American television has a long history. It’s been a mainstay and influence on American culture for almost a full century. The trends are changing, new things are coming our way, and technology and the internet are reshaping our world as we speak. Yet, television persists. The forms of TV shows have changed over the years, and it takes something special for a TV show to be around for more than half a century.
One such show is The Price is Right, which has been around since 1956 with plenty of changes over the years. The version we have today was created in 1972 by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and had none other than Frank Wayne as its producer. The man behind the scenes was less popular and less well known than the hosts of this TV show, but he was a mastermind behind it. After all, he was in charge of the program from its creation in 1972 all the way until he died in 1988. Considering that the Price is Right is still going strong, this is a good moment to remind ourselves of the great Frank Wayne, and the influence he has had on the TV show The Price is Right and television shows of this kind in general.
Who Was Frank Wayne?
There is not much known about Frank Wayne, as he loved to live his life behind the scenes. Yet, his influence on television as we know it today cannot be neglected. Frank was born as Rocco Francis Rossi Jr., on July 9th, 1917. His life was marked by his work as a game show producer and host. The success a man that later was known as Frank Way achieved is more impressive when you know that he was born in an era where television did not exist, and still managed to lead it into its golden era, at least as far as televised game shows go. Born and bred in Boston, Massachusetts, Wayne spent the majority of his life being associated with Mark Goodson Productions.
Frank Wayne’s career was marked by the TV show The Price Is Right, for which he served as an executive producer from the show’s inception in 1972 all the way until his death in 1988. Even the current incarnation of the game draws roots from the show Wayne helped create. His work can never be overestimated, especially if you know that he was the man who was in charge of creating the show’s most iconic game, Plinko. This game was introduced in 1983, and since the 80s it has been a mainstay on the show and it remains the show’s most popular pricing game to this day. If you’re a fan of The Price Is Right, and their version of Plinko, you might be inclined to check out Stake Originals game Plinko, which does the original an honour in respecting the ways of old created by The Price Is Right.
While Plinko became the most popular game on the show, Frank Wayne was in charge of creating or introducing the majority of other games that have featured on the show throughout the years. The fact that The Price Is Right was like a child to Frank Wayne is seen through the fact that both of his sons Philip Wayne Rossi and Mark Wayne were also part of the team behind The Price is Right.
As we said, he was not only in charge of running The Price Is Right and creating and developing games for that one show, but also dedicated time and effort to different other television projects. The most notable shows he helped in creating and running include The Match Game in 1962 and Now You See It in 1974. He is also credited for being a writer on Beat the Clock in 1953, before becoming the show’s producer on a later date. The majority of his work was done under the wing of Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, while one of the rare solo outings by Wayne was the show called Laugh Line which was hosted by the legendary Dick Van Dyke.
Frank Wayne died on March 18th, 1988 in his home in Los Angeles, California. He left everyone associated with The Price Is Right in grief following his passing. On the eve of his death, the production decided that he will be succeeded by the show’s long time host Bob Barker. Barker was also a long running producer who worked from Wayne’s death until 2007 when he decided to retire. Just like Wayne, Barker was a good producer as he was involved with decision making even before he officially took the role in the show’s production. After Wayne’s death, his son Phil Wayne was also part of the production crew and worked well with Bob Barker until the moment he also left the show.
The death of the show’s long running producer was marked on the show itself. A short tribute was recorded by the host, Bob Barker, and it was aired in the segment following the show, with a dedication to the work Frank Wayne was putting in to make the show one of the greatest of its kind in the television history. Barker stated that everyone who worked on the show has seen Frank as a member of the family and he wrapped up his tribute by saying just how much Wayne will be missed in years to come. The final message in the aftermath of the episode dedicated to Frank said: ” Frank Wayne July 9, 1917-March 18, 1988.”
While Frank Wayne is not with us anymore, and he hasn’t been for almost four decades, The Price Is Right still lives on. While the show has been popular for over a half a century it is possible that the younger generations reading this are not too familiar with its concept. If you want to learn more about it, we’re going to give you a short summary of the show and how it went from early days in the 70s to what we have today.
