Bring Back Press Your Luck

[Skynet74]

I was just playing the PC version of the game that was produced by Doulos software. Everytime I play that thing it makes me yearn for the days of Press Your Luck again. It was such a simple show, but so much fun! When GSN revived it and gave us WHAMMY! I didn't like the layout of the Board. I hope that the show can be revived one day to more closely resemble it's original form. It really was a cool show just the way it was.



John

[DjohnsonCB]

Although they certainly could do a revival with a board resembling the original, there's probably not a lot of people who would want to see it done.  In the two-hour documentary that went behind the scenes of the Michael Larsen "scandal", Peter Tomarken actually dismissed his own version's board as "dinosaur technology" compared to the "Whammy!" board which he claimed to be Larsen-proof.  There are probably a lot of technos out there who could be as much on top of the patterns as Larsen was, so the old design would have to be a lot more unpredictable in its light patterns.

[JasonA1]

Peter Tomarken actually dismissed his own version's board as "dinosaur technology" compared to the "Whammy!" board which he claimed to be Larsen-proof.

Two things. One, it is, and two, I'm pretty sure those were among his written lines.

-Jason

[Kevin Prather]

You could always use new technology and still keep the old appearance.

[TalkingHeadsFan]

Absolutely, keep the light borders from whammy, and use monitors for everything else. But keep one crucial detail, the morphing of the slides. I think this made the show even more eerie, and reinforced the "Play Against The Computer" feel. When Whammy came on, with the instantly changing values, I was kind of disappointed, but what should I have expected?

[GS Warehouse]

[quote name=\'TalkingHeadsFan\' date=\'Apr 25 2004, 09:52 AM\'] Absolutely, keep the light borders from whammy, and use monitors for everything else. But keep one crucial detail, the morphing of the slides. I think this made the show even more eerie, and reinforced the "Play Against The Computer" feel. When Whammy came on, with the instantly changing values, I was kind of disappointed, but what should I have expected? [/quote]
I taped and watched PYL when I could during its CBS run, but considering I was only 10 when it moved to 4:00 (my CBS station dropped it at that time, opting to air some talk show with this Chicago woman with an unusual name...gee, I wonder what happened to that show :-) ), I never realized that the spaces were square.  It wasn't even until a few years ago when I realized that the aspect of analog TVs is 4:3.  (In programming, this is quite useful when designing interfaces for games involving TV monitors.)  After PYL arrived at GSN but before Whammy! came out, I experimented with an updated PYL game with "monitors".  The same layout as classic PYL made the board look too wide, and I pared it down to 16 spaces, with 5 spaces along each side.  Theoretically, the classic PYL board can be replicated with multimedia projectors, and it is possible to program the fade from one "slide" to another.  But when Whammy! premiered, I was blown away by the new-look board.

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'GS Warehouse\' date=\'Apr 25 2004, 08:24 AM\']... Theoretically, the classic PYL board can be replicated with multimedia projectors...[/quote]
Sitting down for this? The king of game show set design, Ed Flesh, who was responsible for the design and creation of the original PYL board, still has his original blueprints, plans, sketches and notes from that job!

You'll remember there was talk a year or two ago about a feature film depicting the Larsen affair; George Clooney was "attached" to the project for a while. That was the motivation for Ed's rummaging through his home of many years, Rancho Temblor in Sylmar, until he found what he needed to re-create the big board.

Too bad some Hollywood suit woke up and realized that the film would probably close as quickly as "Gigli". After all, there's no logical way to add a helicopter chase, pyrotechnics, a gun fight and a sex scene. I, for one, have no desire to see anything resembling Larsen's or Tomarken's bare ass!   ;-)


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[passwordplus]

Hey, taking this slightly OT, the clip of TTTT in "Catch me if you can" is probably as close as it'll ever get to an actual "game show movie"

So why hasn't GSN made any new Whammy shows this season? I'm sure Todd would be glad to do another round of 'em.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'passwordplus\' date=\'Apr 25 2004, 10:00 AM\'] So why hasn't GSN made any new Whammy shows this season? I'm sure Todd would be glad to do another round of 'em. [/quote]
 Because, you know, the FIRST and ONLY factor that determines if a series continues to produce new episodes is the whim of the host. If he wants to come back, we're shooting, and ratings and network direction be damned.

