History Series / SaleOftheCentury

''"Today on America's BIGGEST bargain sale, we're offering a Datsun 300ZX, valued at $26,194 for only $530! Cash and prizes worth over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars for only $750! TWO of the incredible bargains on...SALE OF THE CENTURY!"''

** The American version briefly offered anyone who bought an Instant Bargain a question to earn the money they just spent back. The questions were gone after a week.

* EpicFail:
** Any time a contestant manages to get less than $1,000 from the Temptation Vault, or by comparison, getting the "Joker" card in the Cash Card game from 1989 to 1992.
** In a sense, Michael Friedman, on his last day when he was trying to play for all of the prizes plus a $72,000 cash jackpot. His opponent that day: Alice Conkwright. A fantastic player in his own right, all of Friedman's hard work over two weeks worth of shows was for naught – although he did still leave with more than $18,000 in winnings. Incidentally, Friedman gave Conkwright her toughest challenge, scoring $75 to her $120 (none of her other challengers ever scored more than $40 against her, and most failed to even exceed $25!).
** By Alice Conkwright's last show during her record run in the 1985 U.S. version, Jim Perry's attempts to get her to buy an Instant Bargain. Most notably, he offered her $2,000 to buy a trip. She declined, and Jim cried like Wile E. Coyote.

** Jack Kelly from 1969 to 1971, followed by Joe Garagiola. Jim Perry of ''Series/CardSharks'' fame hosted in the 1980s. According to newspaper articles from back in the day, Kelly left to focus on his acting career, and due to getting exhausted of commuting from Los Angeles to New York City. However, according to Randy West, creator Al Howard was not happy with putting up with Kelly due to too many disagreements with him.

** Jack Kelly from 1969 to 1971, followed by Joe Garagiola. Jim Perry of ''Series/CardSharks'' fame hosted in the 1980s.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Temptation'' in Australia.
** While not produced by the same company, or even aired on the [[Creator/SevenNetwork same network]], ''Million Dollar Minute'' can also be seen as this.

GameShow that originally ran on Creator/{{NBC}} from 1969 to 1973, followed by weekly syndication for the 1973/74 season. The show was created by Al Howard two years after the conclusion of another program of his, ''Series/SupermarketSweep'' on Creator/{{ABC}}. It was originally hosted by Jack Kelly, who was replaced by Joe Garagiola in 1971. The show was directed by Creator/PaulAlter. Three solo contestants (from April 1973 to September 1974, two husband-wife teams) accumulated small amounts of money by answering general-knowledge questions. At certain points in the game, the player/couple in the lead could spend part of their score on ridiculously discounted prizes. Unlike most games, ''Sale'' allowed all players to take home whatever money and prizes were credited to them, regardless of the outcome.

** While not produced by the same company, or even aired on the [[Creator/SevenNetwork same network]], "Million Dollar Minute" can also be seen as this.

* FakeFood: On one early Jim Perry episode, Jay Stewart was wearing a nice hat decorated with fruit and cream. Jim walked up and dipped his finger in the cream... only to discover that it was ''shaving'' cream.

* FakeFood: On one early Jim Perry episode, Jay Stewart was wearing a NiceHat decorated with fruit and cream. Jim walked up and dipped his finger in the cream... only to discover that it was ''shaving'' cream.

* MysteryBox: The "Mystery Money" option on the Fame Game board.

** Early in the 1980s run, the last Fame Game of the day was followed by only three more questions. This gave the last Fame Game the potential to put the game out of reach unless someone who trailed by less than $10 found the $25 Money Card.

** Subverted in later seasons; one money card was added to the board on each Fame Game--first $10, then $15, and finally $25. (also, from 1989 to mid-1992 in the Australian version, a fourth Fame Game round was added, with a $20 Money Card {played third, followed by the $25 Fame Game round}).

* Yet another contest ran for two weeks in 1985, involving ''Sale'' and two other NBC game shows, ''Scrabble'' and ''Super Password''. The ''Sale'' portion gave one clue per day to the identity of a famous person; viewers had to write that person's name on a postcard and send it in. One $50,000 grand prize winner and fifteen $1,000 runner-up winners were chosen from all the cards that had the correct answer to any of the three shows' contests.

