The Price WAS Right

This was the Showcase Showdown used on the 1994 Doug Davidson version of The Price is Right. It was also a variation of the One Bid games of the regular daytime version and its nighttime versions. It was more like a variant of the grocery product game Now....or Then instead of being the Showcase Showdown.

The three players who already played their pricing games stood in front of a modified Contestant's Row and arranged either by least to most winnings or by the order they were called. To start, a vintage commercial for a product from the past or present was shown, then the three contestants gave bid as to what the price was back then during the time the commercial aired. The contestant who bids closest to the original retail price without going over advanced to the Showcase. If all the contestants bids are over the actual price (which rarely happened), Davidson announced the lowest bid, the bids were erased and began again, with Davidson instructing contestants to bid lower than the lowest bid in the previous round. No bonus was awarded for a "Perfect Bid."

The producers had intended for this to be the Showcase Showdown for every episode, but the staff had not been able to find enough vintage advertising clips by the time it was time to air the first episode. As a result, some episodes instead used the traditional Showcase Showdown involving the Big Wheel (although on this version, the contestant who won the most in cash and prizes spun first instead of last).