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"Here it comes! From the Bob Barker Studio at CBS in Hollywood! Television's most exciting hour of fantastic prizes! The fabulous 60-minute Price Is Right!"
Originating in 1956 with Bill Cullen as host, The Price Is Right asked four contestants to look at a prize and guess its actual retail price; whichever contestant got the closest without overbidding won the prize. This format ran in daytime and prime time on NBC, and later on ABC, from 1956-65. It was pastiched in a famous episode of The Flintstones.
The more familiar format, with Bob Barker and the Catch Phrase "Come on down!", debuted in 1972 on CBS daytime and can still be seen there. Concurrent syndicated series starred Dennis James, Tom Kennedy, and Doug Davidson. This format added two new elements: Contestants are now chosen from the Studio Audience, and the winner of each item up for bids joins the host onstage to play one of dozens of pricing games. The hour-long format for The Price Is Right became permanent in November 1975. After starting his 35th year with the show, Bob Barker announced his retirement from TV at the end of October 2006. Bob Barker's final show was broadcast on June 15, 2007; Drew Carey succeeded him exactly four months later, on October 15.
The show has been made in many other countries, including in the United Kingdom, where it ran from 1984-2007 with Bruce Forsyth hosting for a time.
The Price is Right has its own tropes:
- Contestants' Row
- $1 bids (basically, betting that everybody else has bid too high and therefore lost automatically): Often, contestants using this clearly have no idea why this is done; they just like saying it.
- Inverted with $1-higher bids, where the last bidder in a round bids one dollar higher than the highest bid of the other three contestants in an attempt to win the prize.
- The mere existence of Plinko, which is arguably the show's most popular pricing game.
- Showcase Showdown, with the Big Wheel
- "Isn't this exciting?": Bob Barker endlessly delaying his reveal of whether the contestant won or lost, much to the contestant's agony.
This show provides examples of:
- Adaptation Displacement: Name one person under the age of 60 (excluding die-hard game show fans) who is even aware of the Bill Cullen version. For that matter, find 10 people (again excluding die-hard game show fans) who can name more than two of the show's hosts (Barker and Carey).
- And Ninety Nine Cents: Prices are usually rounded to the dollar, so except for grocery products, nothing actually ends in "99 cents". However, that doesn't stop lots of the prices from ending in "99 dollars." Notable in Clock Game, where occasional Genre Savvy contestants go straight to $x99 for a quick win.
- Brother Chuck: Numerous pricing games including Superball!!, The Phone Home Game, Telephone Game,
 and the dubious Shower Game. Some would prefer that Superball!!, Penny Ante, and $uper $aver had not been retired.
- Butt Monkey: Squeeze Play during the Barker era, Rich Fields during Season 37.
- Catch Phrase: "Come on down!", "A NEW CAR!", and "All this can be yours, if the price is right."
- "This is Bob Barker, reminding you to help control the pet population: have your pets spayed or neutered!"
- Of the Range Game: "Once it's stopped, it can't be reset for 37 hours." Drew tried to carry on this phrase, but he said "days" by mistake and never attempted the phrase again.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Subverted, most of the time. There have only been five known occasions of cheaters during the Bob Barker era.
- On October 6, 1986, a contestant playing Shell Game lifted one of the shells to place her first chip. Although the ball was not there, she realized her mistake and placed the chip by the same shell she had just looked under. After she moved it to another shell upon Barker's request, and won two more chips, Barker made a Crowning Moment Of Funny with the big "exciting" reveal.
- On October 7, 1988, a contestant playing Three Strikes almost pulled out the third Strike but shoved it back in, then later drew the Strike anyway.
- On February 28, 1992, a contestant playing Three Strikes for a Porsche had two chips left (the number and the third Strike) and very nearly pulled the Strike out of the bag...but suddenly dunked it back in and pulled out the number. After this, Three Strikes + was not played for the rest of Season 20, while the strike discs became white with red X's for a brief time.
- On December 1, 1992, a contestant playing Pathfinder briefly touched a digit with his foot and moved it back, causing the digit (which was the correct choice at that point of the game) to light up.
- On April 4, 2005, a contestant playing Flip Flop hit the price reveal button without actually changing the price. Barker, after remaining speechless for a few moments, awarded him the prize anyway.
