Press Your Luck
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| Press Your Luck | |
|---|---|
| Format | Game show |
| Created by | Bill Carruthers, Jan McCormack |
| Starring | Peter Tomarken (host), Rod Roddy (announcer), John Harlan, Charlie O'Donnell (sub announcers) |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 757 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | September 19, 1983 – September 26, 1986 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
Press Your Luck was an American television daytime game show that ran weekdays on CBS from September 19, 1983 to September 26, 1986, where contestants collected "spins" by answering trivia questions, and then used the "spins" on an 18-space gameboard full of cash and prizes. The person who amassed the most in cash and prizes at the end of the game won.
The show was memorable for the "Whammy", a red cartoon creature of indeterminate species wearing a cape. The Whammy's spaces on the game board took away the contestant's money, accompanied by an animation that would show the Whammy taking the loot—but frequently being chased away, blown up, or otherwise humiliated in the process. The animated Whammies were created and animated by Savage Steve Holland and Bill Kopp, and voiced by Executive Producer Bill Carruthers. Throughout the show's run, approximately 80 different animations were used, and the Whammy became popular enough that at the end of many episodes, Peter Tomarken, the show's host, would read a "Whammy poem", sent in by a home viewer. "Whammy poems" would also appear after the first round of the Big Board before going to commercial on occasion. The show's announcer was Rod Roddy, who would later go on to announce The Price is Right, in February 1986, prior to working on both shows. Other announcers, including John Harlan and Charlie O'Donnell, occasionally filled in for Roddy.
The show originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles. During its first few months, it taped in studio 33 (also known as the Bob Barker Studio), but by 1984 it regularly shot in studio 41 although for a few weeks every so often it would again shoot in studio 33.
Contents |
[edit] Broadcast History
Press Your Luck's history dates back to the 1977 ABC show Second Chance, which was a similar game, produced by the Carruthers Company. The show had premiered on September 19, 1983 on CBS at 10:30 a.m./9:30 a.m. Central, replacing the Bill Cullen-hosted Child's Play.
PYL gave a spirited fight against NBC's Sale of the Century from that point until January 3, 1986. Ratings had reached its peak in 1984, not surprisingly after Michael Larson's amazing run against the Big Board. However, with daytime viewers declining in general, PYL's numbers began to slip in 1985, when Sale of the Century had gained the upper hand in the Nielsen Ratings, and beginning on January 6, 1986, CBS had decided to relegate PYL to 4:00 p.m./3:00 p.m. Central to make room for the Bob Eubanks-hosted revival of Card Sharks at 10:30 a.m./9:30 a.m. Central, replacing the Tom Kennedy-hosted Body Language. First-run episodes of PYL had continued until July 25, 1986, with reruns of College Week 1985, then Summer 1984 episodes airing from July 28, 1986 to August 29, 1986. The remaining first-run episodes began airing on September 1, 1986. The finale of PYL aired on September 26, 1986, but it was not announced as such.
PYL became the last major network daytime show to air in the 4:00 p.m./3:00 p.m. Central slot, two years after ABC had ended its last program and seven years after NBC did. The number of affiliates clearing PYL had probably constituted less than half of the network by that point, as syndicated programming had become too lucrative for so many station managers to resist. This phenomenon would continue to erode the lineups of network daytime programming during the 1990s and 2000s.
On September 14, 1987, the USA Network began airing re-runs of Press Your Luck almost non-stop (except for a brief period in April 1995), which had continued until October 13, 1995. Game Show Network began airing the program on September 1, 2001, which it does to this day, in conjunction with its new version, entitled Whammy!, which had aired new episodes from April 15, 2002 to December 5, 2003, and it has been shown in reruns ever since then.
On June 8, 2006, Press Your Luck was featured as the fourth round of Gameshow Marathon on CBS.
[edit] Object of the Game
Three contestants competed on each episode of Press Your Luck. Each episode had four rounds: a question round, then a Big Board round, then another question round, and finally another Big Board round for larger stakes. The player with the most money won.
