Press Your Luck

Press Your Luck
File:Press Your Luck.gif
Created by	Bill Carruthers Jan McCormack
Directed by	Bill Carruthers Rick Stern
Presented by	Peter Tomarken
Narrated by	Rod Roddy
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	758 (1 unaired)
Production
Executive producer	Bill Carruthers
Producer	Bill Mitchell
Production locations	CBS Television City Hollywood, California
Running time	22 minutes
Production company	The Carruthers Company
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 19, 1983 (1983-09-19) – September 26, 1986 (1986-09-26)

Press Your Luck is an American television daytime game show created by Bill Carruthers and Jan McCormack. It premiered on September 19, 1983, on CBS and ended on September 26, 1986. In the show, contestants collected "spins" by answering trivia questions and then used the spins on an 18-space game board to win 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 primary announcer. John Harlan and Charlie O'Donnell filled in as substitute announcers for Roddy on different occasions.

The show was known for the "Whammy" – a red cartoon creature wearing a cape. Landing on any of 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 Whammies were created and animated by Savage Steve Holland and Bill Kopp and voiced by Carruthers. Approximately 80 different animations were used. Press Your Luck was videotaped before a studio audience at CBS Television City, in Studios 33 and 43 in Hollywood, California.

Gameplay

File:PYL Pilot Set.jpg

Jack Campion, Maggie Brown and Matt Dorf prepare for the first question round on the Press Your Luck pilot in May 1983.

On Press Your Luck, three contestants competed for cash and prizes, with the objective being to accumulate the highest money total. Each episode consists of four rounds:  a question round, a Big Board round, a second question round, and then a second Big Board round with higher money amounts and prize values.

Question round

In each question round, the host reads four trivia questions. The first contestant to buzz-in gives an answer. The host finishes the question if necessary, then gives three possible answers (including the buzzed-in answer if one was given). Each contestant who did not buzz-in then chooses from these choices (although if a contestant buzzed-in and failed to give an answer at all, they would be ineligible to choose). A correct buzz-in answer earns three spins for use in the Big Board round, while a correct multiple-choice selection earns one spin.

Big Board round

In the Big Board round, contestants use their spins to win cash and prizes on the "Big Board". The board consists of eighteen spaces, each of which can display three possible items. Nine of these spaces include the Whammy.

In the first Big Board round, the contestant with the fewest spins plays first. In the second round, the contestant with the lowest score plays first. In the case of a tie for fewest spins (round 1 or 2) or lowest score (round 2), the contestant on the left plays first. Each contestant uses all of their spins in one turn. Before each spin, the contestant can choose to either "Press Their Luck" (play the board) or "Pass" (give all of his or her remaining earned spins to another contestant, forcing them to play). Spins are always passed to the opponent with the highest money total at that time. If both of the contestant's opponents have the same score, the passing contestant can choose the recipient.

If the contestant chooses to play, a lighted "spinner" begins moving around the board, while the individual squares on the board cycle through a series of items. Items include cash, spin bonuses, non-cash prizes, special squares and Whammies. The contestant must press a plunger to stop the board (and is also encouraged to yell "Stop!"), and is awarded the item within the square. Cash and prizes are awarded immediately (with the cash value of each prize counting toward the contestant's total, and a new prize replacing the old one in the same square). Spin bonuses are added to the contestant's earned spins (transferring over from passed spins if applicable).

Landing on a Whammy space results in the playing of one out of over 50 Whammy animations, chosen at random. Each short clip has the Whammy stealing or destroying the contestant's money in one way or another (sometimes spoofing then-current and classic pop culture icons, upcoming holidays, etc.). The contestant loses all of their winnings up to that point, and any remaining passed spins are converted into earned spins. If a contestant hits four Whammies, that contestant is eliminated from the game.

In the first Big Board round, prizes are relatively small, with cash amounts ranging from $100 to $1,500 and prizes typically worth no more than $2,000. However, for the first twenty-two shows in round one, the top money amount was $1,250. The second round features prizes of significantly higher value, with cash amounts from $500 to $5,000 and prizes potentially worth $6,000 or more. Some of these prizes included exotic vacations and compact cars.

