Second Chance (game show)
Encyclopedia
Second Chance is an American
game show
that ran from March 7 to July 15, 1977 on ABC
. Jim Peck
hosted, with Jay Stewart
and Jack Clark
serving as announcers.
Second Chance is the predecessor to the more successful CBS
game show Press Your Luck
, and was produced The Carruthers Company.
A correct answer on the first guess earned three spins to use in the second half of the round. A correct "second chance" answer earned one spin.
Three questions were played per round, for a possible total of nine spins per contestant.
One of three outcomes were possible after stopping the board:
Later in the series, the big-money space in Round 2 still offered an additional spin and rotated values from $1,000–$5,000 in $1,000 increments.
Artist and animator "Savage" Steve Holland
, later a film director, used Second Chances Devils as his model for the "Whammy" in Press Your Luck
. Peter Tomarken, in the 1983 Press Your Luck pilot, even refers to the Whammy as "a devil".
The contestants' area had a shelf to place their answers on, the back of which was used to display their score, and four cards that would flip up whenever a Devil was hit. The area below the score had 18 "dots" on it, one for each spin the contestant had earned or was passed to them.
The gameboard had cash squares in orange and yellow. Three Devils were also on the board, as well as gift boxes. When a player landed on a gift box, the camera would zoom to the slide which would then reveal the prize.
Round 2's big-money space was originally styled like the others, but also had "FREE" at the top and "SPIN" at the bottom (reading, somewhat clumsily, as FREE 5000 SPIN). Later in the run, the $5,000 space became an eggcrate display with a constantly shuffling thousands digit between 1 and 5.
went on a more elaborate run of the board on Press Your Luck, winning $110,237, after which CBS paid for more patterns to be added to the board.
(which, ironically, replaced Peck's own Hot Seat
on October 25, 1976). Almost immediately the series faced problems, as it was up against the four-year-old The Young and the Restless
on CBS
and a new daytime Name That Tune
on NBC
. On June 10, Tune left the airwaves and was replaced by the new Geoff Edwards
game Shoot for the Stars
.
However, the competition was not what forced Chance to end. Goodson
-Todman
was developing a new game for ABC entitled The Better Sex
, and Chance had simply been seen by the network as a relatively inexpensive placeholder almost since its debut. Chance aired its last episode on July 15.
Better Sex, however, did not do so well either – after Stars was cancelled on September 30, NBC debuted a new Tom Kennedy-hosted show entitled To Say the Least
, which drew a modest audience. Better Sex ended on January 13, 1978 when NBC soaps were expanding air time and was replaced in its time slot by the "debut" of The $20,000 Pyramid
.
, while a remix of it was used on the 1977-1984 Australia
n versions of Family Feud
.
due to network policies of the era. The only episode known to exist in varying quality is Pilot
#3 (taped November 9, 1976), plus an audio clip of an episode opening announced by Jack Clark. The final episode is also available in audio form.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
that ran from March 7 to July 15, 1977 on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. Jim Peck
Jim Peck
James Edward "Jim" Peck is an American television and radio personality based in Milwaukee and is perhaps best known for his time as a game show host.-Early career:...
hosted, with Jay Stewart
Jay Stewart
Jay Fix , known professionally as Jay Stewart, was an American television and radio announcer known primarily for his work on game shows. One of his longest-lasting roles was as the announcer on the game show Let's Make a Deal, which he announced throughout the 1960s and 1970s...
and Jack Clark
Jack Clark (television)
Jack Clark was an American television game show host and announcer. He is best known for hosting The Cross-Wits, and as an offstage announcer for Wheel of Fortune...
serving as announcers.
Second Chance is the predecessor to the more successful CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
game show Press Your Luck
Press Your Luck
Press Your Luck is an American television daytime game show created by Bill Carruthers and Jan McCormack. It premiered on September 19, 1983 on CBS and ended on September 26, 1986. In the show, contestants collected "spins" by answering trivia questions and then used the spins on an 18-space game...
, and was produced The Carruthers Company.
