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Illinois Instant Riches
ILLINOIS INSTANT RICHES
Network:  WGN
Running Years:  July 1994-September 1999 (?)
Host:  Mark Goodman
Co-host:  Linda Kollmeyer
Announcer:  Bill Barber
Producer:  Jonathan Goodson

(Note:  This page does not cover the other two Illinois Lottery game shows, “$100,000 Fortune Hunt” or “Illinois’ Luckiest”)

Go to your local convenience store.  Buy an “Illinois Instant Riches” scratch-off ticket.  Scratch it off to reveal 3 TV’s.  Mail it in to the Illinois Lottery.  Get on a game show and win tens of thousands of dollars.  Sound easy?  Of course it is!  That’s why “Illinois Instant Riches,” along with many other lottery shows, became so popular:  it didn’t matter how smart or skilled you were because, as long as luck was on your side, you could win more than a lot of the geniuses on “Jeopardy!”

RULES:

Fifteen contestants were drawn from a pool of scratch-off ticket winners to compete each week.  Each was seated in a special section of the audience with a light pole next to each seat.  To begin, Linda Kollmeyer spun a special wheel which sent a light going around each light pole.  Eventually, when the wheel stopped, only one of the lights remained lit, and that was the one who got to go up on stage and play a mini-game for big money.  Three mini-games were played each day, and the potential mini-games are described below:

Force Field

A field of twelve equally-powered magnets was used along with a special pendulum magnet.  Next to each of the twelve magnets was a dollar amount ranging from $1,000 to $20,000.  The contestant then released the pendulum, and, whatever dollar amount was landed on, that was how much he/she won.  For the next pull, however, the amount just won was replaced with a “Wipe Out” space; hitting this caused the contestant to lose all of his/her winnings.  After the second pull, another “Wipe Out” was added to the space just hit, another “Wipe Out” was added to the lowest remaining dollar amount, and the highest dollar amount was then multiplied by 5.  The contestant then received the opportunity to stop and keep his/her money or risk it for that last pull.  Top prize was $127,000.

Home Run

This game actually had more sports covered than just baseball, but, since the game didn’t change, we’ll just call it “Home Run” for now.  To begin, the contestant picked one of four pennants, worth between $25,000 and $100,000, to see how much the jackpot would be worth for the game.  After this, then the contestant called out numbers from 1-12 to try and move one of three athletes (orange, blue, or yellow) to “home plate.”  Behind each of the numbers was one of the colored athletes, and picking that color moved the athlete one space.  It took 3 spaces for the athlete to cross “home plate,” and whoever crossed first determined the amount won.  If the orange athlete crossed first, then the contestant won $1,000; if the blue crossed first, then $10,000 was won; the jackpot was won if the yellow crossed first.  There were 5 oranges, 4 blues, and 3 yellows on the board, so the odds did change depending on the money.

Double Dollars

A vertical pinball machine was used, which allowed a ping-pong ball to go on a bouncing journey landing in one of eight slots at the bottom of the board.  Every time the contestant landed in an empty slot, $5,000 was won; for each ball that did not land in an empty slot, then he/she received a “strike.”  After the second “strike,” then the contestant could stop and keep his/her money or risk it to try and hit one of the remaining empty slots to double his/her money; a miss cost half of the winnings.  Pending this was successful, then the same offer was given again and repeated until the third “strike” was earned, the contestant stopped, or all eight slots were filled.  Top prize was $720,000.

Mismatch

Three balls, colored yellow, green, and red, were placed inside a drum.  The contestant drew one of the balls, and the color of that ball became the “base color” for the game.  $5,000 was then given to the contestant, and then he/she drew a ball from another drum containing the same three colors.  If the color of the ball did not match the “base color,” then $5,000 more was won; if it did, then nothing happened.  Three draws were played like this, and then, for the final draw, the contestant could either stop or risk his/her winnings that he/she would make another “mismatch;” however, this time, another ball of the “base color” was added.  A successful pull tripled the winnings; a miss cost the contestant half of his/her winnings.  Top prize was $60,000.

Knockout

(Note:  This is not to be confused with the end game “Knockout”)

The contestant was given $3,000 to start with.  A “rocking cube” was then placed in the center of an arena with two standing rods.  The cube was then released for 10 seconds; if none of the rods were knocked over, then the winnings were doubled; if one was, then nothing happened.  A second turn was played with three standing rods, and, if none were knocked over, then the winnings were tripled.  For the final turn, the contestant could either stop and keep his/her winnings or risk it for one final go with four standing rods.  A successful run was worth quadruple the winnings; if any of the rods fell, then the winnings were cut in half.  Top prize was $72,000.

Vortex

The contestant was given $4,000 to start ($3,000 in the first few weeks).  He/she then released seven balls into a circular arena (five yellow and two red).  After swirling around for a while, they would end up in a bowl in a symmetrical shape; if a yellow ball was the center of the shape, then the winnings were doubled; if not, then nothing happened.  A second pull was then played for triple the winnings with four yellow and three red balls.  For the final pull, the contestant could either stop or risk the money by playing again with three yellow and four red balls.  A successful pull here quadrupled the money; a miss cut the winnings in half.  Top prize was $96,000 ($72,000 for first few weeks).

