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1* AdaptationDisplacement:
2** While the original ''Price'' lasted for nine years, a very long run for a game show, the current version has run for over ''50''. There are at least two generations of viewers who might have never heard of the Cullen era.
3** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkLBxBw-9ec&feature=youtu.be As noted on-air by Bob Barker]], a case of this had actually occurred during the 1994-95 season, with the syndicated ''The New Price Is Right'', hosted by Doug Davidson, confusing viewers into thinking the daytime version ("the '''old''' ''Price Is Right''") had been canceled or that something similar had happened, much to Barker's chagrin. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etJl_tMGCQU This promo]] mentions a "new host", apparently leading people to think Barker was somehow gone from the daytime show, and that it moved to syndication as a half-hour show with a new set and host.
4* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: When Bob Stewart created the series in 1956, comedian Creator/DickVanDyke was asked to try out as host. He passed on it, saying there was no entertainment value in watching four people guess how much things cost. The job went to Bill Cullen, and the original lasted nine years; the CBS version has run for over 50.
5* AudienceAlienatingEra:
6** Seasons 11-13, mainly because of Bob Barker's hosting style. Fans noticed that he took the loss of his wife Dorothy Jo in 1981 pretty hard and that it had a direct effect on his personality. Barker devolved into a sarcastic sexist, a far cry from the wise-cracking, jovial mood he had in the 70s. He started showing shades of his old self again in Season 14, although he didn't quite host with exactly the same energy since. Season 11 was also when the turntable got updated, although it was done in a particularly tacky way. The spinning wall got the purple/red/orange design, but the other partitions didn't change for another few weeks. That's not factoring in two weeks with the permanent changes being taped out of order.
7** The final years of the Barker era have been seen as such due to increasing senior moments and false reveals from the host, as well as its technology being seen as increasingly dated compared to other game shows. Barker and producer Roger Dobkowitz were vehemently against the network's attempts to modernize the show. Although its long-running contemporaries were continuously updating their sets, ''Price'' opted to repaint the turntable (which had the same basic design since 1972, and the same color scheme since 1982) with [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/unPOKbfSRlE/maxresdefault.jpg a Hollywood mural]] that was seen as an eyesore by the fandom; it was quickly repainted with the old pattern in pink, purple, and blue. The nadir of this era may have been reached on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4N2Wb3cmvc December 12, 2006]], Barker's 83rd birthday, when Barker nearly botched the reveal in Dice Game, briefly appeared to forget Rich Fields's name, and asked to see the next item up for bids after it was presented.
8** Other longtime fans feel the show entered it in Season 37, when Roger Dobkowitz was ousted and Kathy "Fingers" Greco took Dobkowitz' role. The show then relied on a plethora of gimmicks (including celebrity appearances that ground the show to a halt), inexplicable prizes in the Showcase (including a coffee kiosk, a walk-in wine vault, and [[UndesirablePrize 365 pairs of shoes]]), and specials (such as a show to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of Plinko with the game being played ''six times''). The difficulties of many pricing games [[NintendoHard skyrocketed]], while others vanished without a trace. Season 37 also brought in "Drewcases", Showcase sketches that were [[MeaningfulName written by Drew]] which were completely off the wall and had little or no relation to the prizes (though to be fair, Drew later admitted they were a bad idea). This was also the time when Rich Fields was ousted and Pay the Rent (a Fields creation) was introduced, a least favorite pricing game among many fans. Fingers would retire during Season 39. Some fans argue that the show started coming out of it in Season 43 which saw some specials and gimmicks (or at least the unnecessary ones) dying down with the show feeling a lot more professional.
9* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The opening theme. Once you heard those trumpets start blaring you knew you were in for a great hour of television. [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks Shame the primetime specials used a different theme]] (though the main theme still kicked in once all four initial contestants had been called down to contestant's row). Today's primetime specials, however (known as ''The Price Is Right At Night''), still use the normal Come on Down music and regular theme music.
10* BaseBreakingCharacter:
11** Bob Barker. While many agree that he ranks among the best game show hosts, some feel that his behavior on and off the set make his episodes uncomfortable to watch. The divisiveness increased when Pluto TV launched a channel streaming his shows starting in Season 11. His sexism, especially at that point in time, was seen as either a product of the era or a reflection of what he really thought about the models and women in general. He did tone it down a few years afterward, but the legal troubles he faced in the 1990s didn't help matters. After he assumed the executive producer role in 1988, he was notably against many of the changes CBS tried to force on the show. This split the fan base into those who respected his wishes to keep the show traditional and those who thought he was in the way of the show getting modernized.
12** Drew Carey, especially when compared against Barker. Is he a more personable host who's brought his own repertoire to the show, or does his style of comedy make him a poor fit for the job? It doesn't help that those against him only use his early seasons as sample sizes, because the fans who've given him a chance say he really improved after a few years.
13* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Some of the Drewcases, including the fried chicken skit and one where the models (and Drew) are pied in the face for no reason at all.
14* BrokenBase:
15** Cover Up originally had contestants covering up a fake price. Since the end of Season 41, contestants cover up random symbols [[CouchGag which change with each playing]]. On one side, you have fans agreeing with Drew's point that covering up fake numbers to start the game is pointless and looking forward to seeing what symbols pop up. Then you have fans [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks complaining that they changed it for the sake of change]] and that covering up the fake price was an iconic part of the game.
16** Barker's Bargain Bar, depending on who you ask, may be one of the best or one of the weakest games in the rotation. The same can be said about a couple other pricing games. Detractors of this game will often cite its CreatorsPet tendencies during most of the Barker years due to its higher playings than other two-prize pricing games. When the game returned in April 2012 as Bargain Game after not being played for almost three-and-a-half years (and thought to be retired), the general reaction for the game's return was rejoicing. The new set for the game, on the other hand...
17** Time is Money has been pretty divisive, especially since its return after a ten-year absence. Its object of placing grocery items into price categories is seen as either a fair challenge or expecting too much. Its rule change in the Barker era split the fan base into those who appreciated the increased time limits plus the revamped second chance and those who thought the removal of the $500 voucher made the game an ArtifactTitle. Roger Dobkowitz put the game on hiatus with plans to revive it falling through by the time of his departure. The game made an unexpected return in Season 43, though its welcome has also been met with schisms among the fan base. Some fans think the new money aspect makes the game more exciting while rewarding smart shoppers. On the other hand, tying a money countdown to the clock demands even more from the contestants and adds unnecessary drama to the game.
18** Pay the Rent. On one hand, it's a challenging game that tests your knowledge with grocery prices and has decent payoffs even for bailing out. On the other, it's [[ItsHardSoItSucks too difficult]] and nigh {{Unwinnable}} with [[NintendoHard very few ways to win the $100,000 top prize]]. To the staff's credit, they do make Pay the Rent easier until someone finally wins the grand prize, at which point they revert it to its old ways again. The extra bells and whistles that come with the game are either appropriate for the mood or too glitzy even for ''Price'' standards.
19** In certain pricing games, what constitutes as a win? While almost every game is straightforward, the one that drives the most fans against each other is Plinko. Some are content with saying the center slot being hit at least once should count as a win. Others prefer to stick to the official rules which state that the contestant must attain the announced main prize for the game to be won. For that to happen, the contestant must play the small prize portion perfectly and then drop all five chips into the top dollar value. Fan recaps vary on how to report playings where Plinko's center slot is hit at least once but no more than five times.
20** The RunningGag of people not knowing how to play Check Game. Some say it's part of the charm. Others find it exasperating to see so many contestants struggle with the rules.
21** Fans are split on how to date episodes that aired on dates different than originally scheduled. This was very common during the early seasons of the Drew Carey era, where episodes were aired OutOfOrder more often than not, though it doesn't happen as often in recent years. For example, the episode with Terry Kneiss' perfect Showcase bid was originally scheduled for November 27, 2008, but ended up airing on December 16. Many fans insist on referring to episodes' dates as their originally scheduled dates and noting their final air dates separately. Others believe the final air dates are the only dates that matter.
22* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
23** The $1-higher bid or $1 bid mentioned on the main page will almost always be the last bid in a round for each item up for bids in Contestants' Row.
24** Comes up frequently during the Showcase Showdown. If the second or third spinner ties the winners' total in one spin, they have an interesting decision to make: accept the tie and a possible spin-off, or take their second spin and try to beat the other spinner outright and risk going over. Most often, the winners' total is above 50 cents, and the usual action is to accept the tie.
25** During the small-prize portion of Five Price Tags, contestants guess "false" ''extremely'' more often than "true". Taking advantage of this, the staff almost-always sets up this portion of the game to have only one out of the four prizes be "false". In one 2009 episode, ''all four'' prizes were "true", and the contestant did not get to try for the car due to guessing "false" for each one.
