Press Your Luck is an American television daytime
game show that ran weekdays on CBS from September 19, 1983 to September 26, 1986, where contestants collected "spins" by answering
trivia questions and then used the spins on an 18-space game board full of cash and prizes. The person who amassed the most in cash and prizes at the end of the game won.
Peter Tomarken was the show's host and
Rod Roddy was the primary announcer.
The show was known for the "Whammy," a red cartoon creature wearing a cape. Landing on any of the Whammy's spaces on the game board took away the contestant's money, accompanied by an animation that would show the Whammy taking the loot?but frequently being chased away, blown up, or otherwise humiliated in the process. The animated Whammies were created and animated by
Savage Steve Holland and
Bill Kopp and voiced by creator/executive producer
Bill Carruthers. Approximately 80 different animations were used and the Whammy became popular enough that at the end of many episodes, Tomarken would read a "Whammy poem", sent in by a home viewer. "Whammy poems" would also appear after the first round of the Big Board or after the second question round before going to commercial on occasion.
The show originated from
CBS Television City in Los Angeles. During its first few months, it taped in studio 33 (also known as the
Bob Barker Studio), but by 1984 it regularly shot in studio 41.
?Big bucks, big bucks, no whammies, no whammies?.?