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Press Your Luck

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Press Your Luck
File:PYLlogo.jpg
Created byBill Carruthers, Jan McCormack
StarringPeter Tomarken (host), Rod Roddy (announcer)
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes758
Production
Running time30 minutes per episode
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseSeptember 19, 1983 –
September 26, 1986

Press Your Luck was a popular 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. Throughout the show's run, approximately 60 different animations were used.

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. CBS gave that time slot back to its local affiliates after canceling the show (several affiliates were already preempting the 4 p.m. hour with syndicated programming anyway by that point). Reruns of Press Your Luck aired on the USA Network from 1987 to 1995 and on GSN since 2001, although GSN only airs a subset of the episodes from 1984, and some episodes from 1985. GSN is questionable on airing the 1983 and 1986 episodes.

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 brought 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.

In 2006 Press Your Luck was among the seven game shows that made up Gameshow Marathon, which airs 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. In that episode, Kathy Najimy won the game.

Republic Pictures originally syndicated Press Your Luck for USA Network. Today, all the rights for Press Your Luck are currently owned by FremantleMedia.

The game

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 Three contestants competed on each episode of Press Your Luck. An episode consisted of two games. Each game had a question round followed by the "Big Board" round.

The Question Round

The question round involved four questions. Contestants could buzz-in, and if they got the answer right on the buzz-in, they earned three spins. The other two contestants could answer using multiple choice (the first contestant's answer plus two others being offered) and, if right, earn one spin. In case no one buzzed in, Tomarken gave three possible answers, and all contestants who answered correctly earned one spin each. Up to 20 spins could be earned per question session among all three players, the maximum an individual player could earn being 12.

The Big Board round

File:Pressyourluckboard.jpg
Press Your Luck Board

Contestants now used spins earned in the question session on the "Big Board," which consisted of 18 windows (each containing 3 slide projectors, for a total of 54 possible spaces, the pilot episode had 4 slide projectors, but each square had 2 identical slides) arranged inside the perimeter of a 6x5 unit rectangle. In the first round, the contestants took their spins in inverse order of the number of spins they had earned answering questions; if two contestants earned the same number of spins, the player seated further on the left from Tomarken's podium would spin first. In the second round, contestants took their spins in inverse order of the amount of money they had earned in the first round. Contestants used their buzzers to stop the board.

The contents of the spaces on the "Big Board" changed every few seconds (alternating among the three possibilities per square), as well as the highlighted square (which bounced around as well). Most game spaces contain either money, a prize (the dollar amount of which would accrue to the contestant's score), or a Whammy (which causes the contestant to lose all cash and prizes).

Contestants were able to pass their spins to another contestant in the hope that the other contestant would hit a Whammy and lose their money. When passed, the spins went to the opponent of the two with the higher dollar score; if both opponents had the same score the passer could choose which opponent to which the spins would be passed. Spins passed to another player had to be taken, and thus it was an advantage to pass spins to the lead player in the hopes that they would Whammy. If the player which received the spins did hit the Whammy and lose all their money, then any remaining passed spins were moved to the earned column. If a player with passed spins landed on a square giving an extra spin, that spin was added to the earned spins.

Special spaces on the Big Board

Some special spaces had a money amount '+ 1 Spin' (meaning, the spin being used wasn't lost), and others worked as 'go back/advance two spaces', 'move one space' (to either side, which the contestant would then choose) or 'pick a corner'. One space, added about midway through the show's run, was known as "Add-A-One." This space—which appeared in the first spinning round only—would place a "1" in front of the contestant's pre-existing total (that is, $0 became $10, but $1,000 became $11,000). The second round had a space marked "Double Your Money," and hitting it did just that; to solve the problem created by contestants landing on this space when they had no money at all, this was changed to "Double Your Money + 1 Spin." In 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).