26** In Pay the Rent, it is quite common to see contestants putting the least expensive item on the mailbox. Almost every winning combination used in this game does ''[[SchmuckBait not]]'' involve this move.
27* EnsembleDarkHorse: 3 Strikes, Give or Keep, The Phone Home Game, Plinko, Cliff Hangers, and It's in the Bag, among others, remain fan favorites.
28* FandomEnragingMisconception: "Showcase Showdown" is when they spin the Big Wheel (or, on some of the Davidson version, "The Price Was Right"). The last part of the show, where contestants bid on the big prize packages, is simply referred to as "The Showcase" (or, in recaps, "Showcase Round"). ''Never'' refer to the latter as the "Showcase Showdown", or ''Price'' fans will hate you forever and a day.
29* FandomRivalry: With ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', starting early in TheNewTwenties. Fans of both shows clashed over Mike Richards' involvement with ''Jeopardy!'' after he replaced the retiring Harry Friedman as executive producer. At first, it was over some contentious judgment calls during Mike's first two weeks. Then, it came about that Mike mistreated long-time ''Jeopardy!'' staffers who are closer-knitted compared to the environment he inherited from ''Price''. The tipping point was when Mike was announced as Trebek's permanent successor which the ''Price'' community was fine with. Fans, the production staff and even former contestants of ''Jeopardy!'' didn't take too kindly to it, complaining that the selection process was one-sided. ''Price'' fans pointed out that Mike's behavior on the set was tame compared to what Bob Barker did despite the latter getting away relatively unscathed, even as more exposés circulated on the sketchiness of Mike's character. ''Jeopardy!'' fans felt vindicated after Mike lost his job as host and was later fired from that show altogether.
30* FanNickname:
31** "El Skunko", mentioned on the main page.
32** An early pricing game known as "Bullseye" is usually referred to by fans as "Bullseye I" or "Bullseye '72" (the year it debuted) [[note]](the official website used to call it "Old Bullseye" back in the late 1990s)[[/note]], with the current Bullseye unofficially called "Bullseye II" or "Bullseye '76".
33** Before its official name was revealed in 2006, fans referred to "Double Bullseye" among other things as "2-Player Bullseye I" or "2-Player Auction".
34** "Punch a Bunch" is generally referred to simply as "Punchboard".
35** Episode #4581D (aired September 13, 1982) is nicknamed "Mic Elbow" by regular viewers of the Barker Era channel on Pluto TV, due to the episode beginning with Bob complaining about how tired his elbow gets from holding his microphone. This is the first chronological episode in Pluto's rotation that gradually adds new episodes after a few cycles. Bob's complaining of "mic elbow" is a sign that the rotation looped back to the beginning and another cycle has begun.
36** The original Balance Game is generally referred to as "Balance Game '84" while the current one is called "Balance Game '06".
37** The studio at CBS Television City where the show was taped for its first 51 seasons was renamed The Bob Barker Studio in 1998. Likely because of the namesake's baggage, some fans prefer to call it "Studio 33", its original name.
38** The Showcases written by Carey in Season 37 were almost instantly called "Drewcases" after their writer (and, most of the time, the only guy laughing at the "jokes").
39** A DSW (Double Showcase Win) happens when a contestant bids within $250 of the actual retail price of their showcase without going over. Fans have adopted the nickname of "[[SdrawkcabName WSD]]" for when a contestant ''overbids'' by $250 or less.
40** The fansite [[http://www.golden-road.net Golden-Road.net]] has a whole lexicon of fan nicknames, to the point where they would need a separate article. Among them are "That's Two Ninth!" (during a stretch where That's Too Much! had its solution in the second or ninth slots) and embarrassingly-cutesy nicknames for the pricing games ("Cliffy" for Cliff Hangers, "Baggy" for It's In The Bag, etc.). The latter fell out of style by the mid-2010's, however, and are rarely used nowadays.
41** Golden Road, 3 Strikes and Triple Play are collectively referred to as "The Big 3" because they are the pricing games with the highest stakes. Since 2010, fans have optionally used "The Big 4" to include Pay the Rent.
42** While it would seem like Plinko could be part of this group as well, the odds of winning the top prize in Plinko are relatively astronomically high, and on average, Plinko's payouts are roughly on par with the vast majority of the other pricing games.
43** Some fans refer to pricing games under their original names, even decades after being changed. Most commonly, Check Game gets this treatment with fans still preferring its "Blank Check" name.
44* FanonDiscontinuity: Some fans refuse to acknowledge Drew Carey as host after Bob Barker retired in 2007. Then there are fans who gave up on the series after Roger Dobkowitz was dismissed the following year.
45* FriendlyFandoms: Despite being a direct competitor to ''Price'' for several years, there is a lot of fandom overlap with ''Series/WheelOfFortune''. If you were to ask a ''Wheel'' fan what their second-favorite game show is, they're more like to say ''The Price is Right'' than ''Jeopardy!''. Not surprising given that both shows are known for their brightly-colored sets, easy accessibility for anyone to play along, and both shows having a spinning wheel with numbers.
46* GameBreaker: A number of the games had different quirks where strategy was a key part in winning a game, as opposed to mere guessing games or where pricing/consumer knowledge was required. (Except for Clock Game, where binary search was always the way to win, the unwritten rules for many of these games were not always in place, only going in somewhere in 1979 or 1980, when Roger Dobkowitz was in charge of setting up most of the games.) Examples:
47** '''All pricing games in general''':
48*** Since at least Season 44 (2015-2016), all pricing games have prize packages that are worth at least $5,000 in total. This is especially helpful with games that only have one prize, such as Freeze Frame and Push Over.
49*** If a pricing game offers a pair of identical prizes, the price always ends in an even number.
50** '''Pricing games played for trips''': The farther away from Los Angeles, the more expensive the trip. If it's an international trip, it's usually the highest price possible.
51** '''Cliff Hangers''': All three small prizes are in progressive order, and 99 percent of the time, the game can be won with blind guesses of either $20-$30-$40 or $25-$35-$45. While few contestants try this trick, one person [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdOWZFUjKn8 was]] savvy enough to try it and was only $1 away from a perfect game.
52*** This was Lampshaded on a "superfan" special, where the prices were ''exactly'' $20-$30-$40.
53** '''Clock Game''': Binary search – going 100s first, then 10s, then 1s – will guarantee a full win 100 percent of the time. The only other strategy: Take your time, and make sure you hear Carey say "higher" or lower. What makes this game even easier is since the late 80s (barring Season 37), prices higher than $999 are never used.
54** '''Coming or Going''': A rule that has held true for nearly all playings for the past several years: if the prize is a trip, "Going" is the right answer (a pun on "going on a trip"). If the prize is anything other than a trip, "Coming" should be correct.
55** '''Golden Road''': On the first item, the higher of the two digits is correct 90-plus percent of the time. On the four-digit item, eliminate all digits that would cause a repeat in the revealed price (e.g., if a price shows $2_79 and the choices are $875, the correct answer would be either 5 or 8). On the five-digit item, digits rarely repeat (e.g., if the contestant is shown $74,_59 and uses the card $2879, he'd be safe to pick either 2 or 8).
56** '''1/2 Off''': More often than not, the game can be won by watching for discontinuities in the pattern when the boxes drop. For example, if on the first elimination they fall in a checkerboard pattern except for one or two of the boxes, chances are very high that the money is in one of the deviating boxes.
57** '''Hit Me''': In this grocery game married to blackjack, there was always one item among the six that was multipliable by 10 (for a 10 or face card) and one that was its exact price (for the ace) to obtain an easy blackjack. There was also at least one pair of cards whose sum was either 10 or 11 (to get blackjack the hard way). Despite this, not that many contestants seemed to know the rules to this simple card game and either won by getting a better hand than the house, or lost by either busting or getting beat.
58** '''It's in the Bag''': The first two bags always are the lowest and most expensive items in the group of six, with the matching items always being obvious; as thus, a wise contestant can walk off with no less than $2,000.
59** '''Money Game''': Three of the number pairs are clearly possibilities for the first two digits in the price of the car and should be picked first. Those three numbers will be one away from each other (I.e. 18, 19, 20). The middle number is almost always wrong. After that, Dobkowitz-era tricks still hold true today and are frequently correct: "front and back" (the correct two numbers are placed horizontally side by side on the board, with the first number pair in the left or central position and the second pair to its right); "top and bottom" (the correct two numbers are on vertically contiguous); and "El Cheapo" (the remaining lowest number on the board).
