The Prestige TV Podcast - 'Supermarket Sweep'

Episode Date: July 17, 2020

'Supermarket Sweep,' a gameshow from the '90s, has recently been added to Netflix. Its blend of nostalgia and banality make it super comforting to watch. Hosts: Juliet Litman and Chris Ryan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Order now at order. dot sweetgreen.com. Hello and welcome to TV concierge. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an editor at the ringer.com. This is a podcast where ringer staffers tell you how to navigate the crowded and confusing TV landscape. I'm joined today by Julia Levin. Hello. Hi. And Julietette, nothing has been more crowding or confusing than the reemergence of supermarket sweep on Netflix. It is not confusing at all, man. It is so overdue. I'm so fucking happy. This is amazing. I got a text message from Juliet about a week ago that was like, you would think that

Lost was coming back. She was just like, are you watching Supermarket Sheep? And I was like, do you mean like on the game show network? Do you mean like, have I ever seen it? It turns out that this show, which had run in the 60s on ABC, but then was revived, I think on Lifetime in the 90s for about five years, 1990 and 55, has made a reappearance on Netflix.

And just like select episodes, though. It's part of the absolute bizarre delight. Completely wild. I want to know, I want the oral history on how Netflix decided which episodes to do. So some episodes, about 13 episodes from 1990 to 1995 are now streaming on Netflix. And, you know, Julia is often a weather vein for this kind of stuff. It's like she can feel like the changes in the barometric pressure coming when it comes to TV. I can't tell if this is just like Juliet Island or if everybody in America is going to start asking each other

how much kudos bars cost in 1994. But this is where we're at. We're both watching Supermarkets. I watched some last night. Julia, you watch it. What is the appeal of a, of a near,

like, what, 30, 20-year-old television show, 30-year-old television show in which people from like Santa Ana guess how much hard-shell tacos cost? Chris,

I wish people could just see me stretching because I'm, like, so excited to talk about this. Here's the thing. I think we can all agree the best part of the price is right is the showcase showdown. You know, all the guessing, all the stuff in front of you. Forget the games. I think that supermarket sweep in its own way captures that amazing excitement that comes to the showcase showdown and marries it with the absolute

banality that we are all so familiar with, which is just going to the grocery store all the time. And there's something like just so electrifying about running through the hallowed halls of your generic grocery store looking for the meat, the cheese, the coffee, the weird oversized stuffed animals with dollar amounts attached to them that is really only rivaled by like the glee and joy of the price is right. And some for some reason that show has been on forever, like absolutely forever. And yet supermarket sweep was just a healthy on five years. And to have that really amazing simple joy back at this incredibly complicated and bizarre time in life is just so soothing and also like exhilarating.

I haven't seen you this excited about something's in Hamilton. So in five years. That's tough. We built a whole website and a podcast network at that time. So it's a real bummer. But, you know, got to find your joy. As Zadie Smith once said, find your beach. Do you think Sadie Smith likes Supermarkets

Weep? Definitely. Yes. 100%. Let's break down a little bit like if you've never seen this show before. Here's what happens. It's set in, you know, it was filmed in the early 90s. It looks like it was filmed like outside of Hawkins, Indiana during the first season of Stranger Things. Like it definitely like, I don't remember fashion looking this way back then, but it did. It's hosted by a man. I think his name is David.

What was the name? David Ruprecht. Who is like, I don't know. know, he just seems like the platonic ideal of like a normal white guy, like just comes running out wearing khakis and a button down shirt and sneakers. And he's like, welcome to supermarket sweep. Here's these three sets of pairs, three sets of two people. Sometimes it's like a married couple or a fiancee, you know, newlyweds. Sometimes it's two friends. Often there will be some attendant really stilted dialogue about like what they're doing here together and how they know one

another and what they do for jobs. So it'll just be like, yes, this is my friend Denise. We're friends. And they're like, well, how do you know each other? It's like, our daughters go to the same school. There's one woman in the one episode who's like, our daughters go to the same school. And David's like, well, what's your story? Like, what's up with you? And she's like, I have six children and I'm a college student. It's just like, I have no idea what was happening back then. But it feels like it was a Faulkner novel. Here's the thing about Supermarket Sweet. That like, of course, it's 20. So there's something slightly problematic about it. it definitely like just really leans into like normativity.

It's not even just like heteronormativity, but it's just like because it is so like straightforward and banal, it's like everything is just like, I think that your point about stranger things is because like the reason that show has so much like magic to it is because the paranormal and the normal are so perfectly mixed. And this supermarket sweep only has the normal. Like it actually is a great idea that they should have some kind of like paranormal

supermarket sweep. Netflix, get on that. But the thing that I love by David Rubeck is, like, more than any other game show host I've ever encountered, when no one gets the answer right, he's like genuinely disappointed and like surprised. Yeah, there's a really good reason for that. It's like, because when they do like word scrambles and it's very obviously like Klondike Bar and six people are staring into him like he is the Pacific Ocean at sunset and not understanding how to spell Klondike Bar, it's pretty like, where are we as a country even back in 1991? So David brings out these six people. They hang out. They start talking a little bit.

