Supermarket Sweep

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Supermarket Sweep was a game show that originated on the ABC Network from December 20 1965 to July 14 1967. The show was revived by the Lifetime Television Network on February 5 1990, and ran until August 14 1998. It was further revived by PAX Network in September of 2000 and ran there until early 2004. It is believed that no new episodes were filmed from 1996 until its PAX revival.

Supermarket Sweep employed a revolutionary game show technique when it debuted in 1965 — the premise of the show involved contestants running about a supermarket filling carts with food. Whichever team's groceries had the highest value won.

In the original run, Supermarket Sweep was broadcast from supermarkets across the country; for the revivals, a mock supermarket was set up in a TV studio.

The host for the 1965-67 ABC version was Bill Malone; the announcers were Wally King from 1965-66, and Richard Hayes from 1966-67. The host for the 1990-98 and 2000-2004 versions was David Ruprecht; the announcer was Johnny Gilbert until 1998 and Randy West for the rest of the show's run.

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Gameplay (1990)

The gameplay of the Lifetime/PAX run of Supermarket Sweep consisted of three segments: the question round, the Big Sweep and the Bonus Round. The game was played between three teams of two related individuals, such as a parent and child, spouses, siblings or best friends. No team was eliminated until the end of the Big Sweep.

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Question round

At the beginning of the game, all three teams started with a base time of one minute and thirty seconds (1:30). Any time they scored during this round was used in the Big Sweep. The question round was split into two sub-rounds, each player on a team participating in one sub-round. In later years, every sub-round began with a mini-sweep. The full round ended with a 6-question Round Robin.

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Mini-sweep

In the mini-sweep, a toss-up question was asked with a particular product in the store as the answer. The team that correctly answered it earned ten seconds, as well as a chance for one of the two members of the team to run into the main "store" to retrieve the product (which was marked with the show's "shopping cart" logo). If the product was returned in 30 seconds or less, the team won $50, which was added to their final total at the end of the Sweep; shortly after its introduction, the money was doubled to $100 if the product was brought back within 20 seconds.

When the mini-sweep was first introduced, only one was played per show (at the beginning of the first question round.) Later on, the second mini-sweep was added.

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Pricing games

During each sub-round, different The Price Is Right-style games were played. These games varied from day to day and could include any of the following:

  • Straight Q&A rounds, which were themed; each question being worth 10 seconds of Sweep time
  • "Voting" rounds; contestants were shown three products and had to vote on which one cost under or over a certain amount. If a player was correct, he earned 10 seconds for his team; however, if all three players were right, 30 seconds (originally only 20) were added to all three teams' times.
    • Note: on very early episodes, a product was shown with an incorrect price, and players had to guess whether the actual price was higher or lower than the one shown.
  • Two-player games, such as the "30-second shootout"; at the beginning of the second half of the question round, both contestants on a team played an individual game, which could bank the team up to 30 seconds of time; each team took turns playing the game individually.
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Round Robin

After the second sub-round, all players competed in the Round Robin, where a jumbled brand name or item was shown on the screen, and three hints were given to identify the actual name. On some episodes, an alternative format was used with five clues and no jumbled name. This format was removed late in the run. Each team that buzzed in and answered correctly received 10 seconds of Sweep time. The Round Robin originally consisted of four of these questions (for a possible total of 40 seconds); after one or two seasons it was lengthened to six questions (for a possible total of 60 seconds).

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Big Sweep

The "Big Sweep" was the chance for the teams to run throughout the store and grab whatever they could off the supermarket shelves. The clock was set at the time of the team who had been the most successful at the question round. The shopper for this team was sent out into the market by himself, with the other runners being allowed to enter when their time remained on the clock. This could result in a situation where one team swept the question round and had a full minute or more to sweep the store by themselves.

The three main rules were as follows:

  • Teams could only take five of each item;
  • Any items that were dropped and/or knocked over had to be put back on the shelf or in one's cart;
  • Only one member of each team could be in the store at a time. The other team member was required to remain at the checkout counter.

