Press Your Luck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Press Your Luck | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Game show |
| Creator(s) | 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 | 758 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | September 19, 1983 – September 26, 1986 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
Press Your Luck was an American television game show during the 1980s 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 Kopp. Throughout the show's run, approximately 60 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.
The show is a cult classic and is referred to by many as one of the symbols of the 1980s.
Contents |
[edit] Broadcast History
Press Your Luck ran from September 19, 1983, to September 26, 1986, on CBS. Peter Tomarken hosted, and Rod Roddy was the regular announcer (John Harlan and Charlie O'Donnell substituted on separate occasions).
Press Your Luck replaced Child's Play on the CBS schedule. It ran at 10:30 a.m. EST between The $25,000 Pyramid and The Price is Right for its first two and a half years, but on January 6, 1986, it was moved to 4:00 p.m. EST to make room for Card Sharks, replacing Body Language. Reruns of Press Your Luck aired on the USA Network from September 14, 1987 to October 13, 1995 and on GSN since September 1, 2001, although GSN currently airs episodes from February 21, 1984 to November 15, 1985 (Day 20 of the third Home Player Sweepstakes, which ran 25 days).
The original incarnation of Press Your Luck was the short-lived game show Second Chance, which aired on ABC in 1977 with Jim Peck hosting.
On April 15, 2002, GSN debuted a new updated version of the series as Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck; Todd Newton hosted the show, which was in production for two seasons. Peter Tomarken hosted a pilot of this version and the question round for the Larson special.
On June 8, 2006, Press Your Luck was among the seven game shows that made up Gameshow Marathon, which aired on CBS. Ricki Lake served as host for "PYL", the episode of which had a facsimile of the original set, and the six other classic shows, and Rich Fields was the announcer. In that June 8 episode, Kathy Najimy won the game over Tim Meadows and Leslie Nielsen. The PYL episode was dedicated to the memory of Peter Tomarken, who died in a plane crash, along with his wife, on March 13, 2006, after the episode had been taped.
Republic Pictures originally syndicated Press Your Luck for USA Network. Today, all the rights for Press Your Luck are owned by FremantleMedia, which also holds the concept for any future revivals.
[edit] Object of 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. Player with the most money wins.
[edit] The Question Round
Each question round included four series of 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 three spins for use in the next Big Board round; a correct multiple-choice answer earned 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.
In a 1985 episode, Peter Tomarken asked contestants which cartoon character had the catch phrase, "Sufferin' succotash!" All three contestants correctly answered, "Sylvester," but the host Tomarken said that the correct answer was Daffy Duck; thus, no spins were given. The game ended earlier than usual and before the credits started rolling, Tomarken answered a telephone call from Mel Blanc in his Sylvester voice. "Sylvester" told Tomarken that Daffy Duck "steals from me all the time." All three contestants were brought back to the show in later episodes because of the error. [1]
[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 the number of spins earned in the second question round, and if that was tied as well, by seating position.)
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 buzzer 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 "destroying" 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.
After any spin, the spinning contestant could choose to pass their remaining spins to another contestant (in the hope of protecting their own cash and prizes from the Whammy, or in the hope that that the other contestant would hit a Whammy and lose their winnings. 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 "+1 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 Bucks round's board had relatively low values -- cash amounts ranging from $100 to $1500 ($100 to $1250 until October 1983), and prizes typically worth several hundred dollars, but no more than $2000. The second and final round board had much higher values -- cash amounts from $500 to $5000, and prizes that could be worth up to $7000 as well, including exotic vacations and small cars.
[edit] Special spaces on the Big Board
Some special spaces (mostly in the second Big Bucks round) had a money amount '+ 1 Spin'; the contestant would receive the money as usual, and a spin would be added to the contestant's "earned" total, replacing the one they had just used.
There were also directional sqaures 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; when hit, it would award the player the amount of money on the opposite side of the board (which was either $500 + One Spin, $750 + One Spin, or $1000 + One Spin).
One directional 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). It became a joke to PYL fans because there was always the possibility of a trilemma where at least one option was clearly inferior to another, such as a Whammy vs. $1500 + ONE SPIN or a Water Bike (as was the case on Jennie Jones's infamous 1985 appearance on the show). As time wore on, the choices got so ridiculously bad, that such trilemmas as $750 vs. $1400 vs. $2000 Or Lose A Whammy were possible. In July 1986, the producers gave up trying to find a perfect arrangement for Pick A Corner and replaced it with $1000 + ONE SPIN. The PYL episode from GameShow Marathon featured Pick A Corner, and it too offered "broken" trilemmas, though it was not hit.
