'Whammy!'

[The Pyramids]

GSN and Freemantle North America launched their anticpated remake of 'Press Your Luck' three years ago now.

What's your final opinion after (untill last week) 03 years of daily airings?

 I like 'PYL" but it had never been a personal favorite. From that perspective I think the new show was a perfectly good remake that I like as much as the original, no more or no less.

[Jimmy Owen]

I never miss "Whammy!"  I never watch it so I never miss it.

[JasonA1]

I hate to use a terrible analogy, but it's fresh on my mind. A lot of "Star Wars" fans could argue that [insert a prequel film here] was the worst of the series for this reason and that. With hindsight being 20/20, some fans have jumped back, saying [again, insert the prequel] was passable, save for this obvious flaw and that.

I believe we as a group acted like that with this show. I've been watching the GSN reruns with some decent regularity lately and I see...a passable show. You can't put it side by side with the original PYL for the proper review (even though they were on the schedule) because you're just going to make the wrong judgements. I saw a show just as exciting and loud and bright that had a decent-to-annoying host, an okay budget way too fraught with prizes (early on), etc. You can see where I'm going with this. I've been trying to be fair to the new shows because I'm accepting where they're gonna go with their sets and music.

It's still average...just not abysmal.

-Jason

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'JasonA1\' date=\'Apr 13 2005, 06:04 PM\']because I'm accepting where they're gonna go with their sets and music.
[/quote]
I never accept mediocrity. I might EXPECT it, but I never have to accept it.

99% of PYL was the set. Imagine a sparse, gray, "Quicksilver"-lookin' set, no lights in sight save for the lockouts, and three players sitting at a desk looking at a single monitor that is quickly flashing the money and prize slides in rapid succession. Tomarken's podium is next to it.

Same game. EXACTLY the same game. Wouldn't make it 13 weeks. I'm a PYL fan, and I'll be the first to admit that the amount of "game" in the PYL concept, while existing more than the haters might suggest, is pretty minimal. The concept, and the appeal, is in that big flashy set, the ginormous rotating contestant island, the bright gameboard. You can't apply the WWTBAM-filter to the PYL set and still have the concept work. That, to me, was the big problem with Whammy. Mostly the same game, but the producers thought the game was the thing, and in that case, it wasn't.

[JasonA1]

Let me use a different context. "...the new bedroom is nice, because I'm accepting the fact I'm moving." In other words, as you (but not some others) might be able to figure out, it's good given the circumstances.

And I didn't want to say stuff about how it needed more lights because that sort of thinking has been lambasted here before. But yeah, the set was lame compared to the massive amount of lights and old-school tech on that 80s set.

-Jason

[saussage]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Apr 13 2005, 06:55 PM\']I never miss "Whammy!"  I never watch it so I never miss it.

[snapback]81795[/snapback]

[/quote]
Same here. Maybe it was because it seemed that Todd Newton had too many cups of coffee at times. Maybe it was the gimmicky double whammies (yahn).

Maybe it irred me that the board was redone just to satisfy networks not to block their precious real estate on the corners of the screen (insert your favourite network logo here). You'll never see a classic pyl board ever for any remake because of that. Another shape may have worked but the oval just didn't work for me. Maybe the fonts were too small? I dunno. The old pyl board is a little easier to follow and made it more interesting to watch for the home viewer. It was at least more interesting for me

Saussage

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'JasonA1\' date=\'Apr 13 2005, 07:07 PM\']And I didn't want to say stuff about how it needed more lights because that sort of thinking has been lambasted here before.
[/quote]
And normally rightly so, because the opinion is usually put forth as applied to Pyramid or Concentration. (And while the Osmond Pyramid set did in fact undergo the same WWTBAM?-filter, logical minds agree that the problems with that show had very little to do with the set.) But in the case of PYL, it absolutely applies.

Frankly, it works with Hollywood Squares, too. When MGHSH was first run I was just thrilled it was on, and I never noticed the question-style had changed until the subject was brought up in our discussions here. So I remember one day when we had made the four-hour drive to my grandparent's house for the biennial Christmas trip, I was thrilled that we'd made good enough time for me to catch MGHSH at 2:00P. And my relatives watched with mixed amusement as I happily watched the show, until halftime when the stage converted over to HS. And they turned up their noses and said "The whole POINT of Hollywood Squares is that they're in those giant boxes. And they're right, I think. Not that I DISLIKE the HS set for MGHSH, I think the whole thing is neat. But it doesn't capture the essence.

[tyshaun1]

Simply put, I think "Whammy!" made me realize how much Carruthers got right in the production of PYL. From the flashy set, the high-energy theme, the perfect host/announcer tandem in Tomarken and Roddy, a GREAT contestant coordinator in Bobby Edwards (let face it folks, without some of those crazy contestants, the show would not have made it past year 1), and Peter carrying the show ably after about 1 1/4 years, every facet of the show had to be a good fit, and they were.