Directional Squares

• Move One Space allows a contestant to choose between the contents of two adjacent squares, usually a high amount of cash versus a low amount of cash with a spin, or cash and a prize.
• Go Back Two Spaces, appearing in Square #6, and Big Bucks, appearing in Square #12, both directed the contestant to Square #4, which contained the top dollar values on the board.
• Pick A Corner, located in Square #6 in Round Two from March 1984–July 1986, gave the contestant the choice between the contents of the corner squares of #1, #10, and #15.
• Advance Two Spaces, located in Square #11, moved the contestant forward to the contents of Square #13.
• Across The Board, located in Square #17 in Round Two from February 1986 to the show's finale, took the contestant across the board to the contents of Square #8.

Other special squares

• Double Your $$ was a square in the second round that doubled the contestant's score. The amount added was all in cash. It was treated as a prize and replaced by a new prize when hit. This was later changed to Double Your $$ + ONE SPIN.
• $2,000 or Lose-1-Whammy gave the contestant the choice between $2,000 or removing a Whammy marker.
• Add-A-One was a square in the first round that added a one in front of the contestant's score (e.g., $100 became $1,100 and $1,000 became $11,000).

Squares with Whammies

• Each board consisted of nine Whammies*. Six were permanently placed in Squares 3, 5, 7, 9, 12 and 14. Two were rotated amongst Squares 11, 16, and 17. The remaining Whammy that was originally in Corner Square #1 was moved to Square #18 in February 1985 so that there would always be three logical choices (as opposed to two) should the "Pick A Corner" space be landed on.

*For a brief time in Season 1 (December 1983-January 1984), Round 2 boards had only eight Whammies

Elimination from the game

If a contestant hits a total of four Whammies at any point in the game (which usually happens during the second "Big Board" round), that contestant is automatically eliminated from the game. The contestant's remaining spins are lost and their scoreboards are turned off. Contestants who "Whammy out" in this way cannot return on the next show, even if all other contestants end with a score of $0.

On rare occasions, two contestants were eliminated from the same game while the surviving contestant still had spins to play. This player could choose to play their remaining spins "against the house" to earn additional cash and prizes, free to stop spinning at any time. At this point, the game would end and the contestant would be declared the winner. However, if he or she also "Whammied out", three new contestants would compete on the next show. No "last player standing" was ever eliminated in this manner. On all but one occasion, the player ended the game early. The one remaining time (in an episode which wasn't originally aired), the player successfully played out all his spins.

Although the Whammy animations were picked at random, one of three special "Fourth Whammy" animations would appear anytime a contestant was eliminated from the game beginning in the second season. One featured a Whammy in a baseball umpire's uniform announcing "You're out!", another featured a Whammy on a cruise ship bidding the contestant farewell in different languages, and the third featured a barbershop quartet singing the phrase "You're out!" in harmony.

Winning the game

The contestant with the highest money total at the end of the game is the champion, keeps his or her earnings and returns on the next show. In the event of a tie, each of the tied contestants gets to keep their winnings and return.

During the show's first season, any contestant who won over $25,000 would retire undefeated, with the full amount won in his or her appearances. This was due to a CBS policy, which set a winnings limit of $25,000 for its game shows at the time. The earnings cap was officially raised to $50,000 or 5 appearances, whichever comes first, on November 1, 1984, and any amount past $75,000 that was won could not be kept, though no contestant had reached past that amount since.

In the event of a tie for the win, all tying contestants returned. This applied even with a score of $0, which could occur when the player's last spin hit a Whammy. There have been two games where all three contestants won $0 and returned the next day. On both occasions, a player hit a Whammy a late spin and chose to pass to the only player with money remaining, desiring that player to end on a Whammy and invoke the tie rule. Other champions won their games with nothing after both of their opponents had been eliminated from the game.

Home Player Spin

During Press Your Luck's three-year run, the show had "Home Player Spins" for three months during sweeps periods, in May 14–June 8, 1984, January 21–February 15, 1985 and October 21–November 22, 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 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. The at-home player would receive whatever the contestant landed on, be it money or prize. However, 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. If the contestant hit a Whammy, the home player received a $500 consolation prize "courtesy of the Whammy." The home players associated with the contestants who did not take the Home Player Spin received a "No Whammys!" [sic] t-shirt.

