Dale's Supermarket Sweep (partially found episodes of ITV game show; 1993-2001; 2007)

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Dalessupermarketsweep1.jpg

Dale's Supermarket Sweep logo.

Status: Partially Found

Dale's Supermarket Sweep (also known simply as Supermarket Sweep) is an ITV spin-off of the American game show Supermarket Sweep. Originally broadcast from September 1993 to September 2001, and for a single series that aired between 2007 and 2009, it featured Dale Winton as host with its main premise tasking three teams of two to fill their trolleys with as many valuable goods as possible. Whereas episodes from certain series have been frequently re-aired on Challenge, others have mostly become unavailable to the public.

Background

The original Supermarket Sweep game show was broadcast from 1965 to 1967 on ABC.[1] Lifetime then aired their own version from 1990 to 1995 under host Chris Darley.[2] The show's popularity convinced ITV franchise Central Television to commission a British spin-off with production company Talbot Television (now Fremantle Productions).[3] Originally, Central had selected Keith Chegwin as the spin-off's host.[4][3] But after that fell through and other candidates like Ross King were unavailable,[5] Central instead gave Dave Winton a screen test opportunity, after having initially dismissed the young hopeful as "too camp".[4] At the time, Winton was a struggling local radio and television presenter desperate to escape growing financial pressures.[6][4] Upon viewing re-runs of Lifetime's show, Winton immediately fell in love with the concept and deemed himself the ideal host for a British spin-off.[6] His screentest, therefore, witnessed him give a passionate speech on why he should be selected as the presenter, insisting at one point "You'll find Lord Lucan sooner than you will find a better host for this show."[4] He subsequently changed Central higher-ups' minds;[4] not long into his tenure as host, Winton's mainstream appeal greatly increased.[3] The UK show was retroactively renamed as Dale's Supermarket Sweep in the 2007 revival because of this.[7][3]

The show was officially "opened" on 6th September 1993 by Ken Morley.[8] Each episode began with three teams of two starting with a minute for the Sweep itself.[9][10][3] The first goal is to build up as much time as possible, including by answering Winton's first quickfire question.[11] Whoever answers correctly not only adds ten seconds to their clock but gets to participate in the "Mini-Sweep", where they are tasked to find an item within the supermarket.[3] Doing so within the allotted time adds £25 to their final Sweep total.[3] An interesting aspect is that contestants were mandated to say "Dale" at the end of every sentence throughout the show.[12] After the Mini-Sweep, one half of each team participates in a series of games; Round 1 is more logical, tasking players to unscramble anagrams or find a phrase within a word search.[9] Round 2 witnessed the other contestants play a food-related game, including "Pricing Game", where contestants must guess which of three items is the most expensive or cheapest.[8] After this, all contestants participate in a "Round-Robin" where they answer general knowledge questions.[3]

Following this, the Sweep itself commences. Though it is desirable to have accumulated more time than the other contestants, Winton constantly reminded them that "It's not what you've got, it's how you use it". To illustrate this, the Sweep participants were highly encouraged to complete two minigames, like Pick n Mix (stack 500g consisting of five different types of sweets), Dale's Display (stack a set of tins in a pyramid-shape), Manager's Special (find a colour-coded tin among a collection), and Pricing Gun (price twelve coffee jars), which would grant players £50 each. There were also giant inflatables across the supermarket; picking one could net the contestant between £25 to £100. But the most coveted game was Dale's Shopping List; if the player successfully obtained all three items Winton sought, they gained a guaranteed £100. Thus, when also considering the £25 bonus from the Mini-Sweep, a tactical contestant could earn a maximum £325 sub-total. However, knocking items down without picking them up would result in the player losing £25. One common piece of advice was to collect expensive items during the Sweep, particularly the somewhat iconic three giant turkeys.[3][9][10][11]