- Consolation Prize: The giant checks used in the Check Game are given to the players regardless of whether they win or lose (with a nice big "VOID" stamped on losers' checks). Barker joked that they always found voided checks in the trash outside the studio.
- Crossover: Bob, Rod, and some of the models appeared on Family Feud (which, at that time, preceded Price on CBS), competing against the cast of The Young And The Restless (and beating them senseless). The first Feud episode that week even copied the Price intro, and had Bob and his team "come on down" out of the studio audience while Feud announcer Gene Wood called their names.
- Interestingly, the Y&R team was led by one Doug Davidson, who later had his own version of Price — one which got beaten senseless.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Terry Kniess' perfect Showcase bid on December 16, 2008 (the second in the show's history). Drew didn't seem too enthused about it, though, and many more prizes got added pretty quickly following this incident. So quickly, in fact, that fans immediately linked the two together.
- A man proposes during the Showcase Showdown, while also getting $1.00 on his spin and eventually winning the Showcase. She said yes.
- When a player gets the price exactly right when another player had tried bidding a dollar more than him.
- A Half Off contestant during Bob Barker's final season picked a box as the host explained the rules of the game. The same box remained at the end of the game, was chosen, and contained the $10,000.
- A contestant playing One Away on April 27, 2009 made all five numbers the same color (red, signifying the number one down from the "base" number). Despite this never having been the winning solution in any previous playing, it was the price.
- The April 1, 2009 episode, played remarkably-straight throughout by all involved. Most notable:
- Kathy Kinney reprised her role as Mimi Bobeck, who modeled during the show.
- Match Game think music played during two games — and its main theme during the credits!
- The Turntable refused to stop spinning during one segment.
- Most Expensive was played for three Howard Miller floor clocks; surprisingly, it was won.
- In a moment of the show coming full-circle upon its history, the Bob Barker Studio was renamed...to the Bill Cullen Studio.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: Far too many to list (they would require their own page), and most courtesy of Bob, but some of the more notable ones are:
Bob Barker: I would have let you grab me sooner, Pauline, but I didn't want to have you pay for my hospital bills.
- April 20, 1982: A contestant bid $1, thinking that his opponent had gone over; his opponent not only didn't overbid, but was a mere $9 off, winning both Showcases. This incident is commonly used to show why it's never a good idea to bid a low amount in the Showcase (currently, Showcases begin at about $12,000).
- An incident shortly after One Away debuted in 1984 had Barker under the mistaken assumption that the "correct number" horns would be used after the contestant's second turn as well. Upon asking for the first horn, the standard bell sounded instead and the first number of the price was revealed; Bob, after asking if she had "one number right" (noting that the first number was already revealed), hit the flat part right above the price — which, as it does now, is the signal to move the price-reveal another digit down. Bob continued to ask for horns, not noticing any of this, until the price had been fully-exposed (prematurely, based on Bob's expressions afterward). Interestingly, the game had been a full minute earlier — the first number was the only unchanged one.
Bob: But... I wanted to ask for another horn!
- The aforementioned Shell Game incident, which had several of these through Bob — his reactions to the contestant and, later, playing up the rather anti-climatic reveal. After the contestant won the last two chips (and marked all the shells except the one she lifted), the audience applauded the upcoming win.
- On June 6, 2002 the big reveal in Flip Flop was averted by a stuck price cover. Although the price was revealed enough that the outcome was known, Bob and the contestant ended up ripping the cover in half, shaking the game board considerably in the process. See it here.
- Drew has also had his problems with Flip Flop, as seen in this clip from October 2008.
- A contestant on September 23, 2009 played One Away and claimed to have practiced the game beforehand. She then went on to do the "Ladies, do I have at least one number right?" routine, which had been changed when Drew became host two years earlier.
- Dethroning Moment Of Suck: Drew once explained Make Your Mark (originally Barker's Markers) incorrectly on-air (stating that the contestant would keep the $500, regardless of the outcome, if he decided not to switch the marker), and the staff retired the game immediately afterward because nobody wanted to tell Drew that he screwed up. This was denied on Drew Carey's Twitter page (see below for quotes), stating that the game simply didn't make the cut of games that were the staff's "favorites". Take it for what you will, though — either Carey genuinely doesn't know why it was retired, or was told to make up an excuse. There is the possibility that Carey doesn't know the real reason because the staff meeting was genuine, made as a way to break the news to the host without actually telling him it was his fault; this same staff meeting presumably ousted Barker's Bargain Bar and Clearance Sale, both of which were gone in the next three months.
