Professor Price
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Professor Price was a pricing game on the American television game show, The Price is Right. Played from November 14 to 21, 1977, the game was played for a car.
[edit] Gameplay
Professor Price involved up to five questions asked of the contestant. In order to win the car, the contestant had to correctly answer three of the five questions. The centerpiece of Professor Price was an animatronic Professor who nodded or shook his head to indicate whether an answer was right or wrong. He also kept score with right answers on his upward-pointing right hand, and wrong answers on his downward-pointing left hand.
The first question was a general knowledge question with a numerical answer between zero and nine. After this question, the contestant was shown the last two digits in the price of the car. The second question was whether or not the answer to the first question was one of the first two digits in the car's price.
Question three was another trivia question, and question four, if needed, asked whether the answer was the remaining digit in the price of the car. The fifth question, if needed, was another trivia question.
As with Clock Game, Professor Price did not allow for help from audience members.
When the game was won, an owl perched on the set's roof would flap its wings and a grandfather clock's hands would spin rapidly.
[edit] History
Professor Price was created by then-Executive Producer Frank Wayne.[1]
At the beginning of the game, Pomp and Circumstance played as the Professor was introduced.
The "Professor Price" puppet made a few more appearances throughout the rest of Season 6 in prize displays, after which the prop found its way into the hands of a collector who eventually sold it on eBay under the name of "Mr. Wiggles".[citation needed]
Professor Price is the only pricing game to ever maintain a perfect win-loss record, not including Double Bullseye, a two-player game which guaranteed a win in each playing.
[edit] Retirement
Professor Price was retired after only two playings, making it the shortest-lived pricing game in history.
The game was retired because it had little to do with The Price is Right's core concept of pricing items; it was more of a trivia contest, and a contestant's chances of winning or losing depended on general knowledge.
Only one playing of Professor Price (the first) was reran by GSN, and because of that it is not known what would happen if the answer to the second and fourth questions (those that dealt with the car's price) was "no".
