In 1976, The Carruthers Company, the ones responsible for making Press Your Luck, created Second Chance. This was the original version of the show that would ultimately become Press Your Luck. The two shows were very similar, aside from the set (which, by the way, was this ugly yellow-orange conbination that you see). However, there were several differences in the rules that may explain why Carruthers Company had to go back to the drawing board with this one. Let me give you the rundown.

(Note: Special thanks to Randy Amasia and Russell Shiley for info on the ABC run of Second Chance.)

Question Round

Jim asked all 3 players the question. Players wrote down their answers and placed the answers in front of them. At this point, Jim would note that at least one or two of them were right or wrong, based on what everyone wrote. Jim would then give 3 "second chance" answers. If you believe your answer is correct, you may stay with it. If you think you're wrong, or your answer is not one of the 3 choices, you may take a "second chance" and change your answer. Correct answers paid off 3 points on the first try, and 1 point on a "second chance". 3 questions were asked each round.

Bonus Board

After the question round, the contestant island swung around 135 degrees counterclockwise as the bonus board across the stage literally "opened up" like a book. Each point earned in the question round meant 1 spin at the board. Like Press Your Luck, players could play their spins or pass to the player with the most money. However, unlike PYL, the person with the fewest spins in BOTH rounds played first, and ties started with the player on the right, not left. Also, there were several differences between this bonus board and PYL's:

> All 18 squares showed a single value. The board did NOT shuffle.

> The light went around the board INCREDIBLY FAST! And like PYL, the light had a pattern. In fact, in the pilot, it only had ONE pattern. The pattern consisted of a long string of 64 lights!

4, 18, 2, 4, 3, 9, 14, 6, 11, 4, 17, 16, 5, 18, 7, 15,
3, 1, 8, 11, 10, 2, 15, 18, 7, 13, 3, 1, 8, 6, 13, 2,
15, 6, 12, 3, 7, 16, 5, 16, 11, 10, 2, 4, 18, 2, 3, 17,
9, 14, 1, 7, 13, 3, 5, 1, 8, 15, 17, 4, 16, 11, 10, 14

Even moreso than the single pattern, notice that the light hit certain squares more than others. #3 was hit 6 times, but #12 only once. But random or not, if the light is going that fast, does it really matter?

> No squares on the board had the chance to win additional spins, so on the game's last spins, it was possible to be in a situation where you couldn't win.

> There were 3 "Devils" on the board, as opposed to Whammies, in squares 3, 10 & 17. When hit, a wank buzzer sounded, the devil lit up behind the player's podium instead of on it, and the score was erased. There were no devil animations like on PYL. Like PYL, 4 devils eliminated you from the game.

> 6 prize squares were on the board. They all showed gift box ribbons to resemble a package of some sort. When hit, they revealed a picture of the prize won, which Jim would describe and mention the value of. The ribbon image was then put back to conceal a new prize.

Of course, at game's end, the player with the most money won the game and got to keep his or her winnings and come back on the next show.

Now, all this information is taken based on the 3rd pilot episode shot for the show, the only episode believed still in existence. It was shot on November 9, 1976. ABC picked it up soon after, where it ran from March to July of 1977. During its run, a couple things changed from the pilot:

> The board had more patterns. According to Jim Peck & Bill Carruthers, the board had around 9 patterns. Carruthers supposedly asked for more than that, but ABC was too cheap.

> The big cash square in Round 2 was given a special FREE SPIN bonus. Originally offering $5000 with it, it was later a randomly shuffled value from $1000-$5000, in $1000 increments. This prevented the problem that could've occurred in the pilot.

> Winners did NOT return. 3 new people every day.

> There was actually an occurrence where a contestant went on a mini-Larsen-like run. When this happened, ABC suddenly became willing to pop for more patterns to the light.

> The Devils DID pop up on cards like the PYL Whammies, in the same "2 leaning left, 2 leaning right" style as the light markers.

> The wank noise when Devils were hit was shorter except on the 4th Devil, where it was played in full.

Overall, though, as I said earlier, it made sense as to why Carruthers Company had to do modifications to this show (And thank God they did!) in order to make it a hit and a classic.

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SECOND CHANCE logo provided by Michael Klauss. All other pics were created by myself and Trevor Lake.