Sale of the Century

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Template:Infobox television Sale of the Century is an international television game show format that has screened in several countries in various incarnations since 1969, but is most reknown in Australia, where it aired for 21 years and has returned under a new title, Temptation, in mid-2005.

The format is a general-knowledge quiz, where contestants (usually three) earn money for correct answers, and occasionally have the chance to "buy" heavily-discounted prizes with their score money via "Instant Bargains." Long-running champions would compete to win enough money to buy larger prizes, such as trips or cars, at show's end; more successful ones could end up buying all the prizes on offer and/or a large cash jackpot.

After its original run (1969-74) in the USA, the format was purchased by Australian TV mogul Reg Grundy, whose Grundy Television had produced a similarly formatted program called Temptation (as well as a primetime version called The Great Temptation) between 1971 and 1976. The Grundy version of Sale premiered on Nine Network on July 14, 1980 and ran every weeknight until 2001, spawning versions all across the world (including new versions in the United States and the United Kingdom). At its close it was Australia's longest-running game show, a record since surpassed.

The game format varied in its details over the years and in various nations, however the core format which debuted in 1980 Australian version, as presented below, remained unchanged.

Contents

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Australian edition

In Australia, Tony Barber hosted an early version of Sale under the title of Temptation during the 1970s, and was also the initial host of Sale, replaced by Glenn Ridge in 1991. Hostesses over the years included Victoria Nicholls, Delvene Delaney, Alyce Platt, Jo Bailey, Nicky Buckley, and Karina Brown. Pete Smith was Sale's announcer.

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Main Game

All contestants were spotted with $20 to start. The host read a trivia question to the three contestants (one of which was usually the winner of the previous show) who had to press a buzzer to answer the question. Correct answers were worth $5, while incorrect answers were minus the same amount. If a player answered incorrectly, the answer was revealed and the game went on to the next question - only one person could answer the question.

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Instant Bargain/Giftshop

Once per round, the highest-scored player gets to go to a "giftshop" ("Instant Bargain" in the U.S.), and was offered the chance to sacrifice some part of his/her score to "purchase" a prize. The prizes, and the cost, increased in each round. Contestants were allowed to haggle with the host, who, depending on the game situation, could reduce the cost and offer inducements including actual cash in order to entice the contestant to purchase. If two or more players had the same score at this point, a Dutch auction was conducted for the prize.

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Cashcard

In later series of the Australian version, the final prize sale was replaced with a "cashcard," a slot-machine device which the contestant spun for an opportunity to either win a cash prize of several thousand Australian dollars (equivalent to perhaps a month's average wages for a middle-class Australian at the time), earn the opportunity to win a car later in the game (see section on major prizes), receive the score he/she sacrificed back, or reduce the score of a competitor slightly.

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Who am I?/Fame Game

A longer-format question known as the "Who Am I" question (known in the U.S. as "The Fame Game"), was asked once in each of the three rounds. Here, a succession of increasingly larger clues were given to the identity of a famous person, place, or event. In this round, players could buzz-in and answer at any time, without penalty for an incorrect answer. However, each player only had one chance to answer. If one of the players buzzed-in and answered correctly, he/she had an opportunity to play the "famous faces" subgame, where he/she got to choose randomly from a game board with nine squares featuring the faces of celebrities, mostly performers on the network's shows. Once chosen, the face selected would be spun around to reveal either a relatively small prize (typically appliances or furniture valued at around a weekly wage) or a $25 money card, which awarded $25 to the player's score. Later series added additional $10 and $15 money cards to the gameboard, with the $10 available at the outset, the $15 added at the second "Who am I" and the $25 at the third. Also added in the third "Who am I" was a "wildcard," which offered the choice of $1000 in cash or a chance to pick again.

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Fast Money/Speedround

The main game ended with a "fast money" segment ("speedround" in the U.S.), where the host would ask the questions in a particularly rapid-fire manner, attempting to fit in as many questions as possible in a 60 second time limit. Furthermore, there was a shorter 30-second fast money section in round two. Most of the more successful players proved themselves particularly adept at this section.

The winner of the game was the person at the end with the most money. If there was a final tie, the tied players answered a tiebreaker "Who am I" question, where a correct answer from either contestant won the game, while an incorrect answer defeated the contestant in favor of his or her opponent.

In a bid to combat declining ratings, the show was renamed Sale of the New Century in 2000. The format was also altered slightly to include four contestants per night in an elimination format; the lowest-scoring player would leave after the first fast money round, and another just before the final fast money round.

The "New" was dropped from the title in 2001, and the show returned to a three contestant format, but continued to eliminate the low scorer before the final fast money.