And then there is a series of like basically levels or challenges, some of which are like pop culture trivia, which is hilarious to watch now because that it'll be like, you know, the four biggest stars in Hollywood, Scott Bayle, Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, and, you know, Danny DeVito or something. Then there's usually like some sort of exercise

like you go running out into the store. And then eventually there is like the supermarket sweep where everybody has their, money saved up that they've won over the course of the game that they can then go spend, correct? Yes, correct. And so basically you're accumulating dollars and then you try to make as much money as possible, or you try to like buy as much as possible with your, with your big sweep. Right. So you're buying like a dozen tins of paté and stuff like that. Yeah, exactly. The generic grocery store of supermarket sweep specializes in paté. You're right, Chris. Um, anyway, the,

thing that's also like so remarkable while out of the show is the strategy is incredibly clear. It is like even more obvious than threes and layups, you know? It's like, this is what you do. First you go for the meat. Then you go for the cheese. Specifically hams. Yeah. The hams and yeah, and the turkeys.

Like, you really want those. Then you get the giant chunks of cheese. It's like straight off of the heads of people at Packers games in Wisconsin. And then you go and you grind some coffee. you hope to get some of the bonuses along the way. Then you hit the diapers, and there's a clear hierarchy. Like, there's an obvious way to win this game,

and yet someone always fails to do it. Right. And moreover, it's still exhilarating. I don't, it's just like a perfect alchemy. Some shows just hit different, and this is one of them. And also, I don't know about you. I love the grocery store.

I love buying grocery stores. During the beginning of COVID, a bright spot was that, like, the only activity was to go to the grocery store. grocery store and like that was fine with me. I was like, cool. I'll happily go and I really respect the essential workers who are continuing to keep these stores operational. And it's like, I don't know. I just like to Margaret Sweep is taps into like the essential activity of what it's to be in a modern human and it's perfect. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to get to like in the Jacabin weeds here,

but it definitely is like an interesting portrait of American abundance. Like I think it's actually like if you showed supermarket sweep from 1990 to anyone else. in the world at 1990, they would just be like, what is happening over there that they have all these brightly colored boxes of processed foods for like relatively affordable prices. Again, not to get too political, but it is also like,

it's like super cold war content, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, it's something that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall like literally could only dream of. And it's just sort of like the excess of Americanness is on full display. It's through a market sweep.

I think it's one of the reasons. is why I love it. It's like, it's a public school teacher from Santa Ana eating chicken liver and be like, take that,

take that East Germany. Running as fast as possible through the aisles of a fake grocery store built on a set probably in Burbank. Like, it just does not get more American

the supermarket sweep in the year 1991. And I'm just a sucker for those days. They are so far gone. And I think it is a delight to have them here in this weird dystopian summer

of coronavirus. It's just really strange. I would love to have been there when Netflix happened upon these rights and decided to show them. I would love to know who's watching them. I saw a lot of supermarket sweep as your new nostalgic obsession. I was talking with Andy today on The Watch a little bit about how there's a lot of stuff on Peacock that really plays up to this, like old sitcoms and stuff from the 80s and 90s from NBC that clearly is playing on that like I just want this comfort TV on in the background. So I'll be really curious to see if this explodes beyond the Juliet-Litman zone.

becomes like an actual phenomenon. I think it has. I've seen, I've seen some rumblings on Twitter. I also like, I just want to add, there's no reason for the show to not have been on for as long as the price is right. Like literally, there's no reason. Also, like, let me just throw this idea out there. Mix up the set. Like, make it a little bit harder. So while I do love the simplicity and straightforwardness of the old format, one of my favorite parts living in Los Angeles is you have so many grocery stores to choose from with different layout. different aesthetics, different pricing. And so, like, maybe it's like a Jeopardy style where, like, on Monday, you win and you've played on the Ralph set.

On Tuesday, you've advanced to pavilions. On Wednesday, it's Gelson's. On Thursday, it's Airwant. And on Friday, it's, like, Whole Foods. Like, I just feel like there's, like, a lot we could be doing with this in the 21st century. And I just don't know why it's not still on. I mean, the grocery store is as fundamental as breathing.

I think that what we're going to probably get is the crossover that we didn't know we needed, which is supermarket is lava. One other note about Supermarket Sweep, the Food Network has tried to do supermarket shows. Like, they've done guys grocery games. Yeah. But it's just like a fool's errand.

Like, Netflix is, this is why they win a lot. It's because, like, they just buy the rights to old favorites, you know? And we don't need guys grocery games. We just need to be able to watch Supermarket Sweep ad nauseum. And I also, another thing I want to note, Chris, this is something that I've talked about a lot. Like, you've known me for our, while. I've definitely discussed how much I love supermarket sweep with you. I'm sorry if I block

that out. It felt very sudden when you were like this. I guess I just don't remember. I'm really sorry. I guess we have to take this offline and talk about our friendship. What do you, what's going to happen to you when you finish like the allotted episodes that they have uploaded? Do you think that they're going to go get more? Do you think you'll write a like start a letter writing campaign to Netflix? I've learned from The Bachelor the way that you license old catalog shows is really finicky. It's like really random who can get what? So I assume there's like some kind of like arcane reasoning for this. I plan to just watch the same episodes over and over again, probably like three,

from like the 3.30 to 5.30 a.m. range and I can't sleep. And I, every time I go to the grocery store, I will continue to say to myself, next time you're at the checkout counter and you hear the beep, think of all the fun that you could be having on Supermarket Sweep. I know. All right. Well, Juliet and I got to go buy some hams. We, I guess, hope that you guys also indulge us and check out Supermarkets sweep on Netflix. It's definitely one of the stranger things that have popped. up on TV in the last couple of months and this phenomenon is only in 2020, man.