The new Press Your Luck: As good as I could have hoped for

As a youngster growing up in the Minneapolis area, I was a huge fan of Press Your Luck, despite the fact it was never broadcast in my TV market.

Our local CBS affiliate never aired the show. Sure, The Price is Right, was a fixture at 10 a.m., but somehow the local station had something more important to air at other hours of the morning.

Yet I was a huge fan of PYL, as I would watch it every chance I had while spending holiday breaks or parts of my summer vacation at my dad's house in Wisconsin. Having divorced parents wasn't all bad.

While I've rarely had access to cable TV's Game Show Network, I've had opportunities to watch reruns of the game throughout my life. Like other fans of the show, who have watched it take on a second life via Facebook games, casino slot machines and other interactive platforms, I've hoped the day would come when the excitement of the game show could be produced for a new generation. Yes, there was a new version produced by the Game Show Network more than a decade ago, and the tweaks to the format weren't all bad. But overall it didn't entertain me like the CBS daytime predecessor more than 15 years earlier. (Dang, it has been more than 15 years since the GSN version of PYL was produced. Time flies.)

ABC has been banking on game shows to fill hours of its summer schedule the past couple of years, with marginal success. I have yet to find one I enjoy and make a point of watching. As much as I have loved the 1970s era of Match Game, ABC's Alec Baldwin version just doesn't entertain me enough, despite the fact it remains rather faithful to the 1970s version.

So I had reservations about the new Press Your Luck. I was expecting that it would remain faithful to the 1980s version, (which was the second attempt at turning the game into a hit game show,) but I had my doubts I would enjoy it.

For the most part, I like it, and it's the first ABC game show that I will make a point of watching on a regular basis.

What I like: With one minor tweak, the main game is played the same as the original show.

The question-and-answer rounds that award spins aren't the most fascinating segments, as there's usually at least one gimme question to ensure every player earns at least one spin. But those two rounds are short segments of the game.

The game board has plenty of modern prizes, and more money available than 35 years ago, which you would expect. And it's prime time, you've got to offer more tempting prizes if you want people to watch. Good games are fun to watch, regardless of the prizes, but it's harder to get casual viewers to watch and dream of winning big if there's little on the line. As I have said before, Deal or No Deal fails completely as a game show if the top prize is $10,000.

I like that there is at least one huge prize on the board during round 2. Having a top cash square of $10,000 is twice what the old show offered, and seems appropriate. Having a prize worth nearly four times that amount -- a Jaguar during the debut episode -- on the board certainly makes the game more exciting.

And the new twist to the prime time show, a bonus round, is pretty well done. It has its flaws, but I like it. I'll dissect it in a moment.

Cosmetically, the show is well done. I don't need to see the audience, but the audience is visible in shots throughout the game. I didn't expect the show to recreate the 1980s technology of the original, but the style and sound effects were updates of the original show. There's comfort in familiarity.

Finally, when it comes to the Whammy, the animated character(s) that steal(s) your winnings when you land on it instead of cash or a prize, I have no complaints. The animation wasn't slick, and it mirrors the look and feel of the '80s era. The animations are contemporary, for the most part, but they've recreated a  few of the classic Whammy animations, reportedly, and we saw one during the premiere episode.

What I dislike: I don't dislike Elizabeth Banks, but I will always prefer an emcee over an actor as the host of my game shows. 

I'm not familiar with her work. I know her name, but I couldn't tell you five things about her career. I've never seen her work in the Hunger Games or Pitch Perfect film franchises. And I never will. I've seen her in small roles in a few movies, most notably as Betty Brandt in the original Spider-Man trilogy, which I know only because I scanned her Wikipedia page. She has done little in the realm of non-scripted film and television work, as best I can tell. I have no idea why she was picked to host a prime time game show, but it struck me as an odd choice from the start.

I'm no TV insider, but I have sensed that there was an ounce of pressure on ABC to choose a woman as host one of their new shows this year. Fine with me. I am not fascinated by the aura of Meredith Vieira, but she did just fine for more than a decade as host of the syndicated version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. She's allegedly returning to syndicated TV this fall with another game show, last I knew.

So man or woman, I don't care who hosts the new PYL. But I'd rather have a traditional emcee. Banks is very good in some ways, a little too Oprah for me in other ways.

At times during her hosting, Banks would whoop it up when a contestant hit a big prize, as if she were Oprah, giving away cars to her studio audience. (Her little dance routine prior to the start of a prize round was awkward.) Her cheerleading won't lead to the end of the world, but I'd rather have a host that punctuates the excitement than a host that cheers along with the audience.

I'm glad that Banks isn't cut from the same cloth of so many game show hosts of the past two decades: A known comedian who is looking for a gig to help keep his or her name in the public conscience. Those comedians are often expected to drop their little jokes into the show, it seems, which annoys me. I'm in the minority on this, but I don't care for it. Levity is fine, doing your act, a la Steve Harvey on Family Feud, ain't why I'm watching the game. And when your shtick isn't particularly funny, you've ruined the show for me. Again, I'm in the minority.

