Range Game

Range Game is a pricing game on the American television game show "The Price Is Right". Debuting on April 3, 1973, it is played for a prize worth more than $3,000 (occasionally for a boat, trailer or car).

Gameplay

The contestant is shown a scale representing a range of $600. The price of the prize is somewhere within this range. On this scale is a red window which spans $150 of the range; it is dubbed the "range finder".

Starting from the bottom, the range finder moves up the scale slowly. The contestant must press a button to stop the range finder when they believe the price of the prize is within the red window. If they are correct, they win the prize.

History

When the game debuted in 1973, Range Game used a $50 range finder. The range quickly increased to $100 and just as quickly to the current $150. For a brief time, the 1970s syndicated version used a range finder with a $200 spread.

As a running gag, host Bob Barker told the contestant to be sure when they stopped the range finder, as once it had been stopped, it could not be restarted "for 37 hours". On the primetime specials, it could not be restarted "for 48 hours". The joke originally used other absurd numbers, as well. The gag was retired when Drew Carey took over as host of the show; he attempted to use it once, unsuccessfully, and hasn't used it since.

On the Doug Davidson syndicated version of Price, Range Game's format was used to bid on the Showcase (although Davidson never acknowledged it as "Range Game"). A completely new prop was constructed for the round, and the contestant selected at random a length for the rangefinder; the lengths came in increments of $1,000 and fell between $4,000 and $10,000. The Showcase's board covered a $60,000 range between $10,000 and $70,000.

On the Million Dollar Spectacular aired on February 29 2008, a $1,000,000 bonus was offered if the contestant could win Range Game normally as well as guess the price of a car down to the dollar.

References