September 16, 2009; 10:03 AM: Make Your Mark is retired, but not because anyone made a mistake playing it. We're working on new games...
September 17, 2009; 9:29 PM: We had a staff meeting to go over games we liked/were tired of. Make Your Mark didn't make the cut. Simple as that.
- Not only that, but a majority of the Showcases that Carey wrote (especially in Season 37) were widely panned for being rather unfunny and demeaning announcer Rich Fields. Justified, in that a majority of these Showcases had Fields acting like an ignorant (and, in one instance, dyslexic) buffoon. To his credit, Carey admitted in an interview that they didn't work.
- The aforementioned perfect bid of by Kneiss, as Drew acted very bored and uninterested in the most historic moment of his tenure to that point.
- In all fairness, there was a lot of controversy regarding said bid and the taping had to be stopped for some time as a result. While it is true that Drew could have masked his air that something was wrong, there was a reason other than his supposed incompetence — someone in the audience, a frequent viewer of the show, had shouted out the exact Showcase price. This caused not only the severe increase in new prizes, but what essentially amounted to a banning of both frequent viewers and almost everyone associated with Golden-Road.Net from being contestants; despite this, the staff still reads the website's forums.
- Some of the setups that have been used since mid-Season 37 have been ruled as completely unfair; the aforementioned One Away incident was one of these, and Pathfinder got this treatment twice by having the price end on the interior of the board — on the second instance, the price never touched the border.
- Did Not Do The Research: Lots of things. Most notable is the show's episode count, having always been off to some degree whenever milestones were supposedly reached. For example, the so-called "7,000th Show" on November 5, 2009 was actually #7,146 — the real #7,000 was back on January 19, 2009 in the previous season.
- On "#7,000", Drew mentioned that it was Rich Fields' 1,001st show as announcer. This was also incorrect, as Rich had only done 988 daytime shows at that point — and 1,006 if the primetime specials are included.
- Downer Ending: Double Overbids in the Showcase, especially after a Perfect Show. Let's not get into "El Skunko", shall we?
- At least two instances of Showcase bids being over by $1, one of which also caused a Double Overbid.
- In one of the first $1,000,000 specials, one contestant just barely missed the $1,000,000 win on his bonus spin. It looked as if he could have blown on the Big Wheel and it would have clicked into place.
- Ear Worm: The "come on down" music, the main theme, the yodeling music played in Cliff Hangers, etc.
- Epic Fail: The week of January 11-15, 2010; of the 30 games played that week, a staggering 27 were lost. Blamed on a combination of dumb contestants ($41 on a $15 tote bag in Cliff Hangers) and way too many games set up to be lost (Lucky $even's price ending with "9").
- Escort Mission: Cliff Hangers, in a unique way.
- Fan Nickname: An early pricing game known as "Bullseye" is usually referred to by fans as "Bullseye I" or "Bullseye '72" (the year it debuted). Similarly, the current Bullseye pricing game is unofficially "Bullseye II" or "Bullseye '76".
- Drew has referred to the Cliff Hangers character as "Yodely Guy" or "Yodel Guy"; Doug Davidson (and Carey, a few times) dubbed him "Hans."
- Dennis James once called him "Fritz," in a hopefully-not-on-purpose Too Soon moment for Janice Pennington (her mountain-climber husband, Fritz Stammberger, had gone missing before the beginning of that season). To make matters worse, Dennis went and shouted "There goes Fritz!" when he went over the cliff, sending Janice running backstage in tears; she never came out for the rest of that taping.
- The aforementioned Season 37 Showcases written by Carey were almost instantly called "Drewcases" after their writer (and, most of the time, the only guy laughing at the "jokes").
- Fanservice: Barker's Beauties, particularly when they break out the swimsuits.
- Fetish Fuel: Your Mileage May Vary on these (of course), but many of the Showcase skits get built around a gimmick, which (a majority of the time) happens to end up being one that's usually the trigger to one of the less common fetishes out there. For instance, during Bob Barker's 35 years, two of the more common skit themes for the Barker's Beauties were mannequins (which appeal to the freeze fetish crowd) and "space babe meeting alien babes" (which appeal to the Green Skinned Space Babe fans).