Beginning in March 1984, the second round had a special "Double Your Money" 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. The "Double Your Money" space without an extra spin made one final appearance in December 1985, shortly after the third Home Player Sweepstakes.)
Beginning on the September 17, 1984 episode, the second round featured a "$2000 or Lose 1 Whammy" special space. A contestant landing on this space could choose either to add $2000 to their score, or to "lose 1 Whammy". Choosing the "lose 1 Whammy" option would cause one of the Whammy markers on the player's podium to disappear. This did not give the contestant back any cash or prizes that the Whammy had taken, but could still be important, because four Whammy markers eliminated a player from the game (see "Elimination" below). The space was removed during the third Home Player Sweepstakes in the fall of 1985, because CBS apparently did not want the contestant to choose to lose a Whammy, and leave the home player with no cash, though they could have simply given the home player $2000. At any rate, the space returned to the Board after the Sweepstakes and remained there until the show's cancellation. For most of its life, the space was in a position where it could be selected through the Move One Space in square #14 and through Pick A Corner.
Beginning on the September 5, 1985 episode, the first round featured a special "Add-A-One" space. This space would give the contestant enough cash to place a "1" in front of the contestant's current score (that is, $0 became $10, but $1,000 became $11,000).
In addition, both rounds featured the legendary "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 (hence its name). 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!" or something similar.
[edit] Elimination
If a contestant hit a total of four Whammies during the Big Bucks rounds, that player was immediately and permanently eliminated from the game (though never happened in Round 1). 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". The contestant's remaining earned and passed spins were simply discarded. If a contestant with several Whammies was lucky enough to hit the "$2000 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).
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 the third contestant Whammied out as well -- which almost happened on two occasions -- 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 Bucks 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, 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, though later on, after the Michael Larson episodes, an earnings cap of $75,000 was added -- any earnings above that point could not be kept.) 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.)
A contestant eliminated by four Whammies could not win the game or return for the next show. A contestant who scored four Whammies, but lost one in a Lose One Whammy situation before earning the 4th, could win or return.
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
The board consisted of 18 squares, arranged in a rectangle surrounding the "PRESS YOUR LUCK" logo. 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 six 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 was increased to 32.[1]
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.
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 $1250 slide in square 2 stayed stuck and did not shift between $1500 or the prize in that square. All the others shuffled as expected. In another episode before that, the projectors in sqaures #2 and #4 stuck on $1250 and $5000 + ONE SPIN for the duration of the second round.
There was even one episode in spring of 1984 where the $1250 slide for the Round 2 board was loaded improperly, and you could only see half of it; the upper half of the box was black.
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.
On the August 23, 1985 episode, the second day of the 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" disappears on the next spin despite not being hit and the $1500 space in the next square over changed colors from green to blue.) The following episodes would have the $1250 and $1500 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.
For the 2002 revival, Whammy! The All new Press Your Luck on GSN, and the 2006 Gameshow Marathon version of the classic game, the big board has been computerized.
[edit] Michael Larson
On one game of Press Your Luck 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 a VCR, Larson discovered that the presumed random patterns of the game board were not random; instead, they lit up in one of only five preset patterns. Larson identified two spaces on the gameboard where the Whammy would never appear and which always contained money plus a free spin, allowing him to increase his score and also retain control. Larson 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, Larson hit a Whammy on his first spin, but then spun 45 times without hitting a Whammy, earning a total of $110,237. His total was a record for a single appearance on a daytime network game show up to that time. (The 35th season premier of The Price is Right on September 18, 2006 has since broken this one-day record of winnings, see also American game show winnings records.) The Press Your Luck board's five patterns were changed on June 20, then changed again on July 31, and finally a brand new set of 32 patterns debuted on September 17. This was successful in foiling future attempts at replicating Larson's feat, as such a run was never repeated on the show.
The Larson game was so long that it was split into two half-hour episodes that aired on June 8 (Friday) and June 11 (Monday) of 1984, but it was not rebroadcast for nearly two decades after that, due to CBS' and Bill Carruthers' embarrassment over the incident.[verification needed] Game Show Network was finally allowed to air the show with un-aired footage in 2003 as part of a two-hour documentary about Larson, called Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal.
The show was re-broadcast in its entirety on GSN's 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time (#13), and the two episodes are now also included in GSN's normal schedule rotation.
[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 '$1500' 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.
