BEHIND THE SCENES AT ‘SUPERMARKET SWEEP,’ VALENCIA’S NEW GAME SHOW She’s a legal secretary from Long Beach. He’s a kindergarten teacher in Hawthorne. They married in a drive-through Vegas chapel after meeting on the Internet. And for one day, Gayle and Kevin Paul will try their luck and test their shopping skills as game-show contestants. The Pauls have taken the day off work and driven from the South Bay to Santa Clarita in the hopes of winning money for a trip to Hawaii, and to have some fun in the process. “My 18-year-old son said we’re geeks,” Gayle said, wearing a neon green nametag and sitting among the 35 other contestants for “Supermarket Sweep” on a recent March morning. “Supermarket Sweep” first aired in black and white on ABC in the mid-1960s, long before the success of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and other modern prime-time game shows. It’s being resurrected by PAX Television and taped in Santa Clarita, the first show ever shot there before a live studio audience. The format of “Supermarket Sweep” is simple. For the first half of the show, three teams of two play quiz games. The second half is the sweep round, in which teams run through supermarket aisles gathering the most expensive food those who have performed well in the first round get more time to gather groceries. The object of the game is to collect the highest dollar amount of groceries. Some teams have been known to collect goods worth $2,000 or more. The top team wins the value of its groceries and an additional $5,000, if it finds the bonus money tucked in supermarket shelves. The losers get a red T-shirt. Five shows are taped each day. The process starts at 7:30 a.m. for contestants and crew, and it can end anywhere from 9 p.m. to midnight. It is a grueling schedule for all involved, but it’s the only way for producers to crank out 130 shows for PAX by June. The show is back in production after a five-year hiatus that many thought was permanent. New episodes ran on the Lifetime Channel in the early 1990s, and repeats have run on various cable channels since then. Most of the staff, from the makeup artist to the host to the producers, worked for the show before it was canceled in 1995. When PAX started airing reruns of the show last year, it performed so well that the network decided to revive it. The first new shows begin airing this month. Eighteen teams arrive each taping day. They come from all over Southern California and beyond. Some have called in after watching the show in reruns on PAX. Some saw the kiosk at the Valencia Town Center and others were scouted from other game shows. There’s Roxanne and Lori, a homemaker and video-store clerk from San Francisco, who drove down to Valencia on Saturday to interview for the show and returned three days later to try their luck. The two friends, both dressed in brightly colored leggings, say they watch reruns of the show every day with their kids. Brooke, a 19-year-old cosmetology student from San Diego, dragged her mother Polly along to play. Brooke also watches the show every day and plans to shop in the sweep round, though she admits she has done little supermarket shopping in real life. Frank is here to be a contestant for the second time. He had lost five years earlier while playing with his sister. This time, he brought her friend Bobbie, and plans to win. “I told (my sister) she was a loser and that I wanted to win,” he said while making an “L” on his forehead with his thumb and index finger. There’s also Mary and Michelle, two homemakers from Orange County who met in the hospital two years ago while both were giving birth to their first child. “My friend’s from Texas and this is Hollywood for her,” Mary said. “We watch the show religiously.” Michelle plans to try for “Wheel of Fortune” next. “My goal is to be a professional game-show contestant,” she said, with a Texas drawl. “I’m so psyched. This is so fun to be in California.” By the time contestants make it to tape day, they’ve been through two interviews with producers. They’ve played mock games, in which they are judged on their level of animation. And they are peppered with questions to dredge up stories they can relate to host David Ruprecht at the start of the show. “It’s not like Einstein questions. This isn’t ‘Jeopardy,'” said contestant coordinator Ginger Frelo-Hyde, who began working on game shows 20 years ago after her family won $45 on “Family Feud.” Contestants are given a week’s notice prior to taping and must make themselves available for two days, though most will only actually be involved on one day. Karen Ritter and Frelo-Hyde are responsible for the contestants. They answer questions for people, make sure paperwork is