User:Daniel Benfield/Press Your Luck 1985-86 Video Archive

...I really should stop using Ryan Rinkerman's collection as a gauge. :P I thought only about 35 episodes of this period of Press Your Luck were online; turns out there's over 70 – and that's not counting the first four weeks GSN's aired!

Note that this section spans from the start of GSN's current lease (November 18, 1985) through the end of the run. Big thanks to Jason Hernandez's episode guides for much of the below placement and PYL Board Configurations for the layout changes (even if the guy who ran the site essentially retired right before the show saw a resurgence).

LEGAL STUFF SO I DON'T GET SUED: I'm only linking to these videos, none of which were uploaded by me, for the purposes of research and as a public record. Footage ©1985-86 Carruthers Company Productions/FremantleMedia and associated entities.

AND ANOTHER THING: The '86 shows are one number higher than on Jason's list because GSN's listings for the six Back-To-School Week shows (August 1985) indicate that no numbers were duplicated – Episode #500 was the one CBS didn't air. The numbers have been fixed on that page, ending with #591 on New Year's Eve, but as of this writing 1986 still begins with #591 on January 2; this also applies to most of the uploads.

November

 * November 18, 1985 (#561/Home Player Sweepstakes III, Day 21: Karen/John/Yolanda; taped from GSN)
 * November 19, 1985 (#562/Home Player Sweepstakes III, Day 22: Karen/Judy/STEVE "BIG BUCKS AND NO WHAAAAAMMMMMIIIIIEEEEES!" BRYANT; taped from GSN)
 * November 20, 1985 (#563/Home Player Sweepstakes III, Day 23: Stephanie/Carol/Steve Bryant; taped from GSN)
 * November 21, 1985 (#564/Home Player Sweepstakes III, Day 24: Shirley/Stephanie/Kurt; taped from GSN)
 * November 22, 1985 (#565/Home Player Sweepstakes III, Finale: Jon/Carla/Shirley, with the all-cash board!; taped from GSN)


 * November 25, 1985 (#566: Patti/Jon/Dan; taped from GSN)
 * November 26, 1985 (#567: Fae/Dan/Jill; taped from GSN)
 * November 27, 1985 (#568: Jill/Cheryl/Scott, with the return of $2,000 or Lose-One-Whammy and a Thanksgiving message from the Whammies!; taped from GSN)

[No episode aired on Thanksgiving.]


 * November 29, 1985 (#569: Alex/Jeanne/Scott; taped from GSN)

December
December 6 brought some more changes to the board: Round 1 upped $500 + One Spin to $750 + One Spin, while Round 2 replaced two of the prizes in [10] with $1250 and $1400 (breaking Pick-A-Corner further).


 * December 2, 1985 (#570: Scott/Hal/Deanne, with a weird second Question Round; taped from GSN {alternate copy of said Question Round plus part of the first, same source})
 * [Hal and Deanne returned in '86. Not sure why.]
 * December 3, 1985 (#571: Valerie/Colleen/Scott; taped from GSN {alternate copy from an old broadcast, second Big Board round only})
 * December 4, 1985 (#572: Colleen/Diane/Danny; taped from GSN)
 * December 5, 1985 (#573: Rocky/Danny/Trish, with the last use of Double Your $$ {no spin}; taped from GSN)

Board changes
 * December 6, 1985 (#574: Courtney/Trish/Susannah, with the debut of new {read: kinda cheaper} board layouts; taped from GSN)
 * December 9, 1985 (#575: Robert/Jackie/Trish; taped from GSN)
 * December 10, 1985 (#576: Robert/Deborah/Mark; taped from GSN {alternate copy, from old broadcast})
 * December 11, 1985 (#577: GUILLERMO HUESCA!/Deborah/Ruth; taped from GSN)
 * [Guillermo went on to host Trato Hecho, the Spanish-American Let's Make A Deal!]
 * December 12, 1985 (#578: Ruth/Genevieve/Greg, with one of the silliest Question Rounds ever!; taped from GSN)
 * December 13, 1985 (#579: Ruth/Gerard/Gene, with Peter picking on a CBS Page; taped from GSN)


 * December 16, 1985 (#580: Gene/Stacey/Pat; taped from GSN)
 * December 17, 1985 (#581: April/John/Pat; taped from GSN)
 * December 18, 1985 (#582: Molly/Tom/John; taped from GSN)

[Note that #582-#588 (December 18-20/23-26) are scheduled to air on GSN through November 14. Since I'm watching the episodes as they pop up online (and quite enjoying them, I might add), I don't want to spoil myself.]


