Price Is Right during the 70's and 80's

Anyone have any favorite models? Favorite pricing games? Favorite memories? Favorite prizes?

I've been going through my old school collection and finding lots of neat stuff. Retired pricing games, like BUMP! in which Dian or Janice (usually Dian) would wind up their hips in the most sensual way possible. And on that note, the show would use every opportunity to put Dian in a swimsuit, whether it be modeling a new boat or a Caribbean cruise. You would see more boats on the show than the Atlantic Ocean. This was, of course, back in the day when the models had distinct personalities and they had the same ones for 13 years so you knew them by name as opposed to the non-stop parade of nameless ones you get today.

The people responsible for picking out the prizes are usually pretty bad. I understand the budget didn't allow for everyone to play for a new car or $10,000 in cash, but jesus, a HOT DOG CART? What the fuck is anyone going to do with that? Open a stand on their front lawn?

The contestants were also naturally funny and excitable back then, as opposed to the ultra-fake "dial up the crazy and hyper to 11" people on nowadays. In case you haven't guessed, I can't stand to watch the Drew Carey version. Fuck Carey and his stupid Republican ass anyways.

Bob was mostly cordial, although he could be a bit snarky at times. They say the death of his wife in the early 80's had something to do with it.

The Price is Right microphone has always given me the willies.

However, I did have a favorite model. I am so very gay, and yet I had a big crush on the redhead. No idea why except I love redheads.

My favorite model was Holly as well.

"Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much" is a documentary about a man who watched TPIR every day and was able to guess prices down to the dollar. (He is gay, I am pretty sure.) He finally does make it on the show. I think it's on Amazon Prime. I liked the movie.

I like watching for Rod Roddy's outfits. I always liked the Grocery Game. Holly was the best.

Also, has anyone ever noticed how Drew flirts with the male models when they're modeling in their swim trunks?

I really enjoy binge watching TPiR episodes from the 70s and 80s on YouTube. I only started to watch the show as a kid in the early 90s, and I've discovered that the vibe of the show was quite different in the earlier decades.

While the out of control crowds are a staple in the Drew Carey era, they definitely were there in the last decade or so of Barker's tenure. By the late 90s you'd come to expect that for any given show, there'd be groups of rowdy college students in the audience, as the show was VERY popular among them. They'd always be called down as contestants too (such as Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul, who was a contestant in 2000).

Regarding the pricing games, when I started watching, I used to like when older games like Bonus Game or Shell Game would be trotted out because they were rarely played in the 90s and the props just [italic]looked[/italic] like relics from the seventies! 3 Strikes remains my favorite - apparently it was nearly retired because Drew didn't like the game in his first few years as host.

While it was cool that Janice, Dian and Holly were always the steady crew of models from the mid-70s to the early 90s, the behind the scenes special that E! aired in 2002 really shone a light on how much tension there was between the models themselves and between Bob and Dian (and then Holly) in the 80s and then 90s. I guess after working together for so many years, tensions were bound to arise. Hence the lawsuits and bad blood, which was unfortunate.

Team Holly. Bob was an ass.

I always loved one of the original Price is Right models, Anitra Ford. She had incredible eyes and was sexy and sultry with an edge to her. Sometimes when she was presenting something as mundane as Z-Brick, she had a look in her eyes that said, "My boyfriend fuck me up against this Z-Brick wall last night."

She was on the show for four years (pervy old Bob Barker probably put the moves on her and she was smart enough to exit), then did some acting and finally dropped out of the business altogether and became an artist. She's 77 now - hard to believe.

I had better things to do than watch a ridiculous gameshow.

Gawd, OP!

I don't get why some of you insist on living in the past. Does the modern world not provide anything for you? I can't imagine posting things about the 80s and 90s when I was growing up, let alone 30 years from now. These constant threads on television and trivial things is endless from some of you. You're using up all the oxygen in the fucking room.

R9 Yet here you are, visiting the thread. What does that say about you, cunt?

I was very young when Holly started and always thought of her as the "new" one.

Drew Carey may be a republican, op, but he's very anti Trump.

I always heard Drew Carey is gay. No one believes me, but I think it makes sense.

R9 The world is on fucking fire, and there isn't anything in contemporary culture that doesn't repurpose prior eras anyway, usually in the most piss poor way possible.

