Press Your Luck was an American television game show where contestants collected "spins" by answering trivia questions, and then used the "spins" on a board with dollar amounts. The person who amassed the most in cash and prizes at the end of the game won.

The show was most memorable for the Whammy, a red cartoon creature 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, and frequently being chased away. Throughout the show's run, approximately 60 different animations were used, with new ones being added from time to time.

Broadcast history
Press Your Luck ran from September 19, 1983, to September 26, 1986, on CBS. Peter Tomarken hosted the show, 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 in the time slot 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 PM EST to make room for Card Sharks, replacing Body Language. CBS gave that time slot back to its local affiliates after canceling the show. Reruns of Press Your Luck have aired on the USA Network from 1987 to 1995 and on GSN since 2001.

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 virtually the same, only a "devil" took a contestant's money away instead of a Whammy, and none of the windows were electronic.

On April 15, 2002, GSN brought a new updated version of the series as Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck, with Todd Newton hosting.


The game
Three contestants compete on each episode of Press Your Luck. The game consists of 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 three spins (none if wrong). 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. Up to 20 spins could be earned per question session among all three players, the maximum an individual player could earn being 12.

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 6x5 rectangle. 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 Peter Tomarken's desk would spin first. Contestants used their buzzers to stop the board.

The contents of the spaces on the "Big Board" changed every few seconds (alternating among three possibilities per square), as well as the highlighted square (which bounced around as well). A game space contains either money, a prize (the dollar amount of which would accrue to the contestant's score), or a Whammy. 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 special 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 obvious problem created by contestants landing on this space when they had no money at all due to a recent Whammy, this was changed to "Double Your Money + 1 Spin." In addition, both rounds featured a space bearing the legend "Big Bucks." When hit, it awarded the contestant the dollar amount found directly opposite it on the board; in the first round this would be either $750, $1,000, $1,250 or $1,500, and in the second round it would be either $3,000 + 1 Spin, $4,000 + 1 Spin, or $5,000 + 1 Spin (the existence of this space resulted in most contestants chanting "Big Bucks" or some variant thereof before stopping the board on each spin).

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. However, spins passed to one player by another could not be passed again unless a Whammy had been hit, in which case any passed spins would be added to any spins earned [in the question round] and then eligible to be passed again. If a player with passed spins lands on a square giving an extra spin, that spin is added to the earned spins, not the passed spins; so a player that continuously hit extra spin squares could convert all their passed spins to earned spins, and pass all of them.

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 $1250 ($1500 after the first few months). 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 as well 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 taken.

Four Whammies sustained by the same player eliminated that player from the game (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 (CBS' max winnings limit of $25K was still in place when the series began). In the fall of 1984, that 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, and one occasion on a Christmas 1984 episode where a contestant won $61,316.


The Big Board
The show's remembered novelty was the big game 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 (Michael Larson proved that the spinner was indeed not random, but a programmed pattern). Before Larson, there were 5 preprogrammed spinner patterns. After his appearance, 27 additional patterns were added for a total of 32.

The big board was known for its malfunctions. The most common was 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. Additionally, a rarer 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. 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, the slide can be seen being changed.


Michael Larson
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 the board 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, most of which was earned via "cash plus a spin" spaces. His total was a record by far for a single appearance on a game show up to that time. The Press Your Luck board's patterns were significantly reworked after this incident, increasing from the original five patterns to thirty-two, and such a run was never repeated on the show.

The Larson episode was split into two half-hours that aired on June 8th and June 11th 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) was finally allowed to air portions of it in 2003 as part of a two-hour documentary called "Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal". The Larson show is 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 GSN was bound by.

Michael's opponents did get a rematch, only this time against Michael's brother, James, on the GSN revival Whammy! (Michael passed away 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!"


Strategy
The only real decision a contestant gets to make is whether to spin or pass (except for someone who cracks the board pattern like Michael Larson; however, this is no longer possible). Occasionally, as noted previously, there are squares such as "move 1 space" or "pick a corner" that do offer a choice. Most of the time, the correct decision is obvious. However, a description of the optimal strategy is difficult.

Since the revival Whammy! does not feature returning champions, in this 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 $3000 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 $2500 in one spin. (Only 1 to 2 out of 18 squares offer a chance to get that much, plus a few more squares offer a bonus spin.) Even though you only win $3000, the right to return the next day is valuable.


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. 
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. 

Press Your Luck trivia
The host-announcer duo of Peter Tomarken and Rod Roddy worked together on an earlier game show Hit Man, which aired for the first quarter of 1983. 
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. 
On February 26, 1985, a man 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 went off. Pamela won the game with $7,278 instead. Neither CBS, USA, nor GSN edited out his swearing, so while watching the episode, he can be heard faintly cursing. 
In another 1985 episode, Peter Tomarken asked contestants which cartoon character had the catch phrase, "Sufferin' succotash!" All three contestants correctly answered, "Sylvester," but 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. 
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. 
The animated Whammies were created and animated by Savage Steve Holland and Bill Kopp, and voiced by the show's executive producer/director, Bill Carruthers. 
If a contestant got two Whammies during the first round, Tomarken frequently warned to "be careful about picking up a third Whammy in Round One."