signed, escort contestants to and from the set and cheer them on with facial expressions and words of encouragement when their energy seems to be flagging. The teams arrive at 7:30 a.m. the day of taping and Frelo-Hyde briefs them on the rules at 8:30 a.m. They wait in the contestant holding room, a few buildings down from the studio. After an hour-long briefing by Frelo-Hyde, the group of 18 is taken to the supermarket studio, where they are again briefed, this time by producer Mark Maxwell Smith, who looks like he could be a supermarket manager with his brown cardigan over a white dress shirt and black rubber-soled shoes. He goes over how contestants are to buzz in answers by tapping the buzzer lightly with their fingertips and reviews safety rules for running through the supermarket aisles. “‘Supermarket Sweep’ is not a contact sport,” Smith stresses. Contestants laugh. Fully stocked set The supermarket aisles are completely stocked with everything that can be found in any Vons or Ralphs. In fact, aside from the warehouse ceiling and audience seating, there’s little to distinguish this from the real thing. The food is all brand name, with sponsors paying a fee to have their products placed at the end of the aisles. After Smith finishes his briefing, the teams are given five minutes to walk through the aisles and strategize. Gayle and Kevin begin in the meat department, looking at price tags on hams and turkeys. After the walk-through, contestants are taken back to the holding area. They eat a snack, are allowed to ask any questions about the rules, and then it’s back on the set by 10:30 a.m. They are seated in the audience section. A paid audience arrives shortly after and taping begins. The audience cheers while cameramen pan back and forth. Contestants are called out of the audience by the announcer. Three of the 18 teams won’t make the cut and will return the following day, when they are guaranteed a slot. After the introductions, the audience is asked to applaud several different times, so that their claps can be dubbed in during the sweep round. Then the games begin. One after another, the quiz half of five shows is taped. By 3:15 p.m., the contestants are ready for lunch. They are taken back to the holding area, where they eat and wait for the next two hours. During their two-hour break, contestants chat, now allies more than competitors. Some share tips on strategy. (“Go down aisle 10, skip aisle 11.”) They touch-up their makeup and phone their kids. They take pictures of each other and talk about how nervous they are. “It’s harder (to play the game in real life) than at home,” Roxanne said. Back to work After the break, contestants are given another 10 minutes to walk through the supermarket and plan strategy. For the sweep round, contestants don sweatshirts based on their performance during the quiz round. Those who answered the most questions get the most time shopping, and wear red sweatshirts; the second-place team wears blue, and third place wears yellow. They are briefed one last time on the rules of play, deductions for dropping or breaking items, and on how to get the bonus items. “Don’t forget to breathe,” Frelo-Hyde says. Then the first group is off. Other contestants watch the taping from their holding pen. It takes about 45 minutes to run each group through the supermarket taping. By 6:30 p.m., Gayle and Kevin are being led to the stage. They’re in first place, so they get three minutes to shop. Close behind are Brooke and Polly with two minutes and 50 seconds. As they enter, the team leaving has just won the $5,000 bonus and is running out screaming. The teams are briefed again, this time by the show’s creator, Al Howard. Then they are off, running through the aisles, searching for expensive items and bonuses, as their partners shout reminders from the checkout counter. Kevin finds one bonus item, a blow-up light bulb, and fills three shopping carts. After their time is up, the teams are brought backstage to catch their breath and wait about 10 minutes while their items are tallied. When they come back, the results are announced. Kevin and Gayle are $63 behind Brooke and Polly. They’ll go home with a red T-shirt. “Maybe we’ll get called back for a loser game,” Gayle said. “Next time, I’m going to shop.” Brooke and Polly win $5,000 in the bonus round, bringing their total to $6,216. They’ll split the winnings. Polly hasn’t decided what she will do with the money. Her daughter has. “I want a boob job,” Brooke said, while skipping back to the contestant room. Close behind, the next team is finding their places on the set. It’s now 8 p.m. and there are two games to go. And then the whole routine begins again at 7:30 a.m. the next day.