 * December 25, 1985 (#587: Mark/Sylvan/Pam, with the set decorated for Christmas and the only post-1983 show without the flashback intro; features cameos of an appropriately-dressed Rod, and Peter's daughters Alexis & Candace)
 * [Oddly, GSN has this scheduled for November 12.]

[GSN's advance schedules indicate that #589-#591 (December 27/30-31, 1985) will be skipped.]

January
No episode aired on New Year's Day.

On January 6, the show moves from 10:30 AM to either Noon or 4:00 PM (depending on the market) so CBS could debut Card Sharks. This is pretty much the beginning of the end.

Probably on January 8, Add-A-One becomes a regular prize in [7].

[GSN's advance schedules indicate that #592-597 (January 2-3/6-9, 1986) will be skipped, with #598 (January 10, 1986) airing on November 17, 2014.]


 * January 3, 1986 (#593: Marla/Joyce/Chris)

Show moves to Noon/4:00 PM
 * January 6, 1986 (#594: Maria/Kent/David)
 * January 7, 1986 (#595: Kimberly/David/Tommy; USA repeat)
 * January 8, 1986 (#596: Ann/Betsy/Tommy; has most commercials {alternate copy, no commercials})
 * January 9, 1986 (#597: Betsy/Sam/Jenea)


 * January 15, 1986 (#601: Perri/Judi/Darren; USA repeat)
 * January 16, 1986 (#602: Ruth/Mando/Darren)
 * January 17, 1986 (#603: Nancy/Lisa/Mando)


 * January 20, 1986 (#604: Kathy/Lisa/Oliver; average quality)
 * January 21, 1986 (#605: Eric/Mitchell/Lisa)
 * January 23, 1986 (#607: Lisa/Sheryl/Don)
 * January 24, 1986 (#608: Karen/Don/Carolyn)
 * [Carolyn is back from the 10/29/85 show.]


 * January 31, 1986 (#613: Chris/Michael/Joe)

February
On February 21 or 24, Across the Board debuts in [17], replacing $600.


 * February 3, 1986 (#614: Dorothy/Wayne/Joe, with a strange ending {the second time, Peter, not the first}; USA repeat)
 * February 4, 1986 (#615: Joe/Wayne/Dorothy)


 * February 12?, 1986 (#621?: Larry/Linda {Day 2? - $15,424}/Daryl; open, Big Board rounds, and closing segment only {albeit with lots of jumps just before Peter reads the first poem at the end of the show})
 * [Linda wins $11,344 today, for a grand total of $26,768. All the January episodes are known in some way or another, and Across the Board isn't present yet.]
 * February 1986 (#6??: Ivan/Phyllis/Susan; Big Board rounds only, audio/video is a bit off)
 * [Ivan wins with $9,816. See above for notes.]


 * February 17, 1986 (#624: Grace/Hal/Randy; USA repeat, open and Big Board rounds only)
 * February 20, 1986 (#627: Drew/Kathy/Louise)

Across the Board added (began February 21 or 24)
 * February 24, 1986 (#629: Zena/Robert/Ellen, with the first known appearance of Across the Board!)
 * February 25, 1986 (#630: Bill/Zena/Deanne)
 * February 28, 1986 (#633: Michael/Jeff/Etta; USA repeat, begins during second Big Board round, ends right after segment does)

March
Charlie O'Donnell fills in for Rod from about March 24-April 14.


 * March 26, 1986 (#651: Cathy/Karl/Molly; taped from USA, with most commercials)
 * March 27, 1986 (#652: Susan/Rick/Karl)

April

 * April 1, 1986 (#655: Kate/Robert/Bob; taped from USA, with commercials)
 * April 3, 1986 (#657: Sandy/Rod/Leslie)


 * April 7, 1986 (#659: Leslie/Liz/Fred; intro and Big Board rounds only)
 * April 8, 1986 (#660: Ken/Leslie/Connie; begins at second Big Board round)
 * April 10, 1986 (#662: Ken/Lisa/Mark)


 * April 14, 1986 (#664: Don/Maria/Robin)

Rod returns
 * April 16, 1986 (#666: Maurine/Scott/Don)
 * April 17, 1986 (#667: Tommie/Mindy/Scott; begins at second Big Board round)
 * April 18, 1986 (#668: Mindy/Pat/Scott)

May

 * May 5, 1986 (#679: Marc/Aaron/Kathryn; begins during first Big Board round, average-to-bad video, low audio)
 * [The champ who was supposed to be here, Peggy, had missed her flight!]
 * May 7, 1986 (#681: Vance/Gail/Joe; USA repeat, begins during first Big Board round)
 * May 8, 1986 (#682/"Bupkis!": Llewellyn/Dave/Joe)


