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Clip description
This first episode of Sale of The Century opens with a voice-over showcasing the prizes on offer, including a Mercedes Benz and a yacht. Host Tony Barber bounds on to the stage in his grey suit to rapturous applause from an invisible studio audience. Barber welcomes the audience at home to a show offering the change to win $64,000 worth of prizes. He then welcomes co-host Victoria Nicholls who introduces the contestants: student teacher Grant, Rosemary who loves to travel and collects stamps, and Bob, a property manager. Tony chats to the contestants about their hobbies and work.
Curator’s notes
Host Tony Barber and co-host Victoria Nicholls are clearly building rapport in this first episode. Barber kisses Nicholls not once but twice in this opening three minutes of the show. They both stand very close together for a practical reason – they are sharing a microphone – but this also helps convey a relaxed camaraderie to the audience.
Nicholls’ entrance to a chorus of wolf whistles from the audience highlights the conception of female co-host as a glamorous assistant to the main host. When the players are introduced, they each greet Tony but not Victoria, even though she is the one making the introductions. Nicholls being 'restless’ (when she instead looks nervous) is a reference to her best-known acting role on soap opera The Restless Years (1977–81); she had also appeared in The Young Doctors (1976–83), name-checked by Tony in the clip.
Notice the simple effects used to highlight the prizes on offer at the start of the clip. Lights sparkle off the car to emphasise its luxurious newness. Having female models in bikinis standing on the yacht, and obscuring the background view of the set, helps give the illusion that the yacht is on the high seas rather than the studio floor. A predecessor to Sale of the Century in Australia was a show called Temptation, and an integral part of Sale has always been the host trying to persuade players to spend their winnings throughout the show. So the prizes need to look as alluring to the players as possible.