60*** That said, in 2015 the producers seemingly caught on, as most games from that year have gone to great length to avert these tricks; unsurprisingly, the loss rate for this game has skyrocketed since then.
61*** As of the 2010's, when it comes to the back pair, avoid picking anything between 90 and 99, or any pair ending in 0, 5 or 9 (except if there's an "El Cheapo" of 05 or 09).
62*** The top-middle card is almost always the number of the current season and is therefore almost never correct.
63** '''Now....Or Then''': Since about the late 1990s, the game always has four "Now"s and two "Then"s. Always pick "now" as the answer for items labeled "NEW!" [[note]]Standards and Practices strictly prohibits "back-pricing" items labeled as "NEW!" that didn't exist on the given date.[[/note]] Depending on the game's progress, if the game comes down to the final item, the number of "nows" and "thens" uncovered, based on the "4 nows and 2 thens" rule, the last guess should be easy and guarantee a win.
64** '''The Phone Home Game''': Of the seven prices in this retired game, two were always outlier values, such as 49¢ for the least expensive item and $7.99 for the most expensive[[note]]Keep in mind, this game was around from 1983-89[[/note]]. Contestant pairs using this trick usually had no problem splitting at least $400 since $200 was the lowest amount on the board, appearing twice.
65** '''Push Over''': The first price shown is never correct, since it goes against the game's spirit (you don't have to "push over" any blocks).
66** '''Range Game''': Stopping the range with the top end near the halfway mark will almost always yield a win.
67** '''Rat Race''': The last prize is almost always $200-300 in price, meaning a blind guess of $200 – contestants are given a $100 leeway, high or low, on bids – will net at least one pick of a rat. For the two other items, $4 (for the grocery item, where the spread is $1) and $70 (for the small prize valued at less than $100, and $10 is allowed) are also safe bets. Playing the game this way should guarantee no fewer than two rats.
68** '''Safe Crackers''': The last digit in the combination which serves as the price of the smaller prize is always 0.
69** '''Stack the Deck''': Use the "free picks" earned to fill in the last three positions of the car's price; these are usually the most difficult to fill in, particularly given that the prices of these cars rarely end in 0, 5, or 9 (unlike games like '''10 Chances''' or '''Temptation'''). This should make the first number pretty easy to guess, particularly for those who know which cars' prices start with 1 and which [=ARPs=] begin with 2, leaving the final number to usually be a choice between no more than two numbers.
70** '''Switcheroo''': The whole point of pricing the small items is to help eliminate the possibilities of what the tens' digit of the car could be. Unfortunately most contestants just dive right in to the car's tens' digit at the very start.
71** '''Temptation''': The last digit of the car's price is always 0 or 5.
72** '''10 Chances''': The right answers always end in 0 (''never'' 5, 9, or anything else). You would only know this from watching frequently, as it is never pointed out on-air. At the very worst, following the zero rule will guarantee two prizes and at least two chances at the car. Anyone who does not get a chance at the car has either broken the rule or repeated a guess.
73*** Like the Cliffhangers example above, this one was lampshaded on the "superfans" special, where the first two prizes were a copy of the board game ''Zero'' and a pair of "zero-gravity" chairs.
74** '''3 Strikes''': The price of the car almost always will start with a 4 or 5 (or very occasionally, a 6), so if you draw one of those numbers, try it in the ten-thousands (No. 1) position before trying it elsewhere. From there, it's a matter of paying attention and remembering incorrect guesses. (This besides the obvious rule of not drawing strikes.)
75** '''That's Too Much!''': The correct answer is neither the first- nor 10th-given price.
76*** Since Season 39 (2010-2011), the correct answer has never been the second nor ninth price. [[note]]This was because during the 2009-2010 season, the right answer was almost always the second or ninth price, which skewed a Roger Dobkowitz-era rule that the correct answer almost always fell between slots 3 and 8 (and then, more often than not, was usually the fifth or sixth prices), eventually making contestants and fans complain...and then a couple of smart contestants foiled the prevailing "either second or ninth" setup.[[/note]]
77** '''2 for the Price of 1''': Picking the second number as the freebie will set up a winnable strategy for the other two digits. If the second number is lower, go upper for the remaining two digits, otherwise, split the difference for the remaining two, picking the greater digit (e.g., 8 if the choices are 3 and 8) for the first digit and choosing the number in the opposite position for the third digit.
78*** Since Season 43 (2014-2015), all but one playing (in June 2015) has had the smaller prize end in -0.
79* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
80** The show has had a lot of Canadian contestants, to the point where Bob even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] it a few times, including his last episode.
81** Most (in)famously, Samoans would appear semi-frequently in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
82** In the second half of Season 37, it looked like Australians would appear on Drew's run as frequently as Samoans did on Bob's.
83** Speaking of Australia: The Showcase round on all Aussie versions of the show--up through the most recent revival in 2012--used a format based on the pricing game Double Bullseye, which existed for less than a month during the US daytime version's first season.
84* GoodBadBugs: The 1990 computer games had Secret X as a pricing game. A vertical TabletopGame/TicTacToe counts as a win on these versions despite it being against the rules on the actual show.[[note]]Curiously, someone ''actually'' tried to do this on April 27, 1999's episode. She tried to form an X on the left side of the column, and ignored Bob's warning that she'd lose if she got the second item wrong, which she did.[[/note]]
85* GrowingTheBeard:
86** The show became a much less staid affair around the time that it expanded to an hour. Not only were there twice as many games, but the Showcases began using many more skits with the models and then-announcer Johnny Olson (quite bizarre skits, too, coming from the quirky mind of then-producer Creator/JayWolpert), and new gameplay elements such as the Big Wheel were added as well.
87** Some fans argue that this has been happening to the show again since Carey took over (despite a bump described in SeasonalRot); a Showcase segment in April 2009 (when Bob Barker "returned" to the show to hawk his memoir, ''Priceless Memories'', amid controversy with Creator/BettyWhite) helped Carey considerably.
88** Carey himself in his third year as host - he noticeably slowed down his MotorMouth tendencies, and also found his own niche in terms of participating with the contestants in pricing games, including his own catchphrases (such as "Give it to [him/her]!" when revealing the result of a game).
89** Many fans also point to when Drew lost a significant amount of weight during the show's summer hiatus in 2010, resulting in him becoming noticeably more enthusiastic and energetic in Season 39 and beyond.
90* HarsherInHindsight:
91** Bob invited Johnny Olson on stage in a 1985 episode to wish Johnny a happy 75th birthday. That birthday would wind up being his last.
92** The first showcase of the October 27, 1995 episode includes references to Janice Pennington looking for a new roommate and Rod Roddy noting that an ElvisImpersonator [[https://youtu.be/pONqMYlGOtw looks familiar]]. Said Elvis impersonator was played by [[CuteClumsyGirl Holly Hallstrom]], who was controversially fired the next day for refusing to testify against former [[LovelyAssistant Barker's Beauty]] Dian Parkinson in her sexual harassment lawsuit against Bob Barker.
93** At the beginning of the January 8, 1987 episode, Bob joked that Janice Pennington remarked after she handed the mic to him that the crowd wouldn't be applauding as much [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDq1lE0cEXM if they knew him better]]. Rather interesting choice of words considering the various controversies that clouded his final 15 years as host.
94** The October 30th, 1987 episode has Barker calling the models up to the mic so Holly could share that a friend of hers is going to adopt the dog shown on the program the day before. Barker then addresses Dian to compliment her on how much weight she's lost. A dispute over her weight would ultimately lead to Holly being fired from the show years later (at least, that's how Barker justified it to the public and CBS brass).
95** Two moments from TheEighties once Dian Parkinson's initial lawsuit made headlines. In late 1982, Dian stood over an air grate which made her dress start rising. In response to the near-wardrobe malfunction, Barker said, "She's no fun at all, that Dian!" Then on February 8, 1984, a contestant named Ethel told Bob that she had a dream about him chasing her in a hayloft. Curiously, the latter episode is not in Pluto's rotation.
96** The Pluto rotation has now reached the premiere of Bump; given the controversial nature of the game, and perhaps more controversial reasons behind its retirement, it seems that the channel is making efforts to skip any episode that has Bump played. While one episode with Bump ''did'' air, this is because Pluto didn't have enough time to get it pulled.
97** Bob Barker's senior moments during his later years as host could possibly be an example of this given that it was revealed after his death that he had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
98* HilariousInHindsight:
99** A few years before Barker's cameo in the Creator/AdamSandler movie ''Film/HappyGilmore'', an unrelated Adam Sandler joined the production staff of ''The New Price Is Right'', moving to the daytime show after that ended. ''Gilmore'' hit theaters a year later.
