Penny Ante

Penny Ante, played on the show from 1979 to 2002, was so named because it took pennies to play a game with two grocery items. It involved the contestant having to have at least one penny left at the end of the game in order to win.

Gameplay[]

The contestant was given three oversized pennies at the start of the game. They were then shown a grocery item with four possible prices displayed, only one of which was correct. The contestant had to select the correct price. If he/she guess the correct price, he/she can move on to a second grocery item played the same way. If he/she guess an incorrect price, he/she would have to give up one penny. If, however, between the two items, the contestant made three mistakes, the game is over because they were out of pennies. If the contestant guessed the second price correctly and still had at least one penny left at the end of the game, he/she would win a large prize.
The gameplay took place on a game board which was split in half vertically to represent the two grocery items. An item sat on each half, with the four possible prices displayed in a row of buttons in front of the contestant, as well as along the back wall of the game board. When a selection was made, the corresponding button was pressed, and a row of illuminated pennies ran up the board to the price on the back wall, which revealed either the word "YES" or "NO" behind it.

First Format[]

The first five playings of Penny Ante used different rules: the possible prices were not divided into two groups for the two grocery items and the goal was to find both prices before the total of the contestant's incorrect guesses reached $1. The total of the incorrect guesses was measured by penny catchers, into which real pennies fell in the amount of the wrong guesses and an electronic readout counting the number of pennies that have fallen. The same board was used, but it was not split into green and blue halves as it was under its final format, it had an orange-red-yellow board (similar to the colors of the show's first set from 1972 to 1975), right answers had a green "YES!" flaps with an arrow pointing to which item had the right price while wrong answers had a red flap using a picture of a penny, where real pennies would fall out.

History[]

On March 30, 1979 (#3225D), Penny Ante adopted its normal rules and its sports-type penny counter was removed; presumably, the first version of its green and blue color scheme also debuted at this point. Interestingly, the red titles from the first five playings carried over and remained. On September 28, 1984 (#5415D), the titles now became white across green and blue backgrounds. On May 16, 1985 (#5734D), Penny Ante adopted the second version of its green/blue color scheme.
On September 16, 1985 (#5801D), a fresh set of pennies were introduced.
This is one of two games to use the words "Yes" and "No" to refer to correct and incorrect guesses, the other being Triple Play.
Penny Ante's last loss occurred in the 29th season. In the 30th season, all playings were won, although on two playings that season—October 1, 2001 (#1881K, aired out of order on January 14, 2002) and February 1, 2002 (#2045K)—a "Yes" card flipped when a "No" answer was chosen.
On October 21, 1996 (#0101K), this was the last pricing game to be played before having a perfect show. It all started with contestant Sarah choosing the correct price of the 1st grocery item on the first guess but struggling on the 2nd grocery item: All bleach. Sarah was wrong 2 times in a row but selected the correct price of $2.53 on the 3rd choice and it was a perfect show.

Trivia[]

Penny Ante often used some of the more expensive grocery products on hand - usually pharmaceutical products or other various non-food items.
The most number of times this game was played in any season was 20 (seasons 11 and 25), while the least number of times this game was played in any season was 7 (seasons 17, 18, and 19).
Penny Ante was the last pricing game to premiere in the 1970s.
In 2021, a spiritual successor to this game, To The Penny was introduced.
This was also the name of a term that's used in poker played for very small stakes.

The Sound Effect[]

The game was arguably best known for the unusual sound effect which was heard whenever Bob pressed a price button causing penny lights of one section of the board to light up towards the corresponding price and the little door with the price on it opened up to reveal either "yes" or "no."

However, Price wasn't the only show where the sound effect was being heard - in fact, it didn't even debut on Price. It was also used on the following shows:
- Double Dare (1976) - when the shutters of the electronic board and player's booths opened.
- Tic Tac Dough (1978-86) - when a player buzzed in on a Jump-In question.
- The Joker's Wild (1972-86) - when a player pulled a large lever to start the bonus wheels.
- Break the Bank '85 - when a bank card was inserted to an electronic reader.
- Strike it Rich '86 - when the arch arrows lit up during Joe Garagiola's explanation of the rules of the main game.
All of those shows minus the last two aired on CBS (though CBS stations such as WCBS in New York did carry them); the first was a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production, just like The Price Is Right (which, like all other G-T shows, became A Mark Goodson Television Production with the company's name change in 1983).
In the later years of the syndicated run of Tic Tac Dough, a different buzzer sound was used.
The sound effect for Penny Ante would be recycled for a short while in Vend-O-Price, which premiered 13 years later.
- It was recycled in its spiritual successor To The Penny, 19 years later.

Gallery[]

To view the gallery, click here.

Retirement[]

Penny Ante suffered recurring mechanical problems, in which instances occurred were all shots of the board in action had to be added in post-production because none of the electronics would work. These problems started happening in the 1990s, growing more frequent every year. Sometimes the flap would not open when Barker pressed the button; other times the flap inadvertently opened before Barker pressed the button on the machine. The game was scheduled to be played on October 9, 2002 (#2253K), but it malfunctioned and could not be repaired in a timely manner, Pick-A-Number was eventually played to replace it, and Penny Ante was retired. The staff later decided to reverse its decision and attempt to have the board repaired, but in the intervening days, it had been left outside in the rain and was damaged to the point of being unusable. They then decided to have a new board built for the game, but the plans never got past the design stages and it was finally shelved permanently in April 2007. Having been played for 23 years, it is the fourth longest-lived pricing game ever to be retired, behind Hit Me (3rd), Magic Number (2nd), and Poker Game (1st).
Penny Ante was the last game to be officially retired during Bob Barker's tenure as host; however, Hit Me, which was retired several months earlier, was played a number of times in the four and a half years between Penny Ante's final playing and ultimate retirement.

YouTube Videos[]

Penny Ante Win (December 7, 1993, #9002D)
Perfect Penny Ante Playing from the late 1990s (January 29, 1999, #0995K)
Perfect Penny Ante Playing from 2000 (February 15, 2000, #1362K) Note: Stop the video at 3:40.
Penny Ante Win from 2002 (April 3, 2002, #2123K)
The final playing of Penny Ante (June 14, 2002, #2215K)

1970s Pricing Games

Retired Pricing Games