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Major prizes

The winner of the episode was then given the opportunity to win one of a selection of much larger prizes, usually including International first-class holidays, expensive jewelry, and the like, the most valuable of which was one or two luxury automobiles.

In early seasons, the cumulative scores over several nights of the contestant were kept, and they would add prizes to their collection as their cumulative score exceeded the required amount. Later seasons changed this, instead the prize to be won on any particular night was determined by randomly choosing boxes off a game board until a pair of matching prizes was revealed.

In the Australian version, the cars were only placed on the game board if the player had won the opportunity on the "cashcard" game, or had a final score of $100 or more (which only the best players achieved).

Once the player's major prizes had been determined, the player had an opportunity to decide whether they would like to stop playing, and leave with the major prizes they had won, or continue playing on subsequent nights, risking the major prizes they had won thus far but offering the opportunity to win more.

Ultimately, once the player had won all the major prizes on offer, they had the opportunity to play for one more night to win a large cash jackpot. This started at $50,000 AUD and increased by $2,000 per night until somebody won it. The largest jackpot ever won on the Australian version of the show was $508,000 AUD, by contestant Robert Kusmierski, whose total winnings were $676,919 AUD. Another big winner was Simon Fallon, who won $434,065 AUD, and later collected $250,000 AUD more on Seven's QuizMaster.

The highest one-game score achieved on the Australian "Sale" was $200, which won David Poltorak the lot.

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Temptation

Main Article: Temptation (Game show)

Ed Phillips hosts the new Temptation, assisted by Livinia Nixon. There is no announcer; however, former Sale announcer Pete Smith still does audience warm-ups for the show. The title change reflects a de-emphasis on the shopping aspect of the game, while offering larger prizes and a possible cash jackpot of $800,000 for particularly successful grand champions.

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United States versions

main article: Sale of the Century (US)

Sale was hosted by Jack Kelly (1969-71), Joe Garagiola (1971-74) and Jim Perry (1983-89). Hostesses for the 1980s version included Sally Julian (1983), Lee Menning (1983-84) and former Miss USA Summer Bartholomew (1984-89). Bill Wendell announced the original edition, and Jay Stewart announced the '80s version, replaced for the last season by Don Morrow.

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British editions

A UK version produced by Anglia Television was shown on ITV weekly from 1971 to 1983. As in the original US edition, there was no "Who am I"; instead, six instant bargains would be offered throughout the show. Any of the three players were allowed to buzz in and purchase the Instant Bargain, rather than only offering the prize to the player in the lead. There were three distinct rounds of questioning, with the values rising appropriately (e.g. £1, £3, £5).

Also, in the earliest days, a mini-sale was offered just before intermission, in which a number of smaller gifts were offered for less than £5 each. In this situation, more than one player could buy a given gift, and a player could buy any or all of the prizes on offer.

The original version was hosted by Nicholas Parsons and announced by John Benson, who delivered the memorable opening From Norwich...It's the Quiz of the Week!. The series was one of the most consistently high-rating entertainment shows of the 1970s. Peter Marshall (not related to the host of the American Hollywood Squares) hosted a 1989 revival on Sky television, and Keith Chegwin hosted a 1998 remake on Challenge. Sale was also one of seven game shows played on Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon, on the episode aired 8 October 2005.

On 22nd December 1978 (at the time that Nicholas Parsons was hosting the show), an all-out strike at the BBC meant that 21.2 million viewers watched the programme, the highest ever rating for a game show produced by ITV.

The 1989 version followed the Grundy format; oddly, the 1998 version reverted to the original rules (except for the mini-sale), despite being produced by the then-parent company of Grundy.

No UK editions to date have offered a cash jackpot.

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Other Versions

Image:Sale of the century countries.PNG

  • In New Zealand, the host of the show was ex-radio DJ Steve Parr (assisted first by Judith "Jude" Dobson (née Kirk) and then later by Julie White after the show switched networks). The show ran on TVNZ and later, TV3, from 1987 to 1993. Grant Walker was the announcer.
  • A Hong Kong version debuted in 1982 ("Dat Sou But").
  • The hosts for the German version (Hopp Oder Top) included Andreas Similia, Thomy Aigner and Hermann Toelcke, and has run on Tele 5 from 1990 to 1992 and a few months in 1993 on DSF. A selection of the old shows was repeated from 1996 to 1999 on tm3 five times.
  • In Greece, the show's title translated as "The Boss Has Gone Crazy".
  • Paraguay had its own version ("La Venta del Siglo") from the mid-1990s until at least 1998.
  • As of 2004, India has had a version called Super Sale, hosted by Sajid Khan, for the Star One channel.
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See also

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References

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