Whammy, of course, is a faithful remake of the 1980s Press Your Luck. Though this time the board was truly randomized to avoid any Michael Larson replays. I'm not a huge fan of either version, because the gameplay - other than Larson's brilliance - was not much more than pushing the button and seeing what happens.
Game show remakes often get drubbed on the Internet boards, which tend to be dominated by fans of older shows. And for those folks, few if any remakes can come close to the divine splendor of those older classics. I'm not such a knee-jerk foe of newer versions myself. After all, my favorite game show ever, the 1973-82 Match Game, was an inspired comic remake of the sadly square 1960s original.
Once in a long while, a show remakes itself in the course of a long run. Millionaire is probably the clearest current example. Over the years the syndie has drifted further and further from Regis' ABC version (which was a faithful adaptation of the Brit original). There is still a money tree, though oddly randomized, and some multiple choice questions, and the ask-the-audience lifeline.
But otherwise not much is left of the original. And yet it's still recognizably Millionaire. And most importantly, it's still on the air.
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