Second Chance/Press Your Luck

SECOND CHANCE/PRESS YOUR LUCK

packagers: Carruthers Company/Warner Bros. (Second Chance), Carruthers Company (Press Your Luck), FremantleMedia North America (Whammy!)
air dates: 3/7/77-7/15/77 on ABC daytime as Second Chance, 9/19/83-9/26/86 on CBS daytime as Press Your Luck, 4/15/02-2003 on GSN as Whammy!: The All-New Press Your Luck
hosts: Jim Peck (SC), Peter Tomarken (PYL), Todd Newton (Whammy!)
announcers: [Jay Stewart, Jack Clark] (SC), Rod Roddy (PYL), Gary Kroeger (Whammy!)
sub-announcers (PYL): Charlie O'Donnell, John Harlan

"...AND THEY WILL BE RISKING EVERYTHING THEY'VE WON EVERY TIME THEY PLAY..."

In each of two rounds, three players were asked a question. The first player to buzz in answered the question. That answer became one of three choices for the other two players. If no one buzzed in within five seconds, all three players were given 3 choices. Buzzing in with a right answer earned that player 3 spins, and each correct multiple-choice answer was worth one spin. After 4 questions were played, the players took those spins to the big board.
On the Press Your Luck board, some money spaces also awarded an extra spin. Each of the 18 spaces shuffled between prizes, Whammies, and other special spaces, such as "move 1 space" to one of two spaces on either side of that space. Other spaces included Pick A Corner, $2,000 Or Lose A Whammy, Add A One which added a 1 in front of the players score, and the ever-coveted Big Bucks space, which moved the cursor to the space at the top of the board which shuffled between the three top amounts in that round ($1,000, $1,250, and $1,500 in the first round, and $3k+spin, $4k+spin, and $5k+spin in the second round). If a Whammy was hit, a short Whammy cartoon played to amuse the player as a consolation while his or her score was wiped clean. Four Whammies knocked that player out of the game. The player in the lead at the end of the first half played last in the second half, and the leader at the end of the second half kept his or her stash and returned on the next show. From '83-'84, champions retired after 3 days or after winning $25,000+, whichever came first. For the rest of the show's run, champs retired after 5 days or $50,000+.

"THE GAME WITH BIG BUCKS AND WHAMMIES IS BACK, BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER! IT'S TIME TO PLAY WHAMMY!: THE ALL-NEW PRESS YOUR LUCK!"
Three players were each given a $1,000 allowance. Each player, in turn, took a spin at the board. Hitting a Whammy wiped out that player's earnings and knocked that player out of the round. But after each player took a spin, four more Whammies were added to the board. After each player's first spin, players were allowed to press their luck or freeze and safeguard their winnings. After each player Whammied or froze, the question round was played the same as Press Your Luck, but with 5 questions. After that, the players took their spins to the board, which now offered bigger prizes. In the first season, one prize on the board was a GEM electric car. The player had to hit the GEM space in the first round, the CAR space in the last round, and win the game in order to win it. Hitting a Whammy wiped out the chance at the GEM car. Two changes took effect in the second season. First, any winnings lost to the Whammy went into the Big Bank which started at $3k. If a player stopped on the Big Bank space and answered a question correctly, (s)he added everything in the Big Bank to his/her stash, with the Big Bank starting again at $3k. Otherwise the spin was wasted and play continued on. Second, a player could win a Suzuki Aerio SX by getting the first half of the car key in the first round and the second half in the last round. If a Whammy was hit, the car could still be won b/c any halves of the car key on hand went into the Big Bank.

OTHER TIDBITS:
Fort Worth native Rod Roddy (1937-2003) was first heard as the narrator on the soap opera satire Soap before he was heard on Whew! and Hit Man, the latter of which was also hosted by Peter Tomarken, and where Rod was best remembered for his contestant plug on its last show: "If you'd like to be a contestant on Hit Man, forget it!" In '86, Rod permanently replaced the late Johnny Olson as the announcer on The Price Is Right and remained there until his death on 10/27/03 from colon/breast cancer.

