The Price is Right - 1973

[@MrAJRamone]

My parents had that cassette recorder, it was a sturdy unit and had a great sound

[@vapordave2234]

stop lying, you liar

[@betaman7988]

I’d love to hear a clean version of this theme tune, it sounds like a parody of the American version

[@GreenDistantStar]

I watched this as a Sydney teenager, thanks so much, your dad was a dead-set legend.

[@WarioBarker]

HUGE thanks for uploading this, even as incomplete as it is. I've been curious about the Meadows version of "Price" after seeing it pop up in a few Aussie TV retrospectives, and Reg Grundy did an *amazing* job with copying the American version's set and music. I also love the logo, which looks identical to the American one minus the dollar sign, which I guess Grundy didn't know how to upsize. I find it to be a charming variant. :)

[@KiddBloo86]

Especially the glitter borders of it on the giant price tag.

[@manofmanyinterests]

Looks like a low-rent version.

[@whewfan]

Lee if you have more, please post them! It definitely captures the feel and spirit of the 70s run. Your Dad did a pretty good job as host.

[@jamesrogers5277]

The girl displaying the office desk & motorbike was Jacqui Mertens. She disappeared in 1992 in mysterious circumstances, leaving a husband and 3 children. She has never been found. Today 15 August is her birthday. Where are you, Jacqui?

[@ClapHurts]

I wonder if she was murdered thats crazy.

[@jamesrogers5277]

@@ClapHurts That indeed was the conclusion the police came to. Charlie Bezzina was the policeman in charge of the investigation. He wrote a book ‘The Job’ (2011) about many of his bigger cases. Chapter 16 is devoted entirely to Jacqui’s disappearance. An investigative reporter, Jon Silvester, wrote the story too (drawing much from Bezzina), in an online series called ‘Underbelly’. It’s in No 6, chapter one, entitled ‘The Beauty and the Beast’. The two also collaborated in a podcast about it.

[@jamesrogers5277]

Today 15 August 2023 is Jacki’s (another spelling she used) birthday. She is - or perhaps more accurately would have been 75. Once more I wonder where she is and what happened to her…

[@jaycee330]

@@jamesrogers5277 Perhaps she went swimming with Harold Holt...

[@jamesrogers5277]

Yet again! 15 August. Jacki's birthday. Never forgotten...❤

[@disneyfan8178]

An interesting thing about this version of "Price", is the presence of a returning champion, a sort of holdover from the Bill Cullen-hosted version back in the '50's and '60's.

[@KiddBloo86]

What an amazing version! I really liked the second turntable between doors 2 & 3.

[@KewBoy-ku3lu]

The Blonde model is Ann Davidson, my Under 12 tennis partner and Miss World Semi Finalist in 1975!!

[@MichaelOKeefe2009]

The only INTERNATIONAL incarnation of Barker era TPIR that is in B&W. Also the first.

[@paulnguyen8910]

Taped in Melbourne, VIC. We all know that the most popular prize on this show is a car. Every show had one.

[@omercan71]

who else used to watch this when they waged school?

[@WOSHSV7]

Thank you for uploading this. Price is right has had numerous runs in Australia but didnt have the longevity as the US version has.

[@ajk]

UK version similar. Interesting thing really. See it with many game shows too....ones with long/never ending runs here don't tend to last elsewhere as much and vice versa

[@betaman7988]

Interesting that US Price has always worked as a daytime weekday show and foreign versions that got cancelled were prime time, usually weekend shows.

[@VitaminC5383]

I think the Aussie version could survive if they changed how they do their showcase

[@jaycee330]

@@betaman7988 Even US nighttime versions of TPIR never lasted long.

[@christopherangel6690]

Was the set the same orange color as CBS?

[@kungfoosful]

This is Awesome! Does anyone know where to see more of these? My Dad won the showcase apparently about a month before this episode and we would LOVE to be able to see it.

[@ClapHurts]

the episodes is probably destroyed or recorded over

[@BiffGreggle]

It's like a weird alternate-universe version of the US show.

[@ClapHurts]

Very, Blankety Blank was also strange how they cloned the American set.

[@betaman7988]

Derrick Merritt Sadly they didn’t clone the American budget...

[@ClapHurts]

@@betaman7988 The budgets were terrible but not as bad as British Game shows.

[@betaman7988]

@@ClapHurts That's exactly what I was saying. The best Blankety Blank ever offered was a new Betamax VCR... in 1984...

[@ajk]

@@ClapHurts They had to be, IPA rules limited the budgets back then. The original UK version of Price was even taken off the air for a bit its' first year because of going over it to much in part. This all lifted in 94, hence when you watch Bruce's Price from after that, the budget was much larger and more on par with what the US run had always had.

[@bradleysherman959]

Did you ever go to a taping?

[@poly030306]

no I wasn’t born yet lol

[@kaylamunday9322]

I was wondering how you came across this footage? My partners grandmother was a contestant in the 70’s and has now passed away. We would love to track down her episode to watch with the family.

[@nextbarker2702]

@0:42 the logo looks exactly like the US version

[@MichaelOKeefe2009]

Australia was the first of doing The Price is Right logo we all know and love and this is a prototype.

[@jaycee330]

@@MichaelOKeefe2009 Grundy did pretty exact copies of US games shows (See Blankety Blanks/Match Game)

[@zachhoran]

The current version of the show had been on only about at a year at this point and other countries already had their own version.

[@davidlivingston2754]

Your dad hosted High Rollers too didn't he?

[@savrronekinney7060]

I never seen an Australian version of tpir from the U.S.of A.

[@ClapHurts]

Old clips of this episode was on the game show special the last game they played was the clock game. I am guessing all the episodes were destroyed or copied over.

[@Nathanminooka]

Do you have the full episode?

[@LogoMan7777]

And what's this about a Prize Bank? Did they actually win anything?

[@quizmaster85]

I think that's how they referred to what prizes they won. Network Ten's preservation of shows from this period was sub-par at best, so we may have to keep guessing.

[@LogoMan7777]

@@quizmaster85 I certainly hope so. I know Grundy used the term "Prize Bank" for Time Machine. On that show, you had to win the "timing game" in order to have the prize put in the Bank, and then win the Time Capsule round in order to win your Prize Bank.

[@betaman7988]

Surely he meant what the contestants had already won by that point... or at least that’s what I’m thinking. Wouldn’t it be good if the whole episode was on here... or existed for that matter

[@MichaelOKeefe2009]

Did they ever gave away cars in this incarnation of the show? Was it even available in color?

[@Tubewings]

This version ended in 1974, the year before colour TV truly came to Australia.

[@MichaelOKeefe2009]

@@Tubewings Now what about the cars?

[@Tubewings]

They probably only offered them during the Showcases.

[@pologolfpolott1096]

@@MichaelOKeefe2009 Cars were offered occasionally during Showcases - usually a Chrysler Galant.

[@ericsamuelson5656]

If Bob Barker saw a rabbit fur coat at 5:50, he would have a serve fit

[@GrandGame1440]

Not in 1973.

[@terencedove5047]

@@GrandGame1440 ...and, to be more precise (according to Googled research), not until six years after that...1979...

[@angrybirdsfan2003]

@@terencedove5047I think that might have been from either the seventh or eighth seasons.

[@terencedove5047]

@@angrybirdsfan2003 …that follows the same timeline. I believe we’re both correct…

[@LogoMan7777]

2:59 - it's too early in the show for a Showcase. Lee, your dad was playing fast and loose with the terminology.

[@urbanpreppie05]

Greg Palmer stop. Talking. Good lord.