Press Your Luck
The Press Your Luck intro board, circa 1984
Format	Game show
Created by	Bill Carruthers, Jan McCormack
Starring	Peter Tomarken (host), Rod Roddy (announcer), John Harlan, Charlie O'Donnell (sub announcers)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	757
Production
Running time	30 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	September 19, 1983 – September 26, 1986
External links
IMDb profile

Press Your Luck is an American television daytime game show originally broadcast on CBS from 1983 to 1986 where contestants collected "spins" by answering trivia questions, and then used the "spins" on an 18-space gameboard full of cash and prizes. The person who amassed the most in cash and prizes at the end of the game won.

The show was memorable for the "Whammy", a red cartoon creature of indeterminate species wearing a cape. The Whammy's spaces on the game board took away the contestant's money, accompanied by an animation that would show the Whammy taking the loot—but frequently being chased away, blown up, or otherwise humiliated in the process. The animated Whammies were created and animated by Savage Steve Holland and Bill Kopp, and voiced by 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 on occasion.

Broadcast History

Press Your Luck host, the late Peter Tomarken, with his various Whammy pals

The show's original incarnation was the short-lived show Second Chance, which aired on ABC for nineteen weeks from March-July 1977. Carruthers did some retooling and created Press Your Luck. A pilot was shot in Summer 1983 with Peter Tomarken, former host of the short-lived NBC show Hit Man, as emcee. CBS agreed to take the show after the success of the Tomarken pilot, which circulates among tape traders.

Press Your Luck ran from September 19, 1983, to September 26, 1986, on CBS. Peter Tomarken hosted, and Rod Roddy was the regular announcer. On rare occasions, either John Harlan or Charlie O'Donnell filled in.

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 with daytime viewers declining in general, Press Your Luck's numbers began to slip in 1985. In late 1985, CBS thought it could do better in the 10:30 slot at that time, but on January 6, 1986, it was moved to 4:00 p.m. EST (one of the last shows to air in this time slot on the major networks) to make room for Card Sharks, replacing Body Language. Only 47-55 percent of affiliated stations aired the show at this time; the rest opted for syndicated programs or local news. Ratings dropped significantly afterward, leading to major slashing of dollar values on the board in June 1986 and the show's ultimate cancellation that September. (CBS later gave up programming in the 4 p.m. timeslot altogether after the show's demise.)

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 all GSN is currently allowed to air are episodes from February 21, 1984 to November 15, 1985 (including Day 20 of the third Home Player Sweepstakes, which ran 25 days). GSN was also notable for airing the Michael Larson episodes (see below) for the first time in nearly 20 years; previously, they had not seen the light of day since their initial 1984 CBS airing (as CBS considered the event an embarrassment and refused to give permission to air the episodes).

On April 15, 2002, GSN debuted a new updated version of the series as Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck; Todd Newton hosted and Gary Kroeger was the announcer. The show was in production for two seasons. Peter Tomarken hosted a pilot of this version and the question round for a 2003 Michael 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.

Object of the Game

From left, Jack Campion, Maggie Brown, and Matt Dorf ready for the first question round on the Press Your Luck pilot in 1983

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 wins.

The Question Round

Each question round included four questions, read out loud by Tomarken. Any contestant could buzz in and answer the question, but was not immediately told if his or her answer was right. The other two contestants would then be allowed to guess the correct answer from three multiple choices (the buzz-in contestant's answer plus two alternative answers). If no contestant buzzed in, then Tomarken would read three multiple choice answers, and all three contestants would attempt to guess the correct answer. A correct buzz-in answer earned a contestant three spins for use in the Big Board round; multiple-choice was worth one spin. So a player could earn up to a maximum of twelve spins in a question round (by being the first to buzz in on all four questions, and answering all four correctly), and the maximum for all three would be 20. On the pilot, five questions were asked, and so one player could get 15 spins, and all three could get 25. This was the only rule change between the pilot and the televised show.

The sound effect "ding" to light up a spin was the same as the "ding" used on The Price is Right, Match Game, Now You See It and Child's Play. During the show's last few months, the "ding" was changed to another sound effect that would later be heard on Card Sharks sometime around 1987. During the pilot, the "ding" sound effect was the same sound used on $100,000 Pyramid.

The Big Board Round

Contestants now used their spins earned in the question round on the "Big Board," which consisted of 18 spaces, each of which could display three possible values. (Each possible value was displayed by a slide projector; the pilot episode had four slide projectors for each space, but two of those projectors displayed the same value.)