Being in third place with no spins is unquestionably the worst place to be, because neither of these basic strategies works. In this position, only one strategy is 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.
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! does not feature returning champions, in that version it is sometimes correct to risk losing the game in order to win more. In classic PYL, winning the game is the primary goal. For example, in Whammy!, if you're ahead $5,000 to $500 with 1 spin left, you probably should spin again to increase your winnings. In classic PYL, this is a clearcut pass, because your opponent is unlikely to be able to get $4,500 in one spin. (Only 1 square, plus maybe a prize or two, out of 18 squares offer a chance to get that much, mainly offering a bonus spin.) Even though you only win $5,000, the right to return the next day is valuable.
[edit] Episode Status
All episodes of PYL are known to still exist. The 1983 pilot exists among traders, all regular episodes of PYL (except for the Larson episodes) have been seen on USA Network, but not entirely on GSN as they don't have the rights to September 19, 1983-February 20, 1984, and November 18, 1985-September 26, 1986 shows (including the Giant Home Player Spin from November 22, 1985) just yet. They only have the rights to February 21, 1984-November 15, 1985 currently.
[edit] Notable contestants
- Scott Hostetler - Cried out, "Hong Kong! All right!" when he landed on the space in a November 1983 episode, immortalized in a highlight reel. He also became the first player to pass a spin while in last place.
- Michael Hanes - He was one of the first contestants to use the "Big Bucks, No Whammies" chant, and he made the comment "If I'm going to die, I feel like I'd better kill myself. I'm gonna press my luck." He subsequently hit $1500.
- 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.
- Jenny Jones, who won $18,706 over the course of three episodes. She made a sarcastic remark when she hit PICK A CORNER and had a Whammy as one of the options.
- Jim Hess (known for swearing at some times when he whammied; the faintly-heard swearing has never been censored, including the inappropriate language when he whammied to lose the game)
- "Crazy" Gene Snyder, who went ballistic after winning and started pointing at everything in the studio.
- Michele Erikson - famous for nailing competitors with Whammies at the end of games by using passed spins; her run spanned five episodes. Peter dubbed her the "Mistress of the Pass" by her fourth episode (which aired immediately following College Week). The spell was broken by the end of her fifth and final episode when she lost to a competitor who finally managed to avoid the Whammy with the spins she passed to him.
- Michael Larson (for obvious reasons; see above)
- Steve Bryant(former Houston Oiler known for saying during spins, "NO WHAMMIES!" Putting a very large emphasis on 'whammies' to an almost intolerable tone.)
- Karen Martin (known by PYL fans as "Krazy Karen" for her hyper-activeness during the games she appeared on, during one spin, called out a "Pool Table for Dan", and promptly hitting on the square containing the prize - only to whammy it away later in her turn. Both scenes were prominently shown at the start of many Press Your Luck episodes in the future.) Karen also screamed "I GOTTA GO! I GOTTA GO! CUZ I NEED BIIIG BUUCKS! BIG BUCKS! BIG BUCKS! STOP!! (and landed on a whammy.) Karen shouted in losing pain "OOOOOOOOOHHHHH!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!" (And calming her voice down to catch a breather.) "Oh my god!"
- Mike Horton (also known as Gemini on American Gladiators)
- 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)
- Cathy Singer (lost $31,408 at the end of a legendary spin battle with fellow contestant Lori; this is the single highest dollar amount ever lost to the Whammy. The final spin in that battle was part of the trivia question for the Gameshow Marathon home game for that episode.)
- Scott (last name needed) - antagonized the audience and smugly referred to whammies as "red monsters". When he was at the board, the audience was chanting "WHAMMY! WHAMMY!". He was booed for winning his first game, but was defeated on his second.
- Mark Miller - The first champion of the neon era. He was playing against the house when all the slides blew (his competitors had already Whammied out, and he had three Whammies himself when the slides blew). After this disaster, he spun one more time and hit a trip to Mazatlan. The finish of his final episode is featured in intro clips.
- Maxine Parks - During contestant introductions, she committed a faux pas of the first order. She commented that she was happy to be on "The Price Is - uh I mean Press Your Luck!" For referencing The Price Is Right she was booed, and Peter asked her, "Do I look like Bob Barker to you?" But she redeemed herself by winning the game (competitor Mark Miller whammied on the last spin of the game to give Maxine the win, as shown in latter-day opening clips).
