The New Price Is Right (1994 game show)
The New Price Is Right is a syndicated edition of the American game show "The Price Is Right" which premiered on September 12, 1994 and ran until January 27, 1995. This was the third thirty-minute syndicated edition, following a weekly series that ran from 1972 until 1980 and a daily series that ran for one season between 1985 and 1986. Personnel. Doug Davidson hosted this syndicated series, who was already famous for his role as Paul Williams on the CBS soap opera "The Young and the Restless". Burton Richardson, who had  previously served as the announcer for "The Arsenio Hall Show", was the announcer. Julie Lynn Cialini, Ferrari Farris, and Lisa Stahl were the three prize models. Several then-current and former production personnel from the CBS network version of "The Price Is Right" also served roles on this version. "The New Price Is Right" was a production of Mark Goodson Productions, and was distributed by Paramount Domestic Television. The program, like the daytime series, was taped at Television City in Los Angeles, California. Format. "The New Price Is Right", unlike its syndicated predecessors, was not a carbon copy of the  daytime series. Significant changes were made to the show format. Contestants. One of the most significant format changes for "The New Price Is Right" was the elimination of the long-standing One Bid game, which determines who comes onstage to play a pricing game. Instead, when an audience member was called to "come on down", that contestant was immediately brought onstage to play a pricing game. A total of three pricing games were played in one program. Aesthetic and other changes. In keeping with a more modern theme, the set featured a black stage floor, darker lighting, muted colors such  as silver, purple and gold, and a giant wall of video screens. Edd Kalehoff created an entirely new set of music cues for the series. The "Price Is Right" theme was re-recorded with a faster tempo and a jazzier sound featuring a saxophone lead as opposed to synthesizers. While the show did not last long, some of Kalehoff’s cues were later used on the daytime series in the years that followed. Like the previous syndicated editions, "The New Price Is Right" had a significantly larger prize budget. Expensive foreign cars were regularly featured. Games that used grocery items  on the daytime version featured merchandise prizes on this version. Higher valued prizes were offered in cases of games that already used these types of prizes. Showcase Showdown. The Showcase Showdown determined who played for the Showcase. A new Showcase Showdown game titled "The Price Was Right" was a reworked version of the One Bid game from the daytime series and played in a similar manner. The three contestants who earlier played pricing games stood at the foot of the stage behind lecterns. Davidson then directed them to watch the big screen on stage, where a commercial from the past  was played. The contestants then were asked how much they thought the item advertised cost in the year the commercial aired, and the one closest to the actual value of the item without going over won the right to play the Showcase. In the event that all three contestants guesses were more than the value of the item, all three bids were erased and they were reminded of the lowest guess before trying again. There was no bonus given if a contestant guessed the exact value of the item. Some early episodes of "The New Price Is Right" used the  Big Wheel Showcase Showdown format from the daytime show instead of "The Price Was Right". The round was conducted as it was on the daytime series, but the highest winner spun the Big Wheel first. The contestant closest to one dollar after all three spun won the right to play for the Showcase. Ties were broken with a spin-off. The contestants still won $1,000 for accumulating exactly one dollar and earned a bonus spin for up to $10,000 more. The Showcase. Instead of placing a bid on a showcase, the contestant played a modified version of the  pricing game Range Game. A newer, much larger range board was used, with a starting value of $10,000 that increased in $1,000 increments to a top value of $70,000. The rangefinder was selected by the contestant at random during the commercial break leading into the Showcase, and varied in value between $4,000 and $10,000. After the Showcase was presented, the contestant’s range selection was revealed. The rangefinder then began climbing up the board, and the contestant pulled a lever to stop it when he/she thought the actual retail price of the Showcase was  contained within it. The value of the Showcase was revealed, and if it fell within the range the contestant won it. Otherwise, the contestant left with any prizes won during his/her pricing game. Broadcast history. "The New Price Is Right" was syndicated by Paramount. The show aired at any time an affiliate desired, such as the late afternoon fringe period. At the NATPE convention in January 1994, Paramount pushed "The New Price Is Right" as a viable option for stations for their fringe and access periods. By the time NATPE concluded, the show had been sold in 78 markets  and was one of the two more popular new entries at the convention, with the other being what would eventually become Warner Bros.’ entertainment news program "Extra". In the New York market, the show was bought by WWOR for its early afternoon fringe period. There, it was paired with the returning "Family Feud" and aired at 4:00 PM Eastern, one of the more competitive in its market. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, "The New Price Is Right" was sold to KNBC, which purchased both it and "Extra" to air in its Prime Time Access hour; "TNPIR" was slotted in at 7:30  PM Pacific. Despite the willingness of station managers to buy the show, PDT President Steve Goldman expressed doubt that things would work out as well as the company hoped, citing the competitive nature the stations had to draw ratings in those specific timeslots. In December 1994, both WWOR and KNBC announced that they were dropping "The New Price Is Right" from their schedules by the end of the month. In New York, the show did not retain a significant amount of viewers from its lead in, "Matlock", and did not improve on the rating "Family Feud" drew there a year  earlier. WWOR’s popular local talk show "The Richard Bey Show", which had been airing in the morning, was set to launch in nationwide syndication at the beginning of 1995 and the station was set to move the program to the afternoon ahead of the launch. In Los Angeles, "The New Price Is Right" lost viewers from its lead in, "Extra", and the ratings it pulled in at 7:30 PM were less than half of what the tabloid newsmagazine "Hard Copy", another show distributed by Paramount, had received in 1993. Paramount announced on December 15, 1994 that "The New Price  Is Right" would not return for a second season. In addition, Paramount announced that no further new episodes would be produced after January 23, 1995 and that any station still airing the show at that point would be offered reruns of the episodes that had aired if they so desired to continue. The last first-run episode aired on January 27, 1995 in the remaining markets, after sixteen weeks and eighty episodes were produced.