However, Fremantle seemed to think that all people wanted to see was the whammy, so they renamed and revolved the entire show around it, and with a host that displayed absolutely no ability to carry the show, the game's inherent flaws showed in the process.

Tyshaun

[BrandonFG]

It was OK, but it still felt like it was missing something. When PYL came back to GSN, I watched the show to see if it was still as mesmerizing as it was when I watched USA reruns every day after school. I was very happy to find out that, yes, I was STILL glued to my seat. Whammy didn't have that effect. It was cool to watch, but it just didn't pull me in. It also seemed that most of the episodes I saw ended with someone winning by default (the last spin results in a Whammy-automatic win)...anti-climatic.

Oh, and Todd had a serious case of HOLY DOUBLE THE POINTS, BATMAN!!! syndrome the first season.

[roadgeek]

Looking back, I found Whammy! to be an enjoyable half-hour break, and I'm glad that the show had its two seasons.  But by the end, it still hadn't hooked me quite like PYL had.  Two thoughts:

1) Perhaps Whammy! would have fared better as a revival if PYL had never been added to GSN's lineup?

2) PYL had the advantage of airing 5 new episodes every week -- speaking ex-rectum, but it seems that by cranking out so many episodes in that amount of time, one would *quickly* learn what works and what doesn't. (Look how often the Big Board was tweaked early on, for instance.) By the time they reached #130 six months later, they seem to have a rhythm going that wasn't there in the earlier episodes.  In contrast, Whammy only had 130 episodes total, and no further opportunity to work out the kinks.

[Dbacksfan12]

I'll still point to the pacing; and say it was timed horribly.  The break in the middle of the second round killed any momentium a lucky (or strong) player may have had.  It gave me the feeling of....wow, he just hit 5000+Spin twice in a row...oh, we have to wait five minutes to see what happens next.  

That, and the show was LOUD.

[Craig Karlberg]

To me, Whammy! was cool to start with.  But, as it went along, it lacked a certain mystique that PYL had.  Not sure if it was the set, the host, the gameplay or a combo of all of then.  With PYL, it was always intresting & no 2 games were played exactly alike.  Even the last spin battles on PYL were fascinating like a volleyball match down to its final point.  Whammy! didn't quite hold the candle for ne.

[jmangin]

Haha--I thought I was the only person who dislikes Todd Newton's hosting (dis)abilities!  I'm so glad there are others like me.

Honestly, the thing I hate most is when people shout.  There is no reason to shout into a microphone (listen carefully, Rich Fields!)...and Todd does a lot of that when he gets excited.  Granted, his enthusiasm is genuine, but he just needs to be a little more demure to be taken seriously.

That, the crapfest round one and the gimmicky Double-Whammies that mess up contestants (which have no place on an adult game show) were the big deal breakers for me.

And what was with the stock footage they used every time the Big Bank square was mentioned or hit?  It's the same slow zoom in on the square every time.  Couldn't they spice it up a little??

[Ian Wallis]

I'm a big PYL fan, and I tried to give "Whammy" a chance.  In the beginning I didn't think it was too bad - but the more I watched it the more I started not liking it.  The double whammies got tiresome and repetitive, the set was lacking and the whole first round left me wanting.

The second season was a bit better - especially the board - but it just didn't have the charm of the original.

[ITSBRY]

I'm gonna be the first to give some really positive feedback on Whammy! and include some stuff that I thought didn't work so well.

Was it as compelling as the original?...NO. How could it be? The original was a cult classic and I don't think it could ever have standed a chance at being the same again. Much of it was the era...the early 80's 'glitz' was just cool! TV is not like that now. As much as we like our classics, that's just not how TV works today. I think they did everything they could to create a modern version while still keeping the show as close to the original as possible.

Whammy's first season was a little rough for me. I enjoyed the show just cuz it was cool to see it back, but there were tweaks that it still needed. The board sound was barely audible and the audience was too loud. Todd was a bit loud too, but from what I've heard, it was genuine excitement not smarmy host stuff. I grew to enjoy him as host.

The 'chicken' round IMO was a brilliant update to the game. It changes the game without changing its premise. Very cool idea and a great way to get the viewer pulled in right away. I never had problems with the double whammys. It was a gimmick, but the whammy itself is a gimmick so who cares?

The second season fixed just about EVERYTHING that was wrong with the first. The new board config, the board sounds, the BIG BANK...all great additions to the game. The only enduring flaw was the loud audience. They seemed to overpower the game many times. One of the great things about PYL was that 'hush' when the player was spinning.

I think had Whammy! been given a longer run, we would have seen more tweaks and ultimately a better show.

My overall view...not PYL, but pretty a pretty darn good remake.

I happen to know that Mandel poured his heart and soul into making Whammy! the best it could be and I think he did a fabulous job. I miss the show, quite frankly (GSN was moved to the digital tier in Indy). It was the first game show remake in years that didn't totally disappoint me in just about every way (cough...Pyramid...).

ITSBRY
itsbry@juno.com