100** Nine years before it became the show's catchphrase, "Come on down" was used on the original show when it moved to ABC. As the celebrity guest player drew a card for a studio audience member, that person was entreated to "come on down" to a waiting area onstage.
101** On a prior April Fools' Day episode, Drew Carey was introduced as "The star of ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson''". Come April Fools' Day 2014, he and ''Late Late Show'' host Craig Ferguson traded places.
102** When ABC acquired the rights to both the daytime and nighttime versions of the original incarnation of ''Price''; a large number of markets carried the show on the local CBS affiliate due to not every market having a solo ABC affiliate at the time; which becomes an interesting bit of {{Foreshadowing}} with the current version airing on CBS.
103* ItWasHisSled: The full name of one of the games is "Hole in One... Or Two".[[note]]Its name was "officially" changed by February 6, 1987's episode, when a small sign that said "or two" on it. This would remain until sometime in October-November 1987, when the current sign debuted.[[/note]]
104* ItsEasySoItSucks:
105** The current incarnation of Bullseye is essentially "Grocery Game: Easy Mode". Victory is based on individual products instead of a running total (thus avoiding the UnintentionallyUnwinnable situations that plague "Grocery Game"), the margin of error is doubled, and the second chance only serves to make it even easier since as long as you don't go over (which can be assured by going with no more than 2 of each product), you have a 60% chance of winning just with that. It's a bit ironic, actually, since the original "Bullseye" gained notoriety for being virtually {{Unwinnable}}.
106** During Magic #'s final years, they gradually increased the range between the two prices to the point where setting the magic number to $3,000 was considered an automatic win.
107* ItsPopularNowItSucks: Plinko is one of the most popular pricing games among casual viewers, and die-hard fans hate it for that very reason. The hatred only increased when Plinko was played on all six slots in commemoration of the game's 30th anniversary, rendering it stale and overdone. The top prize being almost impossible to win isn't helping its case.
108* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: A common complaint about primetime specials since 2016 is that they don't feel too much different from daytime episodes. These include themes (which have already been done to death since the Mike Richards era), budget (especially when compared to Million Dollar Spectaculars) and no extra incentives in pricing games (Punch a Bunch still offering its $25,000 top prize with only one slip on the board or Plinko's slots remaining unchanged).
109* MemeticMutation: So many, we needed [[Memes/ThePriceIsRight a separate page]] for them.
110* {{Misblamed}}:
111** Some people blame the show's producers, especially former executive producer Mike Richards, for its abundance of short lineups in the Carey era. [[note]](example: Lucky $even, Grand Game, Push Over, Cover Up, Freeze Frame, Switch?)[[/note]] However, it's Creator/{{CBS}} that's to blame because of them demanding more commercial time for the show.
112** Likewise, some people blame Creator/FremantleMedia for announcers not appearing on-camera from 2002 to 2008.
113** Fremantle (and the show’s post-Barker producers) also takes heat for a lot of the format changes that have happened under the Drew Carey era, such as set updates, couples shows, themed specials and celebrity players. In actuality, CBS is also the driving force behind all these. They even tried to push them when Bob Barker was still hosting, but since Barker was also executive producer at the time, he did not allow it.
114** Bob Barker has been largely blamed for the termination of longtime model Janice Pennington, who was supposedly let go in 2000 for not testifying against Holly Hallstrom in her lawsuit against Barker. Despite this, Pennington later opened up on a Website/MySpace post, where she mentioned to her colleagues that she was let go by the network and not Barker himself.
115** $uper $aver was said to have been retired due to mechanical problems. In actuality, a contestant getting screwed over by a shoddy explanation of its rules contributed to its downfall. Bob felt it was better off for the game to be retired.
116** It's been rumored that the "There goes Fritz!" incident was the reason Dennis was let go from hosting the syndicated version in 1977. The real reason is that his contract was not renewed due to that version moving from the NBC owned-and-operated stations to the CBS O&Os. The latter wanted Bob Barker on nighttime just like the daytime version on CBS. Since Barker was no longer hosting ''Series/TruthOrConsequences'' by this time, that was no longer an issue.
117* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The [[BigWinSirens "$10,000 Big Wheel" klaxon]], which is also used when someone hits a really big prize or wins both Showcases.
118* NeverLiveItDown:
119** The short-lived pricing game "Split Decision" has a reputation for being the game where ''nothing'' worked right and the board was constantly falling apart. In truth, there was ''one'' playing where two of the numbers fell off their markers (a rule change taking place on the game's next occurrence, likely because its clock needed repairing, didn't help matters). The game's short life was due to the fact that contestants simply had trouble understanding the rules.
120** $uper $aver only had "Wink" and "Losk" in its final two years due to malfunctions, but that's what the game is best remembered for.
121** The many [[TroubledProduction backstage]] [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity turmoils]] that former host Bob Barker had with practically the entire staff, particularly after he became executive producer in 1988. Never mind that he hosted said show for a staggering 35 years — one of the longest runs ever for any TV host — and already had 16 years of ''Series/TruthOrConsequences'' under his belt on top of that. What Barker did was [[ThisIsUnforgivable so beyond unforgivable to some fans]], [[Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway it would take a spaceship 15 years to get to a planet close enough to look through a telescope at the unforgivability it was]].
122** The first special with parent/children teams was marred by one girl shouting "Go over! Go over!" to an opponent during the Showcase Showdown. To make matters worse, the same girl won her showcase.
123** Five words: George Gray on a treadmill.
124** Or: Manuela and Five Price Tags.
125** Dennis James' incident with the Cliff Hangers game in 1976, when he yelled out "There Goes Fritz!" after the climber fell off the mountain. To make matters worse, Dennis did not realize that Janice's husband whose name was also Fritz had vanished while mountain climbing in Afghanistan. Janice spent the rest of the episode backstage crying.
126%% ** The pricing game "Professor Price", which made it into ''Literature/WhatWereTheyThinkingThe100DumbestEventsInTelevisionHistory''.
127* NightmareFuel:
128** The titular professor in [[https://youtu.be/Mz2fgzM6LiE?t=1134 Professor Price]] was a [[TheVoiceless silent]], [[CreepyDoll uncanny-looking puppet]]. The game was played a mere two times in November 1977; to its credit, it was won both times.
129** Shower Game, played ten times in 1978, was ousted primarily because it was boring and anticlimactic. This said, one viewer complained that the game's premise (enter the shower stall you think has the car's right price and pull the chain) was reminiscent of [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Jewish Holocaust]].
130** If the pricing game Cliff Hangers is lost, the mountain climber falls off the mountain with a crashing sound effect.
131*** Janice Pennington herself doesn't like the game. After an incident in 1976 on one syndicated nighttime episode, when host Dennis James yelled out "There goes Fritz!" after the contestant had lost the game and the mountain climber fall over the cliff, not realizing that Janice's 2nd husband whose name was Fritz Stammberger had vanished while mountain climbing in Afghanistan back in 1975. James' comment had upset Janice so much, that she ran off and remain backstage crying for the remainder of the episode. According to an Facebook post by Brad James (the son of Dennis James), Dennis [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone felt absolutely terrible and was extremely apologetic to her]].
132*** In the Bruce Forsyth era of the British franchise, the mountain climber is heard screaming for five seconds just after he falls.
133*** In the two 1990 computer games, the mountain climber is [[https://mstiescott.tripod.com/tpirgame/mountain.html actually seen falling to his death]]. And after he lands, he turns into a bloody wreck with the letters "RIP" above him.
134* OlderThanTheyThink:
135** The CBS version borrowed many elements from ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'', such as picking contestants directly out of the audience as well as the audience yelling suggestions to the contestant during any given game. The original Cullen audiences were want to yell "higher" and "freeze" when bidding got spirited.
136** Contestants bidding $1 over the previous high goes back to the show's earliest Cullen days. Even after a contestant bids $400 and the next bids $401, the next after that will bid $402. This was a ploy mainly used in one-bid games.
137** The idea of male models on the show dates back to the Aussie version hosted by Ian Turpie in the 1980s, as well as the Creator/BruceForsyth-hosted British version in the 1990s.
138* OvershadowedByControversy: Terry Kneiss' perfect Showcase bid. Drew immediately suspected him of cheating, reading the price with zero emotion. The producers backed up his claim by initiating a 20-minute stopdown to investigate before they let him keep his prizes. Drew himself assumed the episode was never going to actually air, thus leading to him sparing no effort to show any emotion. It turns out Terry was just a loyal watcher of the show and got the Showcase price from a Golden-Road.net member who was on the show before and had been in the audience quite a few times. [[DownerEnding Said Golden-Road user was also immediately banned from the show afterward.]]