So yes, sometimes we like to get into the way back machine and remember a time we enjoyed.

Now piss off.

The show in the 70s was really exciting and didn't seem as fake. My favorite model by far was Janice. Dian was a whore, as evidenced by her affair with Bob Barker. I remember one morning I was home from school or it was summer and watching TPIR. It was probably around 1981 or so. For some reason, they wheeled out Dian in a bathtub and all she had covering her nips was a thin band (it looked like she was being made up for a bikini segment later in the show). I have no idea how that made it past the censors because her boobs were basically hanging out for everyone to see. Did anyone else remember seeing this?

I loved the Race Game. I don't remember that many that have been retired that I liked. Do they still play Temptation? That's a tough one. Golden Road was also hard. Bob was a bit snarky, but I never thought he was mean to contestants. He was genuinely funny.

IMO, Bob Barker had a cold and mean edge to him. The weirdest game that I can recall is "Cliffhanger" which involved yodeling and some rustic-looking stage props.

Some of us remember the ORIGINAL "Price is Right" with Bill Cullen (from the '60s.)

Was Holly the lone brunette BBeauty in the 80s? She was my favorite. She was in on the joke and didn’t seem to take the show or her role too seriously.

Surprised no one has mentioned the Yodeling Mountain Climber game. That one was (is?) very popular.

I like the game where they race the clock to price 4 big items and then run back to pull the arm of a big machine to see how many of the 4 prices are correct. “Three?!? Oh no! Which one is wrong?? Fix it fast!!” Do they still play that one?

Yeah that’s the race game. Definitely one of the all time great pricing games

Where it's impossible to get 3 right. You either get none, 1, 2 or all four correct.

R18 -- Holly is/was a redhead.

Plinko is almost always a letdown. How many times did people get all excited and the contestant get 4-5 chips, only to get the "zero" numerous times and maybe end up with a few thousand tops? Too many to count. Plus those chips were always getting stuck. I can't believe this is most people's favorite game. It's never been officially won.

Drew was a horrible host when he began. They made the mistake of just offering him the job without an audition. He wasn't even that big of a celebrity. He always seemed bored, would fuck up the rules (leading to at least one game -- Make Your Mark -- getting retired early) and regularly insulted the prizes and the games. I think someone eventually lit a fire under his ass because he seems to have improved somewhat from what little I've seen of him hosting recently. Bob was a bit of a horndog (like how he would have the female contestants reach inside his pocket for those $100 rewards for a perfect bid), but was a much better host in his heyday.

Each model had their own distinct personality. Dian was the playful beach bunny blonde type, Janice was more the conventionally beautiful model with the 1970's look, and Holly was the loveable goofball. She was more accident prone than Tim "The Toolman" Taylor. Janice had a few mishaps as well, like crashing a few cars. I think she also crashed the prize train (is that thing still around?). And a few other mishaps, but nowhere near as many as Holly. Dian would also look wonderful in her bedtime attire modeling a new brass bed or bedroom group. I always thought it was a waste to have her model those appliances because she was best in a swimsuit or a nightie.

I always liked Master Key, for whatever reason.

I still don’t understand why they didn’t give the job to Rosie. She would have been perfect.

I loved watching in the 90’s when the older gals had wrinkly boney hands. And Chantelle was the best!

Rosie was unwilling to move to LA and the show was unwilling to move to NY.

I like Drew as the host. Unlike Bob, Drew knows that he isn't the star of the show (the show is the star of the show) and he genuinely wants people to win. He's more of the player's buddy and wing man while Bob was the disapproving grandfather who deigned to grace the masses with his presence.

Sorry folks. NOBODY beats Anitra Ford.

I liked Master Key too! The Punch Game is/was also good and Hole In One (or whatever it was called). Bob always had to show off and putt the ball in the hole whenever they played that game. I always loved when all six games were won and one or more contestants spun $1 on the "big wheel." The sound effects when they won both showcases was always so exciting! It was hilarious how cranky old Bob would lose all patience with more obnoxious contestants (especially toward the end of his time as host). Even more hilarious is how he would run for cover when a crazy, horny, hollerin' female contestant would make it out of contestant row to play a game. Good times!

Some of those female contestants would absolutely maul Bob. They don't do that to Drew.

