Supermarket Sweep

Synopsis

Three teams of contestants attempted to earn as much time on their clocks as possible by answering product and price related questions. Each team begins with one minute on their clock, but can earn 10 seconds for answering one of Dale's easy-peesy questions about food or Heat-style celebrity gossip. The first member of each team played the first two rounds, they swapped over for the next two, and the "Round Robin" free-for-all at the end involved the players pointlessly swapping positions after every single question.

This time would be used in the Supermarket Sweep itself, where one of each team would go "wild in the aisles" trying to hoy as much grub into their trolleys as their little flabby arms could manage. This bit was excellent fun and there were bonuses to contestants should they want them, including:

• Mini-Sweep: At the opening of the show, Dale would ask a question then ask one of the team to go and find it on the shelves. If they could find it and bring them back within 30 seconds they won a £25 bonus (£50 in the remake) to the Sub-total plus 10 seconds on their clock.

• Pik 'n' Mix: If the shopper wanted to, somewhere in the market was a Pik and Mix counter. If they could weigh up exactly 500g made up of five different varieties of sweets (aided by one of the checkout girls) £50 would be added to the sub-total.

• Manager's Special: Somewhere in the supermarket was a pile of tins. If they could find the one with their team's colour stuck to it they added £50 to the sub-total.

• Pricing Gun: Contestants could price up 12 coffee jars. If they do, that was another £50 (this wasn't included in the 2007 remake).

• Dale's Shopping List: Before the sweep, Dale read out three items. Any shopper who picked up all three of these items earned a £100 bonus. These were usually semi-obscure items.

• Inflatables: Placed around the Supermarket were various wacky inflatables (a big banana or fish or something). Each shopper was allowed to take a maximum of one and they were worth £25, £50, £75 or £100, the actual amount being revealed after the sweep.

There were a few stipulations though - no shopper was allowed more than three of any one item and any broken or dropped items carried a heavy penalty (£25). Oh, and they weren't allowed to knock a cameraman over either.

The team with the highest combined total of "bonus score + value of the items in their trolley" went through to the Super Sweep. This was like a heavily-condensed version of Treasure Hunt only with normal people and a very camp Kenneth Kendall. Hidden in the market were three special objects. Behind the first two were clues to the next one and behind the third object was £2000. They had a minute to find it. If they failed they went home with the value of the goods in their trolley (but not the bonuses).

There was also an "You'll be able to answer this question if you're intelligent enough to breathe" 0898 competition. "Dial Dale and be a winner!" Ooh er Missus!

Re-check it out

The remake in 2007 is nothing short of triumphant. Managing to repaint the walls without undermining the foundations, there's still a lot of fun to be had but the whole thing doesn't descend into parody and farce like Talkback's The Price is Right remake. The format's pretty identical to the original, although it's got a new, bouncier theme tune (with "Check it out"s intact) and the top prize is now £5,000. The questions are a little more challenging than the over-simple original, and the quiz zips along at a pretty good pace too. But why, oh, why is Dale wearing middle-aged leather jackets - when did you last see a supermarket manager in that get up? We want to see him in a Sainsbury's orange fleece at the very least. Still, that's no excuse for it falling off the air before half its episodes had aired (see #Trivia).

Catchphrases

Dale: "Good morning shoppers!"
Contestants: "Good morning Dale!"

"Yes, Dale."

"The next time you're at the checkout and you hear the beep.. [bip-bip], think of the fun you could be having on Supermarket Sweeeeep!"

"Go wild in the aisles."

"Come on back."

"...And thanks to Bobby for his commentary..."

Inventor

Based on a US format by Al Howard, who also devised Sale of the Century.

Theme music

Original theme composed by Kevin Kitchen.

2007 version by Ash Alexander and Simon Darlow.

A version of the original theme tune, featuring soundbites of things Dale might say on the show, was released as a single in December 1994: Supermarket Sweep (Will You Dance With Me?) by The Bar-Codes featuring Alison Brown. It reached the dizzy heights of number 72.

Trivia

The show turned Dale Winton into a star somewhat with regular appearances on the National Lottery show. To accommodate for this, by the end he no longer wore smart, acid-coloured suits and the show was renamed "Dale's Supermarket Sweep".

Before Dale was approached to do the show, Keith Chegwin had already turned it down.

The shelves and prices and products all came from Co-op, Asda or Somerfield supermarkets depending on which series you look at.

If contestants didn't go for the giant turkeys straightaway then they were fools and deserved to lose.

The first five series went out at 9:25am from Monday to Friday with them being run from September all the way up until Christmas. The 1998 series went out at 2:40pm with the first 48 episodes airing on Tuesday to Thursday from September to December 1998 and the last 36 episodes going back to Monday to Friday from January to March 1999. The 1999 series dotted around in the schedules with the first 53 episodes going out in the usual 2:40pm slot from May to July 2000, the next 14 episodes aired in the 1:30pm slot from September 2000, the following 14 episodes aired in the 2:10pm slot from February to March 2001 and the last 4 episodes aired in the 2:00pm slot from September 2001.

The commission of the 2007 revival originally had a run of 5 celebrity specials and 55 episodes regular episodes making it 60 episodes. The show originally aired in the 5:30pm slot. Unfortunately, the popularity of Richard & Judy's chat show on Channel 4 completely overshadowed it and was pulled off the schedule after 25 episodes (12 February to 16 March). It returned at an earlier slot of 12:30pm and it didn't even last long as well in that slot and was pulled again after 15 episodes (13 to 31 August). The remaining 20 episodes were unaired for 2 years until game show channel Challenge picked it up to air the unaired episodes alongside the 40 aired episodes (April to May 2009).

Merchandise

Dale Winton's "Supermarket Sweep" Quiz Challenge

There was also a Supermarket Sweep board game.

Web links

Wikipedia entry

See also

Weaver's Week reviews of 2007 and 1993 versions.

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