139* PeripheryDemographic: College students love ''Price'', mostly because it airs during typical lunch hours. It got to the point at Penn State where a person wrote in to the campus newspaper complaining about ''Price'' being the only thing shown in the dining halls, after which hundreds of letters were sent the next day in support of the show.
140** The producers noticed a surge in popularity after Barker appeared in ''Film/HappyGilmore'' as himself in a Pro/AM golf tournament, getting paired up with (and later beating the everloving crap out of) Sandler's titular character. It also helped that Bob got to invoke ThisIsForEmphasisBitch
141* TheProblemWithLicensedGames:
142** The 1990 [=GameTek=] versions released to the PC and Commodore 64. All prizes are chosen at random, meaning car games are often played for prizes other than cars. In Dice Game, numbers outside of the 1-6 range can and will be in the price. Cliff Hangers gives a [[FakeDifficulty $300 window]] for bidding on prizes, including [[NintendoHard cars]][[note]]and also has a goat ram Yodely Guy in the rear[[/note]], while in the game the Showcase Showdown will allow contestants who are involved in a spin-off to spin twice as in the regular spins (vs. the real game where the contestants in the spin-off could only spin once). An in-depth look at these games can be found [[http://mstiescott.tripod.com/tpirgame/tpir.html here]].
143** The Ludia games are notorious for these with the most infamous being the Showcase Showdown [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard almost always skewing in favor of the computer players]]. The pricing games for ''Decades'' are botched, such as Hurdles being a higher/lower game instead of "pick the grocery item with the lower price than the Hurdler's price". That said, Ludia ''did'' adapt the show more faithfully than a lot of their other game show video games.
144* RefrainFromAssuming: This applies to the FanNickname for "Punch-a-Bunch", "Punchboard". It ''is'' a punchboard, but the original version of the game had ten extra punch slots across the top that spelled out "PUNCHBOARD". The original rules of the game involved guessing the prices of two small items (a price was given, the contestant said if the price was higher or lower), and each correct guess got a punch in the main board ''and'' a punch on the upper "PUNCHBOARD" line. After its first eleven appearances, the punches on the top line were eliminated, and the contestant could instead get up to FOUR punches on the main 5-by-10 field of punchboard slots. But the "PUNCHBOARD" line remained until the game's design was revamped for the [=25th=] season. While "Punchboard" is now a fan nickname, some still think that's the game's actual name.
145* ReplacementScrappy: Drew gets a lot of the flames for his hosting style, although historically this mainly applies to the announcer searches.
146** After Johnny Olson's death in 1985, the show rotated announcing duties among Rod Roddy, Gene Wood, Bob Hilton, and Rich Jefferies, with Rod ultimately getting the nod after first choice Hilton had to turn it down due to other commitments (none of which made it past the pilot stage). Not one fan liked Jefferies' flat, nasaly voice. While Gene was generally considered a great announcer (having announced countless game shows, primarily for Goodson-Todman, between 1966 and 1996), many thought he was too mellow for ''Price''. That didn't stop Gene from being the main announcer of the Kennedy version (until Rod was brought in).
147** With Rod's declining health in the early 2000s, he often asked other announcers to fill in for him, most often Burton Richardson or close friend Randy West. Paul Boland (previously of the 1998-99 ''Series/MatchGame'') subbed for one week in 2002, but got the boot because he had NoIndoorVoice and refused demands to tone it down.
148** After Rod died in late 2003, the show tried out another string of guest announcers: Don Bishop, Rich Fields, Burton Richardson, Roger Rose, Daniel Rosen, Art Sanders, Jim Thornton, and the aforementioned Randy West. Opinions vary wildly on those other than Randy, and Barker apparently wanted to hire Art immediately, but:
149*** There's absolutely no love for Daniel Rosen, who was ''hated'' for his flat, nasal delivery, which was almost always completely devoid of enthusiasm. One episode circulating on Website/YouTube has him begin the OpeningNarration [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPZQzKgFK04 with a very audible "uh" (broadcast of Monday, Feb. 16, 2004)]], while another finds him invoking DullSurprise when introducing Punch-A-Bunch. At least two eyewitnesses have said that he had to redo some of the copy in post because no one could hear him! He sometimes came across as if he were trying to imitate Rod, most notably in wearing colorful suits and even going so far as to sign off as "Daaaaaaaaaaaniel Rosen", similarly to how Rod would drag out his first name when signing off. Rosen was further hated after supposedly infected popular fan forum Golden-Road.net with multiple {{sockpuppet}} accounts who proceeded to [[AstroTurf banter about how good his announcing was]] despite both the site's legit members and the show's own staff having no kind words for him. While he later got the announcing gig on ''Price Is Right Live!'' productions at Harrah's, some eyewitnesses say that he's very arrogant there too. It doesn't help that Rosen has since become better known for hawking dubious credit card debt reduction software.
150*** Burton Richardson (who also did the Davidson version) is quite divisive. Some think that he's great; others think that he sounds like an overly enthusiastic impersonation of a game show announcer.
151*** Don Bishop was decent, but lost major points with the fans for never interacting with Bob. To Barker's credit, he tried pretty hard to get Don to interact with him, but even lines such as "Don, I need a winner. Can you get me a ''winner'' this time?" only got the standard script response of "[Name], come on down."
152*** Jim Thornton was almost kicked off after his first day, probably because his voice cracked a ''lot''. Clearly his announcing skills have improved, as ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' chose him as its permanent announcer in Spring 2011.
153** Rich Fields fell victim to this, particularly since he was picked over fan favorite Randy West (a BigNameFan who filled in for Rod on several occasions). Disdain for Rich only got worse as his tendency to [[NoIndoorVoice scream almost everything]] got out of control. Creator/FremantleMedia was reportedly not that fond of Rich in the first place, and would've kicked him out after Season 35 had Barker and Roger Dobkowitz not stepped in. Rich ended up being fired after Season 38, supposedly due to matters unrelated to the show.
154** The post-Rich substitutes in Season 39 varied in quality. Jeff B. Davis, David H. Lawrence XVII, and George Gray were all well-liked by fans. Very few were in favor of Brad Sherwood or Steve White for their phony enthusiasm (and in White's case, giving Drew inane titles like "hip-hop sensation"), while JD Roberto was seen as SoOkayItsAverage (although he lost points with some fans for insulting a contestant playing a pricing game). There's also some division over the further AscendedExtra nature of the announcer role that's being called for, partly because none of the candidates had any prior experience as game show announcers (although Sherwood, Gray, and Roberto had experience as ''hosts'', and Roberto later got a short-lived announcing gig on the ''Series/{{Pyramid}}'' revival in 2012). George Gray ultimately got the nod, and despite a rough first episode and concerns that he was given the job as a favor to Richards, his tenure as announcer has been mostly well-received.
155** Bart Eskander (who replaced Creator/PaulAlter in 2001) is generally cited as the show's worst director due to his oversimplifying of camera angles (e.g. not showing Bonus Game as it spins on the Turntable). It didn't help when, in Season 37 (the first season in HD/widescreen), he managed to shoot the climactic reveal for Lucky $even with the last digit ''[[https://youtu.be/Jf9B7Pyb3Sg?t=204 outside the standard-definition "safe zone"]]''. It’s a good wonder he lasted eight years.
156** Mike Richards (the show’s executive producer from 2009-2019) got flak for replacing Roger Dobkowitz as series producer in Season 37 due to Creator/FremantleMedia's decision to put the show in a new direction, and replacing Syd Vinnedge as showrunner the following season. Bart Eskander's replacement, Rich [=DiPirro=], once went so far as to tell him he was ruining the show. Some fans who hold this stance didn't have high hopes for ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' and ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', as Richards replaced the then-retiring Harry Friedman [[note]] himself considered an example on the former [[/note]] on those shows. He eventually became one on the latter (see the [[YMMV/{{Jeopardy}} YMMV page there]] as to why) and he's since become completely OvershadowedByControversy.
157* RetroactiveRecognition: Given the show's incredibly long life, several contestants later became notable in their own right. Among them are [[Series/WheelOfFortune Vanna White]] ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e27GD9WjWc June 20, 1980]]), Creator/LindaCardellini (1993), and Creator/AaronPaul ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SEL27xiJGQ January 3, 2000]]). Andrew Copeland of the rock band Sister Hazel was a contestant in 1999 while the band was still actively recording. Similarly, guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz of Music/KillswitchEngage was a contestant in 2015, [[https://loudwire.com/killswitch-engage-adam-d-price-is-right/ where he won $51,832]], including two cars.
