It's Optional

It's Optional was a pricing game on the American television game show, "The Price is Right." It was played for two cars, both of the same make and model.

Gameplay
The contestant is shown two cars, both of the same make and model, and given their prices. The one that was displayed on the right was higher priced and had some unidentified options on it; the one on the left was the base model and had no options on it.

The contestant is then told the difference in price between the two cars. It was up to the contestant to add a limited number of options – usually, three or four – to the base-model car to increase its price to within $100 of the price of the more expensive car without going over. The contestant made his/her choices, one at a time, from a list of nine options displayed on a gameboard.

For example – the cars being awarded are two Chevrolet Mailbu 4-door sedans. The base model is $5,500, while the more expensive model is $6,725. The contestant must add between $1,125 and $1,225 of options within four turns to win both cars. Should he/she add, say an AM/FM stereo radio and its price was $234, the less-expensive car's price would increase to $5,734; the contestant would have three more turns to add between $891 and $991 to the more-expensive car's price.

The game ended in one of two ways:


 * Pricing the less-expenisve car to within $100 of the more expensive one without going over, thus winning both cars. He/she could use less than the alloted number of turns to reach this goal, and more than one winning combination of options was possible.
 * Going over the price of the more expensive car, resulting in a loss.
 * Running out of turns, also causing a loss.

Trivia

 * The prices of the two cars in It's Optional were represented by two 1920s-style automobiles on a prop painted to look like a country road. The road on the prop had a price track running along it, and the base model moved down it toward the more expensive car as options were added to it, rumbling and sputtering all the way.


 * Several theories have existed as to how the cars would be optioned if the contestant won this game. The most commonly accepted explanation is that he/she received the right-hand car – the one having the announced price – with its predetermined options, while the car on the left (the one he/she added options to) with the options he/she selected during the game.


 * Until the premiere of Triple Play, It's Optional was the only pricing game to regularly be played for multiple cars.

Retirement

 * It's Optional was played from the fall of 1978 to 1983. No official reason for its retirement has been given.