Press Your Luck

infobox television
show_name = Press Your Luck


caption = The "Press Your Luck" intro board, circa 1984
format = Game show
runtime = 30 minutes
creator = Bill Carruthers, Jan McCormack
starring = Peter Tomarken (host)
Rod Roddy (announcer)
country = USA
network = CBS
first_aired = September 19, 1983
last_aired = September 26, 1986
audio_format = Stereo
num_episodes = 757
preceded_by = Second Chance (1977)
followed_by = Whammy! (2002/2003)
imdb_id = 0136655

"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. Peter Tomarken was the show's host, and Rod Roddy was the announcer (although John Harlan and Charlie O'Donnell filled in).

The show was memorable for the "Whammy", a red cartoon creature 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, Tomarken would read a "Whammy poem", sent in by a home viewer. "Whammy poems" would also appear after the first round of the Big Board or after the second question round before going to commercial on occasion.

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.

Broadcast history

"Press Your Luck"'s history dated back to the 1977 ABC game 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" mostly edged out 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 Summer 1985, when "Sale of the Century" had gained the upper hand in the Nielsen Ratings. Beginning on January 6, 1986, CBS relocated "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 "PYL" finale had 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 from February-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.

Objective

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.

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 allowing one player to possibly earn 15 spins and all three could collectively earn 25. This was the only rule change between the pilot and the televised show. In 2002, the number of questions asked on the revival, Whammy!, increased to five.

Big Board

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 (sometimes parodying pop culture icons of the times, as in the "Michael Jackson - Billie Jean" whammy or the "Boy George - Who Would Ever Hurt A Whammy" ((read: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me)) whammy, both of which were favorites of home viewers) and a Whammy marker would then pop up out of the player's podium. A player receiving their 4th Whammy would be eliminated from the game, unable to receive passed spins and ineligible to return even if the other players tied with $0 at the end of the game.

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.

Special spaces on the Big Board

The Press Your Luck game board did not exclusively contain cash, prizes, and Whammies. A number of other special spaces filled up the game board, adding to a player's score, giving a player additional spins, sending a player's spinner somewhere else on the board, and/or giving the player a decision to make.

Extra spins

Some special spaces 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. In the interest of an exciting finish, more of these spaces appeared in the second Big Board round than the first one.

Directional squares

Directional squares sent a player's spinner to another square on the Big Board after they stopped the board's rotation. The player won the contents of the destination square as if they had landed on it in the first place. With the exception of Pick A Corner, a player could never hit a Whammy as a result of a directional square. Directional squares included:

* Go Back Two Spaces - Moved a player's spinner "back" two spaces, moving it two spaces counterclockwise.
* Advance Two Spaces - "Advanced" a player's spinner two spaces, moving it two spaces clockwise.
* Move One Space - Allowed the player to choose between the two spaces immediately adjacent to the Move One Space.
* Across The Board - Moved the player's spinner "across the board" to the space in the same position on the other side of the board. Appeared in February 1986, and stayed for the remainder of the show's run.
* Pick A Corner - Only appeared in the upper-right hand corner of the board, allowing the player to pick from the contents of the other three corners. At least one of the three choices was usually illogical (such as a Whammy or a cash value worth less than another cash value), no matter how the board configuration was changed throughout the show's run. Appeared from March 1984 through July 1986.

Double Your $$ (+ ONE SPIN)

Beginning in March 1984, the second round had a special "Double Your $$" space, and hitting it gave the contestant cash equal to their current score. If a player hit it while their score was $0, they gained nothing and still used up their spin; even though it never happened, the problem was soon corrected by changing the space 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.

$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. It briefly went on hiatus during the third installment of the Home Player Spin in the Fall of 1985 and was replaced by a $500+Spin space. It returned a darker shade of red late November 1985 after the Home Player Sweepstakes ended.

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 prize slide.