The Price Is Right: A Mainstay of American Television
What aided The Price Is Right surviving so long is the fact that it is a simple TV show. A simple and so thoroughly American that it encompassed generations with ease. As we said, the show came to life in 1972 as a revived version of the show that Mark Goodson and Bill Todman ran from 1956-1965, but now under the steady leadership of Frank Wayne. The show kept its name, The Price Is Right, but it expanded in every other sense, most notably by adding different gameplay elements some of which have never been seen on television.
The principle of the game is simple, as contestants compete in different games to determine the price of products they might eventually win. Participants are selected from the audience in the studio, and one of the main aspects that helped people get attached to the show is its catch phrase: “”Come on down!” The program first aired in 1972 with Bob Barker as its main host, and to date the longest running one. After him we’ve had the likes of Drew Carey, Johnny Olson, Rod Roddy, and Rich Fields being the face of the franchise but with all due respect none of them could replicate Bob Barker’s charisma.
A testimony to the greatness of The Price Is Right is the fact that the show has more than ten thousand aired episodes. At the moment it is the longest running game show in the United States. As you could have guessed, this show is a part of NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and just last year it overcame Sábado Gigante, a Chilean TV show that aired for 53 years from 1962 to 2015.
The overall principle of the show makes it easy for the audience to follow both in the studio and in front of TVs. The Price Is Right consists of four parts. As more gameplay goes the number of contestants dwindles down from starting nine to eventual two that fight for the Showcase.
The show starts with four people from the audience being called to the Contestant’s Row, and they’re called upon with the famous catchphrase Come on Down!. After put there, each participant needs to make a bid on the sown prize. The goal is to hit the right price. Those who do get a $500 reward. Those who don’t get a consolation prize. After five games, each contestant that drops is replaced by a new one, before those who did the best job go onto the next stage of the show.
What follows are the steps that involve the rise in the price of the rewards, and the games get more complex. Some require skill, while others revolve around luck. Some are played for cash, some for cares, while you have many for different expansive items. The guessing of the price goes from groceries to luxury items. Pricing games evolved throughout time, with some being added and others removed. To date, we’ve had 77 different games going through the ranks at The Price Is Right TV show, with Plinko, available on Stake.com, still remaining one of the most popular ones.
The Price Is Right gets wrapped up with rounds called Showcase Showdown and Showcase, which are where the passion of the contestants gets heated and their price knowledge gets tested the most. To better understand how the show rewards those who play and watch, you simply need to tune into one episode or to watch some of the older ones. The best part of this show is that it gets even better on a rewatch.
Even if The Price Is Right is not your cup of tea, but you could see yourself enjoying such TV shows, it is good to know that this show has inspired numerous others that follow the same or similar principles. Just some that anyone could enjoy, even if in our eyes nothing compares to Bob Baker and The Price Is Right, are Press Your Luck, Jeopardy!, The Chase, Idiotest, Cash Cab, Supermarket Sweep, Let’s Make a Deal, and Deal or No Deal.
While television, internet, smartphones, and social media platforms offer plenty of things to watch and do, nothing will ever come close to the monumental TV show such as The Price Is Right. At the end of the day, this show has survived so much and has been on air in one form or another for more than 70 years. With more than 10 thousand episodes behind it, it has a blueprint on how things should be done, and has been doing them with perfection for decades.
The best part is that a TV show with such a long history was never marred by any scandal. Not even during the 1950s when it was established that many similar shows have been rigged. Another token of its quality and value that it has for television networks is the fact that The Price Is Right was aired on three different networks in ABC, CBS and NBC. With its legacy established early on with top hosts in Bob Barker and Frank Wayne in production roles, the people who succeeded only had to walk in the footsteps of those in front of them and not to change a recipe that worked so well for decades.
Lastly, the prizes on the show are not the only valuable things on the show. As we said, in 1983, Frank Wayne introduced the world of TV game shows with the unique game of Plinko. It’s a game played on a pinned board, from top of which Plinko chips are sent down. According to one of the show producers, Mike Richards, during the entire run of the show since the moment Plinko was introduced only 10 Plinko chips were manufactured, as they were expensive to make. Now, that’s the kind of effort and money you put into your product to make it one of the best ever.