158** Series/DrPhil was in the audience along with his wife during a 1976 taping, but neither made it to Contestant's Row. Actress Creator/JennaFischer and indie rock musician [[Music/{{Haim}} Este Haim]] also failed to get called down to Contestant's Row prior to their fame. Haim eventually got to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-4ksQjbBjs&ab_channel=PhilClare appear on the show]] in 2020 as part of "Music Week".
159** Similarly, two members of the indie rock band Music/{{Arcade Fire}}, Tim Kingsbury and Richard Reed Parry, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyzjWoRDSHs were also spotted in the audience]] (but never called down) during a June 2007 episode, but this is an inversion as they were already fairly famous in the indie rock scene.
160** Pro wrestler Wrestling/BrianKendrick was a contestant [[https://youtu.be/Yqwc27ghuhk back in 2011 but lost while playing Secret X]].
161* SeasonalRot:
162** Season 18 (1989-90). Bob being bored (one playing of One Away on Memorial Day 1990 had him handle a wipeout really poorly [[OverlyLongGag and dragged the "historic moment" on too long]]), and the offstage controversy with Dian around this point that eventually ended in them breaking up. The only good things that happened were the debuts of Make Your Move (PutOnABus within a few months, then returned in October 1990 with two three-digit prizes for two playings; they changed it back because the overlapping numbers were too confusing) and 2 for the Price of 1.
163** Season 37 (2008-09), for a variety of reasons:
164*** Roger Dobkowitz planned to make up for the lack of new games in Season 36 (itself done so Drew could learn the games that were already in the rotation) by introducing a new game on every day of the season premiere week, a feat not done since the show returned in 1972 and debuted five games in two shows. Thanks to budget issues and Roger's ousting, only one new game debuted (Gas Money, on the season premiere).
165*** Several games were put on lengthy hiatus, including Triple Play, four-prize games, Credit Card (the only five-prizer), and Dice Game. The only game that hasn't returned is Credit Card, though to be fair it was probably axed because of how long it took to describe all five prizes.
166*** Drew openly expressed his hatred of 3 Strikes on its first playing of the season, which caused the game to have a different set of rules each time it was played before being put on hiatus as well.
167*** Make Your Mark was retired after Drew screwed up explaining the ruleset and the staff was too afraid to correct him.
168*** Mike Richards became co-head honcho with Syd Vinnedge, who had become Executive Producer at the beginning of Season 36 and was reported to be reading the newspaper during tapings.
169*** Showcases became painfully unfunny "Drewcases" — Drew became obsessed with FRIED CHICKEN!, a pie fight broke out for absolutely no reason, a hockey fight broke out for no ''good'' reason, and the models realized they could talk. Rich got the absolute worst of it — he became a {{Jerkass}} (he had fried chicken all along!), a ButtMonkey (once suspended over a dunk tank), a ProfessionalButtKisser (reading his copy in weird ways), and [[LIsForDyslexia dyslexic]] ("A new swim bear!"). To Drew's credit, he later [[CreatorBacklash admitted his Showcases didn't work.]]
170*** Drew's "something is amiss" mannerisms in the wake of Terry Kneiss' perfect bid. While the bid didn't directly cause a plethora of outlandish prizes and not-provided-by-the-manufacturer "designer items" to be added, it [[HarsherInHindsight certainly made them more plentiful.]]
171*** Jack Wagner and Ed Begley, Jr., made infamous appearances; Wagner "flashed" Drew and kept re-appearing to chew the scenery (to the point that one contestant seemed distracted from their game and lost, which may have been the point), while Begley botched two car reveals. The Wagner episode was apparently marked with the dubious honor of "NOT FOR RERUN," as it was never re-ran after the original air date.
172*** The "trip skins" (giant artwork-filled displays that were usually cobbled together from several sources and needed little to no maintenance) were replaced by green-screen displays in the same shape. Contestant responses to seeing a big green wall with a destination name plastered on the corner were generally less than enthusiastic, Door #3 (which is green) couldn't be shown opening due to said green screen, and a particularly awkward playing of Switch? for two trips had them shown on a single display with a divider down the middle. Over the next three months, a few minor alterations were made until they were simply ousted in favor of the current plasma screens (although they returned briefly during the Showcase on May 19 and October 8, 2009 to show a giant treehouse sitting outside Television City).
173*** Many of the classic music cues, some retained since 1972, were ousted in favor of "modern" tracks generally considered vastly inferior. As a result, later seasons decided to combine the old and new into remixed versions of the original prize cues. Fortunately, the ''Back to '7x"' (take the current year and subtract 50) game prominently features the original, unedited classic cues for its prize descriptions.
174*** An increase in contestants [[GenreBlind who look like they've never even seen the show before]], a practice that continues to this day. Never mind that the current version of the show has been on the air for ''half a century''.
175** Season 49 (2020-21) as, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the set and rules had to be revamped. Most notably, the audience was gone completely. Contestants waited backstage and came out when their name was called to the One Bid podiums, which were now set up on the main stage instead of the lower area. When a contestant won, in order to fill the time normally reserved for them walking up the steps to the stage, they would walk to the middle of the stage and do some kind of forced dance number before walking over to Drew. While the contestant's families and the other contestants still shouted out support, it was nowhere near enough to make up for the lack of wide audience and the games felt extremely empty. To show the effects of the pandemic even further, Drew started growing his beard out... and it became more and more unkempt as the season went along, leading to the derisive nickname of "Hobo Drew." Audiences somewhat came back in Season 50, but not at full capacity, instead using a "pod" system where groups, either of friends or family, sat together separated from the rest of the audience. The show also kept all the social distancing rules, but at least Drew has a more respectable-looking beard this time.
176* SoOkayItsAverage: Some pricing games fall into this category. Pity the player who's called onstage to play Double Prices (literally the entire game is "Is it $x or $y?").
177** 1 Right Price has this problem too, being essentially an inversion of Double Prices. One price is shown, you guess whether the one right price is Prize 1 or Prize 2. Guess right, you win both prizes.
178** Justified in that games like this are typically included because they're short, which helps keep the show within its time limit after playing something a lot more time-consuming (Plinko, Golden Road, etc.). And as mentioned, games such as those and Pick-a-Number can be a fallback if one of the more intricate games is on the fritz. Double Prices, Squeeze Play, the previously-mentioned Pick-A-Number, 1 Right Price and Secret "X" also have the boon of not using any electronics, so if a game breaks down, they can be put in as a substitute.
179* SpecialEffectFailure: The show has always used (and continues to use) "physical" props — displays, lights, cards, tabs, buttons, flaps, labels, etc. — along with electronic displays and old computers. Needless to say, given that most of them have been used since the earliest days of the show's run, something is prone to slip up. Beginning in 2008, though, many new props and game redesigns have used flat-panel screens and modern [=PCs=].
180** According to Golden-Road.net's FAQ, Magic # couldn't be played first because its computer required time to boot up (which would have one wonder [[FridgeLogic why they didn't boot it before taping began]]). They also refused to update that game despite how dated it looked in comparison to props and games with modern [=PCs=] and LCD displays retrofitted into them, and the touchscreen-based Double Cross.
181** The show was very slow to adopt computer graphics so, since everything was being controlled manually, the whole design was quite error-prone. The border full of flashing lights shown in the intro is the most obvious example — from its 1975 debut until it was replaced in 2008 with a CGI border, it was often misaligned.
182** The retired game $uper $aver displayed the word "BANK" electronically on its game board. The "K" froze in its last two years of play, turning "WIN!" and "LOSE" into "WINK" and "LOSK" respectively.
183** Some three-digit bids in Contestant's Row will align to the left. This appears to be caused by those controlling the displays mistakenly putting in a four-digit bid.
184** In the original series, which aired live on the East Coast, the tote readouts would occasionally malfunction; as a result, the models would write the contestants' bids on a sketch pad behind them with frozen bids circled.
185** In a playing of It's In The Bag from September 22, 2006, Bob accidentally pushed the button while setting up the $8,000 bag for the contestant's decision, revealing the prize in said bag. The contestant placed the wrong product above the bag, but because of Bob's mistake, the contestant was awarded $4,000 for correctly identifying the first three products.
186** In Season 37, the trip skins were replaced by green screens. In a sense, everyone in the studio was reacting to a wall while home viewers saw the trip location and its accompanying graphics. The effects were usually stretched to accommodate the large size of the green screen, resulting in blocky displays. During the PieInTheFace showcase, the cream from one of the pies got in the way of the visuals because it splattered on the wall. Thankfully, the green screens were replaced by the current plasma screens by season's end.
187** Not even the Big Wheel is safe from malfunction shenanigans. On April 29, 2011, the 7 on the 75-cent space snapped in half; Drew put the broken piece back in place, which managed to stick for the next spin.