In addition, both rounds featured a space bearing the legendary "Big Bucks." 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 first few episodes), $1,000, $1,250 or $1,500 (replaced $750 from November 1983 on), and in the second round it would be either $3,000 + 1 Spin, $4,000 + 1 Spin, or $5,000 + 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 some variant thereof.

The first round's spinning portion had far fewer spaces which provided money plus an additional spin, and money amounts ranged from $100 + 1 Spin up to $1500. Indeed, the principal purpose of the first round was to determine the sequence in which the contestants would take their spins in the second round, which was in the reverse order of the money they had won in the first round (in other words, the player who emerged from the first round with the highest money score was the last to spin in the second round). The second spinning round in the show was the one watched most closely, where dollar amounts ranged from $500 to $5000 + 1 Spin—and sometimes prizes valued more than $5000, such as cars or African safari vacations.

How a champion was determined

The winner of the game was the contestant with the most money after the last spin of the second round was taken.

Four Whammies sustained by the same player eliminated that player from the game permanently (and often, special animation skits were pressed into service in situations where the Whammy in question was the contestant's fourth). In some shows, a player was determined the winner by default if both opponents suffered four Whammies; when this scenario arose and the surviving player had any spins remaining, the winner was permitted to spin "against the house" and stop spinning at any time, at which point the game ended as there would be no other players left in the game to pass the spins to.

The winner of each game returned on the next episode, but for the show's first year, returning champions who won over $25,000 would retire undefeated; 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, the limit that contestants could keep was $75,000 after the Michael Larson episodes.) In the fall of 1984, this limit was raised to $50,000. There were a few contestants that reached this limit at that time. There was one occasion in 1986 where one contestant won $62,708 after just 3 wins, and one occasion on a Christmas 1984 episode where a contestant won $61,316 after 4 wins. Otherwise, there was a five-day maximum limit on returning champions (similar to the format used on Jeopardy! until 2002).

In the event of a tie for first place at the end of the game (usually with $0 amounts), both contestants who tied were permitted to return on the next show (all three if there was a three-way tie). However, if two players had $0 and the third had four Whammies, the player who had been eliminated would not return (The same would apply if one player had $0, and the other 2 contestants whammied out).

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. It was later proven by one particular contestant that the spinner was indeed not random, but followed a series of pre-programmed patterns. Before this contestant made his appearance, there were 5 preprogrammed spinner patterns.

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. 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. 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. 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.

On the August 23, 1985 episode, the slides "blew"; all that is known at the time of this writing is that they were damaged beyond repair and were fixed by September 2.

Michael Larson

File:Michael Larson 110237.jpg
Michael Larson's amazing total

On one episode 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 5 preset patterns. Larson identified two spaces on the gameboard where the Whammy would never appear and which always contained money plus a free spin, which would allow 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 episode in which he appeared, Larson spun 35 times without hitting a Whammy and took away $110,237 in cash and prizes, most of which was earned via "cash plus a spin" spaces (thus allowing him to take many consecutive spins). His total was a record for a single appearance on a game show up to that time. The Press Your Luck board's five patterns were changed on June 20 and then 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.

one of the patterns that Michael Larson memorized to win over $110,000

The Larson episode was split into two half-hours that aired on June 8 (Friday) and June 11 (Monday) of 1984, but it was not rebroadcast for nearly two decades after that. Game Show Network (which had purchased the rights to air Press Your Luck with the stipulation that the Larson episode could not be aired, reason being that Bill Carruthers and CBS thought of the episode as an embarrassing moment) 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 Larson shows are now a part of the channel's regular episode rotation. Highlights of his performance are available online in RealVideo format.

It should be noted that the episodes did not air on USA Network when they had the rerun rights to Press Your Luck, due to the same stipulation by which GSN was bound.