Whichever team earned the most money during the Sweep got to participate in the Super Sweep. Within a minute, the two contestants must determine and find the items described in three separate clues. Finding the first two items reveals the next clues; if they discover the final item in time, they earn £2,000. Failing to do so in time means they simply go home with their original Sweep total.[3][10][9][11] The original show aired for 549 episodes broadcast between 6th September 1993 to 6th September 2001.[3] The show became highly popular during its first run; it even inspired the creation of the song Supermarket Sweep (Will You Dance With Me) which featured Winton alongside the Barcodes and Allison Brown.[13][3][9] It ultimately reached 72 on the UK's singles chart.[3][9] Though it appeared the show had come to a natural conclusion by 2001, it only took six years for ITV to bring it back.[3] Winton reluctantly reprised hosting duties, having felt the concept was now stale.[7][3] He was ultimately proven right; following a decline from its 1.6 million ratings debut,[14] ITV took the revised Dale's Supermarket Sweep show off-air before it concluded, leaving 20 unaired episodes in limbo.[3][9] It was not until 2009 that they were broadcast, courtesy of the UK game show-based channel Challenge.[3][9]

Availability

Challenge has regularly re-aired certain series of Dale's Supermarket Sweep since the 2000s.[10][3] Among its acquisitions included Series 1, which the channel began re-airing in 2012.[15] Aside from this, episodes from 1998, 1999 and 2007 are also regularly repeated, guaranteeing their preservation beyond online video-sharing platforms like YouTube.[16][17][15] However, a large proportion of episodes, particularly from 1994-1997, are exceptionally difficult to recover with only a handful being publicly available on YouTube.[18] Some of these episodes were recovered only because the contestants had recorded them, with others having noted they had been tirelessly searching for the broadcasts to no avail.[19] It is believed that Challenge has refused to re-air these episodes because they contained Home Viewer phone-in competition segments.[20][21] Because these naturally could not be shown in re-airings, it would cut a sizeable proportion of the episodes' runtimes, making them difficult to repeat. Thus, episodes from the 1994-1997 era in particular will likely remain scarcely available.

Gallery

Videos

The very first episode of Dale's Supermarket Sweep.

Episode 20 of the elusive Series 4, broadcast in 1995.

Episode 1 of the also-elusive Series 5, broadcast in 1996.

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ David Susskind: A Televised Life detailing the creation of the ABC version of Supermarket Sweep (p.g. 173-176). Retrieved 24th May '24
  2. ↑ Huffington Post detailing the history of American Supermarket Sweep, mainly focused on the Lifetime version. Retrieved 24th May '24
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 UK Game Shows page on Dale's Supermarket Sweep. Retrieved 24th May '24
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Daily Mail adapting a section of My Story by Dale Winton where he discussed how he became the show's host. Retrieved 24th May '24
  5. ↑ My Story: Dale Winton where he discussed a second chance of presenting Supermarket Sweep following Chegwin and King becoming unavailable (p.g. 254-255). Retrieved 24th May '24
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 My Story: Dale Winton where he discussed watching the Lifetime version of Supermarket Sweep and realising the opportunity that beckoned by becoming the British spin-off's host (p.g. 245-247). Retrieved 24th May '24
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Al Murray's Happy Hour where Winton discussed reluctantly hosting the 2007 version of the show (3:39-4:13). Retrieved 24th May '24
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Episode 1 of Dale's Supermarket Sweep (Pricing Game is at 10:26). Retrieved 24th May '24
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 Adam's Nostalgic Memories reflecting on Dale's Supermarket Sweep. Retrieved 24th May '24
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Archived Challenge synopsis of the show. Retrieved 24th May '24
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Metro summary of the show. Retrieved 24th May '24
  12. ↑ BBC News reporting on previous contestants' recollections of appearing on Dale's Supermarket Sweep. Retrieved 24th May '24
  13. ↑ Supermarket Sweep (Will You Dance With Me). Retrieved 24th May '24
  14. ↑ The Guardian reporting on the revised Dale's Supermarket Sweep's early ratings. Retrieved 24th May '24
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Challenge announcing on its Facebook page that it would re-air 1993 episodes of the show. Retrieved 24th May '24
  16. ↑ Challenge promoting 2007 re-airings on its Facebook page. Retrieved 24th May '24
  17. ↑ An episode from 1994, with some users in the comments discussing the scarcity of available episodes from this period. Retrieved 24th May '24
  18. ↑ YouTube playlist providing available episodes from 1994 to 2000. Retrieved 24th May '24
  19. ↑ An episode from 1994, with its contestants discussing the difficulty of finding the tapes from this era of the show. Retrieved 24th May '24
  20. ↑ An episode from 1994. Note the Home Viewer segment from 19:09-19:54. Retrieved 24th May '24
  21. ↑ An episode from 1995. Note the Home Viewer segment from 18:17-19:03. Retrieved 24th May '24
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