Wrecking Ball

Twelve buildings were placed on a rotating circular platform.  The contestant stood above this platform and released a “wrecking ball” into the arena.  After six swings, for every building left standing, he/she won $1,500.  A second pull was then played with the remaining buildings, and, after six swings, every building left standing was worth $2,500.  For the final pull, the contestant had to leave at least three buildings standing after six swings if he/she went for it; doing so doubled the winnings; knocking over too many cut the winnings in half.  Top prize was $96,000.

After the three mini-games were played, the contestants then got to play an “end game” for more money.  The end games are described below:

Knockout

Each contestant picked one of twelve positions to represent in the arena.  A standing rod was then placed there to represent that position.  Next, a “rocking cube” was released into the arena for 30 seconds; after this ended, if any rods were left standing, then those contestants won however much money was concealed in their slots (between $10,000 and $100,000).  All contestants had the potential to win this game, and all contestants could lose as well!

Thunderball

Think of this as a giant “Ker-Plunk” game!  Ten rods, which held up fifteen balls, were placed in a cylinder in the center of the stage.  Each contestant, starting with the one who won the most money, drew a thunderbolt first.  Each thunderbolt had a number corresponding with one of the ten rods, which was then removed.  If any balls hit the floor as a result, then that contestant lost however many balls were dropped.  Once a contestant lost five balls, then he/she was out.  The game continued until one player was left, and then he/she won the game and selected one of his/her thunderbolts because each concealed an amount of money ranging from $10,000 to $100,000.  Only one contestant could win this game, but there was at least a guaranteed winner!

Starting in late 1995, though, the end game changed to one where the top-winning contestant from the first three mini-games won the right to play against the previous week’s champion in a specially-designed game:

Pot of Gold

The challenger stood facing the champion, who had a computer screen in front of him/her.  The floor consisted of five steps (1-5) and three money spaces ($10,000, $25,000, and “Big Money”), and it was the challenger’s job to reach the money spaces.  To do this, he/she could take either one, two, or three steps at a time; however, before the move was made, the champion “booby-trapped” one of the three potential spaces.  If the space stepped on was “booby-trapped,” then the challenger had to go back to the previous step and try again; hitting two “booby traps” won the game for the champion and $20,000.  If the challenger could make it to the money spaces, though, then he/she won that amount of money and became the new champion; hitting the “Big Money” space meant that the challenger drew one of nine special coins, each concealing an amount of money between $40,000 and $200,000.

A champion could continue to play for up to six shows or until defeated (yes, one person actually DID retire undefeated!).

SOME UNUSUAL TRENDS:

If you think you’ve seen Mark Goodman before, then you probably were around when MTV started; he was one of the original five “VJ’s.”

The lottery show that followed this, “Illinois’ Luckiest,” was played with multiple players playing most of the same games listed above.

This show has a very special record with it:  it remains the only lottery show to be viewed on a national basis (WGN aired it on their superstation feeds as well as local!).  So, everybody got to see why the Illinois Lottery was quite smart with hiring Jonathan Goodson; in fact, many other states made similar lottery shows to mimic the success!


Every game show that I like has at least some kind of skill involved; this had absolutely none whatsoever!  However, something about it captivated me:  maybe it was the big money, or the rotating games much like “Price is Right,” or maybe that it was the only game show that was filmed in Chicago while I was alive (in that sense, I am a little biased!).  Even though the games didn’t have much skill involved, there was still plenty to get excited about:  was that last building going to go down and cost her $10,000?  Can she unseat the champion and win $200,000?  Can he get that yellow runner to the end and take home that $50,000?  If these questions didn’t constantly form in my mind, then I think this show would’ve been very boring; however, it had a very big air of excitement around it!  The hosts did an adequate job, but this was one of those shows where the host didn’t matter; the focus was on the game!  The set looked pretty empty to begin with, but that’s because they had to make room for all the games!  Lots of money could be won in a very short time, and that made this a very exciting show for me!

My Grades:

Game Play:  A- (The rotating games and the very creative ways of giving away tons of money overshadowed the fact that the game was complete luck!)
Hosts:  B (Although both Mark and Linda did respectable jobs, anybody could’ve done Mark’s job since all he basically did was explain the rules!  Also, why couldn’t Linda stop smiling?  Her teeth were not only blinding, but you shouldn’t smile when somebody just lost $15,000!)
Set:  B (A pretty bare set without much to it, but that was to make room for the games, which were pretty good-looking [well, at least most of them!].)
Execution:  A- (The different games over periods of time were very cool, although I didn’t like the change to the “returning champion” format; it’s a luck game show; THERE SHOULDN’T BE CHAMPIONS!)
Play-Along Factor:  C- (Not much for you to do at home, so, if you don’t get into the game and the atmosphere, you’ll want nothing more to do with this show!)

Overall Grade:  B

Despite my grade, I thought that this was a very well-done lottery show; it’s just too bad that “Hoosier Millionaire” aired right before it (much easier to pick up and offered $1,000,000 each week!) here in Chicago.  However, the games were pretty cool to watch, so take a look at them and see for yourself!



 

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