I don't know how some of you people CONTINUE to amaze me, and yet you do.

[JacksonBrowne1980]

press your luck was a good game showl it aired on CBS; kris lane has a pyl website on his webpage.

[tyshaun1]

[quote name=\'JacksonBrowne1980\' date=\'Apr 25 2004, 04:37 PM\'] press your luck was a good game showl it aired on CBS; kris lane has a pyl website on his webpage. [/quote]
Thank you, thank you very much, Erik. What would this board do without you (besides be less annoyed)?

Anyway, Randy (Janet)it's West if you're nasty(/Janet), the George Clooney "attachment" is news to me. Is the Larson project still floating around out there? Last I heard, the script for the movie was done, but at the last minute Manadalay (Paramount) put it on turnaround (in layman's terms, put it up for grabs for another studio to buy). Did the documentary pretty much kill it?

As for Ed Flesh's design, what was he going with the Aztec-like design for the lights framing the board? Or do you have any further anecdotes on his designs? Boy, you can't tell if I'm a PYL fan, can you?

Tyshaun

[Clay Zambo]

[quote name=\'passwordplus\' date=\'Apr 25 2004, 12:00 PM\'] Hey, taking this slightly OT, the clip of TTTT in "Catch me if you can" is probably as close as it'll ever get to an actual "game show movie" [/quote]
 Except for a little thing called Quiz Show.

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Apr 25 2004, 05:56 PM\'] Anyway, Randy (Janet)it's West if you're nasty(/Janet), the George Clooney "attachment" is news to me. Is the Larson project still floating around out there? Last I heard, the script for the movie was done, but at the last minute Manadalay (Paramount) put it on turnaround (in layman's terms, put it up for grabs for another studio to buy). Did the documentary pretty much kill it?

As for Ed Flesh's design, what was he going with the Aztec-like design for the lights framing the board? Or do you have any further anecdotes on his designs? Boy, you can't tell if I'm a PYL fan, can you?

Tyshaun [/quote]
 I think it is in turnaround hell and will never see the light of day.

As to "What was Ed thinking?", damned if I know. I don't even know what you mean by "Aztec-like", but my eye for design and fashion is not strong. You'd know if you ever saw the clothes I wear!

I don't see Ed as often as I did when "Supermarket Sweep" was in production, so I can't even volunteer to ask him for ya. But rest assured that he can tell you about some purpose behind everything he ever did.


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[tyshaun1]

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Apr 25 2004, 09:38 PM\'] [quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Apr 25 2004, 05:56 PM\'] Anyway, Randy (Janet)it's West if you're nasty(/Janet), the George Clooney "attachment" is news to me. Is the Larson project still floating around out there? Last I heard, the script for the movie was done, but at the last minute Manadalay (Paramount) put it on turnaround (in layman's terms, put it up for grabs for another studio to buy). Did the documentary pretty much kill it?

As for Ed Flesh's design, what was he going with the Aztec-like design for the lights framing the board? Or do you have any further anecdotes on his designs? Boy, you can't tell if I'm a PYL fan, can you?

Tyshaun [/quote]
I think it is in turnaround hell and will never see the light of day.

As to "What was Ed thinking?", damned if I know. I don't even know what you mean by "Aztec-like", but my eye for design and fashion is not strong. You'd know if you ever saw the clothes I wear!

I don't see Ed as often as I did when "Supermarket Sweep" was in production, so I can't even volunteer to ask him for ya. But rest assured that he can tell you about some purpose behind everything he ever did.


Randy
tvrandywest.com [/quote]
 By Aztec-like, I really should have said "southwestern" design, you know, the zig zag design you see on a lot of quilts and blankets fron Native American culture. But sad to see the flick will probably never see the light of day. Could have been interesting.......

Tyshaun

[chris319]

Let's do the math: A game board custom built with 1970s technology and which was intended to be amoritzed over a period of at least 13 weeks, co-starring in a motion picture which will close as fast as Gigli. I don't see "Big Bucks" here. Translation: the bill from CBS Electronics alone would eat up a large part of the revenue from the couple thousand tickets they might sell.

I don't know what people see in this show. Seeing people press plungers while they watch a board with flashing lights is about as thrilling as watching people play Keno.