How long has ‘The Price is Right’ really been on TV?

And now, December. The last month of the year. What a year it has been!

In the “Did You Know…?” world, the year is highlighted by the release of the first book based on this silliness, and to all of you who’ve gotten hold of one, you have my ultimate thanks! I hope you’re enjoying it, and if you really like it I can always come up with another one.

If you haven’t, may I suggest my silly tome as a fit and proper Christmas or Hanukkah gift? (“Fit and proper” may be something of a stretch, but you get the idea.)

Check it out on amazon.com, if you’re so inclined, and while you do that, I’ll get the week’s new stock of trivia all shined up and ready to go.

Did you know…

…the average person will, in their lifetime, spend about 20,160 minutes kissing? That’s 336 hours! (And boy, am I below average!)

…Queen Elizabeth II was a trained mechanic? Her Majesty (1926-2022) served as an auto mechanic during World War II. (Nice to know the Queen could change her own oil!)

…you may have smickered recently? No need to be embarrassed if you did, though. To smicker means to look at someone amorously. It’s a Scandinavian word that really should be used more often. (Especially if you’re looking at me.)

…coloring is fun? It must be. Combined, American children spend some 6.3 billion hours a year coloring with crayons. (No time was calculated on eating them, however.)

…the place with the longest name in the world is in New Zealand? The name is: Taumatawhakatangih-angakouauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenua-kitanatahu. Locals call it Taumata Hill. (No, I don’t know how to pronounce it, and I bet you don’t either.)

…the severed head of a sea slug can grow a new body? (That’s called using your head.)

…more human twins are being born now than ever before? According to research in the journal Human Reproduction, the rate of twins has risen since the 1980s, from nine twins per thousand births to twelve. No one is sure why it’s happening, but the results are that right now, one out of every 42 babies is a twin. (Twice the fun, I suppose.)

…one of the most popular game shows on television is older than it claims to be? During the 2022 season, The Price is Right celebrated its 50th anniversary on the air, having premiered on CBS on September 4, 1972. Hosted by Bob Barker (born 1923), it was originally a 30-minute show, and expanded to a 60-minute program in 1975. Barker retired in 2007 and was succeeded as host by Drew Carey (born 1958). But The Price is Right is much, much older than 50 years. The 1972 show was actually called The New Price is Right (the “new” was dropped a year or so later), and was a revival of an earlier program, which ran from 1956 to 1965, hosted by Bill Cullen (1920-1990). If they tell the complete truth, The Price is Right is actually 59 years old at this writing. Additional trivia note: Barker was not the host in the pilot show for the 1972 revival. Not technically a “pilot episode,” the network sales pitch for the show was hosted by Dennis James (1917-1997), who would emcee one of the syndicated nighttime versions of the show in the 1970s. (Come on down!!!)

…the voice actor of an iconic cartoon character quit because the character ate meat? In the late 1960s, the cartoon show Scooby-Doo debuted with radio announcer Casey Kasem (1932-2014) providing the voice of Scooby’s owner, Shaggy. When Kasem had to do Shaggy’s voice for a Burger King commercial, he balked and resigned – Kasem was vegan as well as an animal rights’ activist. He refused to return to the role until the show’s producers made Shaggy a vegetarian in 2002. (Rut ro, Raggy!)

…Santa Claus as we know him was created for advertising? In 1931, an advertising artist named Haddon Sundblom (1899-1976) was creating the Christmas ad campaign for Coca-Cola™ when he drew Jolly Old St. Nick with a red suit trimmed with white fur, rosy cheeks, and a white mustache and beard. The success of the ad campaign cemented Sundblom’s vision of Santa as the one we all share today. (Ho ho ho indeed.)

…different terms are used when tallying victims and survivors? Following any disaster, pay attention to the terms used. If the term is “head count,” they refer to survivors; fatalities are termed “body count.” (Betcha you never noticed that before.)

…the human eye is great at discerning shades of color? For instance, despite the title of a popular book and movie, your eyes can distinguish about 500 shades of grey. But the human eye is best at determining different shades of the color green. That is why green is used in night-vision equipment.

…Hell really does freeze over? Norway has a town called Hell, and it freezes over every year. There is also a town in Michigan called Hell … and yes, it too freezes every year. (There’s a really good joke there somewhere, but I’m not going to look for it.)

…a sloth takes two weeks to digest the food it eats? (Boy, they do everything slow!)

…a butt is an actual unit of measure? Stop giggling. In British measurement, a butt is the equivalent of 125 U.S. gallons. (I wouldn’t touch this one with a forklift.)

…the post office in Iceland is pretty efficient? How efficient, you ask? Well, consider this: in Iceland, if you don’t know the exact address of the person with whom you wish to correspond, you can draw a map on the envelope, and it will still get there. (Now that is what I call efficient.)

Now… you know!

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