Banks isn't Chelsea Handler, thankfully, but she did drop a few quips and jokes into the show. It ain't the end of the world, but it doesn't entertain me, especially when those quips feel scripted and set up. Perhaps she's naturally that clever, but it didn't come off that way.

Her quips and commentary aren't unlike classic PYL host Peter Tomarken. But Tomarken's routine seemed natural. Banks' comments seem forced, and only distract from the game play.

Overall she did a good job of explaining the game and directing traffic. She was surprisingly comfortable during the first episode. I'm not a fan of her style, but I'd take her over Baldwin and Harvey, for sure. Banks might have been perfect for Match Game, actually.

The other complaint I have about the show is that when it gets to the bonus game, the producers seem to think they need to manufacture drama, much like Deal or No Deal or The Wall on NBC. Ish. More on that in a moment.

The bonus game: I wasn't sure what a PYL bonus game would look like. And I was quite surprised by what we got.

When you watch Match Game and $100,000 Pyramid on ABC, you can tell that they're carefully produced and edited so that they could easily be repackaged as two independent 30-minute episodes for future syndication and rerunning. I'm not sure about how they produce Celebrity Family Feud, I won't watch it.

I expected Press Your Luck to be similarly produced -- two games played in an hour, with a simple bonus game crammed into the end of each main game. Instead we get the winner of the main game playing a solo game, under different rules, for a chance at big money. I didn't see that coming.

I like the way they structured the bonus game. You play multiple rounds with the prize values increasing during each round. You have to play every spin given to you at the start of each round, but you can quit when you complete each round if you don't want to risk losing your earnings in the subsequent round. And like always, four Whammys ends your game.

Also fun, they include prizes that are personalized to the player. If it were me, for example, one of the prizes on the board might be a limited edition pinball machine worth $10,000. It's a nice touch.

If I followed the explanation, the value of the "big bucks" goes up each round, starting at $10,000 in the first round, and finishing at $100,000 during the fifth, and final, round. And if you manage to bank $500,000 or more in cash and prizes at any point in the bonus game, you automatically win $1 million. How that $1 million is paid out isn't clear. I assume that $1 million includes the value of prizes already in your bank. But it doesn't matter. I don't foresee anyone winning $1 million on this show, but in contrast to ABC's other prime time games, there's potential for bigger winners than you'll get on Match Game or Pyramid. (Word is that Card Sharks will also have a chance at huge money. I'm guessing it'll be as unlikely on that show, too.)

Nobody is likely going to win $1 million on PYL because it's not an all-or-nothing proposition. With multiple rounds and a chance to stop the game at the conclusion of every round, most contestants aren't likely to risk $250,000 in prizes, if they get that far, on another round of game play. Yes, the cash and prizes are bigger in the later rounds, but one Whammy wipes out all that good fortune you've had in banking $250,000. I just don't expect many people to risk that kind of money

So it's a fun twist, and they dedicate half the show to it. That's fine. As you'd expect, there are commercial breaks during the bonus game, but it's as much fun to watch as the main game, despite the lack of competition between players.

The bonus game does have the potential for early disaster. If the player hits four Whammys quickly, the round will be over within a few minutes, and the show will have to tap dance to fill the remainder of the hour, or edit in more banter between Banks and the contestants in the main game.

A player could also stop after the first round, but that's unrealistic. Even a good run in round 1 isn't likely to net the player $50,000 in cash and prizes. And with bigger prizes forthcoming and Whammys to spare, risking $50,000 isn't that big of a risk, as it could easily be built back up with bigger prizes on the board.

So it all sounds like a fun, multi-layered bonus game, right? The big albatross of the bonus game is the manufactured drama.

In the debut episode, the main game winner, Stevey, (who doesn't have a last name, evidently,) was playing for big bucks in the bonus game. As we learned, he's married, and he and his husband have a newborn infant. During the bonus game, Stevey's husband is sitting on a bench off to the side, shown regularly during the bonus game. The husband dabs tears from his eyes more than a few times. After Stevey banks an SUV in a late round -- a prize added that round especially for Stevey, because his husband had to give up his dream vehicle in order for them to have a child via surrogate -- the husband joins Stevey at the podium for a consultation and hug at the end of the round. It's a teary, dramatic moment that people must love, because they do it on shows like Deal or no Deal and The Wall. I'm not people. I don't enjoy it. I don't mind emotion after a win, but when the drama is manufactured and exploited, you haven't improved your game show. You've cheapened it. And that's what America wants, I guess.

In conclusion: Overall it's a good effort at updating the game and ratcheting up the stakes. It's not perfect, and probably never will be unless I'm producing it. But I'm happy with the end product. It's easily my favorite of the ABC prime time games, and I look forward to watching it again.

UPDATE: Additional observations about the show, following night two, as well as a review of Card Sharks, is available in my following night's blog entry.