[edit] The Question Round
Each question round included four questions, read out loud by Tomarken. Any contestant could buzz in and answer the question, but was not immediately told if his or her answer was right. The other two contestants would then be allowed to guess the correct answer from three multiple choices (the buzz-in contestant's answer plus two alternative answers). If no contestant buzzed in, then Tomarken would read three multiple choice answers, and all three contestants would attempt to guess the correct answer. A correct buzz-in answer earned a contestant three spins for use in the Big Board round; multiple-choice was worth one spin. So a player could earn up to a maximum of twelve spins in a question round (by being the first to buzz in on all four questions, and answering all four correctly), and the maximum for all three would be 20. On the pilot, five questions were asked, and so one player could get 15 spins, and all three could get 25. This was the only rule change between the pilot and the televised show. This number was reset to the pilot values on the revival, Whammy!
Some of the sound effects, such as the "ding" to light up a spin, was borrowed from the sound effect used on The Price Is Right, Match Game, Now You See It and Child's Play. During the show's last few months, the "ding" was changed to another sound effect that would later be heard on Card Sharks sometime around 1987 (it sounded similar to the regular ding, but was slightly higher-pitched). During the pilot, the "ding" sound effect was the same sound used on The $100,000 Pyramid.
[edit] The Big Board Round
Contestants now used their spins earned in the question round on the "Big Board", which consisted of 18 spaces, each of which could display three possible values. (Each possible value was displayed by a slide projector; the pilot episode had four slide projectors for each space, but two of those projectors displayed the same value.)
Contestants took turns taking their spins. Playing last was an advantage. In the first Big Board round, the order of contestants' play was determined by the number of spins they had earned in the question round; the contestant with the fewest spins played first, and the contestant with the most spins played last. (If two players, or all three players, had the same number of spins, the player seated farther to the left of Tomarken's podium would spin first.) In the second Big Board round, play order was determined by the contestants' scores in the first Big Board round; the contestant who ended that round with the lowest score played first, and the contestant with the highest score played last. (Ties were broken by seating position. On the 2002 revival, Whammy!, if two or all three players were tied, the player with the fewest spins went first; if they were tied for that as well, the player to host Todd Newton's left went first.)
The contents of each space on the "Big Board" changed just under once per second, alternating among the three possible values for each space. One space would be highlighted by lights; the highlight would jump from square to square several times per second. The contestant would press the red button in front of them to stop the board (and would usually yell "Stop!" as they did so). Usually, when the board stopped, the highlighted space would contain either money or a prize; that would be added to the contestant's score. (The score displayed for each contestant included both the cash and the dollar value of any prizes they had landed on.) But if the highlighted space contained a Whammy, the contestant would lose all the cash and prizes they had earned, and the contestant's score would fall back to $0. An animation would appear on-screen, featuring the Whammy "stealing" the contestant's score in one of a variety of ways, and a Whammy marker would then pop up out of the player's podium.
A contestant could choose to pass their earned spins at any time during their turn, if they had "a fear of the Whammy" as Tomarken put it, and they didn't want to spin. Passed spins always went to the opponent who currently had the highest score; if the two opponents were tied, the passing contestant could choose who to pass the spins to. A contestant would always play any "passed" spins before playing any spins they had "earned" (in the question round or by hitting "+ ONE SPIN" spaces on the board), and a contestant could not pass as long as he or she still had passed spins waiting to be played; so receiving a large number of passed spins was very dangerous, as it would require the contestant to play all of those spins, and probably hit a Whammy in the process. (Whenever a player did hit a Whammy, any remaining "passed" spins the contestant had not yet taken would be moved to the contestant's "earned" total; so the contestant was no longer required to spin -- of course, the contestant now had no money and no prizes, so spinning was usually the correct thing to do anyway.)
The first Big Board round's board had relatively low values -- cash amounts ranging from $100 to $1,500 ($100 to $1,250 until October 1983), and prizes typically worth several hundred dollars, but no more than $2,000. The second and final round board had much higher values -- cash amounts from $500 to $5,000, and prizes that could be worth up to $7,000 as well, including exotic vacations and small cars.
[edit] Special Spaces on the Big Board
[edit] Extra Spins
Some special spaces (mostly in the second Big Board round) gave a contestant money and an additional spin. Spins acquired in this fashion were always considered earned. If they were acquired during an earned spin, this replenished the spin that had just been taken, causing the contestant's spin total to remain the same. If they were acquired during a spin that had been passed, the spin was transferred from the passed column to the earned column.