Contestants took turns taking their spins. Playing last was an advantage. In the first Big Board round, the order of contestants' play was determined by the number of spins they had earned in the question round; the contestant with the fewest spins played first, and the contestant with the most spins played last. (If two players, or all three players, had the same number of spins, the player seated farther to the left of Tomarken's podium would spin first.) In the second Big Board round, play order was determined by the contestants' scores in the first Big Board round; the contestant who ended that round with the lowest score played first, and the contestant with the highest score played last. (Ties were broken by seating position. On the 2002 revival, Whammy!, if two or all three players were tied, the player with the fewest spins went first; if they were tied for that as well, the player to host Todd Newton's left went first.)

The contents of each space on the "Big Board" changed just under once per second, alternating among the three possible values for each space. One space would be highlighted by lights; the highlight would jump from square to square several times per second. The contestant would press the red button in front of them to stop the board (and would usually yell "Stop!" as they did so). Usually, when the board stopped, the highlighted space would contain either money or a prize; that would be added to the contestant's score. (The score displayed for each contestant included both the cash and the dollar value of any prizes they had landed on.) But if the highlighted space contained a Whammy, the contestant would lose all the cash and prizes they had earned, and the contestant's score would fall back to $0. An animation would appear on-screen, featuring the Whammy "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.

A contestant could choose to pass their earned spins at any time during their turn, if they had a fear of a Whammy 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 "+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.

Special Spaces on the Big Board

Some special spaces (mostly in the second Big Bucks round) gave a contestant money and an additional spin. If a contestant landed on one with an occupied "earned" column and no passed spins, the number in the earned column would stay there. {For example, if a contestant had 5 earned spins and landed on a free spin space, the "earned" column would still say "5".} If a contestant landed on one with an occupied "passed" column, a spin would be added to the "earned" column and a spin would be removed from the "passed" column.

There were also directional squares such as 'Go Back Two Spaces", "Advance Two Spaces" (the contestant would earn whatever was at that space on the board, as if they had landed on that space in the first place), "Move One Space" (the contestant could choose to move to either of the adjacent board spaces and take whatever was displayed there). In February 1986, close to the end of the show's life, "Across The Board" was added to the far left side of the board.

Jenny Jones, later the host of a daytime talk show, stops on "Pick A Corner" with a broken trilemma: "A Whammy, $1500 + ONE SPIN, or a Water Bike?"

One directional square that became an inside joke among fans of the show was "Pick A Corner", which debuted in March 1984. It appeared in the upper-right hand corner square (6), and offered the contestant the choice of the contents of the other three corner squares (1), (10), and (15). The reason it became an inside joke because there was always the possibility of a trilemma with choices that made little sense. Early on in the history of the space, one of the options that the contestant could take was a Whammy, which obviously made little sense. This happened to Jenny Jones in February 1985 (as illustrated), and she made a sarcastic comment about the choices. Thereafter the producers made several attempts to correct this, but each attempt created more situations where the choice between spaces was obvious. Each new arrangement was progressively worse than the one before it; at one point, a trilemma of $750, $1400, or $2000 was possible. The space was removed from the board in July 1986, replaced with $1000 + ONE SPIN until the show's cancellation in September.

Beginning in March 1984, the second round had a special "Double Your Money" (or "Double Your $$" as it was displayed) space, and hitting it gave the contestant cash equal to their current score. (At first, this was actually a disadvantage to the contestant if they hit it while their score was $0, since they gained nothing and still used up their spin; to correct this, the space was changed to "Double Your Money + 1 Spin" in mid-April 1984. Both "Double Your Money" and its later "+ 1 Spin" counterpart were one-time-only spaces; if they were hit, they disappeared and a prize slide replaced them.

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 one Whammy.

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). Like "Double Your Money," "Add-A-One" was a one-time-only space, and when hit was replaced with a cash or prize slide.

In addition, both rounds featured a "Big Bucks" space. When hit, it awarded the contestant the dollar amount found directly opposite it on the board, which contained the highest cash awards in that round . In the first round this would be either $750 (on the pilot and from the series premiere to the November 1, 1983 episode), $1,000, $1,250 or $1,500 (replaced $750 from the November 2, 1983 episode on); and in the second round it would be either $3,000, $4,000, or $5,000 (all + 1 Spin). It was the existence of this space that resulted in Press Your Luck's contestant "battle cry" of "Big Bucks, no Whammies!" or something similar.