The first rule, absent in the ABC version of the show, was written to prevent a team from overloading its cart on the known expensive items, such as poultry, laundry detergent and over-the-counter drugs. Any item counted toward a team's total as long as it was in the cart by the end of the run. The runner could bring the cart back to the team's register at any time, at which point it would be emptied while the runner took a second cart.

Teams could also be penalized money, although this did not happen very frequently. A team was penalized $25 for every item they dropped and did not pick up; in addition, penalties could be incurred for running into cameramen or other show personnel.

In the show's first season on Lifetime, a monster, such as Frankenstein or a person dressed as a gorilla "lurked" in the aisles during the Sweep; if he came near a contestant or vice versa, the contestant had to turn around and go the other direction. The character and rule were dropped in subsequent seasons.

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Bonuses

Many extra bonuses were available at different times during the show's run. Each contestant could take only ONE of each type of bonus. Some of these included:

  • Bonus Specials - Scattered throughout the market were stuffed animals, inflated balloons of products, or cardboard promotional signs for products with bonus tags on them. The shopper was credited with the item if he got it back to the check-out counter before time expired, assuming he got it over the red line by the registers without breaking it. However, if a contestant didn't protect his bonus and an opposing runner was in the area, the opponent could steal it. These oversized products and/or signs were the last of the bonuses added to a team's total, and they could be worth anywhere from $50 to $200. About halfway through the run, a fourth bonus worth $250 (the "Super Bonus") was added to the market; during certain special weeks, a fifth was added (a $300 "Super Super Bonus").
  • Millstone Coffee - if a contestant ground a bag of coffee in the store grinder, sealed it and brought it back over the line at the front of the store before time ran out, he would receive a $100 bonus. The trick was that to grind the coffee, the runner had to keep his hand on the grinding button until the entire contents were processed. Very often a contestant would hold the button down with one hand and grab nearby items with the other. During the last season, this bonus was increased to $200.
  • Brach's Candy - The contestant had to bag one pound of candy, give or take two hundredths of a pound either way, and get it back over the line before time ran out. Successfully returning a bag of candy won the contestant $100. As with the coffee, the candy bonus increased to $200 during the final season.
  • Three monitors (TV Mystery Product)- By pushing a button underneath one of the three television monitors in the store, a contestant would receive one word in the brand name of a product in the store. Any team with this item in their cart would win an additional $250. When this game first made its debut, the word was revealed by touching the screen itself ("touch television" technology was quite new at the time); however, the words took an incredible amount of time to reveal, if the monitor worked at all.
  • Instant Coupon Machines - With the advent of these machines in stores across America, the show picked up on the fad and placed some of them in the store. A contestant could win bonus money by grabbing a coupon and locating the object on the coupon. This bonus feature only lasted one or two seasons.
  • Triple Coupons - similar to the above bonus, certain items had triple value coupons located near the actual item that would multiply the value of said item by three. The limit of five was still enforced.
  • Stack Job - Three bags, each containing 21 soda cans, were placed at the back of the market. The sweep runner could go pick up ONE bag, bring it to their partner at the checkout, and their partner would attempt to build a pyramid with all 21 cans. If successful, they received a marker worth a $100 bonus. (This was later increased to $150.)
  • Can Crusher - A variant on the above bonus. The shopping contestant would have to bring a bag of empty soda cans to his/her partner, who would then have to redeem them in an aluminum can recycling crusher for an extra $100. The catch was that the machine could only process one can at a time.
  • Manager's Special - David Ruprecht would tell what the special was over the loudspeaker. The contestant had to run back to a bin full of cans and find the specific item, with a red star on the bottom, for an extra $200.
  • The $300 Movie - During the sweep, David would call "Activate the TV monitors" over the loudspeaker. Players could then press the button on one of the monitors to reveal a clue about a specific movie in the video tape display. Only one copy of the correct movie was available, and finding it earned a team $300.
  • International Bread Center - Players would get specific breads, in specific amounts that David told them to get, for a $250 bonus.
  • Fruit Fantasy - Similar to the International Bread Center, players would pick up specific fruits, in specific amounts that David told them to get, for a $250 bonus.
  • Super Sandwich - Players would make a sandwich according to David's specification, then seal it in a bag. If successful, they received a $200 bonus. There was also an alternate version where the runners went to the bread center to retrieve the bread, after which the partners made the sandwich.
  • Market Madness - A table with five of the same item (usually large cereal boxes or rolls of paper towels) was set up in the front of the market, along with three stationary shopping carts, one corresponding to each team. While running the sweep, players could pick up the items one at a time and place them into the cart for their team. However, another runner could then remove those items and put them into his cart. This could continue until the sweep time ran out, at which point the teams would receive $50 for each item in their cart, up to $250 total.
  • Crackerjackpot - A table was set up with many boxes of Cracker Jack; the shopping contestant had to tear through as many of them as possible to find a "prize" (which was a token with the shopping cart logo on it) for $250.
  • Shopping List - Before the sweep began, David would list three specific items. The shopper would have to pick up those three items during the sweep for a $250 bonus. The shopper could get the items in any order, but the final item had to be in their cart before the bell rang to receive credit.