[edit] Directional Squares
There were also directional squares such as 'Go Back Two Spaces", "Advance Two Spaces" (the contestant would earn whatever was at that space on the board, as if they had landed on that space in the first place), "Move One Space" (the contestant could choose to move to either of the adjacent board spaces and take whatever was displayed there). In February 1986, close to the end of the show's life, "Across The Board" was added to the far left side of the board. Its location directed the contestant to the box featuring $500 + ONE SPIN, $750 + ONE SPIN, and $1,000 + ONE SPIN.
One directional square that became an inside joke among fans of the show was "Pick A Corner", which debuted in March 1984. It appeared in the upper-right hand corner square (6), and offered the contestant the choice of the contents of the other three corner squares (1), (10), and (15). The reason it became an inside joke because there was always the possibility of a trilemma with choices that made little sense. Early on in the history of the space, one of the options that the contestant could take was a Whammy, which obviously made little sense. This happened to Jenny Jones in February 1985 (as illustrated), and she made a sarcastic comment about the choices. Thereafter the producers made several attempts to correct this, but each attempt created more situations where the choice between spaces was obvious. Each new arrangement was progressively worse than the one before it; at one point, a trilemma of $750, $1,400, or $2,000 was possible. The space was removed from the board in July 1986, replaced with $1,000 + ONE SPIN until the show's cancellation in September.
[edit] Double Your $$ (+ ONE SPIN)
Beginning in March 1984, the second round had a special "Double Your Money" (or "Double Your $$" as it was displayed) space, and hitting it gave the contestant cash equal to their current score. (At first, this was actually a disadvantage to the contestant if they hit it while their score was $0, since they gained nothing and still used up their spin; to correct this, the space was changed to "Double Your Money + 1 Spin" in mid-April 1984. Both "Double Your Money" and its later "+ 1 Spin" counterpart were one-time-only spaces; if they were hit, they disappeared and a prize slide replaced them.
[edit] $2,000 Or Lose 1 Whammy
Beginning on the September 17, 1984 episode, the second round featured a "$2,000 Or Lose 1 Whammy" special space. A contestant landing on this space could choose either to add $2,000 to their score, or to eliminate one Whammy from their lectern. The contestants typically chose the cash unless they had three Whammies, where one more would eliminate them from the game. A contestant hitting it with no Whammies would get $2,000 added to their score by default.
[edit] Add-A-One
Beginning on the September 5, 1985 episode, the first round had featured a special "Add-A-One" space. This space would give the contestant enough cash to place a "1" in front of their current score (that is, $0 became $10, but $1,000 became $11,000). Like "Double Your Money", "Add-A-One" was a one-time-only space, and when it was hit, it was replaced with a cash slide or a prize slide.
[edit] BIG BUCKS
In addition, both rounds featured a "Big Bucks" space. When hit, it awarded the contestant the dollar amount found directly opposite it on the board, which contained the highest cash awards in that round . In the first round this would be either $750 (on the pilot and from the series premiere to the November 1, 1983 episode), $1,000, $1,250 or $1,500 (replaced $750 from the November 2, 1983 episode on); and in the second round it would be either $3,000, $4,000, or $5,000 (all + 1 Spin). It was the existence of this space that resulted in Press Your Luck's contestant "battle cry" of "Big Bucks, no Whammies!"
[edit] Strategy
Occasionally, as noted previously, there are squares such as "Move One Space" or "Pick A Corner" that do offer choices on the board. A choice between '$1,500' or '$750 + ONE SPIN' becomes important depending on what dollar amount a contestant has, and how many spins the opponents have. The key decision a Press Your Luck contestant can make, however, is when to spin or pass.
The 1983 version of the game, which had returning champions, allowed certain mathematical strategies to win out:
- Spin to win: Spin until you feel you are enough dollars ahead of all opponents, and pass at the point you feel no one can catch your dollar total without a Whammy or running out of spins.
- Force a whammy: After earning a dollar total that leaves you in second place, pass your spins to the leader, on the notion that his passed spins will force him to Whammy, and the leftover spins will not be enough to catch you if he has them.
Being in third place with no spins is unquestionably the worst place to be, because neither of these basic strategies works. In this position, there is one strategy open to you:
- Luck: This generally means hoping the contestants in first or second place Whammy to leave you in second or first place (where the strategies above apply) - or whammy out of the game to eliminate themselves.
If you were still in third place after both of your opponents had spun and you were running out of spins yourself, strategy would most often dictate that you'd continue to spin and hope for a few lucky breaks. However, should you feel the urge not to, a final strategy would be in play:
- Playing spoiler: In this case you, not having enough money or a chance to at least get into second, would pass your remaining spin(s) to the leader in hopes that he would Whammy, giving the win to your other opponent.
