Cologne (dpa) – One can’t say Harry Winford has been out of work since 1997. Sometimes he’s moved to bush camp in RTL, hiked with Karl Dahl on St James’s Road, and recently married his wife Iris on the Board a cruise ship.
But what has always accompanied Wijnvoord over the years, and what has never gone away, was this one show he had to give up in 1997. The 72-year-old, well-tempered in the car, says: At least twice a day for the past 25 years: Dude Wijnvoord, why isn’t ‘price hot’ again on RTL?”
Return of the dinosaur show
Whether it was because of too many inquiries or rather because of “Wetten, dass..?” (ZDF), “Get everything out!” (Saturday 1) or “TV total” (ProSieben) The ranks of the just-grown dinosaurs are being replayed and a retrowave streams through German TV for free. One thing is for sure: Urgent questions to Wijnvoord must get quieter. Because the “price is hot” is back now. On Wednesday (May 4, 8:15 p.m.) RTL premieres the first of three new episodes.
The station itself talks about a “retro highlight” and is definitely retro. Because hardly any other software was standing in the ’90s. It ran from 1989 to 1997, and the scene was as brightly colored and flickered like a show. The principle of the game revolved around the market economy and consumption – in a way in keeping with the zeitgeist of the collapse of the Soviet Union: the candidates had to estimate the cost of a particular product in retail, for example a packet of rice. “Less! More!” cried the audience loudly and irritably. And the best thing for everyone was when they ended up winning a “brand new” car.
“But don’t beat her!”
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, he says while driving. “You don’t have to reinvent television. There are good formats,” he says. “The price is hot” one.
At the same time, many formats at that time were closely related to the respective supervisors. Also because they ran a lot. In “Family Duel,” Werner Schulze-Erdel made white socks the trademark, in “Go all out!” Jörg Draeger displayed 1,000 marks on a green envelope. And with the phrase “the price is high,” the standard warning to candidates was “But don’t beat it!” It can only be imagined with the Dutch Wijnvoord accent. Perhaps that’s why a short revival of 2017 in special interest channel RTLplus (today’s RTLup) with Wolfram Kons as host left no lasting traces.
Wijnvoord doesn’t hide the fact that he feels like he’s back in his living room. “I’m not imposing. Had it not happened, I would have lived a happy life too.” “But it was always a dream to host that show again.” I only needed a short “warm-up phase” while recording, eg to visualize the rules of the game.
He still remembers well the show’s ending 25 years ago. “I knew a year and a half ago that the show was going to 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 such TV family is going to be missing from the Renaissance. Walter Freiwald, Wijnvoord’s co-mediator, passed away in 2019, which at the time graced the bone of espresso machines and grills that would win all kinds of wreaths. Thorsten Schorn will now take over his job. “Of course I wish he was with me,” Wijnvoord says of Freiwald. But unfortunately the situation is what it is.
But what he managed to do was that even two of his assistants at the time were back in the game. They are now fifty years old. And he’s sure: “Our viewers will love it.”