After all time had run out, all products were scanned, and the grand total of each team's efforts (including bonuses) was revealed. The team with the highest grand total won the game and advanced to the bonus round.

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Bonus Round

In its 1990 reincarnation, Al Howard (also the original show's creator) added the Bonus Round, in which the winning team would have 60 seconds to find $5,000 in cash hidden somewhere in the supermarket. To win the money, a team had to cooperate to solve a series of three clues ultimately leading to the prize.

A clue might be a poem that describes a type of product, with the brand name completing the main rhyme blanked out. An example might be "If you're sitting at home feeling all alone, have some chocolates from _______________", where the "chocolates" would hint at the fact that the next prize was in the candy aisle, and the rhyme would indicate that the specific product was Toblerone chocolate. Another clue might refer to a double meaning of a brand name; for example, it might refer to one's family having a tube of toothpaste on its coat of arms; the coat of arms might refer to a family crest, while the toothpaste would refer to the Crest brand of toothpaste.

The first clue was given by Ruprecht; the second clue was found on the first item, the third clue on the second item, and the $5,000 prize was on the third item. They had to find all the clues before they could take the money. If they found the money before they found all the clues (and it seldom happened), they had to go back and retrieve the other items first. The team had to have all three items and their hands on the money before the 60 seconds expired to win it.

During some special weeks such as tournaments, the grand prize was $10,000 cash.

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Miscellaneous info

  • The audience was present during the question round in the 1990 version, but no audience is present during the Big Sweep and Bonus Round. Audience applause tracks and camera shots of them before the show starts are used to create the illusion that an audience was present at all times during the show. They were removed late in the run.
  • Originally, when the contestants were selected out of the audience, announcer Johnny Gilbert said "Come on, you're on!" This was soon changed to "Okay, you're on!" When the show returned to TV on Pax, Gilbert and Randy West just called the product out, and the contestants would run up the aisle to the podium instead of coming out of the audience.
  • A British version of the show was produced between 1993 and 2000 and aired during the day with Dale Winton as host and Bobby Bragg as announcer. This run famously became a cult hit with students.
  • One of the most famous parts of the show was the catchphrase Ruprecht recited at the end of every episode: "Next time you're at a checkout counter and you hear the beep — [a checkout counter beeps] — think of the fun you could have on Supermarket Sweep!" Winton also said this at the end of each episode of the UK show, and it was also used on the Canadian version.
  • During the Lifetime version, the show ran a Sweep of Champions near the end of every season, where the highest money winners were brought back for another shot at $5000. The Pax version used specialty weeks for this.
  • The theme song, sound effects, and all musical scores used in the Lifetime run were updated at the beginning of the 1993 season. A couple of prior cues reappeared later in the run, however - the old "round robin" think music was played during several of the mini-games in the first part of the show, and a back-from-commercial cue was recycled toward the end of the series.
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External links

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