Hurdles

Hurdles
Premiere Date	February 19, 1976 (#1814D)
Pricing Game Location	Center Stage
Previous Premiered Pricing Game	3 Strikes
Next Premiered Pricing Game	Cliff Hangers
Finale Date	March 31, 1983 (#4864D)

Hurdles is a retired grocery product pricing game with a Track & Field setup.

Gameplay

• The centerpiece of Hurdles was a large game board featuring a hurdler on a race track. The contestant was shown a grocery item and its price, which were displayed next to the hurdler; as such, this price was called the "hurdler's price", and denoted the price over which the contestant could jump.
• The contestant was then shown three pairs of grocery items at the base of the board, one at a time. Each pair represented a hurdle and consisted of one item that was priced below the hurdler's price and one that was priced above it. The contestant was asked to pick the item of each pair which was below the hurdler's price, which would allow him to clear all three hurdles; flags were placed to mark the three selected items.
• After all three pairs were played, Bob Barker would say "On your mark, get set..." and a starting pistol was fired into the air, which started the hurdler across the game board to the playing of the "William Tell Overture", a.k.a. The Lone Ranger theme (which was later used as the timer cue for Race Game on the 1985 syndicated Tom Kennedy version). At each pair of grocery items, the hurdle representing the chosen item would rise into the path of the hurdler. If the correct item were chosen, it would stop below his path and reveal the price; if the wrong item was chosen, it would block him, causing the hurdler to crash and the game to end in a loss. If the hurdler cleared all three hurdles, the contestant won the prize.
• The simplified goal of Hurdles was to pick the less expensive of three pairs of grocery items. In this way, the game had the opposite goal of other retired games, Trader Bob, Give or Keep and Finish Line – however, the latter two games did allow a contestant the possibility of winning even by getting one selection wrong, depending on the prices used.
• When the game was lost, a crashing sound was heard, also used in Cliff Hangers prior to 1986. In addition, the screen would shake and the word "CRASH" or "OOPS" (similar to the interjection slides used in the 1966-1968 TV series Batman) was displayed. Contestants were occasionally allowed to fire the pistol themselves, but a few held it too close to their face startling them when it went off, not to mention that they had a tendency to blow out their ears when doing so. One fellow (William Little from Bradford, Tennessee, born circa 1958) pointed it towards the barrel and then pointed it towards Bob and lost on the very first hurdle on a show aired on October 19, 1982 (#4632D). After this incident, Bob stopped letting contestants handle the pistol for a few months.

Trivia

• Originally, the hurdler was connected to a single white vertical rail that ran the height of the game field. This went along with a vertical price range scale posted in the white area on the left side of the game board (similar to the Range Game scale). The scale would be set such that the hurdler product would be near the middle of the scale at the point corresponding to its price, and the hurdle products would only go as far up as their price on the scale before opening.
  • This setup caused some awkward camera problems for correct product selections. The hurdler's rail would sometimes pass in front of the hurdle product price marker at the point it opened, getting in the way of seeing the price. It also became a much wider camera shot when the prices of the hurdler and hurdle products were very different.
• In later playings, the price range scale was removed and the vertical rail was painted the same color as the track. By the time the game was retired, the vertical rail came down from the top of the game field and only went as far as the hurdler. In all cases, the hurdler was placed in the center of the game field. All products would go up at least as far as the hurdler product's level, even if they were much less expensive, and would drop open right below the hurdler or pass in front of him.
  • This setup built more tension as the contestant wouldn't know he or she chose the right product until it was threatening to block the hurdler - although sometimes this still didn't work as planned. On at least one occasion, the contestant chose an incorrect product, but the hurdler's pace was so far ahead of the product hurdle rising that the production staff had to stop the hurdler completely and wait several seconds for the product hurdle to pass in front of it before revealing the contestant lost.
• The most number of times this game was played in any season was 49 (season 5), while the least number of times this game was played in any season was 8 (season 11).

Nighttime Appearances

• Hurdles was one of five pricing games introduced in the fifth and final nighttime season hosted by Dennis James on episode #160N – the other four being Cliff Hangers (on episode #157N), Dice Game (on episode #159N), Danger Price (on episode #157N), and 3 Strikes (on episode #158N).

The Price is Right: Decades

Released 28 years after its retirement, Hurdles can be seen in a video game called The Price is Right: Decades for the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 (via PSN), iOS, and Android mobile devices from 2011 until 2012.

Gallery

To view the gallery, click here.

Retirement

• While played frequently throughout its time in the show's rotation due to its popularity, Hurdles was prone to mechanical failure. The hurdler would at times move so slowly that Bob would make a joke about it. Also, the hurdle components were often not in sync with the runner, and they sometimes failed to work at all. These constant breakdowns led to the game's retirement.
  • Fittingly, during its last playing (#4864D), on the third and final hurdle product, the price marker that the contestant didn't select fell open on its own at the start of the race, pretty much indicating that the contestant won prior to the race even getting underway.
• In 1998, 15 years after its demise, a contestant told then host Bob Barker that he wanted to play Hurdles, then Bob told him that Hurdles got taken off The Price is Right 15 years ago.
• On February 2, 2018 (#8195K), a clip from November 15, 1977 (#2562D) - 40 years earlier - was shown where 2018 contestant Marae Harris-Hyde's sister Marene played Hurdles and won.

YouTube Links

• An early playing (April 22, 1976, #1904D)
• Hurdles and hugs (November 21, 1977, #2571D)
• If you want to leap Hurdles, you need... legs (October 14, 1980, #3822D)
• Guns are dangerous, Bob (November 22, 1982, #4681D)
• Anita needs a trip to Barbados (December 13, 1982, #4711D)
• The final playing (March 31, 1983, #4864D)