And Bob certainly did become one Cranky Old Man at the end. Here's one contestant he was just done with - this was from one of his final seasons as host.

Is there a reason why the episodes from the 70s aren’t shown on the classic game show channels like Buzzr?

R30 -- They used to have fur coats as prizes back in the day. Bob became a huge animal rights supporter after the death of his wife in the early 80's. He won't allow any episodes with fur coats to be shown on places like GSN or BUZZR. That may possibly change after he passes.

Anitra Ford looks great well into her 70s. She had great bone structure, took good care of herself over the years and if she had any work done on her face, it was very well done.

The male models are hot but they seem goofy whenever the showcase the prize.

That's classic "I'm over this shit" Bob Barker R29. He genuinely looks like that was the moment he knew it was time to retire. He looked so mad at the very end of that clip, even he would have drop kicked and skinned a puppy.

R8 -- And yet you have time to post here.

Cars and cash are the only prizes people care about. Well, maybe the trips...some of them. Some of the time. Maybe depending on who it is and where it is.

Is the Blank Check game still around? When that debuted, probably around 1984, people used to boo the shit out of that game. I mean, LOUD, vocal booing. A lot of the contestants (and viewers) thought it was too confusing. People had no fucking idea how to play it and most games like that get retired early. I think it was renamed and managed to survive after people started getting the hang of it.

I miss the days where you'd get Ship 'n Shore ensembles to go with your trip or sailboat!

R37 Did you pair them with your Enna Jetticks?

Wasn't one of the models married or engaged to one of the Alive plane crash victims?

Anitra Ford...man she was sexy as hell

There was a contestant that was apparently the victim of a screw job sometime during the 80's. It was during the retired game "The Phone Home Game". This involved people sending in cards from all over the country and one was picked at random, whom Bob called during the game. The at-home player was matched with a in-studio contestant. They would show 7 products and prices, which the at-home viewer got lists of before the game started. It was the at-home players job to mention a price and only a price (keeping in mind they also have the list of products, for whatever the hell reason) and it was the in-studio contestant's job to match the price with the corresponding product. They would do 3 rounds of this, and there was a "cash award" for every correct answer, with a maximum *shared* winnings of $15,000 (or $7,500 for each). Well, in this case, the at-home player mentioned both a product and a price for every fucking turn, meaning the whole thing was disqualified and the in-studio player got zilch through absolutely no fault of his/her own. I've never actually seen the episode, but they say it exists. The game was eventually retired because it took an eternity to play (lots of times they would engage in meaningless chit-chat: "How's the weather there?"

And to that extent, I fucking hate the "Secret X" game because it's possible a person can do everything right and still lose out of sheer bad luck.

Dian was the most graceful of the models and perhaps that's why she seemed to always avoid the mishaps that plagued Holly and Janice. Jan actually got knocked off stage by a camera in 1988 and sued and won (thought it may have been a settlement). I also remember there was an incident involving Kathleen almost getting crushed to death (Holly got out of the way in the nick of time) by a boat or something. I also recall once Holly wearing high heels on a treadmill. Needless to say, that didn't work out to well.

It sounded like a nightmare place to work, especially with all of the sexual harassment and wrongful termination lawsuits that would plague the show starting in the mid 90's.

Here's Anitra Ford in the great supermarket scene in "Messiah of Evil"

[quote]Surprised no one has mentioned the Yodeling Mountain Climber game. That one was (is?) very popular.

Did you not see the post two above yours?! JFC!!

Some guy won a trip to Hong Kong yesterday. Yikes.

45 posts about TPIR and no one has mentioned the Golden Road game!?!?

The item at the end was always some luxury car or maybe a recreational vehicle.

Looks like it was a Maserati during one game...

Golden road is extremely difficult

The 'Price is Right' 24-7 channel on Pluto TV (channel 163) is like my new crack. They've worked their way up to eps from the mid-80s since launching in the fall. I'd forgotten how enamoured I was of Holly as a young gayling...I think I actually wanted to be her. It's amazing how most of the prizes back then were made by American companies that are long gone and out of business now.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3TmqOorZ6csm%2BvzqZmraCimq6le5FtbW5waWWDbrzRopqeZZmoerO1xqGrZpylp7avs4ytn55lZ2V6tHnAp5tmcGBiwG4%3D