This set of episodes marks the first time a game show carried a "To Be Continued...." line during a 2-parter. At the end of the first part when Michael Larson stopped at $36,851, the tape was paused and Peter came out to face the home audience, as if he was stepping over from his hosting position (in reality he was standing in front of a bluescreen, on which the paused tape was seen in a Chroma key effect). At the beginning of the second episode, the tape was paused in the same position, and Peter was again in front of the bluescreen. He gave a quick recap of what happened and started the show right where it left off from Friday, June 8, 1984. Before each commercial break of the second episode, Peter gave a brief narration and the TV View freezes. The cameras focused on a stock shot of the Big Board, and not the contestants (as would have been standard), during the credits at the end of the first episode.

Michael's two opponents that day, Ed Long and Janie Litras-Dakan, did get a rematch, of sorts—nineteen years later, and this time against Michael's brother, James, on a special episode of the GSN revival Whammy!. (Michael himself had died, in 1999.) This time, however, the board was random, making it impossible to figure out any patterns. James won the rematch, to which host Todd Newton replied "That Larson magic continues!" Peter Tomarken returned to host the question round of this episode.

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 allows returning champions, allows 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:

  • Trust to 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" 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
  • 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 $5000 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 $4500 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 $5000, the right to return the next day is valuable.

Notable contestants

  • Randy West
  • Jenny Jones
  • Jim Hess (known for swearing at some times when he whammied; neither CBS, USA, nor GSN have censored the faintly-heard swearing, including the inappropriate languages when he whammied to lose the game)
  • "Crazy" Gene Snyder
  • Michael Larson
  • Steve Bryant (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", 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)
  • 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)

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.
  • In Germany, the show was called Drück Dein Glück and its presenter was Guido Kellerman. It ran 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.
  • Mexico will have a version of Press Your Luck as well some time in 2006 that will air on Univision a week after it premieres in Mexico.