Gameplay
Three contestants competed on each program, consisting of two question rounds and two board rounds.Question round
In the question round, Peck read a question to the three contestants. The players each wrote their answers on a board and placed it on a shelf at the front of their podium (where the other contestants could not see it). Peck then provided information as to how well the contestants answered (e.g., "At least one of you is right"; "At least two of you are wrong"). After supplying three possible answers, Peck offered the contestants a "second chance" to change their answer.A correct answer on the first guess earned three spins to use in the second half of the round. A correct "second chance" answer earned one spin.
Three questions were played per round, for a possible total of nine spins per contestant.
Board round
Each contestant now used their spins to accumulate money and prizes on an 18-space game board. During each spin a lighted cursor rapidly moved about the board. Unlike on Press Your Luck, however, the squares themselves did not change in value. The contestant would stop the light on a square by hitting the plunger in front of them (and is also encouraged to yell "Stop!").One of three outcomes were possible after stopping the board:
- Cash: The value was added to the player's bank.
- Gift Box: A photograph of a prize was displayed in the square and its value added to the player's bank.
- Devil: The contestant lost all of his or her winnings to that point.
Money values
Each round contained a big-money space located at the top of the board (the fourth square, counting clockwise from the top-left corner). During Round 1, landing on the big-money space earned $2,500. Round 2 contained higher cash values, with the big-money space worth $5,000 and an additional spin.Later in the series, the big-money space in Round 2 still offered an additional spin and rotated values from $1,000–$5,000 in $1,000 increments.
Prize values
Prizes in Round 1 were generally valued up to $1,000. Prizes in Round 2 included more luxurious items such as rooms of furniture, trips, furs, and automobiles (generally valued up to $3,000).Devils
Any player who landed on a Devil four times over the course of the game forfeited any remaining spins and was eliminated from further play. If a player landed on a Devil, the light would automatically turn red.Artist and animator "Savage" Steve Holland
Savage Steve Holland
Savage Steve Holland is an animator and film director who wrote and directed the cult films Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer , starring John Cusack. He also directed the film How I Got Into College , and animated the "Whammy" on the game show Press Your Luck. He later went on to create and...
, later a film director, used Second Chances Devils as his model for the "Whammy" in Press Your Luck
Press Your Luck
Press Your Luck is an American television daytime game show created by Bill Carruthers and Jan McCormack. It premiered on September 19, 1983 on CBS and ended on September 26, 1986. In the show, contestants collected "spins" by answering trivia questions and then used the spins on an 18-space game...
. Peter Tomarken, in the 1983 Press Your Luck pilot, even refers to the Whammy as "a devil".
Passing
During their turn, a contestant could pass his/her remaining spins to one of the opponents (usually the contestant in the lead), if they had a fear of the Devil. The one who had spins passed to him was required to use them at the beginning of his next turn. However, landing on a Devil changed any passed spins remaining into earned spins, which gave the player the option to continue or pass their spins to another player.Round 2
After each player had taken all spins earned or passed to them at the end of Round 1, the game moved to the second question round followed by the final board round. The player with the highest score at the end of Round 2 won the game and kept their winnings and returned next show. If two or three contestants end the game with $0 without getting four devils, both or all three come back. This has happened at least once on this show.Set
The show's set was very similar to that of Press Your Luck, including a rotating contestant platform and the presence of the show's logo (albeit duplicated) in the center of the board, replaced by a chroma-key shot of the contestant for their spins. Unlike Press Your Luck, the contestant platform would not rotate to be in front of the board during the question rounds, instead stopping just to the left of the board.The contestants' area had a shelf to place their answers on, the back of which was used to display their score, and four cards that would flip up whenever a Devil was hit. The area below the score had 18 "dots" on it, one for each spin the contestant had earned or was passed to them.
The gameboard had cash squares in orange and yellow. Three Devils were also on the board, as well as gift boxes. When a player landed on a gift box, the camera would zoom to the slide which would then reveal the prize.
Round 2's big-money space was originally styled like the others, but also had "FREE" at the top and "SPIN" at the bottom (reading, somewhat clumsily, as FREE 5000 SPIN). Later in the run, the $5,000 space became an eggcrate display with a constantly shuffling thousands digit between 1 and 5.