At the close of the October–November 1985 contest, that episode's in-studio winner drew a card from a bowl containing the names of each of the 75 at-home participants featured over the five-week period. After drawing the name, the contestant took one spin on a modified board that showed only cash values and directional squares (no whammies, prizes, or squares that offered additional spins), with the value landed on multiplied by the total number of spins earned by the three contestants in the second question round. The contestant whose name was drawn received this bonus cash amount. 18 spins were earned in the second round and $2,000 was hit resulting in a $36,000 win.

Broadcast history

Peter Tomarken on the set of Press Your Luck for the 1983 pilot.

The format for Press Your Luck is similar to that of the 1977 ABC game show Second Chance, hosted by Jim Peck and also produced by the Carruthers Company. When the show was brought back to CBS, Peter Tomarken, who had just come off of a 13-week gig as the host of Hit Man on NBC, was tapped to be the host. A pilot was filmed in May 1983. Production on the actual series commenced four months later, on September 10, nine days before it was scheduled to premiere.

The show premiered on September 19, 1983 on CBS at 10:30 AM ET (9:30 CT/MT/PT), replacing Child's Play, and placing it between The New $25,000 Pyramid and The Price Is Right.

On January 6, 1986, CBS relocated Press Your Luck in order to make room for a Bob Eubanks-hosted revival of Card Sharks. Press Your Luck replaced Body Language in the network's 4:00 PM afternoon time slot. The last of episode aired on September 26, 1986, but it was not acknowledged as the finale. Following this, CBS returned the 4:00 PM timeslot to its affiliates.

During the latter part of the 1986-1987 season, 130 episodes of the show were sold to Republic Pictures for the purposes of syndicated reruns to a handful of local stations. These episodes originally aired on CBS from February 25, 1985 to August 23 of that same year, and were also the first to be shown on USA Network from 1987 to 1988.

On September 14, 1987, nearly one year after its cancellation, USA Network picked up Press Your Luck for its afternoon block of game show reruns. Press Your Luck remained on the schedule until October 13, 1995.

The series was later purchased by FremantleMedia, who also owns the Goodson-Todman and Reg Grundy libraries. Since then, the company has handled revivals and video game licences, such as with Whammy! and the 2009 video game.

GSN aired the show from September 1, 2001 to March 29, 2009. Over its eight years of repeats on GSN, the network only aired episodes from February 21, 1984 to November 15, 1985, with a few skips due to tape glitches. From 2001 to 2003, the Larson episodes were banned from airing on GSN until clips were incorporated in Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal – including footage not aired during the original CBS broadcast. Later, the episodes themselves aired on GSN.

GSN resumed airing the series on October 15, 2012, starting with the series premiere from September 19, 1983. As of now, the channel only leased the first 50 episodes.

On June 8, 2006, Press Your Luck was featured as the fourth round of Gameshow Marathon on CBS.

Notable contestants

Michael Larson

Main article: Michael Larson

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 spins without hitting a second one. The game ran for so long that CBS aired the episode in two parts June 8 and 11, 1984. In the end, Larson earned a total of $110,237 in cash and prizes, a record for the most money in cash and prizes won by a contestant in a single appearance on a daytime network game show. Although this record lasted until 2006 when Vickyann Chrobak-Sadowski won $147,517 in cash and prizes on the Season 35 premiere of The Price Is Right, it still remains the record for highest single-day winnings on a series with returning champions.

Although CBS investigated Larson, they determined that figuring out the patterns was not cheating and let him keep his winnings. The board was subsequently reprogrammed with up to 32 new patterns to help prevent another contestant from being able to memorize the board as Larson had.

Later, in 1994, TV Guide magazine interviewed Larson and revealed the background of this episode including his decision to pass his remaining spins after he lost concentration and missed his target squares.