188** Danger Price in one instance had ''two'' prices revealed at the same time when the model pressed only one button to reveal one price. Both of the prices revealed were "correct" (as in not being the titular price to avoid) and Drew had to allow the contestant to keep the freebie, making the game easier for him. The debut of the game's current setup ironically had a similar incident in the 1986 nighttime specials, where the last "safe" price turned around on its own and netted the contestant an immediate win.
189** November 11, 2013: The first digit display for Dice Game wasn't working, so they [[PropRecycling stuck a number card from Cover Up]] on it. Drew points it out, noting that "there's the right way, the easy way, then there's the Marine Corps way."
190** A playing of Rat Race in a summer beach party themed episode of Season 46 had one of the mice suddenly stop moving right after they were started. To make matters more unfortunate, the mouse was one of the two mice picked by the contestant. [[spoiler:But luckily, the other mouse the contestant picked still ended up coming in first place, winning the contestant a new car.]]
191** October 10, 2018: The board on a playing of Flip Flop during the season's Big Money Week (covering the price for a trip to Hamburg, Germany) got stuck and refused to come down despite how many times the contestant and Drew hit the button. It took [[PercussiveMaintenance a swift kick from Drew]] to make it finally come down and reveal the price (which was correct).
192** December 27, 2023: The episode features another Rat Race mishap, as the yellow mouse suddenly went haywire and derailed from its track as soon as the mice started moving. Fortunately for the contestant (who was only able to pick one mouse), it was not the mouse she picked [[spoiler:and the mouse she picked (the green one) even ended up being the one who won first place, winning her a new car]].
193* StopHavingFunGuys:
194** Anyone who bids $1 over the previous person's bid.
195** This is also the fandom's general reaction to everyone who bids [[FourTwentyBlazeIt $420]] or [[LOL69 $x69]] during the One Bid and those who find it so funny to bid ''$2,000,000'', therefore wasting a good contestant's chance to get on the show.
196** At least Richards (and Carey) thought the fandom was this trope, and basically refused to listen to them. Richards' successor, Evelyn Warfel, has subverted this by ''embracing'' the fandom, even holding a superfans special.
197* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Safe Crackers originally used [[RealSongThemeTune the theme from]] ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther''. Now, it uses a cue similar to it.
198* TaintedByThePreview: As the Mike Richards era progressed, a staggering amount of promos have aired spoiling the results of pricing games and even the Showcases. Fans express resentment for these as they further reduce the spontaneous nature of the show.
199* ThatOneLevel:
200** Bullseye '72 is probably the only universally accepted example of this, being [[{{Unwinnable}} lost every one of the five times it was played]]; it was later reworked into the two-contestant Double Bullseye that forced a win, but that just didn't work either so they canned it. Some more subjective examples are That's Too Much! (current game), Fortune Hunter, Step Up, and Mystery Price [[note]](which performed the best out of this group, having been won on 11 of its 17 playings)[[/note]].
201** On the Nose is another game that had a short life because it was deemed too difficult for the contestant to win. The game was always played for a car and required the contestant to successfully complete an athletic feat from a randomly picked sport. They either had to hit a tennis ball through a hole with a racket, complete a free throw, pitch a baseball through a target, throw a football through a target or pop a balloon with a dart. This may sound very similar in concept to Hole in One, but unlike in that game, On the Nose didn't allow the contestant to make scoring the goal easier, it only gave them more tries if they correctly guessed the price of the car. The darts game was particularly derided as {{Unwinnable}} to the point of consistently invoking boos from the audience.[[note]]Barker openly acknowledged on air multiple times that the balloon was too small for an inexperienced darts player to easily hit and Holly once pointed out that he has never managed to hit it on any of his demonstration tries - to which Barker then hit it for the first time on that game's demonstration try.[[/note]] It was retired after a year in rotation, though it proved to be popular and long lived [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff on the German version of the show]].
202** Pricing games that are apparently [[ItsEasySoItSucks hated for being too easy]], such as Pick-A-Number, fall into this trope when set up in ways considered unfair by fans (i.e. having to guess the ''second-last number in a price'').
203** Many people hate 10 Chances, which can take forever to play, especially with an inept contestant who is a slow writer and who still, [[BlatantLies after claiming to have watched the show for years]], can't figure out the unwritten rule of the game's prices '''always''' ending in zero. Barker used to make a disappointed tone whenever a contestant wrote a price that didn't end in zero as an audio clue to help them, but Carey doesn't, although he sometimes says that the guess is wrong before hitting the button and hearing the buzzer.
204** Pay the Rent, which offers a $100,000 grand prize for successfully finding a combination of six grocery items that will satisfy the conditions of the game (a single item, then a pair of items totaling more than the first item, then another pair of items totaling more than the previous pair, then a single item that, alone, costs more than the previous pair). Unlike all other games, the "hidden rule" for one-solution playings (see below) is that contestants will ''not'' win by placing the groceries in order from least to most expensive. Despite this, a contestant placed the items correctly within two months of its debut, [[GaveUpTooSoon but didn't realize this until he walked with $10,000]].
205*** Originally (Seasons 39-40), Pay the Rent had just one solution per playing. As Season 41 progressed, the game became progressively easier to win in what was clearly a "[[Series/DealOrNoDeal $100,000]] [[Series/MinuteToWinIt Mission]]", and when it finally ''was'' won the game had gotten to having around 13 solutions, to the point where ordering the items from least-to-most expensive would actually win. Unsurprisingly, they went right back to having one solution on its next playing.
206** Stack the Deck has become this after Roger was fired before Season 37. For one, playing the grocery product section perfectly does not guarantee a win, in which they have a 60% chance. It is also not guaranteed to be easy, either - one mistake reduces the chances of winning by 20%. Another, picking the wrong digits of the car price can easily lead to losses. Picking the first digit to be revealed is generally ill-advised.
207** 3 Strikes is another one that Drew has openly expressed disdain towards, and for good reason: it's one of only two games currently in rotation where the player can walk away completely empty-handed through absolutely no fault of their own. The other one, Pass the Buck, at least has the fact that the odds of it happening are notably slim: assuming the first pick is the first Lose Everything, there's only a 20% chance of picking the second one on the next draw. No such luck with 3 Strikes, however: even if one somehow manages to place four out of the five numbers in the price of the car correctly without finding a single strike, the odds are no better than 50% that the player will avoid picking up a strike on any of the subsequent draws, meaning victory essentially [[LuckBasedMission comes down to a coin toss]]. Considering other such games have gotten the ax with much slimmer failure rates despite perfect play (Joker, for example), it's a wonder how this one has been able to slip under the radar for so long.
208* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
209** Some fans find the [[RetiredGameShowElement removal]] of some pricing games as a bad idea. They also see Drew Carey to be a poor host, mainly for his occasional lack of enthusiasm.
210** The replacement of Rich Fields with George Gray as TheAnnouncer also sent the sparks flying. And Fields himself has gotten unfavorably compared to predecessors Johnny Olson and Rod Roddy, as well as to other announcers who were in the running to replace Roddy (such as Randy West and Burton Richardson). Heck, some fans think none of the subsequent announcers have come close to matching Johnny Olson.
211** The Davidson version was generally hated among longtime fans of the show due to its radical changes (half-hour format, no Contestant's Row or Big Wheel, altered Showdown, glitzier theme and set, different personnel, radically-different games, etc.). Many fans have since retracted their hatred of this version, especially when the Drewcases started up.
212** Fans mostly hate the complete overhaul of prizes; where there used to be grandfather clocks and dining rooms, there are now ridiculously-expensive trips to little-known cities with amenities that are impossible to price (most notably, insanely-expensive trips to Los Angeles and Hollywood, ''where the show tapes''), home photo booths, "designer" items, and things that Drew has stated on-air as having used himself.[[note]][[https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/14-things-we-learned-on-the-set-of-the-price-is-right/ According to Mike Richards]], grandfather clocks disappeared from the show because "no one would buy Drew Carey as a grandfather clock-owner."[[/note]] Although mostly sounding like an attempt to make the show appeal to one of the aforementioned periphery demographics (what college student dreams of winning a grandfather clock?), many games have been lost due to these items that, generally, nobody would know the price of.
213** The reverse product placement, done because the items in question aren't sponsored (i.e., provided for free or at reduced price by the company). So, instead of plugging a jar of Jif peanut butter, the announcer instead mentions the container's size or contents (in this case, "A 12-ounce jar of peanut butter.")... which is ''far'' better than the inane lines like "Peanut butter makes a delightful snack!" that were used for a while. This usually doesn't stop the contestants and/or Drew from saying the product names anyway. Bob would usually repeat whatever was listed on the placards. For example, if a contestant picked "the Hot Pockets", Bob would repeat, "the pizza snack".