Patterns
The speed at which the indicator moved around the board was much faster than on Press Your Luck. Originally, only nine patterns were paid for by ABC when the show began; however, after an episode in which a contestant went on a lengthy run at the board (becoming the show's biggest winner in the process), the network ordered more patterns to be added so the incident wouldn't happen again. In 1984, Michael LarsonMichael Larson
Paul Michael Larson was a contestant on the American television game show Press Your Luck in May 1984 that aired on TV in June 1984. Larson's claim to fame was his winning $110,237 in cash and prizes, at the time the largest one-day total ever won on a game show...
went on a more elaborate run of the board on Press Your Luck, winning $110,237, after which CBS paid for more patterns to be added to the board.
Series
Second Chance debuted on March 7, 1977 at 12:00 Noon, replacing a short-lived variety series starring Don HoDon Ho
Donald Tai Loy "Don" Ho was a Hawaiian and traditional pop musician, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:Ho, of Chinese, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Dutch, and German descent, was born in the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako, but he grew up in Kāneohe on the windward side of the island of Oahu...
(which, ironically, replaced Peck's own Hot Seat
Hot Seat (game show)
Hot Seat is an American game show which aired on ABC from July 12 to October 22, 1976. The series was created by Heatter-Quigley Productions, which at this point were best known for creating Gambit and The Hollywood Squares....
on October 25, 1976). Almost immediately the series faced problems, as it was up against the four-year-old The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and a new daytime Name That Tune
Name That Tune
Name That Tune is a television game show that put two contestants against each other to test their knowledge of songs. Premiering in the United States on NBC Radio in 1952, the show was created and produced by Harry Salter and his wife Roberta....
on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. On June 10, Tune left the airwaves and was replaced by the new Geoff Edwards
Geoff Edwards
Geoffrey Bruce Owen "Geoff" Edwards is an American television actor, game show host and radio personality. Over the past decade and a half, he has been a writer and broadcaster on travel. He was born in Westfield, New Jersey....
game Shoot for the Stars
Shoot For The Stars
Shoot for the Stars is a game show created and produced by Bob Stewart, and aired on the NBC television network. The show aired from January 3 to September 30, 1977, and was produced in New York City...
.
However, the competition was not what forced Chance to end. Goodson
Mark Goodson
Mark Goodson was an American television producer who specialized in game shows.-Life and early career:...
-Todman
Bill Todman
William S. "Bill" Todman was an American television producer born in New York City. He produced many of television's longest running shows with business partner Mark Goodson.-Early life:...
was developing a new game for ABC entitled The Better Sex
The Better Sex
The Better Sex was a television game show in the United States where men competed against women in a "battle of the sexes" format. The Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production ran on ABC from July 18, 1977 to January 13, 1978. The show had two hosts, one male and one female; each one acted as a leader...
, and Chance had simply been seen by the network as a relatively inexpensive placeholder almost since its debut. Chance aired its last episode on July 15.
Better Sex, however, did not do so well either – after Stars was cancelled on September 30, NBC debuted a new Tom Kennedy-hosted show entitled To Say the Least
To Say the Least
To Say the Least is an American game show that aired on NBC from October 3, 1977 to April 21, 1978. The show was produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions, hosted by Tom Kennedy and announced by Kenny Williams...
, which drew a modest audience. Better Sex ended on January 13, 1978 when NBC soaps were expanding air time and was replaced in its time slot by the "debut" of The $20,000 Pyramid
Pyramid (game show)
Pyramid is an American television game show which has aired several versions. The original series, The $10,000 Pyramid, debuted March 26, 1973 and spawned seven subsequent Pyramid series...
.
Theme
Second Chances theme was originally used on the four-episode 1976 version of I've Got a SecretI've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret is a panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?...
, while a remix of it was used on the 1977-1984 Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n versions of Family Feud
Family Feud
Family Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Two families compete against each other in a contest to name the most popular responses to a survey question posed to 100 people...
.
Episode status
Second Chance was likely destroyedWiping
Wiping or junking is a colloquial term for action taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies, in which old audiotapes, videotapes, and telerecordings , are erased, reused, or destroyed after several uses...
due to network policies of the era. The only episode known to exist in varying quality is Pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
#3 (taped November 9, 1976), plus an audio clip of an episode opening announced by Jack Clark. The final episode is also available in audio form.