Cologne (dpa) – One cannot say that Harry Wijnvoord has been idle since 1997. At times he moved to the RTL jungle camp, he hiked with Karl Dall on the Way of St. James and recently he married his wife Iris on a cruise ship.
But what always accompanied Wijnvoord over the years, what never went away, was this one show that he had to give up in 1997. The 72-year-old, who is in a good mood in the car, says it like this: “I’ve been approached at least twice a day for the past 25 years: Man Wijnvoord, why isn’t “The price is hot” back on RTL?”
The return of the show dinosaurs
Whether it was because of the many inquiries or rather because “Wetten, dass ..?” (ZDF), “Go all out!” (Sat.1) or “TV total” (ProSieben) rows of show dinosaurs that have just fallen asleep are being brought back and a retro wave is sloshing through German television – for free. One thing is certain: the urgent questions to Wijnvoord should become quieter. Because “The price is hot” is now returning. On Wednesday (May 4, 8:15 p.m.) RTL shows the first of three new episodes.
The station itself speaks of a “retro highlight” and it is definitely retro. Because hardly any other program stood for the 90s. It ran from 1989 to 1997, the scenery was brightly colored and flashed like a fair. The principle of the game revolved around the market economy and consumption – somehow in keeping with the zeitgeist of the collapse of the Soviet Union: Candidates had to estimate what a certain product cost in retail, for example a pack of rice. The audience roared irritatingly loud: “Less! More!”. And the best thing for everyone was when they ended up winning a “brand new” car.
“But don’t beat it!”
Wijnvoord is now trying to recreate that very special atmosphere in which washing machines and garden furniture like the Amber Room are celebrated. He’s also very optimistic, as he says while driving. “You don’t have to reinvent television. There are good formats,” he says. The “The price is hot” is one.
At the same time, many formats from back then were very closely related to their respective moderators. Also because they ran so often. In the “Family Duel” Werner Schulze-Erdel made white socks the trademark, in “Go all out!” Jörg Draeger offered 1,000 marks for a green envelope. And with “The price is hot” the standard warning to the candidates was “But don’t beat it!” only imaginable with Wijnvoord’s Dutch accent. Perhaps that’s why a brief revival of the 2017 format at the special interest channel RTLplus (today RTLup) with Wolfram Kons as the host left no lasting traces.
Wijnvoord makes no secret of the fact that it feels like returning to his living room. “I’m not imposing. If it hadn’t happened, I would have had a nice life too,” he says. “But it was always a dream to host this show again.” He only needed a short “warming-up phase” during the recording, for example to visualize the rules of the game.
He still remembers the end of the show 25 years ago quite well. “I knew a year and a half before that the show would stop. In May 1996 I was told: Harry, this is the last contract you will get.” The farewell was sad because you felt like family on the show.
The sad truth is that one of this television family will be missing from the revival. Wijnvoord’s co-moderator Walter Freiwald, who at the time decorated the grandeur of the espresso machines and grills to be won with all sorts of garlands of words, died in 2019. Thorsten Schorn will now take over his job. “Of course I would have liked to have had him with me,” says Wijnvoord about Freiwald. But unfortunately the situation is what it is.
What he managed to do, however, is that even two of his assistants from back then are back in the game. They are now around 50 years old. He is certain: “The viewers will love us for that.”
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