalism professor had a connection with Ralph Edwards). We were not eligible to be called up as contestants, but we were seated right behind the where the contestants stood, about the third row, and we did get the name tags. I remember seeing ourselves when the episode aired, so I guess I’ll be on Pluto TV one day.
Also got to be in the courtroom on a Judge Wapner case that same day. That was cool.
But what really matters is that Pluto has a ‘Love Boat’ channel. I didn’t think I could binge watch anything, but it turns out if it’s really cheesy, I can.
Given that Pluto has been limiting episodes to after TPIR stopped trying to give away fur coats, I’ve started watching older episodes on YouTube. I had forgotten that there was no Showcase Showdown originally.
One thing I’ve learned watching these: Bob was taping three shows a day. Said so himself when speaking with a contestant who had been in the audience for all three the previous day.
The original The Price is Right bears no resemblance to the show we know today. I saw some episodes on Cozi or one of those other nostalgia channels. It was more of a quiz show format that involved guessing prices for products from the day. I remember having to look up what some of the “modern” gadgets were.
Yeah, there’s a thread about that around here somewhere…
Can you please be more specific on how it has changed? Were there fewer different games back then? The current version occasionally has a game from the past, or a game with prices from 30 years ago versus now, which can be interesting.
We always considered The Price is Right a game of skill, versus Let’s Make a Deal or Deal or No Deal which seem like more random chances. Plinko for example seems to be a totally random game of chance, but contestants still need to know some prices in order to get more chances to play. (And when was Plinko introduced?)
@Drum_God is referring to the Bill Cullen one:
There aren’t any games and the whole thing works like an auction for each item. The four contestants try to outbid each other in round robin without going over the actual price.
Yes, that’s the one. I couldn’t remember the name of the channel, but my wife and I have been watching some shows on BUZZR. (We like Supermarket Sweep. I think the modern version is fun, but there is only so much of Leslie Jones yelling at me that I can take at one time.)
Bumping because The Price Is Right channels on Pluto & Roku will finally show episodes from the first season. They – and other episodes new to the channels – will run during Prime Time from 27 November until 7 January and will feature a special celebrating what would have been Bob’s 100th birthday, presumably on 12 December.
These episodes will have been checked to ensure they don’t feature any fur.
The promo makes it sound like this will be kicking off the whole thing on 27 November.
My parents and my dad’s sister attended a taping of the show, with Barker. Didn’t get called down, but they were sitting right behind the podiums so we could see them a lot. My folks were away when the episode aired and I was at their house to be sure that it got recorded correctly. As the show started it was less than a minute before the phone rang and the voice said “Mrs.****, you’re on TV!!!”
I hope they do a better job than GSN did back in the day - occasionally, a fur would sneak through in a showcase.
Not particularly well known fact: it got to the point where, in addition to (a) no furs and (b) no cars from companies that didn’t sign a “we don’t use animals for testing” statement, they stopped using grocery items that contained meat. I like to joke that you can tell this happened when the Hot Pockets switched from “pepperoni pizza” to “broccoli & cheese.”
When I was in college the TV in the dining hall would often be tuned to some channel that would show old TPIR episodes from the 1970s. It definitely added an additional challenge if you were playing along; the question wasn’t merely “How much does this cost?”, but “How much did this cost in 1976?”
Now I’m trying to figure out exactly how a car company would use animals for testing if they did.
I know Bob Barker had a “no foreign cars” policy.
I wonder how long that lasted. I’ve seen Isuzus on the Roku channel and I’ve found video of a Hole in One game featuring a German-built VW Rabbit on Facebook.