Whammy! The All New Press Your Luck

I watched the new game show Monday night. The host Todd Newton didn't seem to have the spark like Peter Tomarken had in the 80's. It lacks what the whammies of the original Press Your Luck gave it. Also I didn't like the new board setup. Press Your Luck in the 80's was more exciting to watch. Maybe because I'm more of an 80's generation kind of guy.

The Big Bank gives contestants a chance to retrieve all that was lost to the whammy in previous spins! The whammies are now 3 dimensional and more entertaining. I remember on the original show, when the pizza making whammy twirled the dough, tossed it in the air and it fell on his face. Now the 3D whammy does just about the same thing, only this time the flat wad of dough lands on the contestant's face instead. I kinda like the one who shreds the documents and the scraps fly all over the contestant. It's just so funny. (No offense to the contestant.) I like being able to play on line interactive as I watch the show on GSN and the GSN site has a fun Whammy game called Whammy Plus where you can get the feel of the game. Peter Tomarken was not bad at all as the host of the old show but I think the new emcee Todd Newton is cool! I hope this show and interactive game runs for a very long time!

The new season of Whammy! (2003-2004)is better than the last one, and I like the way they did their studio. There are new graphics on the big board (I no longer have to look at the Whammy's foot) and there is now a big bank. If you land on the "Big Bank" square, Todd Newton will read a question and if you get it right, you get the whole bank (Cash, prizes, and car keys [if applicable]). The "Big Bank" always starts out at $3,000. When you hit a Whammy, All the cash, prizese, etc. go into the big bank. I think that's all... Also, to all people who don't like the new PYL, then so be it. There are lots of other people who like it and some make it on the show.

The new version of PYL is much more exciting than the original when it was aired back in the eighties on CBS. I just love it when the contestant gets a whammy stuff happens like they get food dumped on them or ping pong balls comes from the top and gets them or whatever else happens when they strike out. That's what made the show more exciting.

OK, I've read the reviews about how bad it is. I for one, think it isn't that bad of a show, but of course not without it's flaws.

The double whammy - OK, I"ll agree it is useless and really didn't need to be in there. I guess GSN/Fremantle wanted to find someway to add mess to it, but this isn't it.

The host - Newton, well, I guess he is OK, though he tended to overemphasize a lot.

New Round 1 - Just a different strategy, I guess.

Prizes over cash - Budget's fault. GSN is no CBS when it comes to budgets. Obviously CBS had the cash to give away during its run, and it reaches out to a bigger audience than GSN does.

Overall - Not that bad of a remake. Could be better if it was on some other station, but I guess no one else was willing to take a chance.