The Big Show That Almost Wasn’t…’Price Is Right’, Pilot Pitch Problems
The Big Show That Almost Wasn’t…’Price Is Right’, Pilot Pitch Problems
Do the names ‘The Auction-aire’ [sic] and Bob Stewart ring a bell…or a buzzer? Either way, that’s where ‘The Price Is Right’ all started.
Stewart was a director at WRCA (now WNBC) in New York. On his lunch break one day, he happened to see an auction taking place on 50th Street which gave him the idea he developed into a show with the working title of ‘The Auction-aire’.
Stewart joined Goodson-Todman Productions in 1956, after he bumped into Monty Hall on the street and Hall told him he knew Goodson-Todman’s attorney. “You got any ideas?” Stewart quoted Hall as asking.
Stewart did, and with some adjustments, ‘The Price Is Right’ was pitched to NBC in a live pilot which was overwhelmed by technical problems. At one point, Bill Cullen was thrown against a wall when a piece of scenery fell. NBC was not impressed and passed.
Goodson and Todman were persistent though and finally got a 13 week run commitment from NBC. The network was still wary and put the show on against CBS’s daytime mega star Arthur Godfrey. By the time the initial 13-week contract ran out, TPIR had higher ratings than Godfrey and a warehouse filled with prizes from manufacturers who wanted some exposure on the new hit. NBC had a crown jewel for their daytime line-up and in 1957, gave it a shot in prime time, where it thrived. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Thanks to Fred Wostbrock for this photo in The Colonial Theater.
The history of TV shows we now know as hits is always interesting when we learn that they might never have happened. Keep the great tales coming.
This is about the angle my family and I sat at when we saw the televising of the night-time version of this show in 1960-61 in this theater.
Those are RCA TK-40-E Color Cameras shown. They are identifiable by their lack of air vents on the sides that the TK-41s had. Also note the very early NBC Color Logos on the camera sides.
By the time NBC commissioned the pilot, TPIR would have gone through several office run-thrus with no NBC personnel present, just Bill Cullen, Bob Stewart and assorted G-T staffers acting as stand-in contestants. This was always done to work out the details of the format, to get the emcee language down, and let Mr. Goodson put in his two-cents worth. Once the kinks were worked out, a run-thru would have been done for NBC executives who would then commission a pilot, authorizing expenditures to build the set and deal with American Totalizator to build the custom tote boards and controllers. I had heard Cullen’s mic cable got stuck in the turntable but never that a piece of scenery fell on him.
Depending on which version of the story you heard, Mark Goodson wanted Dennis James (hence his appearance with Goodson in the pitch film), and the show was (as I heard it, anyway) going to be revived for syndication. Aoong comes CBS expressing interest in bringing it back to network daytime. Since they (wrongly) believed James was “too well associated with NBC,” they wanted someone else, which is how Bob Barker came int the picture. Ironically, Barker spent nine years hosting “TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES…on NBC.
Among the problems also on that pilot:
Bill Cullen is on stage when it begins to rotate, and is almost choked by his too-short lav mic cable!
It’s interesting that Chapman cranes are not used very much anymore. Now it’s done with Jibs. That’s OK but no on air dollying used.
I was a lucky 10 year old, and with my Mom we went to see TPIR tape a program early August 1962. We sat in the balcony and I was mesmerized by the camera movements, expecially the one on the lift.