 * May 12, 1986 (#684: Mark/Susan/Rita)


 * May 19, 1986 (#689: Tucker/Frank/Jody)
 * May 22, 1986 (#692: Erica/Rich/Joan)
 * May 23, 1986 (#693: Erica/Mordecai/Jeannie; USA repeat {the last episode they aired!})

June
On June 4, the Whammy slides in [12] and [14] (both Round 2) were altered: the former from "taunting" to "big tongue", the latter from "hands-on-hips" to "Egyptian".

On June 17...the bottom pretty much fell out of the budget – the Round 2 board was slashed, hard, with some decreases and movements that made low to no sense and only impaired Pick-A-Corner, Advance Two Spaces, and the Move One Space in [14] further.


 * June 12, 1986 (#707: Billy/Jo/Tim; most of second Big Board round, ends just after segment does)
 * June 13, 1986 (#708: Jo/Robert/Donna)
 * June 16, 1986 (#709: Bruce/Jo/Paige {alternate copy, with the clips shown during I Love The 80s 3D edited in})

Round 2 board severely cheapened
 * June 17, 1986 (#710/"Have we been renewed?": Scott/Paige/Jacques, with the "N" falling off Paige's "SPINS" placard and a good example of just how broken Pick-A-Corner had become by this point; has commercials {alternate copy, no commercials})
 * June 18, 1986 (#711: Bill/Yvonne/Paige, with another board change after a pathetic Pick-A-Corner hit the previous day)
 * June 19, 1986 (#712: Yvonne/Lauren/Dave)
 * June 20, 1986 (#713: Howard/Yvonne/Sue)


 * June 23, 1986 (#714: Yvonne/Paul/Annemarie; USA repeat from 2/23/93)
 * June 24, 1986 (#715: Annemarie/Dailyn/Robert)
 * June 25, 1986 (#716: Annemarie/Nora/Mike {alternate copy})
 * June 26, 1986 (#717: Keith/Linda/Jim; has commercials)
 * June 27, 1986 (#718: Greg/Regina/Keith; partial episode, 9:13 only)


 * June 30, 1986 (#719: Jim/Greg/Patricia)

July
By this point, Press was...pretty pathetic, actually: the Round 2 board kept getting cheaper, the Noon/4:00 PM slots meant more and more affiliates were tape-delaying or pre-empting the show, and the chances of moving into syndication rested somewhere between slim and none.

On July 25, after months of becoming more and more broken with no hope of ever getting back to what worked, Pick-A-Corner is replaced by $1000 + One Spin.


 * July 1, 1986 (#720: Angie/Greg/Carol)
 * July 2, 1986 (#721: Mark/Donna/Greg)
 * July 3, 1986 (#722: Jim/Cynthia/Mark; second Big Board round only, ends just after game win)
 * July 4, 1986 (#723: Jane/Cynthia/Robert; has most commercials)


 * July 7, 1986 (#724: Lillie/Robert/Gary)
 * July 8, 1986 (#725: Michael/Gary/Marlise)
 * July 9, 1986 (#726: Paulette/Marlise/Dan)
 * July 10, 1986 (#727: Dan/Marlene/Sam)
 * July 11, 1986 (#728: Sam/Todd/Mary)


 * July 15, 1986 (#730: Michelle/Dave/Todd)
 * July 16, 1986 (#731: Margo/Dave/Curt)

Values change (slightly; a net increase of $250 isn't really that good...)
 * July 17, 1986 (#732: Dave/Anitra/Tessie, with a pretty short Round 2; audio/video out of sync)
 * July 18, 1986 (#733: Anitra/Pam/David; starts at first Big Board round)


 * July 22, 1986 (#735: Debbie/Craig/Andre, with Peter losing his clothes!)
 * July 23, 1986 (#736: Rick/Steve/Andre)

[Repeats aired from July 28-August 29: College Week '85, followed by some shows from Summer 1984.]

September
Sometime between September 16 and 26, one last change was made to the Round 2 board: the $750 + One Spin in [16] was upped to $1000 + One Spin, with the same color.


 * September 16, 1986 (#750!: Kathy/Joe {Day 3?: $20,334}/Danny {alternate copy})

Last Big Board change
 * September 26, 1986 (#758/Finale: Andy/Karen {Day 2?: $26,806}/Bill, with the "Whammy outhouse" and a few signs they knew it was the end)