- Fur And Loathing: When Bob Barker joined PETA, furs were no longer offered as prizes. This would be understandable, but he doesn't even want those old episodes aired on GSN.
- Game Breaker: About 99% of the time, Cliffhangers can be won with blind guesses of $25, $35, and $45. Unfortunately, almost no one seems to be Genre Savvy enough to try this trick, leading to some rather boneheaded guesses such as $2 on a $15 tote bag, or $2,000 on a toy guitar.
- Gannon Banned: "Showcase Showdown" is when they spin the Big Wheel (or, on some of the Davidson version, "The Price Was Right"). The final round, where contestants bid on the big prize packages, is simply referred to as the "Showcase" (or, in recaps, "Showcase Round"). Never get these confused, or Price fans will hate you forever and a day.
- Genre Savvy: A little of this can help a lot, but contestants rarely have any. One example can be found in Ten Chances, where the right answers always end in zero. You would only know this from watching frequently; it's never pointed out on the air.
- Growing The Beard: The show became a much less staid affair around the time that it expanded to a full hour. Not only were there twice as many games, but the Showcases began using many more skits with then-announcer Johnny Olson, and new gameplay elements such as the Big Wheel were added as well.
- Helium Speech: Rich Fields once inhaled helium before reading the prize copy as part of a Showcase skit. He then did it again for his signoff tag.
- Hey Is That Still On: A common reaction to the show, especially since Drew took over; many people assumed that it retired when Bob did.
- Hey Its That Guy: All five hosts were known for something big prior to Price.
- Bill Cullen was famous as a panelist on I've Got a Secret (and had hosted a variety of game shows prior to Price).
- Bob Barker was famous for hosting Truth Or Consequences (and, for Californians, the producer of the 1969-71 game Lucky Pair, which gave Geoff Edwards his first hosting assignment).
- Dennis James was well-known for many TV shows, most notably the four-year syndicated hit PDQ (1965-69) and the 1950s hit Chance of a Lifetime.
- Tom Kennedy hosted Name That Tune for a staggering seven years (1974-81); his first few months were also the last of a daytime Tune hosted by James on NBC. James was pulling double-duty on Price, which during his tenure was airing mostly on NBC stations.
- Doug Davidson was (and still is) famous for his work on The Young & The Restless.
- Drew Carey was famous for his self-titled sitcom and Whose Line Is It Anyway? His look and mannerisms, at the time, also bore more than a passing resemblance to an overweight Bill Cullen.
- Hey Its That Voice: Again, the announcers were well-known before this.
- Don Pardo was an NBC announcer for several years before Price, and later announced on Jeopardy!
- Johnny Gilbert hosted Music Bingo in 1958.
- Johnny Olson announced on What's My Line? and To Tell The Truth, plus worked with Jackie Gleason on various occasions (including You're In The Picture, whose commercials were done by Dennis James). He also hosted the DuMont series Kids & Company.
- Rod Roddy was already well-known as the announcer on Press Your Luck, Hit Man, and Whew! He also did the continuity announcements on Soap.
- Rich Fields was a weatherman at a nearby Los Angeles CBS affiliate, and also announced (and once guest-hosted) Flamingo Fortune.
- Keep Circulating The Tapes: Although the show has been released on DVD, a majority of the run won't be, mostly due to older episodes (especially anything regarding Dennis James) offering fur coats as prizes and Bob Barker's later membership in PETA. This includes the first episode he hosted, although BCI (which released the box set) tried pretty hard to get fur episodes, offering to donate to Barker's favorite charities and put a disclaimer before the offending shows.
- The Dennis James version has especially been prone to this; it has not been seen, apart from a pair of brief clips in Game Show Moments Gone Bananas, since 1977. Only five episodes (including the pitch film) circulate, plus over 30 more episodes recorded onto audio cassette from 1973-75 broadcasts.
- Last Of His Kind: Daytime game shows used to be as ubiquitous as Soap Operas, especially in the mid-1970s. From the mid-1990s until the Wayne Brady version of Lets Make A Deal debuted in October 2009, Price was the last daytime network game show on the air.
- Leitmotif: The losing horns, when someone loses a pricing game. If you've seen the show, you probably just heard it in your head by its mere mention.
