Adaptation Displacement: Very few viewers (specifically those born after The '70s) are aware that Press Your Luck was a retooling of the 1977 ABC game Second Chance, also by Bill Carruthers. It doesn't help that Second Chance aired for only four months and only three episodes are known to exist, with a fourth on audiotape.
The decision to keep the old school Whammy designs in the reboot, some appreciate it for remembering the show's roots, but others think the show should've taken more of a chance in redesigning the Whammies like the first reboot did given the improved technology.
The reboot having the Bonus Round instead of having two standard episodes paired together, like most of the other ABC revivals, is very, very contentious, and we'll leave it at that.
Some people dislike Michael Larson's run on the show for exploiting the rules to their breaking point, to where the legal team had to get involved. Other people admire him for that exact same reason.
Game-Breaker: Michael Larson memorizing the patterns of the board in order to win over $100,000 in cash and prizes remains one of the most infamous examples in game show history.
One of the Whammy animations had the Whammy dive-bombing into the player's money with a biplane. Peter Tomarken, who was also a licensed pilot, died along with his wife in a private plane crash just off the shore of Santa Monica, California in 2006.
At the end of the 1985 New Year's Eve episode, Peter signed off with hoping for "A prosperous 1986." When that statement was made, Peter and the production staff had no way of knowing they would be cancelled nine months later.
The May 14, 1984 episode featured the question "What symbol does the Whammy wear on his chest?" Two of the choices were a "W" and a dollar sign ($). One player guessed the "W", which, on this version, was incorrect (it was the dollar sign). Had she made that guess on a certain revival, however, she would've been correct.
Iconic Character, Forgotten Title: People tended to remember it as "the show with the Whammy" rather than by its proper title, so much so that the GSN revival was called Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck.
Just Here for Godzilla: The Whammy animations had their own charm. You just never know which one would come up when one was hit. Many people watched the show mostly for the animations (including kids who were too young to follow the game's rules), and there are compilations of just the Whammy animations on YouTube for all incarnations of the show.
Life Imitates Art: One Whammy animation introduced in March 1984 had a politician Whammy barking "If elected, I will raise your taxes!" before getting a pie to the face. A few months later at the Democratic Convention, Reagan's opponent Walter Mondale admitted he would raise taxes if elected as president, citing that Reagan would do so as well and not be honest about it. Mondale was beaten soundly on Election Day.
The April 3, 1984 episode saw Karen Martin, one of the more memorable contestants on the show, call for a "pool table for Dan" and actually hit it, which Peter noted was a first. Sadly, she hit a Whammy later in the round, losing the table.
In the July 28, 2022 episode of the revival, the winning contestant, Zachary Flax, had over $420,000 in cash and prizes, including two cars, a cruise to Antarctica, trips to the North and South Poles, and a Harley Davidson motorcycle that his dad wanted BEFORE heading into the final round. Most contestants would probably stop right there, but Zach was determined to win that million, so he decides to go into the Big Bucks Bonanza... and HITS A WHAMMY on the penultimate spin, and he drives away with the biggest bank ever, $433,336, just $66,664 away from the million. As Todd Newton once said, "That was the most painful Whammy in television history." It was also one of the biggest losses in game show history as well. Zach hit $25,000 on his last spin, and when it was all said and done, he left with an all-cash total of $27,750. It's not a bad consolation prize for coming SO CLOSE to the jackpot. But to be fair, he didn't make the wrong choice by going for it. When you're $100,000 or less away from the $500,000 you need to win the million heading into the final round, you kind of HAVE to go for it at that stage.
Nightmare Fuel: One Whammy in the 2019 reboot?It's based offPennywise, where Whammy has sharp Scary Teeth instead of his usual human-like ones, and stands still with none of his usual humour... before a Jump Scare occurs, suddenly gaining a lot more shading.
Overshadowed by Controversy: If there's one main thing anyone will know about the show besides the Whammies, it's Michael Larson's infamous Curb Stomping of the show's setup and the resulting legal battle that ensued.
In one episode, the contestants acquired only five spins overall: three from the questions and two from landing on "+ One Spin" squares. As a result, Peter spent the rest of the round explaining the special squares on the board. To prevent this from happening again, the rules were changed so that if contestants were struggling in a Question Round, A) Peter would be directed to use an easier stack of questions, or B) the segment would simply be reshot with said easier stack.
The Wii version drew massive input from the fans (as requested by a Ludia representative) and could easily draw reference from a fan website dedicated to the show's myriad board layouts...and Ludia still managed to screw the game up. Here's a fan review.
Having the Big Board cycle between three static layouts — one with two Whammies, one with seven Whammies, and one with no Whammies (these are 4-5-0 in Round 2)...but as this trailer shows, it could've been a lot worse.
Ending the game immediately if you Whammy-Out while playing against the computer.
Having AI opponents that lacked the "I", rarely getting more than two spins per round and posing a tiny challenge. Upon their turn, they usually pass their spins immediately. (The PC version subverts this; as you progress the contestants get smarter, with one in particular that appears every few games and gets the right answer every time they buzz in.)
Failing to support the Mii avatars. The in-game "Ludians" not only look dumb but have apparently never seen the show before (much like this game's developers), mashing the buzzer several times to ring in on a question or stop the board.
Using no prizes except generic trips worth $3,000 in Round 1 and $4,000 in Round 2, which considerably breaks Move One Space and Pick-A-Corner by removing half their purpose. For example, the classic Round 1 choice of "$100/$200/$300 + One Spin vs. [nice prize of unknown value]" is now "$100/$200/$300 + One Spin vs. Generic Trip Arbitrarily Worth $3,000".