While this strategy was not employed often (due to the illogical nature of it), several contestants did employ it to varying degrees of success.
Although the strategies above are fairly simple and mathematically correct, emotion plays a big part in the game, and lends to the show's overall appeal. The risk of hitting a Whammy, particularly after a long run of prize and money spins, can make sticking to strategy easier said than done. When dollar totals begin to run high for the first and second place contestants, and a Whammy hasn't been hit for a long time, high excitement possibilities frequently occurred:
- Spins bouncing (also referred to by some fans as "See-saw battles", "Tennis Matches", or "Spin Battles") between first and second place contestants repeatedly, as each play hit '+ SPIN' squares, and each contestant hoped the other would hit a Whammy, or in the case of the leader, have the other contestant hit a space that didn't provide an extra spin. These occurred mainly in the 2nd round, when more "+ Spin" spaces are on the board, but one small spin bouncing battle has happened in the 1st round.
- Large numbers of passed spins sent to one contestant, forcing them to spin over and over again without hitting a Whammy
- The last spin of the game, which, depending on whether an earned or passed spin, always left the risk of hitting a Whammy (ending the game outright) or a '+ SPIN' square (extending the game).
Since the revival Whammy! did not feature returning champions, in that version it was sometimes correct to risk losing the game in order to win more. In classic PYL, winning the game was the primary goal. For example, in Whammy!, if you were ahead $5,000 to $500 with 1 spin left, you probably would spin again to increase your winnings. In classic PYL, this was a clearcut pass, because your opponent was unlikely to be able to get $4,500 in one spin. (Only 1 square, plus maybe a prize or two, out of 18 squares offered a chance to get that much, mainly offering a bonus spin.) Even though you only won $5,000, the right to return the next day was valuable.
[edit] Elimination
If a contestant had a total of four Whammies during the Big Board rounds, that player was immediately and permanently eliminated from the game. Starting with the September 17, 1984 episode, there were special Whammy animations for a player's fourth Whammy, such as a Whammy umpire calling the player "out", a Whammy on a boat shouting, "Hasta luego! Arriverderci! Bon voyage! That means goodbye!" or a barbershop group consisting of three Whammies and Fang the Dog would sing "You're Out!" The contestant's remaining earned and passed spins were simply discarded. If a contestant with several Whammies was lucky enough to hit the "$2,000 or Lose 1 Whammy" special space during the game, they could reduce the risk of elimination by choosing the "Lose 1 Whammy" option, which subtracted one Whammy from their total (and thus meant that the player would need to hit an additional Whammy to be eliminated). More than once an elimanated contestant had hit a Whammy five times, but had eliminated one via the "Lose 1 Whammy" option.
On rare occasions, two contestants were eliminated from the same game. In that case, if the surviving contestant had any remaining spins, he or she could play "against the house" and stop spinning at any time, at which point the game would simply end and the surviving player would be declared the winner. In the truly unlikely event that even the third contestant Whammied out as well -- which almost happened on two occasions on the original Press Your Luck and did happen once on Whammy! in 2003 -- the game would simply end without a winner. In the first case, a contestant simply ended the game on his own terms, while in the second, a contestant gambled, and won his spins.
In most situations, however, the surviving player would terminate the game early, without using the remaining spins.
[edit] Winning the Game
The winner of the game was the contestant with the highest score (reflecting both the cash and the dollar amount of prizes) after the last spin of the second Big Board round was taken. Only the winner would be allowed to keep their earnings and return for the next show. (In the rare event of a tie for first place at the end of the game, all of the tied players would receive their winnings.)
The winner(s) of each game normally returned for the next show; but any contestant who won five games would retire undefeated. There was also a limit on the dollar value of contestants' earnings. During the show's first season, contestants who won over $25,000 would retire undefeated (some retired with $25,000 in one show), since at that point CBS had a maximum winnings limit of $25,000 for its game shows. (Contestants did get to keep any cash or prizes won in excess of this limit). Later on, after the Michael Larson episodes, the earnings cap was raised to $50,000, and any amount past $75,000 that was won could not be kept, though no player had reached past that amount since. Effective on the November 1, 1984 episode, the winnings limit (and thus the "retirement point") was raised to $50,000 (with the earnings cap kept at $75,000.)