- Loads And Loads Of Games: Altogether, a staggering 103 have been used on the show since 1972. In recent years, some pricing games appear so rarely, fans often wonder if they're still on the show.
- Long Runner: The CBS version is now in its 38th season, giving it the longest contiguous run by far for any American game show.
- Luck Based Mission: Skill is often not enough for these games. For instance, Half Off comes down to a random choice between two boxes if you get everything else right, and Three Strikes can easily be Unwinnable if the Strike chips are pulled too quickly.
- And in games like Plinko and Punch-A-Bunch, you're just as likely to get a Zonk as hit the big money.
- Memetic Mutation: IT'S A NEW CAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!
- "Help control the pet population: Have your pets spayed or neutered!"
- After Drew referred to Barker's Bargain Bar as being named for "Ezekiel Barker", many fans began referring to Bob Barker as Ezekiel. Shortly afterward, fans began making a "history" of the Barker family.
- Minigame Game: If you had to describe the show's format, this would be it.
- Missed Moment Of Awesome: Bill Cullen appeared in 1982 to promote his then-new show, but nobody acknowledged the fact that he hosted the original 1956-65 versions of Price.
- Nightmare Fuel: Shower Game, supposedly retired after viewer complaints that the game's premise (enter the shower stall you think has the car's right price, and pull the chain) was reminiscent of the Jewish Holocaust. This, obviously, was not what Price was intending.
- Old Shame: One of the things keeping Price off GSN is Barker's refusal to greenlight shows that offered fur coats as prizes (although the network screwed up, not once but three times, and aired an episode with a fur). Also, Barker's abandoned habit of letting women pull the $100 perfect bid bonus out of his pocket by themselves.
- Dennis James. He spent five years on a revival (and helped to cement the show's popularity), but GSN never aired any of his nighttime run; the official reason, given by on-air host Laura Chambers, was that the network felt it pointless since fewer than 50 episodes were fur-less. Fans stipulated that, as GSN has aired shows that had less than that many episodes surviving (usually on weekends or as a "Game Of The Week" marathon), Barker had a personal hatred of James and forced GSN to never air any episodes with him.
- But what of that single, albeit daytime, episode that aired in 1997 following James' death? That airing, from December 25, 1974, is generally perceived to be a "pity airing" allowed through the generosity of Barker. It was nice, yes, but still stung more than a bit.
- And then there's the veto of the three syndicated runs (James/Kennedy/Davidson) by Barker from use on the DVD set (although, granted, the Barker ones are probably what most DVD buyers would want). This is coupled with the jump from November 3, 1975 to June 11, 2007 being attributed to wanting to avoid anything with Holly Hallstrom (oddly, Dian Parkinson appears in the September-November 1975 episodes).
- The Bill Cullen era might be a part of this as well, although Barker has no veto right over these episodes (they came before he was host, so veto rights would fall to Cullen's estate). The Gameshow Marathon "tribute" to Price (if a tribute can be classified as importing the format of about a dozen international versions) had some footage from the Cullen era in its clip montage on the show; this would not have been too much of a problem, if more than 20 seconds had been dedicated to discussing it.
- Rod Roddy probably counts. In Barker's autobiography, Priceless Memories, Roddy is only mentioned once — in a list of the show's main announcers since 1972. He and Barker had a pretty ugly falling-out over money. Because of his sudden disappearance from camera, it had been rumored that Fremantle had launched a policy wherein the announcers must not appear on-camera; in reality, it was Barker, not Fremantle, who had barred Rod from on-camera appearances. Shortly after Drew became host, Rich Fields began appearing on-camera as often as Rod had in the past, thus throwing the "no-announcers-on-camera policy" rumor out the window. Read more about it here.
- The Other Darrin: Dennis James, Tom Kennedy, and Doug Davidson hosted nighttime syndicated versions for five years, one year, and five months respectively. Guess which game show doesn't have a nighttime syndicated version anymore. None of the versions was canceled for lack of hosting quality, though:
- Dennis James was ousted because his contract had expired and stations were switching from NBC to CBS.
- The nighttime version with Bob Barker was canned because weekly syndicated games as a whole were being ousted in favor of daily games by late 1979.
- Tom Kennedy was gone in a year because of the glut of game shows in Fall 1985, plus it was frequently slotted in late nights (as it was still called "The Nighttime Price Is Right") and had the unfortunate luck of debuting with Season 14, shortly before Johnny Olson passed away.
