So I'm tuned in to the preview episode that's airing tonight, and I thought I'd share thoughts on what I see and hear.
Overall: THIS is the show we should've gotten in 2002 when instead we got Whammy. THIS is recognizeable for what it is.
Set: familiar in all the ways that count. A contestant island that rotates through 180 degrees, instead of 90 like Whammy's. Even though some elements are updated, like the logo, overall it doesn't detract from the overall experience. I love their use of LEDs on the front of the contestant island to seamlessly go from the spin-round graphics to the question-round ones. The comparison is like the Celebrity Family Feud set with the Ray Combs set.
Music/SFX: sounds like a jazzy updated version of the classic music. I couldn't hear it all that clearly over the audience, but the classic melody was definitely present. All the classic sound effects return, except for the "boing" of the Whammy popping up (it's slightly more comedic than the classic one) and the sound of the board spinning, which sounds like it was recycled from Gameshow Marathon.
Hostess: I watched a few classic shows this afternoon, and while Elizabeth Banks is not Peter Tomarken, she obviously brings energy and enthusiasm to the show, and I think that once she gets a few shows under her belt and gets comfortable with the format, she'll make it her own just like Peter did. (His early episodes were really clunky compared to the later ones.)
Random Musings:
One thing that I found interesting is that during the question rounds we don't get the three answer choices above the players like we used to, even though the shot is still used exactly as it was in 1986.
The graphics on the screens around the board are very well done, during both the question and spin rounds (there's a "blank board" animation that they use).
The Whammies are obviously newly animated, but they might as well be straight from the classic show (which is a great thing to say about them). I don't know who they got to do the voices, but they even sound the same.
It felt like they were going too hard to milk the classic phrases like "Big Bucks" and "Press Your Luck."
I like that there are no longer commercial breaks between the question and spin rounds, with one break reserved for the second spin round (kind of like Whammy did).
Interesting that Elizabeth has to actually ask them to show the value of the prizes they land on, but it's kind of nice that the board is an actual screen this time that they can use for the purpose.
The shots they use are really nifty this time, including a nice high-angle shot behind the players as they spin, which shows a wide shot of the contestants, the board, and Elizabeth.
The buzzers aren't the familiar cupcake buzzers that we saw in 1984 and 2002, they're taller and more round.
We'll see what happens in the rest of the second spin round and the bonus round.