The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller’s, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.
From its debut 69 years ago through its revival in 1972 to today’s 10,000th episode, “The Price Is Right” is the longest-running game show in TV history. And the question is – why?
The excitement of “The Price is Right”
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“So much programming is designed to rile us up, not in an exciting ‘Are they gonna win this showcase showdown or not?’ but to rile us up, to get mad, to get angry,” says Prof. Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television & Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
But not “The Price Is Right.”
Here, the contestants are ecstatic. Their competitors and the audience are ecstatic for them. And in this world, everyone – young and old, male and female, white and non-white (and even Vanna White, who was once a contestant on the show) has an equal chance to win.
“There is no debate”
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Professor Thompson says avoiding controversy is also part of its appeal. “There is no debate,” he says. “The retail price of this can of Lemon Pledge is x number of dollars, and if you have gotten close to that without going over, you get to win.”
It’s good, clean, capitalist fun for the whole family.
And while contestants sometimes fail in spectacular fashion, they are consoled instead of mocked and sent home smiling, parting gifts in hand.
Feel-good TV
An alien seeing us through the prism of “The Price Is Right” might conclude, says the professor “We are a much kinder, nicer, less complexly evil civilization than we actually are in real life.”
“The Price Is Right” as an entertainment package resembles another long-running success story: pro football. Plenty of competition with money on the line, abundant commercialism, an uncomplicated story to tell in multiple acts, and some sexy cheerleaders thrown in for good measure.
May it keep on serving feel-good comfort food for another 10,000 episodes.
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