- Doug Davidson was gone due to both a radically-changed format and the unfortunate luck of having been pre-empted a lot due to OJ Simpson.
- Percussive Maintenance: Bob would sometimes kick or hit set pieces if they got stuck, the most frequent victim being Squeeze Play. (Barker once trained with Chuck Norris.)
- Squeeze Play usually got hits to the "stomach" (the price reveal flap) or right side (the price-reveal button), but on February 27, 1980 it got hit several times in the "chest" (begins at 3:20).
- Periphery Demographic: 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. The next day, hundreds of letters were sent supporting the show.
- The producers noticed a surge in popularity after Bob Barker appeared in the Adam Sandler movie Happy Gilmore, in which Barker, appearing as himself in a Pro/AM golf tournament, was paired up with - and later beat the everloving crap out of - Adam Sandler's character, Happy Gilmore.
- "The price is wrong, bitch!"
- Bob Barker was to American college students what Jon Pertwee was to the Brits: Just because you're old doesn't mean you can't kick a little ass.
- Pretty In Mink: Fur coats were often prizes until Bob Barker joined PETA. Considering how much the show today seems to be whitewashing Barker (none of the games that bore his name are around anymore: one ousted from fear of telling Drew his mistake, the other because "it looked bad in HD"), the return of the fur coat seems like an inevitability.
- Product Placement: Even more so than other game shows. Not just with big prizes, but contestants often have to figure out the prices of several small prizes to get more chances to win the big one. And of course, every single one is described in detail for the contestant and viewers.
- Utterly justified, as knowing which brand something is can help contestants guess the price, which of course is the object of the game.
- This is actually far less common now. The smaller products used in the pricing games are brand-name products, but these days, about half of them are just given a generic description.
- This has actually happened — the show is now using, on occasion, store-brand products (Target, Walgreens, etc.)
- Word Of God (announcer Rich Fields) is that the prizes that get full descriptions were provided directly by the sponsor. Prizes with generic descriptions were purchased locally for use on the show.
- Put On A Bus: A couple of years into Drew Carey's run, many of the games went missing without explanation or being confirmed as retired. Most have trickled back into the rotation, while a few (such as Credit Card) remain in limbo.
- Double Prices got put on a bus during the Israeli version's run — literally.
- Rearrange The Song: Every now and then, with the main theme getting quite a few remixes for prize plugs.
- An early prize cue on the show was later rearranged to become the Theme Tune for Family Feud.
- The show's main theme used a different orchestration for the Davidson version.
- Also inverted when the theme from The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour was later recycled as a prize cue.
- Replacement Scrappy: A couple.
- Following original announcer Johnny Olson's death in 1985, the show rotated announcing duties among Rod Roddy, Gene Wood, Bob Hilton, and Rich Jeffries, with Roddy ultimately getting the nod despite having done the least work of the group. Not one fan of the show liked Jeffries' flat, nasal voice. Others think that, while Gene was a great announcer on other shows, his style just did not fit with Price.
- Bob Hilton was actually the first choice (and did the most episodes among the four), but turned it down because he had already committed to hosting two game show pilots: Bamboozle (a To Tell The Truth rip-off) and Fun for the Money. Neither pilot sold.
- After Rod Roddy died in 2003, the show tried out another string of guest announcers. Opinions vary wildly on many of the sub-announcers not named Randy West, but one thing is for certain: nobody liked it when Daniel Rosen was behind the mic, as he sounded much like Rich Jeffries on Quaaludes and did not interact with Bob in the earliest episodes. He did perk up some on his later episodes, but his "enthusiasm" sounded fake. Not only that, Rosen also infected a popular fan forum with six Sock Puppet accounts singing the praises of his announcing, while the legit members were close to unanimously against him. Read all about it here.
- Earlier sub-announcer Paul Boland (who had previously done the 1998 revival of Match Game) was also a bit of a Scrappy himself. Supposedly, he was canned after a week of sub-announcing due to his over-enthusiasm and refusal to tone it down.
- Some fans of the show hated sub-announcer Burton Richardson, mainly for his over-enthusiasm and "puking" method of announcing (think a corny, over-the-top DJ voice, Up To Eleven).
- Don Bishop was a decent sub-announcer, but lost major points with the fans for absolutely refusing to interact with Bob. To Bob'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."
