I recently saw t5he Price Is Right pitch tape from 1972 and found a few things interesting, one that apparently it was originally pitched for syndication since there was no mention of CBS or Bob Barker and they said contestant's row would have three players. Also, it was kind of interesting that they had a clip of Dennis James sub hosting Let's Make a Deal which was kind of interesting since they used footage from a rival studio.

This is just a guess, but chances are the game had 3 players because they play 3 pricing games a day.

I also thought it was interesting that there was no mention of Barker. I think Mark Goodson intended on having two different runs of TNPIR, but perhaps Bob was not yet approached for the job.

None of the pricing game ideas in the pitch tape were used in its original form, but some of the general ideas became different pricing games.

As for using a clip from LMAD, it was just Goodson admitting that he wanted a show with a similar feel and atmosphere, and proof that Dennis could handle an audience participation format.

The original thought behind The New Price is Right was that it would be a syndicated show, hosted by James, that would follow in the successful footsteps of other G-T prime time favorites that had been reinvented for syndication (think What's My Line?, I've Got A Secret, To Tell The Truth, Beat the Clock). The way I've always heard it, the daytime show was virtually an afterthought, and certainly considered the lesser of the two versions, at least initially. I'm sure someone more steeped in the history of TPIR than I am can tell you at what point Bob Barker came aboard.

That brings up another interesting point: how exactly did the producers decide whether to pitch a syndicated show in a strip format (e.g. What's My Line?, Beat the Clock), or a once-weekly format (Nighttime Price is Right, I've Got a Secret)?

If Price was originally going to be syndicated with no network involvement, why would GT opt for just a weekly version, rather than a weekday version, especially since they had success with the other strips they were producing at the time?

Might it have something to do with the fact that a weekly version would almost guarantee it a Prime Access slot, whereas a weekday version could be seen at any time of the day (although many stations ran the strips in Prime Access)?

When the access rule started, it was considered a violation of the spirit of the rule in the top 50 markets to have any one show run more than once a week. In fact, the FCC was hoping for locally produced public affairs shows for that slot rather than game shows. HSq and LMAD chipped away at that by going twice a week, then the NBC O&O's put the final nail in that notion in 1980 when they stripped FF. If TPIR had been a strip in 1972, it would have never been picked up by the O&O's for prime access.

Annybody know if Dennis James was the only person considered to host TNPIR'72, or did they audition others, make their host choice first, and then did the pitch film?

The New Price Is Right was developed for syndication to the NBC station group with Dennis James as emcee. Bill Todman suggested Dennis James after seeing him as a substitute emcee on Let's Make A Deal. How CBS got wind of the project I don't know, but Bud Grant decided he wanted TPIR for CBS daytime with Barker as emcee. It would explain how TPIR wound up taping at TV City rather than, say, Metromedia Square.


According to Ira Skutch, the Prime Access rule's principal lobbyist was Giraud Chester. The pretense was for more local programming, but in reality the 2 1/2 hours it opened up per week were filled with game shows including TPIR, Concentration, TTTT and others. It turned into a bonanza for game show packagers. Westinghouse then took the idea of local programming literally and developed the PM/Evening Magazine franchise at KPIX, cancelling all game shows on its O&Os and syndicating the format.

Giraud Chester was the executive vice president of Goodson Todman Productions.

An AP news story in late 1971 said "game show packagers Goodson and Todman are talking to Bill Cullen about bringing back The Price Is Right in syndication." A Cullen-hosted show would naturally have looked dramatically different. I can't tell you the specific reason he didn't get the job, though there are several logical possibilities.

TV Guide had a blurb in "The Doan Report" of 5/27/72 that "CBS is preparing to resurrect that Goodson-Todman oldie of a less-inflationary age: The Price is Right." Presumably, the syndicated version was already in the pipeline for September.

The very next week (6/3/72) TVG reported that because of the appeal of "Sesame Street" to toddlers that used to watch Lucy, My Three Sons, etc., CBS was throwing in the towel on sitcom reruns and switching to game shows for the fall. The article notes that Bud Grant had run NBC daytime until the fall of 71 and now "We're going to shoot for the young female audience that is tuned to NBC's games."

How times have changed.

My guess is that in late 1971 they hadn't contemplated a format which would take the emcee and contestants all over the stage.

Gee, what a surprise: a regulation sold to the public on the basis of "the public good" was actually instituted at the behest of a company that would profit handsomely from it. Who woulda thunk it?

That's certainly the most likely. There's also the fact that they were probably committed to LA and Bill wasn't. Plus at the time he was a five-a week regular on TTTT, the host of the five-a-week Three on a Match, communicator for the Saturday afternoon Monitor radio program and who knows what else. Another high-profile game would be approaching overexposure, even for him.

The subject of TPIR came up with Bill once during lunch at P+. I don't remember many of the details other than Bill acknowledging his limitations with respect to the current format, and giving praise to Barker saying "he is Mr. Smooth".

A gentleman through and through.