There have been two games where three players won $0 and returned the next day. This occurred during the fall of 1984 and the spring of 1986. Several other champions won their games with nothing, but this was due to at least one (if not both) of their opponents Whammying out and them deciding to stop spinning during their turn or hitting a Whammy with their final spin. (During the spring 1986 game, Tomarken remarked that this was the first time that had happened, forgetting about the 1984 game.)
In the event of a production problem, if a question in the game was flawed, or if an irregularity during game play happened, a contestant would return even if eliminated from the game. (Game shows must bring back players if any of those three situations occurred; the host would inform viewers, officials, and audience about such in many games.)
[edit] The Inner Workings of the Big Board
[edit] How it Worked
The board consisted of 18 squares, arranged in a rectangle surrounding the PRESS YOUR LUCK logo, upon which the contestant was superimposed during a spin. Behind each square were three slide projectors, each displaying a different slide (a monetary amount, a Whammy, a prize, etc.), one at a time. Every second or so, the first projector would turn off as the second projector illuminated, changing the display on the square. Slide projectors were used to give the effect of squares "morphing" from one item to the next. A band of lights surrounded each square, illuminated one at a time to indicate which square would be selected when the player stopped the board. This was called the "spinner" by the production staff.
As the board shuffled, the spinner would jump from tile to tile in a seemingly random pattern. In fact, the spinner followed one of only five preprogrammed spinner patterns -- a flaw exploited to great effect by Michael Larson. Shortly after his appearance, the patterns were changed twice, to throw off people who might attempt to memorize them; soon after that, the number of possible patterns were increased to 32.[1][dead link – history]
When the board made the switch from multi-colored blank slides to game slides, it would use a sort of "domino effect" or "cascade" effect, in which the game slides would appear, one by one, beginning in the upper left-hand corner square, and going around the board in rapid sequence, until all squares had loaded. This would be seen in the opening and the beginnings of rounds one and two.
On the pilot episode, the cash slides appeared in shades of blue and green. When the show went on the air, new colors were added: pale blue, red, chartreuse yellow, off-white (used only for the first two weeks) and hot pink (used only on $1,500 + ONE SPIN in Round 2). The show's third season used "neon" colors: navy blue, aqua blue, blue-purple, red-orange, and lime green.
[edit] Malfunctions
Although for the most part it worked, the Big Board was known to occasionally malfunction. The most common one concerned how the board shuffled. All of the squares on the board were supposed to change in unison; however, on numerous occasions, there would be instances where some frames would not change at the same time other frames did. This was due to the wiring setup of the slide projectors. The even numbered square's projectors were wired together, and the odd numbered square's projectors were wired together, and there would be instances where they were not started at exactly the same time, thus causing the malfunction. Occasionally, the board would not shuffle for the duration of a few spinner bounces, but this didn't happen as often as the out-of-sync spins. As Round 2 of the Larson episode progressed, this malfunction got worse and worse until finally, each projector was flashing at its own pace when Ed Long finally took his turn. This phase of the malfunction would later become an intended tactic for the second round of Whammy!, PYL's successor.
Additionally, a rarer (though on the first few episodes, a more common) but more noticeable malfunction was when an entire tile would not appear; instead, there was simply a black box. This was obviously due to a malfunction of that particular slide's projector. There were even a few occasions where none of the slides for that box lit up at all. Generally, a round is played with the darkened square with no editing, unless the player stops on the affected square. This is seen on a few occasions; if this happened, tape was stopped while the affected projector was repaired. In the show's later years, this malfunction occurred only on the intro board. And there were times when a black box would be seen just before a commercial; but after the break, the malfunction would have been repaired. There was even one occasion when half the blank slides failed to light up for a question round.
Also, in the event a player lands on a prize, that slide is removed and a new one is added for the remainder of the round. This shift, however, has to be made on the fly, usually during the round. Every so often, a slide changed on-camera.
Yet another malfunction occurred when a few slides got stuck and did not change at all. For example, on the intro to the Larson episode, as the demo board starts shuffling slides, the $1,250 slide in square 2 stayed stuck and did not shift between $1,500 or the prize in that square, as did the slide for $3,000 + ONE SPIN in square #4. All the others shuffled as expected. In another episode before that, the projectors in squares #2 and #4 stuck on $1,250 and $5,000 + ONE SPIN for the duration of the second round.
