An Oral History Of 'Supermarket Sweep,' A Game Show With A Surprising Shelf Life

From the vantage of 2020, there are many ways to describe Supermarket Sweep. Its comfort food. Unadulterated nostalgia. An oddity defined by earnestness and colorful sweatshirts. An ode to brick-and-mortar consumerism. A goofy glorification of capitalism.

Now we can add an unexpected addition to that list: Netflix sensation .

Earlier this month, a handful of old Supermarket Sweep episodes appeared on the streaming service , igniting waves of enthusiasm across social media. Sweep had been available via Amazon Prime Video and the digital game-show platform Buzzr, but its arrival on Netflix created a right-time, right-place situation. With many people still upholding the COVID-19 pandemics social distancing guidelines, the opportunity to revisit a vintage favorite became a salve. The contestants zeal runs sky-high, and watching them recall brand after brand offers a curious snapshot of Americas fixation on merchandising. Whats surprising is how thrilling the episodes can be, particularly the players mad dash through the store to collect the most expensive grocery items they can find. (Sample narration, courtesy of announcer Johnny Gilbert: Shes doing hams at high speed and Ellens tossing big pieces of meat.)

Created by former advertising guru Al Howard, Supermarket Sweep first premiered on ABC in 1965. It ran for two years as a black-and-white morning program filmed at Food Fair markets on the East Coast. When Lifetime was rebranding as a network for women in the late 80s, executives decided to revive Sweep, eventually pairing it with a new game show called Shop til You Drop. The Lifetime incarnation lasted until 1995, and in 2000, the young network PAX now known as Ion brought the series back for an additional three seasons. Thirteen international versions have aired in places like Brazil and Turkey, and ABC will reboot Sweep again this fall with Saturday Night Live alum Leslie Jones hosting.

In honor of this resurgence, I asked a few folks who worked on the Lifetime and PAX editions to talk about how Supermarket Sweep was made and why it remains a treat to watch. Based on their accounts, those who worked on the show had as much fun making it as the rest of us are having devouring it even, or maybe especially, the stoned camera operators.

It Seemed Very Fresh To Do

Launched in 1984, Lifetime was a struggling network targeted at adults. As the decade came to an end, executives found a niche through female-centric programming, specifically the talk show Attitudes, the sitcom The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd and syndicated hits like Moonlighting.

Jerrilyn Farmer, Supermarket Sweep head writer: Al [Howard, the show creator] was an advertising exec during the Mad Men years [in the 1950s]. Al simply loved products and brands. He was 100% in. It was not ironic for him; it was the deal. He came up with this show because he was just trying to glory in branding and an everyday persons fun in the market.

Mark Maxwell-Smith, Supermarket Sweep producer: In many ways, it was kind of a mom-and-pop operation in the sense that Al wasnt Mr. Big-Time Showbiz. He wasnt Mr. Big-Time Deal-Maker. This was his baby. He loved it. This was a show that he had nurtured for decades.

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