Trivia

  • Roddy would go on to announce for a second show, The Price is Right, when original announcer Johnny Olson died in 1985. For the remainder of the third (and final) season of Press Your Luck, Roddy was the announcer of both shows.
  • The PYL episode of Gameshow Marathon 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.
  • The pilot was basically the same as the aired version with a few changes: A stencilized logo, cash slides colors were only in shades of blue and green, a slower board, one pattern was used in the intro of the show, and maybe round one and two, different theme song, five questions were asked (a possible 15 spins could be earned, something which would be used in the one question round of the 2002 successor), and only one Whammy animation was used (the Whammy jumping up and down, then running across the screen above the score display, beating it senseless with a mallet). And the whammy slides were almost random.
  • Two of the contestants on the pilot of this show, Maggie Brown and Jack Campion, had also been contestants on the pilot for Second Chance, the predecessor to Press Your Luck. Brown would become a champion on the regular show later in the run and would win on Tomarken's Wipeout several years after that. Campion appeared on several other game show pilots: Alex Trebek's Jeopardy!, the NBC version of Card Sharks, Blank Check, etc.
  • Before becoming a successful stand-up comedy champion on Star Search and a talk show hostess, Jenny Jones was a contestant on the show in late January 1985. She won $18,706 over the course of three episodes. Her first time on the show resulted in a win when Terry Walker passed a spin to the leader Nancy, who hit a Whammy at the end of the game, making Jenny the champion.
  • On February 26, 1985, a contestant named Jim Hess did fairly well in round 1, until the Whammy came and messed things up. After hitting his second whammy, he passed his spins to the would-be champion on this episode, Pamela Flawn. However, since Pamela still had some earned spins, she passed the spins back to Jim, and he hit a whammy, prompting him to utter a profanity under his breath after his third whammy. By the end of the game, Jim racked up a total of $7,734 to Pamela's $7,278. However, the returning champion on this episode, Sam Kehoe, passed his remaining spin to Jim. On the ensuing spin, Jim promptly screamed "No whammies, stop!" However, Jim was not so lucky, and when he hit the whammy, he could be heard spouting profanities as the foghorn which sounded after the Whammy was hit sounded. Pamela won the game with $7,278 instead. The Carruthers Company (which produced the show) did not edit out his swearing, so while watching the episode, he can be heard faintly cursing while Tomarken made the call of the Whammy being hit.
  • In another 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. [1]
  • 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.)
  • Tomarken's children made an appearance in an episode once.
  • 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, and (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. The Flokati Rug is mentioned on one of the PYL shorts from USA Network's syndication run of Press Your Luck. The Flokati Rug returned in the Gameshow Marathon version of PYL. Kathy Najimy landed on the Flokati Rug, now valued at $1799... and promptly Whammied the rug away three spins later. As for the '80s Rug, it was awarded to the contestant whose total winnings caused the show to top $6 million in total winnings.
  • The animated Whammies were created and animated by Savage Steve Holland and Bill Kopp, and voiced by either Kopp or the show's executive producer/part-time director, Bill Carruthers. Chris Darley also directed the show as well.
  • If a contestant got two Whammies during the first round, Tomarken frequently warned to "be careful about picking up a third Whammy for Round Two."
  • The Whammy was not alone in his mission to steal away the contestants' money. He had a supposed girlfriend, Tammy Whamette (although at one point Peter assured viewers that things between Tammy and the Whammy were "strictly professional"), and a yellow dog named Fang, both of whom made frequent appearances in the short animations that would appear when an unlucky contestant hit a Whammy.
  • Other Whammies were based on rock stars Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, The Beatles, Boy George and Madonna.
  • During Press Your Luck's first year or so in reruns on USA, an episode would occasionally run short of its allotted time. To make up the difference, a short animated film was made and shown after the credits, but before the logo of the show's original syndicator (Republic Pictures). A transcript of this brief cartoon follows:
(The setting is a corporate boardroom full of Whammies seated around a meeting table. One of them, the Chief Whammy, is on the phone.)
Chief Whammy: That's seven cars, four jet-skis, and a Flokati rug—you figure out where to put 'em!
(He hangs up.)
Whammies: (in unison) Morning, Chief!
Chief Whammy: Did you hear that? I'm having this meeting today because we have a very serious problem. We've been taking too much money and prizes from these poor contestants!
(Other Whammies groan.)'
Chief Whammy: No, no, no! I'm getting nothing but complaints! Our bank accounts are stuffed, and our warehouses are full of prizes! Any suggestions?
Whammies: (in unison) BIGGER WAREHOUSES!
Chief Whammy: You guys are goin' crazy! Takin' all that money! Runnin' around with those big prizes! Singin'! Dancin'! Makin' fun of everybody! And I hate to say it—oh, do I—but some of you boys are gonna have to go!
Whammies: (in unison) Oh, no! Not that!
Chief Whammy: Wait a minute, wait a minute—I mean, go on vacation!
Whammies: (in unison) VACATION? YIPEE!
Chief Whammy: All right, all right. Half you guys pack your bags. The rest of us will keep taking the big bucks. Oh, by the way. Where do you guys wanna go?
Whammies: Fort Knox! Las Vegas! Monaco! Let's get outta here!
  • At the end of many episodes, Peter would read a "Whammy poem," sent in by a home viewer; similar to the traditional poems viewers sent to NBC on Card Sharks.
  • Although there was no consequence for buzzing in on a question while Peter was still reading the question, there was an instance where a player buzzed in in the middle of a question then later regretted it (actual date this occurred isn't confirmed). Peter read a question about the TV show Bonanza, but didn't say the name of the show. During the reading of the question, the female player buzzed in, thinking that Peter was going to ask what the name of the show was, and said "Bonanza". Peter responded by reading the rest of the question, which was, "what were the family's last name?" The contestant responded by a groan and hung her head. This type of situation has also happened on other episodes, including the Michael Larson episode.
  • A female contestant one time buzzed in accidentally asking for the multiple choice answers, Peter said that it is against game rules to do so and they must give an answer before having the choices read to them. Peter disqualified her for the question.
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