Larson, through meticulous watching of the show, had figured out patterns to key off of the square next to the square in the upper left-hand corner of the board (which, in that he numbered the squares from the upper-left clockwise, was numbered "2") and that, several squares later, would end up either on a spot on the right side of the screen in which all three slides would contain smaller amounts of money plus a spin (numbered "8") or the spot in the top center of the screen (numbered "4") in which the "Big Bucks" (the largest amounts of money) plus a spin always resided. Not only would he not hit a Whammy if he landed on those two spins, but he would be guaranteed to continue gaining more spins as long as he desired.

The story, and this strategy, were told in a two-hour documentary on GSN titled Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal in March 2003. GSN also aired a special rematch edition of Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck, featuring the two runners-up from the show, host Tomarken and Michael Larson's brother James (Michael had died of throat cancer in 1999). It is GSN's highest-rated show of all time, the only program to exceed 1 million viewers in a single airing before The American Bible Challenge's premier in 2012.

In July 2010, Michael's brother James, and his former wife at the time of winning, were interviewed for PRI's This American Life for the episode Million Dollar Idea.

Others

Aside from Michael Larson, the show had other notable contestants. Among them were:

• Randy West: Game show announcer who appeared on Press Your Luck from September 29 to October 3, 1983. West later became an announcer for several game shows and filled in for Rod Roddy on The Price is Right during his illnesses and after his death in 2003. West was the first contestant in the show's history to land on and win a car and won a total of $25,742 in cash and prizes over the three episodes on which he appeared.
• Jenny Jones: Talk show hostess who won $18,706 over the course of three episodes from January 28 to 30, 1985.
• Michael "Myke" Horton: Appeared on the February 6, 1985 episode and lost the game. Horton later became "Gemini" on the original American Gladiators, and had played for the Washington Federals of the USFL in 1983.
• Steve Bryant: Member of the Houston Oilers football team when he won $16,655 on July 12, 15 and 16, 1985.
• Ralph Strangis: Later became play-by-play announcer for the Dallas Stars. On the May 28 and 29, 1984 episodes of Press Your Luck, Strangis won $7,431 in cash and prizes.
• Sam Schmidt: Won $16,350 over the course of three episodes between January 2 to 4, 1985. Went on to become an Indy Racing League driver before a testing accident paralyzed him and ended his driving career, later starting Sam Schmidt Motorsports, a successful Firestone Indy Lights championship-winning team, and the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation. Schmidt Motorsports has become a top IZOD IndyCar Series team, winning the 2011 Indianapolis 500 pole position in the Firestone Fast Nine, but was the hardest hit in the 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship tragedy.
• Dennis Haskins: Actor who played Principal Richard Belding on Saved By the Bell.

Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck

Main article: Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck

In 2002, a revival titled Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck (shortened to Whammy! in 2003) hosted by Todd Newton premiered on Game Show Network. New episodes initially aired through 2003, and reruns continue to air on GSN.

Several changes to the rules and aesthetics of the game were made. Three new contestants appeared on each episode with no returning champions, much less cash was available, the board was entirely computerized (as well as redesigned), and the first question round was eliminated. Additionally, "Big Bank" spaces were added to the board in season two, which placed an accumulating jackpot to a contestant's bank when that contestant landed on the space and answered a question correctly.

International versions

Country	Local Name	Host(s)	Channel	Year Aired
Australia	Second Chance	Earle Bailey and Christine Broadway	Network Ten	1977
	Press Your Luck	Ian Turpie	Seven Network	1987-1988
Germany	Glück am Drücker	Al Munteanu	RTLplus	1992-1993
	Drück Dein Glück	Guido Kellermann	RTL II	1999
Philippines	Whammy! Push Your Luck	Paolo Bediones and Rufa Mae Quinto	GMA Network	2007-2008
Taiwan	The Slugger Attack	Shen Chunhua(season 1) Sheng Chu as(seasons 1-3) Linda L. Lin(season 3) Bago(season 4-5) Yang Haiwei(season 4) Headlines(seasons 5-8) Sui Haw(6th season) Zhao Ning(7th season) Lee Mao Shan(8th season)	Taiwan Television	1985-1995
Turkey	Şansini Dene	Sürpriz Armağanlar	Kanal D	1994-1996
United Kingdom	Press Your Luck	Paul Coia	HTV West (ITV region)	1991-1992
United States	Second Chance	Jim Peck	ABC	March 7 to July 15, 1977
	Press Your Luck	Peter Tomarken	CBS	1983-1986
	Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck	Todd Newton	GSN	2002-2003

descriptions

Australia

The series was presented by Ian Turpie with John Deeks as announcer on Seven Network from 1987–1988. Grundy Worldwide packaged this version, with Bill Mason as executive producer. This version used the same Whammy animations as the original, as well as a similar set (a Grundy tradition); however, the Big Board used considerably lower dollar values. Prior to this, there was an Australian version of Second Chance that aired in 1977 on Network Ten hosted by Earle Bailey and Christine Broadway and also produced by Grundy.

