Professor Price
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Professor Price was a pricing game on the American television game show, The Price Is Right. Played on November 14 and 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.
[edit] History
Professor Price was created by then-Executive Producer Frank Wayne.
At the beginning of the game, Pomp and Circumstance played as the Professor was introduced.
As with Clock Game, Professor Price did not allow help from audience members.
When the game was won, an owl perched on top of the set would flap its wings while a grandfather clock's hands spun rapidly.
Professor Price is the only pricing game to ever maintain a perfect win-loss record[citation needed], not including Double Bullseye, a two-player game which guaranteed a win in each playing.
[edit] Retirement
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This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (October 2009) |
Professor Price was retired after only two playings, making it the shortest-lived pricing game in history. Its retirement came about because the game had little to do with the show's core concept of pricing items. The game was more of a trivia contest, and a contestant's chances of winning or losing depended on general knowledge.
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]
Only one playing of Professor Price, the first, was rerun by GSN in the 1990s.
