Games - Supermarket Sweep

Home > Listing Index > Games > Supermarket Sweep

	Games - Supermarket Sweep

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.

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.

Question round

At the beginning of the game, all three teams started with a "score" of 90 seconds or 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 and the full round ended with a 6-question Round Robin.

In the mini-sweep, the first question was answered with a particular product, and one of the two members of the team that answered had to run into the main "store" to retrieve the specially-marked product (i.e. the show's trademark "shopping cart" logo). If the product was returned within 20 seconds, that person's team received $100 in the Big Sweep; if within 30 seconds, that team received $50. But if time ran out they received the 10 seconds anyway.

During each sub-round, different The Price Is Right-style games were played for additional time on one team's clock. After three of these games were played, one per team, the second sub-round was played. 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 for a maximum of 60 seconds or one minute. This round had background music.

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 team with the most time in the question round went first, as a clock ticked away their seconds. When the other teams' times remained, they too were sent into the store. 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 two main rules were that teams could only take five of each item and 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.

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:

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Supermarket Sweep ]

Searches on eBay

supermarket sweep