- Running Gag: Does ANYBODY know how to play Check Game?
- "We can't start [Range Game] again for 37 hours."
- Shout Out: Tons, including a Match Game Showcase.
- Stop Having Fun Guys: Anyone who bids $1 over the previous person's bid.
- Synthesizeritis: Noted Moog synthesist Edd Kalehoff composed the iconic 1972 theme and many of its music cues. Yes, the show is still using Moog-based tunes well into the 21st century, although many non-Moog pieces have been added over time. The theme has been remixed slightly over time, but the Moog has stayed.
- That One Level: A few.
- The long-since-retired pricing game "Bullseye '72" is probably the only universally-accepted example of this, being lost every one of the five times it was played. Some more subjective examples are That's Too Much!, Fortune Hunter, Mystery Price, and Step Up.
- Mystery Price is probably the best-performing of the group. It was played 17 times (September 1973 to February 1974), and contestants emerged victorious 11 times.
- Also subverted by pricing games that are apparently hated for being too easy, such as Pick-A-Number.
- To be fair, Pick-A-Number's easy playings are usually when it's replaced another game which broke down at the last minute. (It's used since it's extremely easy to set up and has no electronic parts.)
- Many people hate Ten Chances, which can take forever to play, especially with an inept contestant who is a slow writer and who still, after claiming to have watched the show for years, can't figure out the unwritten rule of Ten Chances' prices always ending in zero.
- They Changed It Now It Sucks: Some fans find the 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. A definite Your Mileage May Vary, though, as Carey does have fans. (some, incidentally, swayed by the backstage nightmare stories about Barker; indeed, a lot of game show fans have turned on him seemingly moreso after his retirement. The previously-mentioned DVD issues come to mind, as well as his spat over the GSN Game Show Awards show and Betty White. And memories of his past scandals have resurfaced almost more than ever on online forums).
- The Doug Davidson version was generally hated among longtime fans of the show due to its radical changes (half-hour format, no Contestant's Row, no 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 in late 2008.
- Funny how absence makes the heart grow fonder, as the 1994 version's partner, the second Dawson version of Family Feud, has received a similar amount of interest and a clamoring for it to return to GSN some day.
- Fans mostly hate the complete overhaul of prizes; where there used to be grandfather clocks and dining rooms, there are now ridiculously-expensive trips with amenities that are impossible to price (a recent example being a two-day trip to about 20 miles from Television City for over $7,000), home photo booths, "designer" items, and things that Drew has stated on-air as having used himself. This usually leads to drastic underbids on Showcases, a tactic apparently designed to eradicate the Double Overbid.
- Totally Radical: The Big Doors designed in The Seventies were used through Barker's retirement in 2007, while the also-Seventies Turntable continues to be used (albeit completely redesigned for Season 38). The pricing games' props have been around for years, and over the show's long run have gone from dated to retro-kitsch — and, despite a couple of recolors, they still look Seventies.
- Unwinnable: Bullseye '72, the only pricing game that never had a winner. It wasn't technically Unwinnable, just very, very hard to win despite adding a $500 bidding range and, on its last playing, stating that the price was rounded to the nearest $10.
- To be absolutely technical and straight-laced about it, Plinko has never been won and isn't statistically likely to be, either. Most people consider it a win if the contestant hits the big-money slot; Word Of God says otherwise.
- What An Idiot: Anyone who bids $1 lower than the previous bid, or who can't figure out how to play an easy game such as Plinko. Ditto for any off-the-wall bids (e.g. $9,000 for a pair of surfboards; one- or three-plus-digit figures for any prize in Cliff Hangers). Bids of $420 or anything containing "69" is frowned upon; the former is excusable if the highest bid is $419.
- At least twice, a $1 underbid has ended up being a Perfect Bid, turning What An Idiot into a Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
- A one-bid on December 18, 2009 for a piano had the following bids: $12,000; $12,001; $13,000; $1. Guess who won? See here for the (obvious) answer.
- This playing of One Away, circa 1988.
- The guy who bid $2,000,000 in a one-bid. Giving his name here would give him fame, which is why he bid that.
- Same guy also tried the infamous $420 bid, and numbers ending in 69.
- The two morons who bid $4,200 on their Showcases during a Halloween episode...in 2009.
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