Memorable contestants on PYL included former Match Game contestant and future talk show host Jenny Jones, a lady named Beverly who shrieked and looked cross-eyed every time she hit big money, and former Family Feud contestant Karen Martin, with her enthusiastic talking to the board and delayed reactions everytime she stopped the board. At one point, she wanted a pool table for her hubby Dan and she got it on that very spin! But she later lost it to the Whammy. However, the most memorable player ever was an unemployed ice cream truck driver from Ohio named Michael Larson. Prior to his May '84 PYL escapade, he had watched the show and memorized the sequences in which the light indicator flashed around the board. At the time, there were only FIVE sequences in which the light bounced around to all 18 spaces. In the final round, when his turn came, honey, he went in for the kill! Most of the spaces he landed on gave him money and a spin. There were only two spaces on the board which only shuffled money and a spin. Michael spun 40+ times, leaving his opponents Ed and Janie sitting ducks before he got tired and passed his spins. The final round of the game had to continue on the next show. In other words, the game was chopped into 2 episodes. He wound up winning the game and cash and prizes totaling...Are you ready for this?...$110,237! The folks at CBS were suspicious, but nevertheless he played fairly and was paid what he won. Shortly thereafter, 27 more light patterns were added to make the board more random. The story of Michael Larson, including the episodes on which he played, was depicted in the 2-hour documentary, Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal on GSN.

St. Louis native Todd Newton started as a DJ before hosting GSN's Hollywood Showdown and Whammy! He can now be seen and heard on the E! network.

On the second show of the second season of Whammy!, Ed Long and Janie Litkas, the contestants who lost to Mike Larson in May '84, took on James Larson, whose brother Michael had croaked on 2/16/99. Peter Tomarken hosted the question round while Todd did the rest of the show. In a way, James followed in his brother's footsteps by winning $8,000+.

The entirely random Whammy! board was run by a 200 MHz PC, to throw off any Michael Larson wannabe.

Peter Tomarken was introduced to America when he hosted the short-lived Hit Man on NBC early in '83. After PYL, he went on to host shows like Bargain Hunters, Wipeout, and GSN's Trivia Track. He also hosted infomercials and became a real estate developer. Peter and his wife Kathleen lost their lives in a plane crash off the southern California coast on 3/13/06. Peter was 63 years old.

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Three players competed to win thousands of bucks in loot. Jim Peck, "the man who gives everyone a second chance", tossed a question to the players who then had 5 seconds to write down their answers. After the answers were jotted down, Jim would state that least 1-2 of them were right or wrong and then give three multiple-choice answers. Each player may change his or her answer. If a player stuck with the first answer and is right, (s)he earned three spins to take to the Second Chance board pictured above (Thanks, Sal! You da man!). If (s)he changed an answer and was correct with that "second chance" answer, (s)he got one spin. Three questions were played in each round.
The big board was loaded with thousands of bucks in cash and prizes, but there were also three devils on the board which, if stopped on, wiped out a player's score. There were 18 spaces surrounding the show's logo. There were 9 money spaces on the board ranging from $500-$2,500, and there were 6 prize boxes on the board which, if stopped on, added the prize value to that player's score. A light indicator flashed around the board to that ol' funkified beat from the show's theme. The player stopped the flashing light by hitting his or her plunger. The player with the fewest spins played first and the player with the most spins went last. A player may pass his or her spins at any time to the opponent with the higher score, who then must take those spins. If a devil was landed on, any passed spins remaining converted to earned spins so that (s)he may pass them at any time. Any player who hit four devils during the show was knocked out of the game.
After the first round was played, another question round was played. After that, the players went back to the board. The cash and prizes now ranged from $1k-$5k. The $5,000 space also awarded an extra spin. Later in the run, the space shuffled from $1k-$5k by thousands. On the pilot, the top space was only worth a flat $5,000. At the end of the second round, only the player in the lead kept his or her stash.

"TODAY, THESE THREE PLAYER ARE AFTER HIGH STAKES! BUT THEY'LL HAVE TO AVOID THE WHAMMY AS THEY PLAY THE MOST EXCITING GAME OF THEIR LIVES! FROM TELEVISION CITY IN HOLLYWOOD, IT'S TIME TO..."