Press Your Luck

Press Your Luck is a Transmanian television game show based on the original American game show created by Bill Carruthers and Jan McCormack. It was premiered on ATN on January 9, 1984. In the show, contestants will collect spins by answering off-beat trivia questions and then used the spins on an 18-space game board to win cash and merchandise. The contestant who amassed the highest total in cash and prizes kept his/her winnings for the day and became the champion. Press Your Luck was videotaped in front of a live studio audience at Senbai Television Studios in Rixterri, Studios 18 and 28 with materials from CBS Television City, in Hollywood, California. The show was a retooling of the earlier Carruthers production Second Chance based on the US version of the same name which was broadcast on ABC in 1977 hosted by Jim Peck. The show was known for the "Whammy", a red cartoon creature with a high-pitched, raspy voice. Landing on any Whammy space reset the contestant's score to zero, accompanied by an animation that showed 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 a lot of different animations were used in production.

Format
Three contestants competed on each episode, usually a returning champion and two new challengers (if a champion retired undefeated, then three new contestants would appear on the next show).

Each game began with a trivia round where the contestants tried to earn spins, which was then used on the show's gameboard, referred to as the Big Board. A question was posed to the contestants, who tried to be the first to buzz in with a correct answer. Once a contestant gave an answer, the remaining opponents were given a choice of that answer or two additional answers provided by Bennerman and selected one. If the contestant that buzzed in gave the correct answer, it earned three spins. A correct multiple choice answer was worth one spin. If none of the three contestants buzzed in with an answer within five seconds, three answers were given to the contestants and they earned one spin each if they chose correctly. If a contestant buzzed in but failed to give an answer, that contestant was locked out of the question and it was treated the same way as if nobody had buzzed in.

After 4 (5 questions in early shows) questions were asked, play moved over to the Big Board. The board consisted of 18 squares arranged in a 6✕5 grid, each of which had a screen in it that displayed one of three items which changed rather rapidly, and a randomizer light which the contestants stopped by hitting their buzzer. The most common spaces offered cash, with an extra spin attached to some of them, and prizes, with some being directional spaces that either allowed the contestant to choose between two or three squares or moved their position to a different part of the board. Money amounts and prize values were added to the contestant's score while landing on any of several Whammy spaces reset the player's score to zero.

In the first Big Board round, play started with the contestant with the highest (fewest spins in early shows) unless there was a tie, in which case the contestant seated furthest left started. For each square the contestant stopped the randomizer light on, the value of that square was added to the contestant's bank and that contestant kept playing ("pressing his/her luck") until running out of spins or deciding to pass. Any passed spins went to the contestant's opponent with the higher amount of money (or if tied, the opponent chosen by the passing contestant). A contestant receiving passed spins had to take them and could not pass until all the passed spins had been used. Spins awarded from hitting spaces offering them were placed in the earned column, and hitting a Whammy caused the contestant's remaining passed spins to move to the earned column, allowing the contestant to pass. Play continued until the contestants exhausted all of their spins. A contestant was eliminated from the game and any unused spins remaining were lost if at any point in the game a contestant hit four Whammies.

Once all spins had been played, the second round of trivia questions followed with the same rules as before. A second Big Board round followed, with much higher stakes in play. This time, contestants played in order from least amount of money to the highest amount of money unless there was a tie between two or more contestants, in which case the contestant with the least amount of spins started the round. Any passed spins, as before, went to the opponent with the higher amount of money.

The contestant in the lead at the end of the second Big Board round became the day's champion, kept his/her winnings, and got to return on the next show as long as the show's winnings limits were not reached (see below). If two or all three contestants finished the match tied, they returned on the next show. In the rare occurrence that two contestants Whammied out of the game and the remaining contestant had spins left, the remaining contestant was given a choice to end the game immediately or keep spinning to try to win more money. The choice was given after each spin the contestant took, and the game continued until all spins were exhausted, the contestant stopped the game, or the contestant Whammied out. If the contestant managed to Whammy out, the game ended with no winner and three new contestants played on the next show.

Board values
In the first Big Board round, cash amounts ranged from Ð100 to Ð1500 (1,250 in the early shows) and prizes typically were worth no more than Ð2,000. The second round featured cash amounts from Ð500 to Ð5,000 and prizes potentially worth Ð6,000 or more. Three rare but special squares also appeared throughout the course of the show. The first, Double Your Money, multiplied the contestant's amount at the time by two. This square later became Double Your Money + One Spin, awarding an extra spin in addition to the multiplied cash amount.

One square present in both Big Board rounds was Big Bucks. This square, appearing third from the right in the bottom row, automatically moved the selector light to the corresponding position in the top row. The top values in this square in round one were Ð1,000, Ð1,250 and Ð1,500 (Early shows: Ð750, Ð1,000, and Ð1,250.) For the second round, the top values were Ð3,000, Ð4,000, and Ð5,000, all of which awarded an extra spin.

In both rounds, the value of a prize was announced only after it had been claimed, and a new prize was put on the board in its place (the aforementioned Double Your Money [+ One Spin] spaces were also treated as a prize in this respect).

Limits on winnings
Any contestant who won five games or exceeded the winnings cap (whichever occurred first) retired undefeated. From September 10, 1984, to July 26, 1985, and again from September 9, 1985, to July 18, 1986, any contestant who won over Ð125,000 will be retired undefeated but was allowed to keep any winnings over that amount up to Ð50,000. Due to the recommendation of creators, The game show winnings cap was doubled to Ð50,000 from September 8, 1986, to July 10, 1987, with contestants now being allowed to keep any winnings over that up to Ð75,000.

Reception
On September 1985, Press Your Luck was rated as a No. 1 game show by The Transmanian Times.

Season overview
Original series