I was at the local Half Price Books yesterday and noticed that they had The Best of The Price is Right DVD set for $9.98. I figured, eh, the price was right (heh), so I picked it up. I gotta say, it was well worth it, though it does have its limitations. The set contains a total of 26 episodes of The Price is Right (on 4 DVDs), however the vast majority of them are from the years of 1972-1975. There are 4 (seemingly random) episodes from the 50's and 60's with Bill Cullen, and the remaing 5 episodes are from Bob Barker's final week on TPIR in 2007. There's nothing from the 80's or 90's.

I wish the set included more examples of the old Bill Cullen shows, but I gotta say the mid-70's Bob Barker shows really do have a lot of appeal, with *plenty* of 70's tackiness galore. Oh my yes. ...with such, er, *wonderful* prizes, as, say, a new Chevy Vega, or a bright-yellow floral-print couch, or any number of kitchen appliances in the ever-popular "avacado green" or "harvest gold" decorator colors. ...And-- more related to this discussion group-- each of the 70's episodes that I've seen so far does seem to include at least one color TV offered as a prize.

It's fun to try to "play along" with the games as you try to make guesstimates of what a new refrigerator-- or a can of soup-- cost in 1973. ...Not to mention that game-show staple: Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco Treat. Also, these DVDs would really be *great* material to play through your 70's era TV sets. Nothing says "1970's American consumer culture" better than this. However, it's kinda sad when you realize that almost every prize offered on TPIR back then was something that was actually made in the USA.

Who cares about that-Did they have the episode where that gal's tube top came off when she started bouncing up & down in unbridled glee at being picked ?!? Best I remember, she was a pretty good sized heifer, too, they coulda stunned a guy if she'd hit him w/'em...(Grin)

I assume only 1/2-hour shows are on the DVD. If so, then Yolanda Bowersley and her tube top won't be there, since that happened in 1979, 4 years after Price went 1-hour.

Johnny Olson had a great line for Bob, oblivious to what was going on as he waited for Johnny to introduce him: "She gave us her ALL, Bob!"

You guys have GOT to get a more involving hobby.

These episodes are probably restoration/rescue of their quad library dubbed at CBS's jurasic park.

Hi cfranz--

While I can see what you mean by certain posts in the TV sections (very few, though) This stuff can be much more involving than meets the eye.

"Public perception of" v. "Advanced involvement in"

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Some classic Bob Barker Price is Right moments are always welcome for discussion with this Aker, who happens to be one of his biggest fans. :thmbsp:

I don't suppose you have ol' Barker's book yet....

A friend of mine is one of the country's top game show traders, and he's got most of the Priceless moments you've seen and heard about, as well as many you haven't!

He and I can both tell you the real reason you'll never see the very first episode Barker hosted.

I don't suppose you have ol' Barker's book yet....

A friend of mine is one of the country's top game show traders, and he's got most of the Priceless moments you've seen and heard about, as well as many you haven't!

He and I can both tell you the real reason you'll never see the very first episode Barker hosted.

OK, you got me. Why?

Awww, so soon? I was hoping to build the suspense. But since you're such a nice guy, I'll tell you.

The very first item that ever went up for bids was a fur coat. After Barker got so heavily involved in animal rights, he insisted that that episode - and others throughout the '70s where fur coats were given away - never be shown again.

AHH! OK. Interesting. I knew about BB's animal rights stance. For some reason, I was thinking that someone slipped up on stage and said or did something unacceptable to the wunnerful censors.

A few additional comments:

I haven't watched the entire set yet, but so far at least, there haven't been any "wardrobe malfunctions." [If the 'tube top' incident happened in 1979, it wouldn't be in this set anyway.] There was one lady who won the bidding game item, and, once she got on stage, tried to confide to Bob Barker that she needed to go to the restroom. She didn't get to go to the restroom, but she did end up winning a new AMC Hornet. [...Well, at least it wasn't a Chevy Vega.]

By the way, from today's perspective, it's rather amusing to see a pricing game involving a new car in which the car's price has only four digits. ...and the first digit is a "2".

Looking at the liner notes, all of the 70's-era episodes in the set are half-hour shows except for one "experimental" one-hour show aired in September 1975, and the first "real" one-hour show aired in November 1975 when they switched over to the new format. The 70's Bob Barker shows are all from videotape and rather nice-looking transfers at that. The old Bill Cullen episodes are from B&W kinescope recordings and (as you'd expect) suffer in video quality by comparison, though not bad for kinescope recordings. [Apparently, even the 50's-era TPIR episodes were originally broadcast in color, though..!]

I didn't realize Bob Barker had a book out-- I'll have to check it out..!