Having Big Bucks always redirects to said generic trip in Round 1 instead of the big-money square ($1,000/$1,250/$1,500). This playthrough shows the absurdity of this at 4:21 and 4:49, as the player hits Advance Two Spaces in Square 10 (which wasn't there in the actual show) which leads to Big Bucks...
Host: Big Bucks! You win—You won a trip! A value of... $3,000 (or in round 2, $4,000)!
Adding insult to injury was the Updated Re-releasefor the PlayStation 3 containing the actual theme, a looping board sound, and actual prizes, not to mention more faithful board layouts. Though to be fair, Fremantle apparently still couldn't find the master copy of the actual series theme and still didn't want to use a full-length clean copy, so they just went ahead and made their own version themselves. This quasi-Suspiciously Similar Song version is also heard in the official Facebook app.
The DS version, though it also contained the looping board sound, managed to be even worse than the Wii game. There are only a few Whammy animations (none of which you can skip), the Big Board doesn't even have its usual space structure, and your reward for clearing all the "episodes" is a credits roll you can already access from the Options menu!
Contestant Jennie (Jenny) Jones later had her own talk show, The Jenny Jones Show.
1985 saw the four-win run of Michele, known as the "Mistress of the Pass". The contestant who beat her? It was a young Mark Lambrecht, who later won $420,000 as the winner of Season 5 of The Mole.
Slides on the original version's game board occasionally went dark, dim, got stuck, or otherwise glitched out, especially during the early episodes. On August 23, 1985, a slide actually blew up, meaning that they had to stop taping and finish up that episode the next day; the slide blowing was not shown on the air, however.
Originally, the contestant buzzers were supported by spring coils that would break if slammed too hard...which happened on occasion, resulting in some editing. On December 21, 1983, they changed the sticks that supported the buzzers. That didn't work, either, so the buzzers were completely redone on the February 14, 1984, episode to their more recognizable appearance with a yellow base.
Peter:[to Troy Garrison in the January 4, 1984 episode during Round 2, after Troy broke his buzzer, and putting it back together]DON'T BREAK ANYTHING!
Squick: A Season 2 episode of the revival had Tammy Whammette in labor, giving birth to a wad of cash (with bills flying out of her... nether regions in the process). Even though she's covered up by a blanket, it brings ideas to mind about Whammy's anatomy that nobody ever wanted. Even Elizabeth Banks was surprised that Standards and Practices let the animation through.
The main theme was similar to Keith Mansfield's Flash for the KPM Music Library, which was used on the 1983 pilot.
The 2009 game used the pilot theme as, according to Ludia, Fremantle didn't have the master copy of the series' theme and forbade them from using the various full-length clean copies circulating on the Internet. To add further insult, the board sound used is the original one and plays for one second. The later PS3 version uses a cover of the original series theme and a looping board sound.
The 2007 DVD game uses a rather bizarre rendition of the actual theme music.
And in the other direction, the music for Mole Patrol in Super Scope 6 resembles the board sound of PYL.
By early August 1985, the Big Board had settled into a respectable configuration for both rounds. During the final season, however, the Round 2 layout had various slides needlessly moved around while nearly the entire board was in flux, with values going up and down so often that the ultimate victim ended up being Pick-A-Corner — the day the slides went neon was when the once-"fixed" directional square began breaking, as the values in the three other corners never remained static for very long and consistently conflicted with each other (including three layouts where players chose between identical values). Instead of correcting the problem, Pick-A-Corner was replaced on July 25, 1986, with a $1,000 + One Spin slide.note The space returned for Game Show Marathon in 2006, but remained broken. It returned once again in the 2019 reboot, and apparently the board designers still don’t appear to know how to make the space work (though to be fair, it’s by far the least broken it’s been since the “neon shift” broke it beyond repair over 30 years prior).
Fans' opinions regarding the bonus round in the 2019 revival are quite mixed. Some have criticized the round's length (often taking up more than 20 minutes of the hour-long timeslot), forced pathos a la Deal or No Deal, and an all-but-impossible to win advertised top prize of $1,000,000.note To get to it, the contestant must rack up at least $500,000 (not counting their main game winnings), which requires defying the odds and avoiding the Whammy for quite a while longer than most contestants would reasonably risk. Others have defended the round as a natural extension of a mostly pure-luck game, and even if one doesn't care for it, they can still enjoy the first part of the show as a very faithful re-creation of the original. Plus the inclusion of personalized prizes at least gives distinction from previous incarnations.
While the front game on the ABC version is mostly the same as the original, the few changes are irksome. The multiple choice answers no longer appearing above the contestants (which, in Season 1, leftover half the screen empty, whereas in Season 2 the camera was moved down and centered on the contestants) is a minor thing overall. The bigger issue is the structure of the show, mainly due to commercial breaks. Instead of following the "Question > Commercial > Big Board > Commercial > Question > Commercial > Big Board" format, the commercial breaks are inserted in the middle of the Big Board rounds, with no break between the Question and Big Board rounds. It ends up making the whole thing feel off-kilter.
Ugly Cute: The Whammy. He's a monstrous red pest who lives to annoy the contestants, but his small stature, little mask, cape, and high-pitched voicenote barring later seasons and especially in Whammy! where his voice is gruffer and big mischievous grin do make him oddly cute.
Values Dissonance: One Whammy animation depicted the Whammy paddling a canoe wearing a Native American headdress while chanting a stereotypical verse. What was cute and funny in the 1980s may now be seen as cultural appropriation in the 21st century.
Vindicated by Reruns: Many game show fans later caught wind of the series when it aired on USA and later GSN.
