Line #18 Series/BargainHunters


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bargainhunters.png]]
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3	Short-lived 1987 Creator/{{ABC}} GameShow created by Creator/MerrillHeatter and hosted by [[Series/PressYourLuck Peter Tomarken]] which tried to combine the essence of the increasingly-popular home shopping craze with that of a certain other game show.
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5	Three pairs of contestants competed in three separate minigames, always in this order:
6	* '''Bargain Quiz''' - The players had to guess whether an item at a certain price was a bargain; the items could be anything, from the original price of a bottle of Coca-Cola to the amount Sophia Loren owed in her tax evasion case. Buzzing in with the right answer won a point, a wrong answer gave a point to their opponent. The first to three points won the game and a bonus prize.
7	* '''Bargain Trap''' - The players were shown five prizes, each with a price; four were priced below the actual retail price, one was marked up and deemed the "Trap". The two players then alternated picking from the prizes. Picking the Trap was an automatic loss; if the four bargains were picked, the players would write down what they believed the actual price of the Trap was; the closest guess won. The winner kept the prizes they chose (and the Trap, if the game went down to that prize).
8	* '''Bargain Busters''' - The players tried to correctly guess the bargain price a certain store gave a stated item, locking in one of three possible choices. Right answers won a point; the one in the lead after three prizes won the game and the prizes. If there was a tie, a fourth item was displayed; the players would write down what they believed the price was, and the closest guess won.
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10	The three winners then played Super Savers, where each player chose three bargain-priced prizes from a group of seven. The player who saved the most won the three prizes they chose, plus a grand prize.
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12	In case you haven't noticed yet, that "certain other game show" was most likely ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'', but that's just the tip of the iceberg — every round was followed by a "Bargain Shopper" segment, where the show magically turned into the Home Shopping Network and offered viewers a chance to buy an item from the preceding round at a discount by calling the onscreen phone number.
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14	Aside from the fact that it was three parts game show and two parts {{infomercial}}, ''Bargain Hunters'' wasn't really that good, with Tomarken apparently going so far as to call it a "piece of shit". While the series debuted on July 6, it was preempted frequently during its first few weeks by special coverage on the Iran-Contra affairs, which meant it never really gained a foothold with viewers. The show ended just nine weeks later on September 4, and was replaced by reruns of ''Series/MrBelvedere''.
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16	Peter Tomarken was the host, and Dean Goss was the announcer.
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18	Not to be confused with ''Series/BargainHunt''.
19	----
20	!!This series provides examples of:
21	* BonusRound: The Super Savers round, in a way.
22	* {{Expy}}:
23	** ''Price'' has done two games prominently involving bargains: Barker's Bargain Bar (now simply called Bargain Game) and the now-retired $uper $aver. The bonus round of ''Hunters'' is very close to the latter, which involved picking four grocery items marked down to various degrees and trying to save a certain amount, except ''Hunters'' was competitive and didn't have a target amount.
24	* HomeParticipationSweepstakes: Actually closer to a Home Participation Offer; a prize was offered to the home viewers after each minigame, and they'd recap them just before the credits.
25	* {{Pilot}}: Taped May 28, 1987, with some different graphics and a slightly different format for Bargain Quiz. The winner of that would play an extra game where they'd have to pick the right price for an item out of a choice of two; it was likely dropped as that is ''exactly'' how ''The Price Is Right'''s Double Prices is played.
26	* ProductPlacement: ''Price'' has PromotionalConsideration in its prize descriptions pretty much by design, but they don't turn into QVC and give you a phone number to buy the items featured on the show. They've done HomeParticipationSweepstakes on their website with a similar concept, but its still nothing like this.
27	* RecycledSoundtrack: The music cue for the home shopping segments turned up again on ''Series/TheLastWord'', a short-lived Heatter word game from 1989.
28	* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: Entirely possible in "Bargain Trap"; if the contestant going first picked the Trap right off the bat, the opponent automatically won the game without having to pick a single prize. In that case, the winner would be awarded the Trap prize so they would at least walk away from the game with ''something''. This did happen at least once.
29	** Also possible in "Bargain Quiz", if a trigger-happy contestant happened to buzz in and miss the first three questions in a row.

Context Series / BargainHunters