Big Bucks

Both rounds featured a "Big Bucks" space. When hit, it moved the spinner to the space directly across the board from it, which always contained the highest cash awards in the round. In the first round, it contained $1,000, $1,250 or $1,500 (replaced $750 from the November 2, 1983 episode on). In the second round, it contained $3,000, $4,000, or $5,000 (all + 1 Spin). This space inspired "Press Your Luck"'s contestants' "battle cry" of "Big Bucks, no Whammies!"

Elimination

If a contestant had a total of four Whammys 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 eliminated 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 most situations such as these, the surviving player would terminate the game early, without using the remaining spins.

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.)

Inner workings of the Big Board

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, and "Whammy" only appeared in 9 of the 18 tiles on the board (8 in Round Two for about 2 months in the winter of '83-'84).

The flaw of the spinner patterns was exploited to great effect by Michael Larson. The original five spinner patterns are below, and changed unexpectedly during a spinning, but Michael followed the changed spinner pattern before pressing his button.

Michael had the chance to find the timing of pressing action during first Big Board Round, and adjusted the timing to land on certain squares at second Big Board Round, both of which not only never contained a Whammy, but always carried money with an extra spin regardless of the tile shuffling during spinning. ["Beat Takeshi presents; Kiseki-Taiken Unbelievable", August 7, 2008 by Fuji Television(JOCX-TV), JAPAN] (The 4's and 8's in parentheses were Michael's specific targets in each of the patterns. It is unknown why he never chose to stop the board when pattern B was in effect.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Episode status

All episodes of "PYL" reportedly exist and were purchased by FremantleMedia, who also owns the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman library and the Reg Grundy library. Fremantle will also handle any future version of "PYL", as they did with "Whammy!" from 2002-2003. Reruns continue to air on GSN.

Prior to airing by GSN in 2003, the Michael Larson episodes had 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.

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 as well". He appeared in the second week of the show's run, and was also the first person to ever win a car. After his sting, West became a game show announcer.
*Michael "Myke" Horton, who would later be known as the "American Gladiators" "Gemini" Fact|date=October 2008
*Jenny Jones, who won $18,706 over the course of three episodes in 1985.
*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 - appearing on pilot and appeared on "Second Chance"'s pilot, he was notable for being on many game show pilots.
*Karen Martin - A former "Family Feud" contestant who won $14,405 on "Press Your Luck". She was always screaming to "get rich" and telling the Whammies to "drop dead." On one spin, after hollering that she needed "a pool table for (her husband) Dan," she landed on the prize, the first time anyone called out a particular prize and landed on it immediately (according to Tomarken). She eventually Whammied out of the game on her last spin. Tomarken 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 [ [http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BryaSt00.htm Steve Bryant Statistics - Pro-Football-Reference.com ] ] 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 yelled for a long period of time). He was a two-day champion, winning over $16,000.

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 which lasted until 2006.

Although CBS investigated Larson, they determined that figuring out the patterns was not cheating and let him keep his winnings. The board was redesigned and refitted with projectors that allowed for dramatically more patterns to prevent another player from ever being able to memorize the board like Larson did.

Later, in 1994, TV Guide magazine interviewed Michael Larson and revealed the background of this episode including his decision to pass his remaining spins after he lost concentration and missed to get the target tiles. ["THE DAY THE GAME SHOW GOT WHAMMIED", TV Guide, Nov.1994]

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 Sky1 in the mid nineties.:*The UK also had its own short-lived version around that time with Paul Coia as host, but it was only broadcast in the HTV West ITV region. [http://www.ukgameshows.com/page/index.php/Press_Your_Luck]

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.

DVD game

In 2006, Imagination Entertainment released a DVD TV game of "Press Your Luck". Todd Newton is the host and Peter Kent is the announcer. The DVD game includes three question rounds and three Big Board rounds.

Handheld electronic game

A handheld electronic game of "Press Your Luck" was released in 2008. [ http://www.amazon.com/iToys-Press-Your-Luck-Handheld/dp/B00170LRFE/ref=pd_sbs_t_1]

References

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136655 Press Your Luck] on the Internet Movie Database