214** Even changing the music cues around can elicit this trope. For example, the Big Banana, which was kept mostly the same since its induction in the 1976 music package until sometime in 1983 or 1984, when it was changed to a lower-pitched version for no apparent reason. It didn't take until the very end of Season 20 (1991-92) for it to be replaced.
215** The fanbase was nearly unanimously against the Plinko sign being replaced with a "$50,000" graphic in Season 31. The staff didn't even throw the sign out; they just kept it in storage for eight years. When word got out that then-director Rich [=DiPirro=] wanted to bring it back, he was told it was "mysteriously" destroyed. This upset [=DiPirro=] and a good majority of fans when they found out.[[note]]This was debunked in 2023; it was simply sold to a collection and stayed there until it was put up for auction.[[/note]]
216** After Roger Dobkowitz' firing, many pricing games, especially ones played for cars, constantly use price choices with deceptive endings in order to increase the odds of the game being lost. For example, on almost every single playing of Pathfinder in the 2010's, the two choices for the last digit will be between a 0, 5, or 9 (which was almost-always correct in the Roger Dobkowitz era) and some other number (e.g. 0 vs. 6). The latter is the correct choice at least 99% of the time in this scenario. In one infamous playing, a contestant manage to play the game perfectly up until the last digit, whose choices were 0 and 1. He chose the 0, which ended up being incorrect, then proceeded to lose by failing to price all three of the "do-over" prizes correctly.
217** Since about Season 40, Showcases almost never have prices between $XX,000 and $XX,250 to decrease the odds of a Double Showcase Win.
218** Beginning in late Season 40, contestants are now fitted with lavalier microphones during the first commercial break after they are called down. This change was criticized by fans mainly for two reasons. Firstly, it results in some contestants' endless screaming being audible the entire time, sometimes over the entire credit roll. Secondly, the contestants' mics are viewed as redundant as Drew will continue to point his microphone at them anyway, and the Showcase podiums still have microphones even though both contestants have their own mics. All three contestants in the Showcase Showdown are also mic'd, yet most of them still lean into Drew's handheld mic to say hi to their friends at home. The only time Drew's mic is actually necessary is during the first pricing game of the show, or if any other contestant wins their One Bid immediately after being called down.
219** The [[ShortRunners short-lived]] 2012 Australian version had popular 1990s-2000s ''Price'' host Larry Emdur, but not much else.
220*** His new announcer, Brodie Young, was a LargeHam who wouldn't be too out of place on ''Series/JerseyShore''.
221*** The majority of the proceedings were a gigantic advertisement for department store chain Big W (comparable to Walmart). Every grocery item or prize was promoted as being "[[EnforcedPlug provided]]" by Big W, and Plinko and Wonderwall (aka Punch-A-Bunch), both normally played for cash, were instead played for Big W "shopping sprees" (read: store credit).
222*** The show pretty obviously suffered from a severe case of NoBudget — the pricing games not only looked cheap and never bothered to have their names on the props (Cliffhangers being a particularly glaring example, with its set not even bothering to have the top portion ''without'' the name, making the prop look ''outright unfinished''), but almost all of the prize budget was put into the Showcase, including any cars at all. Sure, this had been the case on prior versions, but at least on those the pricing games offered substantial prizes, as well as the legendary $500,000+ "Mega Showcase". Cash was '''never''' offered during the 2012 run: the aforementioned Big W shopping sprees were worth $3,000, and all other pricing game prizes were less than $2,000 in value.
223* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: Several concepts of the post-Dobkowitz era were done on ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' before ''The Price is Right''.
224** Big Money Week was, and still is, a recurring theme week on ''Wheel'', first done in 2000, 13 years before ''Price'' first did it. However, ''Wheel'' fans agree that ''Price'' does it better; ''Wheel'' stopped raising its stakes on Big Money Weeks after 2012, and the moniker now only applies to the puzzles and some prizes.
225** Dream Car Week was first done on ''Wheel'' in 2006, seven years before ''Price's'' first.
226** On AprilFoolsDay 2010, ''Wheel'' placed 10 "mistakes" throughout the episode and challenged viewers to spot them all. ''Price'' did the exact same thing in 2016, but did not say how many mistakes there would be (there were 39). Also, while ''Wheel's'' version was just for fun, ''Price'' made a contest out of it, with a trip to Costa Rica promised to whomever spotted the most correct mistakes.
227** In April 2021, ''Wheel'' made headlines for giving away a house as a prize, the first time any game show had done so since ''Series/DreamHouse'', which ended in 1984. Not even five months later, ''Price'' offered a "tiny house" in Secret X, which was also won. The house's value was about a third of the house offered on ''Wheel'', but it was still the biggest non-cash prize offered on the show that day, even with Golden Road being played and won earlier in the show.
228** Roger Dobkowitz admitted that the Big Wheel was added due to the success of ''Wheel of Fortune'', which debuted on NBC just eight months before the first Showcase Showdown on ''Price''.
229* ToughActToFollow: Drew Carey succeeding Bob Barker with a caliber of 35 years as host. To be fair, it would have been hard for ''anybody'' to hold a candle to Barker.
230* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Some retired pricing games fall into this category.
231** The Phone Home Game's name, concept and its set screamed 1980s. The pricing game's name was a ShoutOut to ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''. The set would soon look dated as the 1990s rolled in.
232** Poker Game got hit with this hard in its later years. The game was based on five-card stud which was popular around the time it was introduced. In the TurnOfTheMillennium, Texas hold 'em eclipsed draw as the most popular form of poker. Coupled with the game's inability to offer huge prizes, which it never offered a four-digit prize in its entire existence, Poker Game had become an outdated relic. It was retired before Season 36.
233** It's Optional is an example of a game that fell victim to changing industry practices. A-la-carte vehicle options largely died out as the 1980s progressed as automobile manufacturers made popular features standard and bundled optional features together in packages as a means of reducing production costs by reducing production and component variations. By the 2010s, many major automobile manufacturers had eschewed optional features altogether and made features purely dependent on the vehicle's trim level with customer choice limited to things like paint/fabric color and wheels. Either way, the game was retired in 1983.
234** Walk of Fame is an inflation example. It was retired just two years in because rising prices were increasing its difficulty.
235* ValuesDissonance:
236** Barker liked to let female contestants kiss him if they wanted and thus, Bob getting kissed by incoming contestants was a relatively common occurrence during his era. You won't see a game show host allow such contact today for numerous reasons.
237** Barker made disparaging comments about the Equal Rights Amendment in a 1983 episode, which would get him fired in this day and age.
238** The episode where One Away premiered, aired December 4, 1984, will likely never be rerun on Pluto TV's Price Is Right. That episode's Showcase theme involved slavery (specifically, the models were bidding on a "slave" played by Johnny Olson). The full episode has appeared on video sharing services in the past.
239** Bob Barker would have female contestants reach into his coat pocket to claim the perfect bid bonus. Tom Kennedy would simply hand the bonus to them. Barker stopped this practice in the early 1990s, around the same time that Bump was retired.
240** A lot of Barker's chauvinistic behavior towards the "Beauties" (and some female contestants) would be considered sexist today, though it generally wasn't beyond what was considered acceptable for the time. However, he did [[https://rare.us/people/bob-barker-sued/ get sued by long-time models Dian Parkinson and Holly Hallstrom]] over his backstage behavior, with Holly [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M04zQM37_ms&ab_channel=hollyfanforever eventually receiving a multimillion dollar settlement]].
241** Barker told at least one young woman "You better hurry up and get married," with the implication being that she'd end up an OldMaid. Even if he said it in jest (she said she was 19), this would not fly today. Another episode from the same era had him remark that a successful marriage results from a wife obeying her husband. Even in the early '80s, this drew boos from the audience, which prompted Barker to condescendingly remark that whoever booed wasn't married.
242** The pricing game Bump whose premise involved the models making suggestive moves to push miniature buses. Stan Blits acknowledged this, saying Bump's retirement came out of a desire to make ''Price'' more family-friendly. It was enough for Pluto TV to [[BannedEpisode skip episodes where Bump is present]].
243* VindicatedByHistory: The Doug Davidson version. At the time, fans of ''Price'' decried its many changes mentioned at TheyChangedItNowItSucks Nowadays, many see it as a decent companion to the daytime version that dared to try something different from the standard ''Price'' formula -- unfortunately, that proved to be what did it in (along with the OJ Simpson news coverage).
244* {{Woolseyism}}: When the pricing game 3 Strikes is played in other countries, references to baseball are removed due to the sport not being quite as popular outside of America.

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