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! did not feature returning champions, in that version it was sometimes correct to risk losing the game in order to win more. In classic PYL, winning the game was the primary goal. For example, in Whammy!, if you were ahead $5,000 to $500 with 1 spin left, you probably would spin again to increase your winnings. In classic PYL, this was a clearcut pass, because your opponent was unlikely to be able to get $4,500 in one spin. (Only 1 square, plus maybe a prize or two, out of 18 squares offered a chance to get that much, mainly offering a bonus spin.) Even though you only won $5,000, the right to return the next day was valuable.

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" or a Whammy on a boat shouting, "Hasta luego! Arriverderci! Bon voyage! That means goodbye!" 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 even the third contestant Whammied out as well -- which almost happened on two occasions (and actually did happen on Whammy! in 2003) -- the game would simply end without a winner. In the first case, a contestant simply ended the game on his own terms, while in the second, a contestant gambled, and won his spins.

In most situations, however, the surviving player would terminate the game early, without using the remaining spins.

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 (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, though later on, after the Michael Larson episodes, the earnings cap of $50,000 was raised to $75,000 -- any earnings above that point could not be kept, although no player has ever reached 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.)

The Inner Workings of the Big Board

How It Worked

The board consisted of 18 squares, arranged in a rectangle surrounding the "PRESS YOUR LUCK" logo, upon which the contestant was superimposed during a spin. Behind each square were three slide projectors, each displaying a different slide (a monetary amount, a Whammy, a prize, etc.), one at a time. Every second or so, the first projector would turn off as the second projector illuminated, changing the display on the square. Slide projectors were used to give the effect of squares "morphing" from one item to the next. A band of lights surrounded each square, illuminated one at a time to indicate which square would be selected when the player stopped the board. This was called the "spinner" by the production staff.

As the board shuffled, the spinner would jump from tile to tile in a seemingly random pattern. In fact, the spinner followed one of only five preprogrammed spinner patterns -- a flaw exploited to great effect by Michael Larson. Shortly after his appearance, the patterns were changed twice, to throw off people who might attempt to memorize them; soon after that, the number of possible patterns were increased to 32.^[1]

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, chartereuse yellow, off-white (used only for the first two weeks) and hot pink (used only on $1500 + ONE SPIN in Round 2). The show's third season used "neon" colors: navy blue, aqua blue, blue-purple, red-orange, and lime green.

Malfunctions

Although for the most part it worked, the Big Board was known to occasionally malfunction. The most common one concerned how the board shuffled. All of the squares on the board were supposed to change in unison; however, on numerous occasions, there would be instances where some frames would not change at the same time other frames did. This was due to the wiring setup of the slide projectors. The even numbered square's projectors were wired together, and the odd numbered square's projectors were wired together, and there would be instances where they were not started at exactly the same time, thus causing the malfunction. Occasionally, the board would not shuffle for the duration of a few spinner bounces, but this didn't happen as often as the out-of-sync spins. As Round 2 of the Larson episode progressed, this malfunction got worse and worse until finally, each projector was flashing at its own pace when Ed Long finally took his turn. This phase of the malfunction would later become an intended tactic for the second round of Whammy!, PYL's successor.

Additionally, a rarer (though on the first few episodes, a more common) but more noticeable malfunction was when an entire tile would not appear; instead, there was simply a black box. This was obviously due to a malfunction of that particular slide's projector. There were even a few occasions where none of the slides for that box lit up at all. Generally, a round is played with the darkened square with no editing, unless the player stops on the affected square. This is seen on a few occasions; if this happened, tape was stopped while the affected projector was repaired. In the show's later years, this malfunction occurred only on the intro board. And there were times when a black box would be seen just before a commercial; but after the break, the malfunction would have been repaired. There was even one occasion when half the blank slides failed to light up for a question round.

Also, in the event a player lands on a prize, that slide is removed and a new one is added for the remainder of the round. This shift, however, has to be made on the fly, usually during the round. Every so often, a slide changed on-camera.

Yet another malfunction occurred when a few slides got stuck and did not change at all. For example, on the intro to the Larson episode, as the demo board starts shuffling slides, the $1250 slide in square 2 stayed stuck and did not shift between $1500 or the prize in that square, as did the slide for $3000 + ONE SPIN in square #4. All the others shuffled as expected. In another episode before that, the projectors in squares #2 and #4 stuck on $1250 and $5000 + ONE SPIN for the duration of the second round.

