NOVEMBER 26, 1956
The NBC Television Network launches the very game show which in a later incarnation would become the pinnacle of Goodson-Todman's game show repertoire and continue to thrive to this day: The Price Is Right.
This earlier incarnation was a more sedate version than the one we currenty know today; there were no pricing games, no boisterous announcer beckoning contestants to "Come On Down!!", nor did Bob Barker emcee either (he was at the time emceeing Truth Or Consequences). It did, however, have a contestants row, onstage, and its original emcee was game show TV's reigning king, Bill Cullen.
In this first version, four contestants one a returning champion competed throughout the show. After a merchandise item was shown (often by beautiful models), the contestants, one at a time, bid on the item (sound familiar?). Unless otherwise stated, each bid had to be higher than the previous bid; each contestant could "freeze," or stop bidding, if they believed their next bid would cause them to overbid, thus disqualifying themselves from winning the prize. The bidding continued until an undefined time limit ran out. Host Cullen then gave the price of the item; the contestant who bid closest without going over won it, and occassionally, won either a bonus prize or got to play a bonus game. The last prize of the day was usually the most valuable, and often determined the day's champion, who got to return to the next show (something which isn't the case on the new and current version!). A special feature of the original Price Is Right let home viewers bid on special showcases.
After a sensational 7-year run on NBC Daytime, it defected to The Alphabet Network, ABC, where it lived out its last 2 years; there, contestants competed against a celebrity player, who played for a home viewer. 7 more years later, CBS brought back TPIR as part of 3 game show premieres on its daytime schedule September 4, 1972 (sandwiched between The Joker's Wild and Gambit), renamed---with magnificent originality!---The New Price Is Right, emceed by the unconquerable Bob Barker. This, of course, is the current version (the New having been dropped from the title in June 1973), which has earned its title as the longest-running network daytime game show in television history, and, at this time, it seems there is no end in sight!
