Bump (pricing game)

Bump was a pricing game on the American television game show, "The Price Is Right". Played from September 13, 1985 to November 20, 1991, it was played for two four-digit prizes, each worth between $1,000 and $3,000.

Gameplay

The centerpiece of Bump was a London-themed game board featuring four wooden double-decker buses in a row, each marked with a price. The first and fourth buses were marked with the same price, which was definitely the price of one of the two prizes. Below the middle buses were the names of the two prizes offered. To win the prizes, the contestant had to line up the buses with the proper prices for each prize above the name of those prizes.

To do this, the contestant had to decide whether to bump the buses to the right, leaving the first and second buses over the prize names, or to the left, leaving the third and fourth buses over the prize names.

Once the contestant decided which way to bump, a model used the appropriate end bus to bump the adjacent bus, which in turn pushed the third bus in line into a hole in the prop, and out of view (the final bus in line was removed by another model before the bump). This left only the two end buses over the two prizes, and the correct prices were then revealed. If the prices of the two prizes were correct, they won both prizes; if they were incorrect, they won nothing.

Retirement

One of the game's featured aspects was the provocative "wind-up" of the torso and "bumping" by models Dian Parkinson and Janice Pennington. The provocative aspect of the game, plus the end of an off-screen relationship between Parkinson and host Bob Barker, contributed to Bump's demise. Current co-producer Stan Blits has also stated that the staff desired at the time to make the show more "family-friendly."