Germany

A German version entitled Glück am Drücker ("On Luck Pusher") aired on RTLplus from 1992–1993 with Al Munteanu as the host. It had vultures instead of Whammies.

Another revival, Drück Dein Glück ("Push Your Luck"), aired daily in 1999 on RTL II with Guido Kellerman hosting. Instead of Whammies, a shark called Hainz "ate" the contestant's money. This version also had a unique rule where landing a car won the game automatically, regardless of the scores.

Philippines

GMA Network aired a version called Whammy! Push Your Luck from 2007–2008 hosted by Paolo Bediones and Rufa Mae Quinto,it uses the same (redubbed) Whammy animations as the 2000s updated American version.

Taiwan

A version called Slugger Attack aired on Taiwan Television from 1985–1995. it uses a naughty ghost instead of animated whammies. See also 強棒出擊.

Turkey

A Turkish version of PYL called Şansini Dene ("Try Your Luck") aired on Kanal D from 1994-1996, hosted by sürpriz armağanlar.

United Kingdom

A version ran for two series from June 6, 1991 to September 20, 1992 with Paul Coia as host, but only aired in the HTV West ITV region. The series was made on a small budget, using a point-based system with the day's winner receiving £200. This eliminated much of the excitement present in other versions, and declining ratings led to a switch from prime time to Saturday afternoons. When the show returned for a second series in 1992, it was moved to Sunday afternoons.

Home versions

Video Games

In 1988, GameTek released a home computer game of Press Your Luck for IBM PC compatibles and the Commodore 64. Ludia Inc. (now part of RTL Group, which owns the show franchise) and Ubisoft released an adaptation called Press Your Luck: 2010 Edition on October 27, 2009 for PC, iOS, Nintendo DS and Wii, and on the PS3's PSN download service on August 24, 2010.

DVD game

In 2006, Imagination Entertainment released a DVD TV game with Todd Newton hosting and Peter Kent announcing. The DVD game included three Question Rounds and three Big Board Rounds.

Handheld game

An electronic handheld game was released in 2008 by Irwin Toys.

Facebook Games

In January 2012, an app developed by Fremantle subsidiary Ludia and based on Press Your Luck debuted on Facebook. Ten players compete in a single-question round together, all answering the same multiple-choice questions. There are six questions in total, each worth between $500 and $1,000, or a Whammy. A correct answer earns the question's value multiplied by the number of players who answered incorrectly or ran out of time (e.g., answering the $500 question correctly with three other players answering incorrectly earns $1,500). Bonus cash is given to the three players who answer the questions correctly in the shortest amount of time. Answering the Whammy question incorrectly causes the player to lose any money accumulated to that point.

The top three players go on to the big-board round, with each getting five spins. Gameplay is similar as on the 1980s series.

In September 2012, Ludia released Press Your Luck Slots on Facebook.

External links

• Press Your Luck at IMDb (1983-1986) (US)
• Press Your Luck at IMDb (1987-1988) (Australia)
• short 1988 promo for Aussie PYL on the (Seven Network) with Ian Turpie (Australia)
• clip of Aussie PYL with Ian Turpie (Australia)
• Advertisment of the Turkish version of PYL, Şansini Dene (Turkey)
• TV Guide like listing for Şansini Dene (Turkey)
• Highlighted clips from "Glück am Drücker" (Germany)
• Full episode of "Glück am Drücker" from 1992 (Germany)
• description of the short-lived 1999 German revival of PYL, Drück Dein Glück courtesy of Grundy Light Entertainment (Germany)
• from it's original website (Germany)