Strike it Lucky on TV

For those of you who are too young to remember life before progressive slots, the Strike It Lucky television game show was hugely popular in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Presented by Michael Barrymore, who had the oft-overused catchphrase “Alwight?” (think of a cockney saying “Alright?”), Strike It Lucky attracted millions of viewers, reaching it’s entertaining zenith in 1987 according to viewing figures. The UK programme was based on an American show called Strike It Rich, and it did in fact revert to using this title after changing production companies in order to avoid copyright issues.

Each show featured three pairs of contestants – one who answered general knowledge questions whilst the other walked along a line of ten TV monitors. With three Strike It Lucky contestants each having a line of ten monitors, there were thirty monitors in all.

After spending several minutes making small talk with contestants at the beginning of each show (giving him the chance to demonstrate how entertaining he could be when given the chance) Barrymore would give the first contestant a question category and ask how many questions he wanted to answer – two, three or four. Each correct answer would enable the associated contestant by the line of Strike It Lucky TV monitors to move that number of steps. However, if one or more questions were answered incorrectly, play would be passed to one of the other pairs of contestants.

Assuming that the initial questions were answered correctly, the contestant by the TV monitors would proceed one TV at a time. The screen on the monitor would show a prize, a Hot Spot or a Q symbol.

• If the screen displayed a prize the contestants were given the chance to “bank” the prize if they chose not to use their remaining steps on this turn, or they could continue in the hope of winning even more.
• If the screen displayed a Hot Spot they would lose any prizes they had decided not to bank and play passed onto the next pair of contestants.
• If the screen displayed a Q symbol, the contestants were asked a general knowledge question. If they answered correctly, the screen would display an arrow symbol and they could move on to the next screen. If they answered incorrectly the screen would display a Hot Spot, making them lose any unbanked prizes and forfeit the rest of their turn.

The first contestant to reach the tenth TV monitor and answer the question asked at that point (the final monitor always displayed a Q symbol) won the main game. They then faced the bonus game.

The Strike It Lucky bonus game required the winning contestants to cross the same bank of thirty TV monitors, choosing the “top, middle or bottom?” (row) for each of ten steps. Before they were allowed to start the contestants had to say whether they wanted to allow themselves two, three or four Hot Spots.

The fewer Hot Spots the contestants allowed themselves, the more they could win by successfully completing all ten steps. However, if they exceeded the number of Hot Spots they had nominated (for example, by getting three Hot Spots having allowed themselves just two) then the bonus game was over.

The Barrymore Touch

The format of the Strike It Lucky game is very well thought out and can be extremely enjoyable in its own right – the success of the Strike It Lucky progressive slot machine is proof enough of that. However, it has to be said that it was the presenter Michael Barrymore who made the Strike It Lucky game so successful as a television show.

Rather than serve as a functional but replaceable host who simply asked the questions on the cards, Barrymore took the show and genuinely made it his own, even going so far as to break the game’s own rules in order to award the Strike It Lucky jackpot to contestants playing for charity when they ought to have walked away with nothing. The fact that Strike It Lucky is remembered so fondly, and is still popular enough to inspire a terrific Strike It Lucky progressive slot game, is evidence of that magic touch that Barrymore gave the original television show.