** Another U.S. sweepstakes invited viewers to send in postcards. Jim drew one before each Fame Game, and that viewer won whatever cash or prize the player got from the board (or $1,000 cash if they hit a Money Card).

** Lovely Assistant: "Normally priced at $xx, today/tonight, it's yours for only $xx on ''$ale of the Century''.

** The Fame Game also had one briefly. Shortly after introducing the $5 Money Card, there was a "5+" card, meaning whomever found it got a second pick immediately, and won either whatever prize or cash was found or, if an additional Money Card was found, had more money -- potentially up to $30 in one turn -- added to their score. As the "$400 or Pick Again" card was in play at this time, this potentially meant up to three Fame Game cards could be uncovered during a single Fame Game playing.

** The U.S. version had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKA-_-Shr-4 one]] circa 1986, which had home viewers sending in postcards for prizes such as a diamond watch.

** Subverted in later seasons; one money card was added to the board on each Fame Game--first $10, then $15, and finally $25. (also, from 1989 to mid-1992 in the Australian version, a fourth Fame Game round was added, with a $20 Money Card {played third, followed by the $25 Fame Game round})
* HomeParticipationSweepstakes: The U.S. version had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKA-_-Shr-4 one]] circa 1986, which had home viewers sending in postcards for prizes such as a diamond watch. The Aussie version had two such examples--a "Home Viewer" which appeared in the middle box of the Fame Game board from 1987 to 2001, and those that were chosen as partners for the [[CelebrityEdition celebrity versions]].

** Any cash bonus prize or jackpot was represented by a transparent plastic case filled with bundled bills, carried by a LovelyAssistant (and handed to the champ if he/she bought or won it). Before the jackpot was put into the game, this included the bonus awarded to any contestant who bought the Lot (to bring its total value up to $95,000).

** ADayInTheLimelight: On the ''[[MilestoneCelebration 40 Years of Television]]'' special in 1996, [[TheAnnouncer Pete Smith]] competed and ultimately advanced to the finals. Gary Coleman (yes, [[Series/DiffrentStrokes THAT]] Gary Coleman) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTDuFEQkeDY subbed as announcer for the final episode of the event]]- he was pretty good! Also, during the ''Temptation'' era, Ed Philips and Livinia Nixon once played the game as part of a special "Battle of the [[Creator/NineNetwork Network]] Shows" week. Filling in for them as host and hostess? [[spoiler:Tony Barber and Alyce "Sparky" Platt.]]
** The original version in the 1970s with Joe Garagiola, during the couples' format, featured at lest one towards the end of the daytime edition in 1973. It was a Mother's Day week edition that aired during the week of May 7, 1973, with two female celebrities helping out two female contestants win cash and prizes. [[http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/542/ljeb.jpg Celebrities during that week were Nanette Fabray and Anita Gillette]].

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: In the Reg Grundy versions since its debut in Australia in 1980, the front of the hosts' podium had different colored square-lights (green, yellow and red), flashing on a black board. They would form a shape to indicate the type of answer given. A green check mark indicated a correct answer, a yellow question mark indicated that more information should be given on a particular answer, and a red X indicated that the answer was incorrect. These were also used on the US version, but it seemingly wasn't ever referred to and half the time it merely flashed random colors, or was cut off by the camera.

* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Used in two different ways once cash bonus prizes were added to the game. The opening sequence was changed to include a shot of a leather briefcase being opened to reveal a pile of $100 bills. During the bonus round, any cash prize or jackpot was represented by a transparent plastic case filled with bundled cash, carried by a LovelyAssistant (and handed to the champ if he/she bought or won it).

** Two WIN cards were hidden on the Winner's Board for each of a champ's first eight visits to it. Finding one of these meant that the champ would automatically win the next prize they found. Also served as a DoubleUnlock for the two biggest prizes, a car and $10,000 cash, since each of these only appeared once.

* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Used in two different ways once cash bonus prizes were added to the game. The opening sequence was changed to include a shot of a leather briefcase being opened to reveal a pile of $100 bills. During the bonus round, the daily prize (Winner's Big Money Game) and the big jackpot (all three formats) were represented by a transparent plastic case filled with bundled cash, carried by a LovelyAssistant (and handed to the champ if he/she bought or won it).

* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Used in two different ways once the cash jackpot was added as a bonus prize. The opening sequence was changed to include a shot of a leather briefcase being opened to reveal a pile of $100 bills. During the bonus round, the jackpot itself was represented by a transparent plastic case filled with bundled cash, carried by a LovelyAssistant (and handed to the champ if he/she bought or won it).

* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Used in two different ways once the cash jackpot was added as a bonus prize. The opening sequence was changed to include a shot of a leather briefcase being opened to reveal a pile of $100 bills. During the shopping round, the jackpot itself was represented by a transparent plastic case filled with bundled cash, carried by a LovelyAssistant (and handed to the champ if he/she either bought it by itself or racked up a high enough score total to afford the Lot).

After this became a major success as well, he took it to NBC with Jim Perry as host. This era ran on NBC from 1983 to 1989, with a concurrent syndicated version airing daily from January 1985 to June 1986. The Australian version, meanwhile, continued until 2001. The United Kingdom has also had two revivals, one from 1989 to 1992 on [[Creator/{{Sky}} Sky One]] (as part of its initial lineup with the launch of its service on the Astra Satellite); and the other from 1997 to 1998 on Challenge TV.

** The first was almost identical to the original, simply called ''Shopping'': the champion could use their accumulated money from the front game to buy one of the progressively fancier prizes available, or try for a larger prize by coming back the next day. Reaching a specific target won all the onstage prizes plus a cash jackpot, referred to as ''the Lot''. Originally, there was no cash jackpot- instead, some extra cash was thrown in, to make the entire prize package worth $95,000. Later, when the jackpot, [[ProgressiveJackpot which started at $50,000 and increased by $1,000 each time it wasn't won]], was added[[note]](around the May 30 1983 episode)[[/note]], it was designated at the second-to-last level as a stand-alone prize. Most contestants who made it that far opted to leave once they got the jackpot. Only Barbara Phillips walked away with the jackpot ''and'' all the prizes. The syndicated version used this for its first ten months before being replaced by the Winner's Board. Also on the syndicated versions' shopping episodes, the cash jackpot was only obtainable on the last level, along with the rest of the prizes, making that version's shopping round much closer to the Australian version.
** This was replaced in October 1984 (November 18, 1985 on the syndicated edition) by the ''Winner's Board'', a simple matching game with 20 spaces. Most of the spaces contained matching prizes, but two of the spaces held "WIN" cards which allowed the instant win of a prize revealed in the next pick (the top prizes of a car and $10,000 could only be won this way.) Once a champion cleared the board, they could risk these prizes to play one more time; winning that game won an extra $50,000.

** For the Australian ''Temptation'', it was a money ladder style system for the prizes- nice prizes for the first five nights, all of them (including the car) for night six, all of them plus the cash jackpot for night seven, and night eight doubled the jackpot. To put money in the jackpot (starting at $50,000), they would play a game called ''Top Ten'': answer 10 questions in 60 seconds, and accomplishing this would add $50,000 more to the jackpot. Players would choose one set out of five for the questions. The highest the jackpot could go was $800,000.

** Hell, pretty much ''any'' champion that plays for a big prize (whether it's the Car, the Cash Jackpot, All the Prizes on stage, or the Lot {All the Prizes on stage AND the Cash Jackpot}) and loses counts as this.

** [[ADayInTheLimelight Ed and Livinia]] losing on their own show at the very last second in the Battle of the Network Shows against "What's Good For You."

*** The first series was a bit different- the Temptation Vault had a max value of $5,000 (and was offered in round 1), the Burglar merely took $5 away from an opponent's score and didn't add onto the score of whoever picked it, Turbo applied to all three contestants, the Wild Card was still $1,000 and the bonus round was different. Specifically, the jackpot had a MoneyLadder going up to $100,000, and if you passed or gave a wrong answer it would reset. Also, instead of staying for eight nights to double the jackpot, they'd win on night seven the prizes, the jackpot (which didn't double; here it had a max of $600,000) and ''$500,000 in gold bullion''. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer No, they actually had that as part of the Lot!]]

* EpisodeCodeNumber: There were two different kinds on both 1980s Daytime and Syndicated editions with Jim Perry. On the daytime show, a conventional numbering system was used. On the syndicated show, each episode was labeled with an "S" for "Syndication" at the start of the number.