Safe Crackers

Safe Crackers is a pricing game on the American television game show "The Price Is Right". Debuting April 27, 1976, the game is played for two prizes - one worth between $102 and $987, the other worth more than $2,000. Occasionally a car is offered as the larger prize.

Game play

The contestant is shown two prizes, both of which are locked inside a giant safe. The three-digit price of the smaller item represents the combination of the safe. The digits in the price of the smaller prize are shown on each of three dials; each digit appears only once in the price. The contestant must set the dials to the price of the three-digit prize to open the safe and win both prizes.

On the Million Dollar Spectacular which aired April 11, 2008, Safe Crackers was featured as the Million Dollar Game. After the main prize (a car) was won in addition to the 3-digit prize, the contestant could risk the prizes won to play for $1 million. The setup had 5 dials in the price of the car, with the possibility of repeating numbers. The contestant opted not to play for the million and kept the prizes already won.

History

Early in the game's history, the game often had a full six possible combinations for the three-digit item's price. Since the mid-1980s, however, the three-digit price has virtually always ended in zero, making the game an either-or proposition of choosing the first two numbers if the contestant is aware of this fact. At the very least, if the combination contains a zero, there are only four possible combinations, since zero cannot be the first digit in a price.

From the game's introduction in 1976 through about the end of March 1992, the game's signature tune was "The Pink Panther Theme", composed by Henry Mancini. Due to the licensing costs, it has since been replaced by two different sets of stock music, in both cases being carried over from syndicated nighttime versions. The first of these stock cues was first used on the 1985-86 nighttime version with Tom Kennedy before carrying over to the daytime show in the spring of 1992. The game's current think cue was originally used on 1994's "The New Price Is Right" with Doug Davidson before its daytime debut on April 27, 1995.

In addition to the initial use of the daytime show's current think cue, the 1994 syndicated version also staged the game differently. The prize whose price was used for the combination of the safe was placed outside the safe prop.

Starting in Season 34, the doors that contain the Safe Crackers game are shown already opened as the winning One Bid contestant comes on stage. Drew Carey also removes the correct price marker from the envelope, regardless if the contestant won or lost the game. Bob Barker only revealed the marker if the contestant lost.