Press Your Luck: Difference between revisions

''"Big Bucks! No Whammys!"''

 

 

This game featured one of the most (in)famous game show contestants ever, Michael Larson, who had ''memorized'' the intricate but repetitive patterns of the Big Board before he came on the show, winning $110,237 in cash and prizes. His game took so long that it spanned two episodes (and ''still'' had to be chopped to fit the allotted time), his score display actually went on the fritz when he got into six-digit territory, and the board began to go out of its usual slide-change sync. Larson's game was so notorious that GSN eventually produced a two-hour documentary about the affair in 2003. Citing them as an embarrassment to the network, CBS president Harvey Shepard and his vice president of daytime programming, Michael Brockman, refused to re-air the Larson episodes following their initial broadcast; until 2003, the episodes were barred from airing elsewhere.

** An [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8ibAxUxCRc electronic handheld version] was made in 2008, and was also derided. Not only was the Big Board far too small, it was also divided with half the spaces above the screen and the other half below. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|And the game was housed in a TV set.]]

** Versions were released for [[Wii]] and DS in 2009. Better than the DVD and handheld games, albeit not by much...and despite massive input from the fans, Ludia ''still'' managed to screw the game up; see the YMMV tab for more info.

* Personnel:

** [[The Announcer]]: Rod Roddy, before (and during the first seven months of) his tenure on ''[[The Price Is Right]]''.

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* [[Arc Number]]: The $470 space in the first round is a pretty oddball amount compared to other cash spaces. Other than that and $525 (which was right above it), the other cash spaces all have amounts that are multiples of $50.

** The $1,400 space in the second round could also count, as all the other cash spaces between $1,000 and $2,500 were multiples of $250. (Round 2 also had $500, $600, $700, $750 and $800, but except for the last one, all of those also appeared in Round 1.) There's also a $1,200 space visible during the show's opening, but it's not used in the main game.

*** Yes, $1200 was an actual value in R2 in the 1983 episodes before the first series of rearrangements.

* [[Precious Puppies]]: The Whammy's dog, Fang. Lampshaded on one episode in which a question was asked "We all know the Whammy doesn't have many friends, but one friend he ''does'' have is his dog. What's the pooch's name?". None of the contestants rang in, so Peter provided the choices of Fido, Fang, and Spot (all three guessed Fang).

{{quote| '''Whammy''' (''while pulled across the score display by his dog'') Hold it, Fang, hold it!!! Don't forget the moneyyyyyyyyyy!}}

* [[Shout-Out]]: The "Big Tongue Whammy" slide may be a [[Call Back]] to Sammy the Whammy, mascot of 1960s game ''Beat the Odds'', who had a very similar expression; making this more likely is the fact that Carruthers tried to revive ''Odds'' in 1975 for [[ABC]], albeit with Sammy replaced by a lightning bolt.

* [[Suspiciously Similar Song]]: The main theme was kind of similar to the stock music used on the 1983 pilot.

** The 2007 DVD game uses a rather bizarre Jimmy Hart Version of the actual theme music.

* [[Title Drop]]: Peter would sometimes ask contestants, "Are you ready to press your luck?"

** An Australian version hosted by Ian Turpie aired from 1987 to 1988. As was Reg Grundy's tradition, the set and format were very faithful to the original; further, it used the same Whammy animations as America. The Big Board was scaled down ("Stop at $30!") and had some rather unusual [[Bonus Space|Bonus Spaces]] (Lose-1-Whammy or $200 + One Spin?!).

** A [http://ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Press_Your_Luck British version] helmed by Paul Coia ran on [[ITV|HTV West]] from 1991 to 1992. While the format was faithful, the budget was minimal — the Big Board used ''points'', and the big winner received £200. The show was quickly kicked from primetime to Saturday afternoons, then Sunday afternoons.

 

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