Summer Game Shows officially axed

[Jeremy Nelson]

Is it sacrilege to say I really liked having Elizabeth do the opening spiel instead of the announcer?

I think it was delivered well, and it was blocked well, with the turntable rotating to show the logo right on time. I would miss the opening win/whammy montage, but maybe there's a way to keep it AND Elizabeth's spiel?

Prize-a-Palooza....could this be a crutch by the show's producers to attempt to hasten a $1 Million winner?

In my view, wanting to force a win is the only thing that could justify Prize-a-Palooza's existence, and even there I hesitate to use the word "justify", since gimmickry like that cheapens any win it produces. Almost analogous to the Million Dollar Mission garbage from Deal or No Deal back in the 00s.

Taking the spoiler tags off, since this doesn't give away any outcomes.

Comparing it to the MDM is a little too extreme, considering we're taking about a 1/54 shot versus what eventually became a 50/50 shot at a million dollars. Consider that PaP only awards prizes currently showing on the board, not everything on offer. It wouldn't surprise me if there are configurations in the board shuffle where PaP is showing, but the $150k prize isn't. Even if PaP was hit for every prize on the board. you'd still have to accumulate roughly $200k elsewhere without hitting a whammy- no easy task.

EDIT: Okay, clearly I have too much spare time on this Sunday afternoon. Went back and watched the Big Bucks Bonanza and here's what I found for each board shuffle. In that round, the Prize-A-Palooza square showed up on TV 14 times, and here's what was shown:

Frequency shown on board for Prize-A-Palooza
Prize 1: (Least Expensive): 5 times
Prize 2: 8 times
Prize 3: 9 times
Prize 4: 8 times
Prize 5: (Most Expensive) 2 times (but was hit on first spin of BBB)

Unique Prizes shown on board for Prize-A-Palooza
1 Prize: 1 time
2 Prizes: 8 times
3 Prizes: 4 times
4 Prizes: 1 time
NOTE: one spin showed five prize spaces, with only three unique prizes and two duplicates.

So most likely, you're only going to win 2 prizes on Prize-A-Palooza, and provided you haven't already banked them, it'll most likely be some combination of your three middle prizes.

[TimK2003]

^^ Another unknown about the P-A-P square that we don't know yet:

Is it a one-and-done square, like the Add-A-One or Double Your $$ + A Spin that can only be hit once per episode?

Or, like the personalized prizes, does it go back on the board after a round where a Whammy is hit?

[WilliamPorygon]

^^ Another unknown about the P-A-P square that we don't know yet:

Is it a one-and-done square, like the Add-A-One or Double Your $$ + A Spin that can only be hit once per episode?

I'd imagine it's probably removed after being hit, but until and unless it gets hit on a spin that isn't the final spin of the game, we won't know for sure.

Or, like the personalized prizes, does it go back on the board after a round where a Whammy is hit?

It only appears in the final round of the bonus game, so it's pretty safe to say if it is removed after being hit it doesn't come back.

[TimK2003]

^^ Another unknown about the P-A-P square that we don't know yet:

Is it a one-and-done square, like the Add-A-One or Double Your $$ + A Spin that can only be hit once per episode?

I'd imagine it's probably removed after being hit, but until and unless it gets hit on a spin that isn't the final spin of the game, we won't know for sure.

Or, like the personalized prizes, does it go back on the board after a round where a Whammy is hit?

It only appears in the final round of the bonus game, so it's pretty safe to say if it is removed after being hit it doesn't come back.

As far as the 7/14 episode goes:

1) The PAP square remains a mystery.

&

2) It was one helluva episode -- with at least one or two "firsts" -- one for the  ABC PYL series and one for the 39-year old PYL series in general.

[Kevin Prather]

2) It was one helluva episode -- with at least one or two "firsts" -- one for the  ABC PYL series and one for the 39-year old PYL series in general.

Does one of them involve the number of prizes won by Debbie? I wasn't watching closely, were her front game winnings entirely prizes?

[tyshaun1]

2) It was one helluva episode -- with at least one or two "firsts" -- one for the  ABC PYL series and one for the 39-year old PYL series in general.

Does one of them involve the number of prizes won by Debbie? I wasn't watching closely, were her front game winnings entirely prizes?

Half right.  She won about $65K in cash. I believe the ABC record is her winning 3 of her dream prizes, and the overall record is her winning 10 prizes total. Becky (who won $33K in 1984) won 8.
That was definitely the most exciting game they've aired to date! This one also pretty much confirms that Neil Ross's announcing is done in post.

[TimK2003]

What I was alluding to for #2:

What I was referring to was the fact that with her near-perfect game (no whammies + the bail out), Debbie becomes the highest prize/$$$ winner in PYL history to NOT hit any whammies.

[Chuck Sutton]

in 5 prize packages, she won 16 trips!!!

[Matt Ottinger]

What I was alluding to for #2:

What I was referring to was the fact that with her near-perfect game (no whammies + the bail out), Debbie becomes the highest prize/$$$ winner in PYL history to NOT hit any whammies.

If you're going to use spoiler tags, why not just say what it is you were going to say in the first place and not "allude" to anything?

Also, why are we using spoiler tags on a Big Board thread anyway?  Shouldn't something like this be in Show Summaries?

[gamed121683]

Man! All of these redactions, I don't know if I'm reading a message board or the Mueller Report.

[Strikerz04]

Man! All of these redactions, I don't know if I'm reading a message board or the Mueller Report.

Unlike the Mueller report, at least the redactions doesn't give me a conniption fit.

[MSTieScott]

They're trying to get somebody to win the million. Not just with Prize-a-Palooza, but with the last personalized prize creeping closer and closer to being worth $200,000. Plus, each season, there are slightly fewer Whammies in the bonus game:

Season two
$10K round: 6 Whammies
$25K round: 8 Whammies
$50K round: 10 Whammies
$75K round: 11 Whammies
$100K round: 12 Whammies

Season three
$10K round: 5 Whammies
$25K round: 7 Whammies
$50K round: 9 Whammies
$75K round: 10 Whammies
$100K round: 11 Whammies

Season four
$10K round: 5 Whammies
$25K round: 6 Whammies
$50K round: 9 Whammies
$75K round: 10 Whammies
$100K round: 11 Whammies

They've also added an extra instance of each personalized prize to the board in the $10K round this season in an attempt to get contestants to hit the meaningful prizes earlier.

[Matt Ottinger]

Again, I thought there was a Summaries page for this, and we VERY specifically do not talk about results of a current show in any form on The Big Board, redactions or not.