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Hit Me was a pricing game based on blackjack. It was played for a prize worth between $2,500 and $10,000 and used grocery items.

Gameplay[]

  • Six grocery items were shown, each concealing a standard playing card. A price was displayed with each item, which represented the actual price of the item multiplied by the value of the concealed card - face cards were worth ten and aces worth one (showing the actual price). As in blackjack, an ace is worth either one or eleven in a player's hand - whichever is most beneficial to the player.
  • The contestant would be asked to cut a deck of playing cards and a hand would be drawn for the "house" - the hand against which the contestant would play. The house receives a standard blackjack hand consisting of a face-up "up" card and a face-down "hole" card, both placed on a game board. Unlike regular Blackjack, the "hole" card was never checked nor revealed, should the "up" card be an ace or face, the game simply went on.
  • The contestant was then asked to select a grocery item. The actual retail price was revealed and a playing card was placed in the contestant's hand on the board, containing the number that multiplies the displayed price to get the ARP. The process was repeated for a second item. The contestant could then stay or continue to select grocery items if they wanted. If the contestant's hand totaled 21, they automatically won, if they exceeded 21, they busted and automatically lost; otherwise, the game continued until the contestant stopped or exceeded 21, whichever came first.
  • The goal of the game was to find the ace (the item with the exact price attached) and the 10 (a price that ends in 0), in which case the contestant got 21 and automatically won, regardless of what the house had.
  • If the contestant chose to stand pat on a number under 21, the house's hole card was revealed. The house would then draw additional cards from the deck until its hand totaled 17 or above (like regular Blackjack, it must hit on 16 or less). If the house went over 21, it busted and the contestant won. Otherwise, the contestant's hand was compared to the house's, and the larger total won. If the sum of the player's hand equaled that of the house, it would count as a "push,” and the contestant also won (in regular Blackjack, the player gets his/her bet back and neither wins nor loses).
    • The rules for dealing with a house "soft" 17-21, in which an ace treated as 11 forms a value which the house would stand on, were never particularly clear (in standard Las Vegas blackjack a dealer ace is always initially treated as an 11 unless it would make the hand go over 21, in which case it would then count as 1). Sometimes, host Bob Barker treated the ace as a one and continued drawing. Other times, he treated as an ace as an official 11 and stood. There was no apparent pattern to this behavior, although it seemed to hinge on his current mood.

Strategy[]

  • The Hit Me board always contained one item marked at its actual price and one whose price was multiplied by 10. The ideal outcome would be for the contestant to choose these two items, to get an ace and a ten or face card to make a "blackjack" that would automatically win.
  • Using elementary multiplication was the best way for a contestant to narrow down their choices. For example, a price multiplied by ten must end in a zero, if only one displayed price had a last digit of zero, that product had to be the one multiplied by ten. Conversely, a price that could not mathematically be a multiple of two to ten had to be the actual price. For example, an inexpensive price which was plainly a prime number would have to be the actual price. Outside of the always available ace and ten, the other four cards were often (but not always) two pairs of numbers which each added up to 10.
  • Unless you pick incorrectly, it's best to ignore any price that doesn't end in a 0, 5, or 9.
  • Some playings would have more than one item whose multiplied price ends in zero. In this case, the strategy is to remove the zero from the price and see if it makes sense, particularly if a 9 precedes the 0 (as a majority of grocery items' prices end in 9 since the mid-80s). If one item is priced $15.60 and another is priced $22.90, the $15.60 item would produce an 8 ($1.95 ARP) and the $22.90 item would produce a 10 ($2.29 ARP).

History[]

  • Hit Me was created by Andy Felsher.
  • The debut of Hit Me (and its week of episodes) was actually taped after the second through fifth playings; the first taped playing aired on November 13, 1980 (#3864D) and several times during the episode Bob Barker half-erroneously implied that it had never been played before.
  • Hit Me was originally played with no face cards, they were added to the game on February 4, 1981 (#3983D).
  • On November 8, 1982 (#4661D), when contestant Debra was asked to cut the cards at the beginning of the game, she revealed a ten of spades by accident. Strangely, only the home audience saw it so it didn't affect the outcome of the game.
  • On March 8, 1983 (#4832D), the losing horns sounded along with the winning bells after the house busted. However, the cue was interrupted by the theme before the final note could play.
  • The Hit Me sign's white parts were tinted orange on June 20, 2006 (#3672K).
  • The most number of times this game was played in any season was 23 (season 9), while the least number of times this game was played in any season was 3 (season 35).

Gallery[]

To view the gallery, click here.

Retirement[]

  • Hit Me was retired because its rules were becoming more confusing, especially for younger contestants who were unfamiliar with blackjack. Due to this, Bob Barker would have to outright tell contestants to find the item with a price multiplied by ten and the one with its actual price. This hand-holding is similar to why Balance Game (1) was retired, as it defeated the purpose of playing a pricing game.
  • Another factor was the difficulty of winning the game varied dramatically based on the hole card - sometimes the game could be won as long as the contestant didn't bust, other times the contestant needed to get 21 exactly. When combined with its increasingly confusing rules, this luck-based element contributed to the game's demise.
  • Having been played for nearly 26 years, it is the third longest-lived pricing game ever to be retired, behind Magic Number and Poker Game, with the latter incidentally also based on a card game (although Poker Game did not use actual cards and Hit Me did).
  • Hit Me was the final retired pricing game to be taken out of the active rotation during Barker's tenure as host. Penny Ante was officially retired in April 2007, but had not been played since June 14, 2002 (#2215K). The aforementioned Poker Game, along with Joker, were also played for the last time under Barker (and after Hit Me had been removed), but were not removed from the rotation and retired until after Drew Carey took over as host.
1980s Pricing Games
Bargain Game | Trader Bob | Grand Game | Now....or Then | Hit Me | Super Ball!! | Check Game | Check-Out | Pick-A-Pair | Plinko | Master Key | Phone Home Game | Walk of Fame | Balance Game (1) | On the Nose | One Away | Bump | Add 'Em Up | Pathfinder | Credit Card | Spelling Bee | $uper $aver | Make Your Move | 2 for the Price of 1
Retired Pricing Games
Bullseye (1) | Double Bullseye | Give or Keep | Double Digits | Mystery Price | Poker Game | Hurdles | Professor Price | Finish Line | Shower Game | It's Optional | Telephone Game | Penny Ante | Trader Bob | Hit Me | Super Ball!! | Phone Home Game | Walk of Fame | Balance Game (1) | On the Nose | Bump | Add 'Em Up | Credit Card | $uper $aver | Gallery Game | Buy or Sell | Magic Number | Joker | Make Your Mark/Barker's Markers | Split Decision | Fortune Hunter | Clearance Sale | Step Up | On the Spot | Time is Money (1)
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