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The Price Is Right was created and produced by Bob Stewart for Mark Goodson–Bill Todman Productions. Stewart already had created one hit series for Goodson-Todman, To Tell the Truth, and he would later create the enormously successful Password. After 1964, Stewart left Password and Goodson-Todman to strike out on his own. (Frank Wayne, who later produced the Barker version of Price, took over Stewart's Password spot.)
The original daytime version of The Price Is Right ran from November 26, 1956 to September 6, 1963 on NBC and from September 9, 1963 to September 3, 1965 on ABC. A weekly nighttime version ran concurrently from September 23, 1957 to September 6, 1963 on NBC and from September 18, 1963 to September 11, 1964 on ABC.
The show originated from New York City in a Broadway theater converted for television. Although no color kinescopes or videotapes are known to exist from either NBC or ABC, The Price Is Right became the first regularly airing game show series to be aired in color in 1957.
Bill Cullen hosted both the daytime and nighttime versions of the show. For two seasons (1959-1960 and 1960-1961), the show was eighth in the Nielsen ratings, making it by far the most watched game show on television at the time. Cullen's easygoing personality was a key part of the show's success. The announcers of the show were Don Pardo and Jack Clark on NBC and Johnny Gilbert on ABC. The first theme song used was called the "Sixth Finger Tune" by Charles Strouse from 1956 to 1961. The theme song was later changed into "Window Shopping" from 1961 to 1965 and was composed by Bob Cobert.
On the original version of The Price Is Right, 4 contestants (1 Returning Champion & 3 Challenger and later 2 Challengers & 1 Star-Bidder) chosen from the studio audience bid on items or ensembles of items in an auction-style format. They could bid higher as long as they wanted or they could freeze their bids. When time ran out, the players who didn't freeze had one more bid. Whoever's bid was nearest the actual retail price of the merchandise without going over won the merchandise. Depending on the item, a minimum bid increment restriction was implemented. Some rounds were one-bid rounds which were like today's Contestants' Row. The contestant who accumulated the most value in cash and prizes was the returning champion on the next show.
The multi-prize packages or "showcases," remain in today's CBS version – as does the announcer phrase, "this showcase can be yours if the price is right."
Sometimes when winning a prize, a bell would ring indicating that the contestant had won a bonus surprise. (On the nighttime show, which had a larger prize budget than the daytime show, some of these prizes were a 1926 Rolls-Royce with chauffeur, a Ferris wheel, shares of corporate stock, and an island in the St. Lawrence Seaway.) In later years, bonus games (not necessarily pricing games) were also added.
After the success of Price, To Tell the Truth and Password, producer Stewart left Goodson-Todman in 1965. Stewart's follow-up to The Price Is Right, his first independent production was Eye Guess, a delightful sight-and-memory game with Bill Cullen as host (it was loosely based on a Price Is Right bonus game). Later, Stewart hit the jackpot with the popular The $10,000 Pyramid and its successors.