Another very rare malfunction occurred when one of the slides did not fade out, but the other slides were shuffling normally, and you could see two slides blend together. This was seen in the intro sequence to Episode #629 in 1986, when, in square #14, the navy blue $2,500 loaded up late and was seen blending in with MOVE ONE SPACE and the Whammy.
Occasionally, the spinner stopped on a square just before the slide changed, and the selected square changed slides. This "shifting" action of the slides sometimes proved to be disastrous for the player if the slide shifted from a money space to a Whammy, or very lucky for a contestant as a Whammy slide could change to a money, prize, or directional (which can lead to the first two) slide. When the latter happened, Peter would often react by saying "(You) just avoided the Whammy" after saying the prize that was hit.
On the August 23, 1985 episode, the second day of the ancient neon slides board, a major malfunction occurred when a power surge caused all the projectors to "blow". It damaged a few slides, and rendered the projectors inoperable. This happened before the last spin of the game. They had to adjourn and finish taping another day. (Although it was edited out, you can tell because the prize "Water Bike" disappeared on the next spin despite not being hit and the $1,500 space in the next square over changed colors from green to blue.) The following episodes would have the $1,250 and $1,500 spaces in the first round be a different color as well. Water Bike would appear one more time, in mid-September 1985, and be hit for the final time on the September 18, 1985 episode.
[edit] Computerized Boards
Keeping in trend with modern times, both the 2002 revival, Whammy!, and the 2006 Gameshow Marathon episode featured a computerized version of the classic Big Board.
Whammy!, however, featured an almost completely different game board than that of Press Your Luck - an irregular "scattered motif" board in the shape of an oval. The same number of squares (18) and their overall pattern were intact; per PYL "tradition", the highest dollar value was still seen at the top of the board. The board on Whammy! generated random prizes, whammies, and light patterns for each space, done by using a personal computer running at a speed of 200 MHz, as well as an unlimited number of patterns for game play.
[edit] Home Player Spin
During Press Your Luck's three year run, the show had "Home Player Spins" for 3 sweeps months, in May-June 1984, January-February 1985 and October-November 1985. The spin number of the Home Player Spin was revealed before the final money round began (i.e., if the number was "5", then the fifth spin into the round would be the Home Player Spin). The Home Player Spin always sounded with an assortment of unusual sound effects (similar to the double showcase win effects on The Price is Right). The contestant who was about to spin the board played the Home Player Spin, and read the name of the home player who would play along; names and addresses were on postcards situated in front of the contestants. In the Home Player Spin, the player won whatever their player hit:
- If the contestant hit a money or prize space, the home player would get the money or the prize.
- If the contestant hit a Whammy, the home player received $500, "courtesy of the Whammy."
- If the contestant hit a money-and-a-spin space, the home player received the money and the contestant received the money and the spin.
NOTE: The last Home Player Spin of January-February 1985 landed on "$2,000 or Lose 1 Whammy". The contestant took the $2,000, and the money was also given to the home player. But since it was uncertain as to what the home player were to receive in the event the contestant elected to lose a Whammy, the "$2,000 or Lose 1 Whammy" space was removed from the board for the October-November 1985 Home Player Spins.
As stated at the end of each Home Player episode, runners up received a T shirt bearing the Whammy. Runners up were named by the two contestants who didn't participate during the Home Player Spin. The May-June 1984 and January-February 1985 Home Player Spins happened for 20 days each (the final Home Player Spin of May-June 1984 was part of the infamous Michael Larson episode), and in late 1985 it went for 25 days (with days 21-25 yet to air on GSN), the finale being the Giant Home Player Spin.
[edit] Episode Status
All episodes of PYL reportedly exist and were purchased by FremantleMedia, who also owns the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman library. Reruns continue to air on GSN.
The Michael Larson episodes before the first airing by GSN in 2003, have not been rerun on any network since the original CBS broadcasts, but were incorporated into the made-for-TV documentary by Lions Gate Films, Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal, about the making of the Larson shows--this also included footage not aired during the original CBS run. Later on, the episodes alone were shown on GSN. The episodes from the series premiere to February 20, 1984 and from November 18, 1985 to the series finale have not aired on GSN as of yet.
[edit] Notable contestants
Besides Michael Larson, the show had other notable contestants. Among them were:
- Randy West - He was the last champion of Peter Tomarken's earlier series Hit Man. He appeared in the second week of the show's run, and was also the first person to ever win a car, doing so in dramatic come-from-behind fashion on the last spin of his second game.
