The Price Is Right (partially found Dennis James episodes of game show; 1972-1977)

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TPIR 04.jpg

The show's logo from 1973.

Status: Partially Lost

The Price Is Right has had three syndicated versions produced and aired between 1972 and 1995. The first version premiered six days after the CBS version and was hosted by Dennis James instead of Bob Barker and would be replaced by Barker in 1977 and Tom Kennedy hosted it from 1985 to 1986 with Doug Davidson hosting the last one that ran from 1994 to 1995. While episodes with Barker, Kennedy and Davidson survive and can be viewed today, James' episodes are pretty hard to come by.

Cliffhangers Incident

One incident some fans say marked the downfall of his time hosting the show. It occurred during a late 1976 playing of Cliffhangers and James called the mountain climber on the game Fritz. Janice Pennington's (the model who was present at the game) husband was German mountain climber Friedrich "Fritz" Stammberger who disappeared while mountain climbing in Afghanistan in 1975.[1][2] When James said "There goes Fritz!" and Pennington (who was still grieving from her husband's disappearance) ran backstage and cried for the rest of the taping. James had been unaware of Pennington's heartbreak [3] and for a long time, it was believed to be the reason he was replaced with Barker in 1977 when the real reason was his five-year contract hosting the show ended.

Availability

None of James' 195 episodes have been seen since 1977, largely due to the fact that the prizes were fur coats and Barker (a notable animal rights activist) disapproved of this.[4] Some of James' episodes have surfaced via private collectors, James' own recordings of the episodes and even audio of some episodes have surfaced online.[5] Fremantle (the rights holders of the show) have been known to archive the entire show since its 1972 premiere and various syndicated incarnations (except the 1994 version is owned by Paramount) but it's unknown if they hold James' episodes. His run has been mostly forgotten by fans of the show and it's very unlikely that all the episodes will ever surface.

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References