Thursday, September 14, 2017

Even the stars will play the Price is Right (1965)

After the original Price is Right shifted from NBC to ABC in 1963, Mark Goodson & Bill Todman tweaked the format just a tad, substituting one studio contestant with a celebrity guest star.

For the week of March 8-12, 1965, actress Dorothy Lamour filled the guest chair. Unfortunately, host-executive producer Bill Cullen was on vacation that week, so Jack Clark, who was otherwise the announcer on CBS' Password (and filled in for Allen Ludden there occasionally), was the guest host. 

Note that the basic game is not the same as it is today. Contestants' Row didn't have a vacant seat after each winning bid. Instead, the contestants remained for the entire show, racking up some serious numbers.

Edit, 11/6/23: Had to change the video. This is the first half of Day 1 with Dorothy Lamour:



At the end, Clark plugs the following week's shows with Tom Poston crossing over from To Tell The Truth to fill the guest bidder's chair. Until I found this video, I didn't realize that Cullen had been promoted, getting an executive producer's credit in the final season of the series. And, yes, Bob Barker was accorded the same courtesy late in his run.

Rating: A.

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