Price is Right: Most Entertaining Games on the Hit Game Show

Ben Liebman is a writer for FanSided partner BroJackson.com. For more great content, head on over to Bro Jackson and check out Ben’s work.

“The Price is Right” has been an American morning ritual since 1972, the perfect companion to your soggy Cheerios. The show has soldiered on following long-time host Bob Barker’s departure in 2007. Drew Carey now holds the slender mic and, well, he’s OK. But the show is really about the games. Ben Liebman is a “Price is Right” devotee who dreams of one day winning his own catamaran. Bro Jackson assistant editor Blake Hurtik adds a few thoughts for good measure.

Best Games

Plinko

Always and forever.

The Check Game

Few challenges can offer a memento as wonderful as the one found in the Check Game. All you have to do is write out a giant check that, when added to your prize total, will equal between $7,000-8,000. If you are correct then you get the prize and the check. If you lose then one of the Barker’s Beauties stamps the sucker with a matching giant red VOID stamp. Either way though you get to take that check home with you and hang it in your home wherever valuables are kept. I would insist on it being counted as my carry-on item for my flight home so everyone could see me cramming it into my overhead compartment.

Shell Game

One of the genius strokes to “The Price is Right” is that it proved you could make great television with just two people and a washing machine. This clip from the Shell Game should be mandatory viewing for anyone trying to work in television.

Blake’s take: Where do they get the shells? Answer: The Beverly Hills tortoise has long trudged across the rolling vistas of L.A., but has been pushed to near extinction due to extensive shell-harvesting for use in The Shell Game. I’m not sure why this isn’t a bigger concern.

Ten Chances

Audience interaction is a key component to a great game, and Ten Chances allows the audience numerous times to yell and scream. In this game, the contestant is given the numbers in the prizes and asked to write them out in magic marker. They get a chance at three prizes, and Bob Drew gets to dramatically slam a giant red button below the guess. This game normally involves long looks into the audiences for directions, and those contestants who ignore their advice will be booed. The audience at “Price is Right” follows the same rules as the Roman Coliseum.

Cliff Hangers

One of the touchstone moments in anyone’s youth is spending sick days at home yodeling along to Cliff Hangers. How has that yodel not been sampled in a summer hip-hop jam yet? The game is full of tension. Contestants guess prizes and the climber moves based off how far from the retail price the guess was. The game ends when the climber falls to his apparent doom, yet he always comes back to climb. You’d think by now they might build a chair lift by now on that mountain.

Blake’s take: Somewhere, there’s a guy with the Cliff Hangers yodeling theme in his iTunes.

One Away

Who hasn’t dreamed of once saying, “Gentlemen, do I have one number right?” One Away puts up an incorrect price to a car, and the real price can be found by moving each number one away from the number shown. Once the new price is put in place we find out how many are correct by asking the holier-than-thou sound effects lady how many we have. She in turn responds with a car horn noise, which makes me worry that the gentlemen might be suffering from a social anxiety disorder. After the number of correct numbers is sounded out you get one more chance to edit your guess before the final price is revealed. The interactive quality of this game makes it truly legendary.

Check out the worst games on the next page!