Another very rare malfunction occurred when one of the slides did not fade out, but the other slides were shuffling normally, and you could see two slides blend together. This was seen in the intro sequence to Episode #629 in 1986, when, in square #14, the navy blue $2500 loaded up late and was seen blending in with MOVE ONE SPACE and the Whammy.

Occasionally, the spinner stopped on a square just before the slide changed, and the selected square changed slides. This "shifting" action of the slides sometimes proved to be disastrous for the player if the slide shifted from a money space to a Whammy, or very lucky for a contestant as a Whammy slide could change to a money, prize, or directional (which can lead to the first two) slide. When the latter happened, Peter would often react by saying "(You) just avoided the Whammy" after saying the prize that was hit.

On the August 23, 1985 episode, the second day of the 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.

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 "$2000 or Lose 1 Whammy". The contestant took the $2000, 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 "$2000 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.

Michael Larson

Main article: Michael Larson

Michael Larson's amazing total

On one Press Your Luck episode in 1984, a self-described unemployed ice cream truck driver named Michael Larson made it onto the show. Watching the show at home, and with the use of stop-motion on a VCR, Larson discovered that the presumed random patterns of the game board were not random, and was able to memorize the sequences to help him stop the board where and when he wanted. On the single game in which he appeared, an initially tentative Larson spun a Whammy on his very first turn, but then played 45 consecutive times without hitting a second Whammy. He earned a total of $110,237 in cash and prizes, a record for a single appearance on a daytime network game show up to that time.

Although CBS investigated Larson, they determined that figuring out the patterns was not cheating, and let him keep all his winnings. The number of light patterns was increased to make it impossible for a player to ever repeat what Larson did.

Episode Status

All episodes of PYL supposedly exist. The Michael Larson episodes before the first airing by GSN in 2003, have not been rerun on any network since the original CBS broadcasts, but were incorporated into the made-for-TV documentary by Lions Gate Films, Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal, about the making of the Larson shows--this also included footage not aired during the original CBS run. 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. He appeared in the second week of the show's run, and was also the first person to ever win a car, doing so in dramatic come-from-behind fashion on the last spin of his second game.
• Michael Horton, who would later be known as the American Gladiator "Gemini"
• Jenny Jones, who won $18,706 over the course of three episodes.
• Jim Hess - He gained PYL infamy for swearing under his breath after his third Whammy in Round One and for blurting out a barrage of swear words when he hit his fourth Whammy on the last spin of the game. No network has ever censored Hess' episode.
• Maggie Brown (appeared on both pilot and regular series, also appeared in the pilot for Second Chance and as a contestant on Tomarken's Wipeout (which debuted 2 years after PYL ended).
• Jack Campion (also appeared on pilot and appeared on Second Chance's pilot, notable for being on many game show pilots)
• Karen Martin - A former Family Feud contestant who won on Press Your Luck with $14,405. She was always screaming to be rich and get big bucks when spinning the board. Whenever her spin got her cash or a prize, she would scream with delight. Whenever she hit a Whammy, she would scream with shock. On one spin, she was hollering to win a pool table for her husband Dan, and she landed on it, the first time anyone declaring that they wanted that particular prize and got it immediately according to Peter, but later hit a Whammy and lost it. Peter said Martin was one of the most fun contestants in PYL's history.

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.
• In Philippines, GMA Network is currently airing a version of this show entitled "Whammy: Push Your Luck".
• 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 Press Your Luck as well.
• The United Kingdom ran the US version of Press Your Luck on Sky One 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. [1]

Revival

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

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.

References

1. ^ PYL Board Configurations:PYL Light Patterns. Retrieved on 2006-08-19.

External Links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Press Your Luck

• PressYourLuck.tv, fan site containing comprehensive episode guide
• GSN website
• Press Your Luck board configurations - also contains the full listing of the light patterns used before and after the Larson incident
• 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 available for download. Requires RealPlayer.)

Game Downloads

• Press Your Luck (including question round) and many other game show downloads
• The Original: Download Press Your Luck to play on your home PC
• PYL: Expert Edition
• Download Press Your Luck from the Game Show Warehouse
• Download Press Your Luck Control from Dan Rushe

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