- Joe Derry - A champion in early 1986 (his episodes have not been seen on GSN as of yet). He was best remembered as being responsible for the show's second 0-0-0 tie (although Tomarken claimed at game's end that it was the first; apparently he forgot all about the 0-0-0 tie after Thanksgiving 1984) because he passed the last spin of the game to the last competitor with money, and the final spin landed on the Whammy.
[edit] Versions outside the USA
- 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.
- Taiwan also had a version of Press Your Luck without animated whammies.
- Turkey has a version of Press Your Luck as well.
- Great Britain ran the US version of Press Your Luck on Sky One in the mid nineties.
[edit] Trivia
- One of the show's many running gags was the "Flokati Rug", a prize offered in the first round of many episodes. Although one of the lowest-valued prizes ever offered (only $350), the Flokati rug appeared to carry a "curse" to whoever landed on it; that contestant, it seemed, would invariably lose the game, or (if he or she did win) would hit a Whammy before being able to claim the prize and thus find out what a "Flokati" rug was supposed to be. It wasn't long before Peter started making jokes about it during the show, including one time where he brought out a white wig at the end of the show. He called it a "Flokati Rug", and then proceeded to place said wig on his head, eliciting laughter from the audience. Even though it was eventually won by a few contestants, the Flokati rug remains one of the unofficial "symbols" of Press Your Luck to many fans. It was mentioned in an animated skit featuring the Whammies sitting around a boardroom table. The chief whammy says angrily into a telephone: "That's seven cars, four jetskis, and a Flokati rug, YOU figure out where to put 'em!" The Flokati Rug returned in the Gameshow Marathon version of PYL (where, interesting enough, a contestant hit the rug and then later hit a Whammy). The rug also appeared in the episode where the show topped $6,000,000 in money won in 1985, and was awarded to the contestant who won the game to put the show over the magic number. Tomarken joked about the name "Flokati", which he said roughly translated was "get naked and lie down on me."
- Rod Roddy would go on to announce the show that became the prime job of his career, The Price Is Right, after the death of original announcer Johnny Olson in 1985. For the remainder of the third and final season, Roddy served as the announcer on both PYL and Price.
- PYL was the last show programmed by one of the historic major networks in the 4 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Central timeslot. For some years, numerous affiliates (possibly more than half), especially in larger markets, had been preempting the network's offerings at that time of day in favor of more lucrative syndicated programming, and CBS simply decided to give in by September 1986, becoming the last network to discontinue feeding a program to its stations at 4/3, something ABC did in December 1984 and NBC did even earlier, in March 1979.
- Near the end of its run, 3 contestants ended the game with $0 money, which it happened only twice, and all came back as a result.
- In another game, all three contestants were invited back due to an error in a question which may have affected the game considerably. One of the questions in this particular game was "Which cartoon character uses the phrase 'Sufferin' Succotash?'" According to host Peter Tomarken's answer card, the correct response was "Daffy Duck," and in good faith declared the answer as such. Somehow, word got to Mel Blanc, the famed voice actor, who played both Daffy Duck and the correct answer, Sylvester the Cat, and he called the studio just as the taping for that particular episode was finishing. Viewers saw Tomarken recieve the call during an extended end credits sequence (extended because the circumstances of the wrong answer put a quick end to the game) and after talking with Blanc, as well as Sylvester, Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzales, vowed that due to the error in the question, all three contestants would be allowed back on the show with a clean slate. [2] Interesting enough, however, Daffy was known to have said the quote on a few occasions (such as in Skyscraper Caper), but it was the Sylvester character that originated the phrase.
- The show's closing theme did not play continuously during the credit roll sometimes due to length of time remaining following the game. During these times, when the closing theme ended, the opening theme would begin again from the second stanza on until fade to black.
[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. Today the game is available on interactive DVD by imaginationgames.com.
[edit] References
- ^ PYL Board Configurations:PYL Light Patterns. Retrieved on August 19, 2006.
[edit] External links
- GSF-The website for Game Show Facts, ultimate PYL/Whammy! Page
- GSN website
- Press Your Luck board configurations - also contains the full listing of the light patterns used before and after the Larson incident
- Download Press Your Luck to play on your home PC
- Another download site (based on the above download but truer to the show and still being updated)
- Download Press Your Luck from the Game Show Warehouse
- Download Press Your Luck Control from Dan Rushe
- Game Show Central
- Press Your Luck Madness
- Company that releases classic game shows on DVD
- 80's TV Theme Supersite Gameshow Page (Where both the opening and closing themes are avaliable for download. Requires RealPlayer.)
