Press Your Luck was hosted by Peter Tomarken and announced by Rod Roddy. The show was perhaps most memorable for the Whammy, a grinning cartoon red creature wearing a cape. The Whammy's spaces on the game board would take away your money, accompanied by a silly cartoon animation popular with the viewing audience.
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. The rules were practically the same, only the "devil" took a contestant's money away instead of the Whammy.
The second part of a round was the spinning portion. Contestants now used spins earned in the question session on "the big board" which consisted of 18 monitors arranged in a square. The contents of the spaces changed every few seconds, as well as the highlighted square (which bounced around at random as well). A game space might contain money, prizes, or the Whammy. Some special spaces had a money amount '+ 1 spin' (meaning the spin being used wasn't lost), and others worked as 'go back two spaces' or 'pick a corner'. 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.
As mentioned earlier, there were two distinct rounds in every episode of Press Your Luck. The first round's spinning portion had much fewer (+ 1 spin) spaces, and money amounts ranged from ( $100 + 1 spin ) up to $1250 ($1500 in later seasons). The second spinning round in the show was the one watched most closely, where dollar amounts ranged from $500 to ( $5000 + 1 spin ) - sometimes prizes such as cars were worth even more. The winner of the game was the contestant with the most money after the last spin of the second round was spent.
The Larson episode was split into two half-hours that aired in June of 1984, but it was not rebroadcast for nearly two decades after that. Game Show Network aired it in 2003 as part of a documentary on Larson titled Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal.
See Michael Larson for more information about Larson and his performance on Press Your Luck.
In the revival, the first round is different. Instead of answering trivia questions for spins, the contestants take turns spinning on the board, with an option to "freeze" (i.e. stop spinning). If a contestant hits a Whammy in the first round, he's out of the round and cannot spin any more. The Whammy is now CGI, but when you come right down to it, it's still the same show.
Also, the revival features fewer chances to earn extra spins in the final round. Some of the best shows in classic PYL occurred when 2 contestants kept passing spins back and forth, because they kept earning bonus spins. (One of these runs of "spin-tag", as it has sometimes been called, ended with $30,000+ in money and prizes "Whammied" away.)
A new feature called the "Big Bank" was added for the show's second season in 2003. The "Big Bank" always begins with $3,000, and the money that contestants lose after a Whammy is hit is accumulated into the bank. If a player hits the "Big Bank" square, the host asks a general-knowledge trivia question to the contestant, who gains the money in the bank if the question is answered correctly.How It Works
Three contestants begin every game of Press Your Luck. Every episode of the show had two rounds. A round started with a question session, each with four questions. Contestants could buzz in, and if they got the answer right on the buzz in, they earned 3 spins (none if wrong). The other two contestants could answer using multiple choice and, if right, earn 1 spin. 20 spins maximum could be earned per question session among all three players.That's a Lot of Money
On one episode of Press Your Luck in 1984, a self described unemployed ice cream man named Michael Larson made it onto the show. With the use of a VCR, Larson was able to memorize the presumed random patterns of the game board, to help him stop where and when he wanted to. On the episode he appeared in, Larson spun over 40 times without hitting a 'Whammy', and took away $110,237 in cash and prizes, a record by far for game shows up to that time. The Press Your Luck board's patterns were significantly reworked after this incident, and such a run was never repeated on Press Your Luck again.Return of the Whammy
On April 15, 2002, Game Show Network debuted Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck, a revival of PYL. The show is hosted by Todd Newton and announced by Gary Kroeger.