- Michael "Myke" Horton, who would later be known as the American Gladiators "Gemini"
- Jenny Jones, who won $18,706 over the course of three episodes.
- Jim Hess - He gained PYL infamy for swearing under his breath after his third Whammy in Round One and for blurting out a barrage of swear words when he hit a Whammy on the last spin of the game (after losing two of them in Round Two). No network has ever censored Hess' episode.
- Maggie Brown - Appeared on both pilot and regular series, also appeared in the pilot for Second Chance and as a contestant on Tomarken's Wipeout (which debuted 2 years after PYL ended).
- Jack Campion - also appeared on pilot and appeared on Second Chance's pilot, notable for being on many game show pilots)
- Karen Martin - A former Family Feud contestant who won on Press Your Luck with $14,405. She was always screaming to be rich and get big bucks when spinning the board. Whenever her spin got her cash or a prize, she would scream with delight. Whenever she hit a Whammy, she would scream with shock. On one spin, she was hollering to win a pool table for her husband Dan, and she landed on it, the first time anyone declaring that they wanted that particular prize and got it immediately according to Peter, but later hit a Whammy and lost it (afterwards he told her that she could just buy one). Peter said Martin was one of the most fun contestants in PYL's history.
- Steve Bryant - He was a member of the Houston Oilers football team [2] when he appeared on the show in July 1985. During the big board rounds, on his turn, he would call for "Big Bucks and no Whammies" (with "Whammies" being said for 10 seconds before he stopped the board). He was a two-day champion, winning over $20,000.
[edit] Michael Larson
On one Press Your Luck episode in 1984, a self-described unemployed ice cream truck driver named Michael Larson made it onto the show. Watching the show at home, and with the use of stop-motion on a VCR, Larson discovered that the presumed random patterns of the game board were not random, and was able to memorize the sequences to help him stop the board where and when he wanted. On the single game in which he appeared, an initially tentative Larson spun a Whammy on his very first turn, but then played 45 consecutive times without hitting a second Whammy. He earned a total of $110,237 in cash and prizes, a record for a single appearance on a daytime network game show up to that time.
Although CBS investigated Larson, they determined that figuring out the patterns was not cheating, and let him keep all his winnings. The number of light patterns was increased to make it impossible for a player to ever repeat what Larson did.
[edit] Versions outside the United States
- In Australia, the show ran on Seven from 1987-88, and was presented by Ian Turpie. John Deeks was its announcer. Grundy Worldwide packaged the Australian version, with Bill Mason as executive producer. This version used the same Whammy animations as the original.
- Germany had a version entitled Glück Am Drücker (Luck to Pusher) on RTLplus that ran in 1992. Al Munteano was the host. It had vultures instead of Whammies.
- Germany also had a revival called Drück Dein Glück and its presenter was Guido Kellerman. It ran daily from 1999-2000 on RTL II. A shark called Hainz ate all the contestant's money instead of the Whammy.
- In Philippines, GMA Network aired a version of this show entitled Whammy: Push Your Luck, using the same (redubbed) Whammy animations as Whammy!
- Taiwan also had a version of Press Your Luck on Taiwan Television that ran in 1988 without animated whammies. Please see also: 強棒出擊
- Turkey has a version of Ya Şundadır Ya Bunda on aTV.
- The United Kingdom ran the US version of Press Your Luck on Sky One in the mid nineties.
[edit] Revival
The show enjoyed a revival on the Game Show Network in 2002, and was renamed Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck (shortened to Whammy! in 2003). The show was hosted by Todd Newton and initially aired until 2003; reruns continue to air on GSN. There were several differences: The board was entirely computerized (as well as redesigned), the first question round was eliminated, and (starting in 2003) a "Big Bank" feature was added to the board. If a player hit the "Big Bank" space and answered a trivia question correctly, they won all the prizes and cash taken away by the Whammies.
[edit] DVD game
In 2006, Imagination released a DVD TV game game of Press Your Luck. Todd Newton is the host. Peter Kent is the announcer. The DVD game consists of three question rounds and three Big Board rounds. It is available in stores everywhere.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- PressYourLuck.tv, fan site containing comprehensive episode guide
- GSN website
- Game Show Central
- Press Your Luck Madness
- 80's TV Theme Supersite Gameshow Page (Where both the opening and closing themes are available for download. Requires RealPlayer.)
