PVR Alert: Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal

[Mark Holtz]

From Game Show Network's Website:

Game Show Network (GSN) is broadening its programming slate to include the production of its first-ever documentary based on the real-life story behind contestant Michael Larson’s legendary winning streak on CBS’ “Press Your Luck” game show in June 1984. The documentary, BIG BUCKS: THE PRESS YOUR LUCK SCANDAL will debut Sunday, March 16 from 9 to 11 PM ET/PT (and will re-air March 17 and 22 from 9-11 PM ET/PT and March 26 and 28 from noon-2 PM ET).

Larson, an unemployed ice cream truck driver from Ohio, memorized the sequence of flashing screens and awaited the dreaded “Whammy” on “Press Your Luck’s” game board to become the show’s all time money winner, racking up $110,237 in cash and prizes with his two-episode appearance. The documentary will feature both the original episodes of Larson’s game play and exclusive interviews from sources close to the show and Larson, including host Peter Tomarken, co-contestants, Larson’s family and network executives.

Full press release (http://www.gameshownetwork.com/gsn_press_article.php?press_id=86)
Full press release in PDF Format (http://www.gameshownetwork.com/images/db/press_releases/press_release86.pdf)

A synopsis of this episode can be found at http://gscentral.net/larsen.htm .

[BobMurdoch]

God help me, I'm actually interested in this......

I'll be setting the PVR in early March.

[Mark Lamutt]

Yeah, me too.
:)

[dtcarson]

I wish they'd quit calling it a 'scandal'--I guess technically, according to dictionary.com, it's correct, but when people think 'game show' and 'scandal' they usually think 'cheat' or 'fix', which this wasn't, IMHO. If anyone was able to memorize those patterns, and be confident enough in his ability to risk 100k, more power to him, I am envious [by Fridays I forget what I wore on Mondays, so I am envious of his memory ability.]

On a related note, somehow 'Whammy!' just isn't the same thing.....

[HarryD]

I agree. This can hardly qualiify as a scandal. If some guy has the ability to memorize whammy patterns, he deserves everything he can get. Anyone see the movie 'Quiz Show'? Now that's a scandal!!!

[gcutler]

If the fault was lack of "Security" on the side of the gameshow side, then they should have paid him extra money to "Repair" the game for them.

But I guess it is like "Card Counters" in vegas (at least how that was explained to me). IMHO they are just using their smarts to win the game. But when they see you are a Card Counter they throw you out of the casino. I guess anything that throws off the odds they don't like.

[BobMurdoch]

I'm surprised he was the only one to figure it out. I watched the show often and you could see that there was a pattern. Certain overlays had less whammies than the others and it changed from square to square fairly slowly. Anyone who plays the Wheel of Fortune stop the spinning light on the jackpot game at their local arcade could beat the thing.

[buzzdalf]

I used to watch Press Your Luck, but I don't remember this guy. I'll have to check this out.
btw - Whammy is definitely not the same. My wife was a huge Press Your Luck fan (still PVR's it on GSN). She tried Whammy, but quit watching quickly.

[Mark Holtz]

The reason why you don't remember this guy is that the two-part episode aired ONCE on CBS, and was never repeated. It was not part of the programming package when USA Networks aired it, and Game Show Network hasn't aired it until now.

[Jacob S]

I remember some of the programming that USA had including their game shows back in the mid 90's and I liked it then.

[Mark Holtz]

Since it should start showing up on the extended guides for both DirecTV and Dish Network 50x/721, I'm bumping this thread.

[Mark Holtz]

Well, I watched it, and it was quite fun and interesting. Just a simple pattern.... 2-12-1-9-4-3. And, to think that spots 4 and 8 were not only Whammy-free spots, but were consistantly the free spin slots, with slot 4 being $3000/$4000/$5000+a spin.

[BobMurdoch]

Excellent show. At first I objected to the words "scandal", but I'm glad they backed off at the last minute and gave the guy props for legally beating the system and forcing them to make it more random. Kind of like how the casinos went to multiple decks to keep card counters from succeeding at beating the Blackjack dealers.

It was fun to watch the show itself relatively unedited as you could fel the tension go hrough the roof for the audience and the host. Even knowing the system, Larson almost screwed up as he was getting fatigued and started to lose his ability to follow the lights.

I'm just amazed that they ONLY had five sets of supposedly "random" patterns. The dirty little secret is that at the time computers were much less powerful than todays machines and were incapable of generating random numbers. You could make a complicated pattern of numbers, but usually you would have to hit a key to stop the "randomizer" function. By only having 5 sets of patterns, they left the door open for abuse. If they had speeded up the system they might have made it more foolproof, but I'm sure the producers liked the way the frames bounced around the screen at the speed it did.

Bottom line, it was an entertaining show.

[Mark Lamutt]

I agree - watched my pvr copy last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. 32 patterns would have been much more difficult to break, but in 1984, just about no one had a computer or had any idea how they worked. The fact that he solved the pattern and beat the system gets my kudos. Too bad he was such a schmuck outside of the game.

[Lurker]

Well-done and entertaining documentary. I especially liked the fact that they interviewed and brought in just about everyone who was involved. Kudos to the producers and Game Show Network. I hope they got the ratings they wanted.

[dtcarson]

I agree, I rather liked it. Not only the nostalgia of watching a 19 year old game show [which GSN offers anyway], but the tone. Most of the people showed admiration, sometimes grudging, but admiration nonetheless--during the original show, I thought Ed Long was going to give himself a heart attack, he was getting so excited : ) Now Janey, you could tell she was getting PO'd.
Hindsight is certainly 20/20, but Peter pointed out one thing that should have stood out--the fact that only once did Michael do the 'No Whammy Big Bucks Big Bucks' thing--that right there was a signal. But I'm glad they didn't call him a 'cheat', although it looked like they were trying to weasel out of giving him the money originally.

(Mod Note from Scott - I hid the ending with the Spoiler Box)

Although it's interesting, how fleeting fame/money is: he was the all time big winner on PYL, but then he lost his wife, kids, money was stolen, and died of throat cancer, whereas Janie and Ed are back on TV nineteen years later....

[Tomsoundman]

thanks for the spoil

[mainedish]

Some at CBS didn't want to pay him the money. Why? He did nothing wrong. He played the game fair. Very interesting how his life was down hill from that show however.

[timf]

I thought the special was interesting. It's surprising how easy the pattern was and it's a wonder more people didn't take advantage of it like that. Ed certainly didn't have any problem replicating the feat once they taught him the secret.

[buzzdalf]

I just watched this from the PVR.
I thought it was a good show, too. Pretty comical. Showed how much the producers underestimated people in 1984. Thinking know one would catch on to only 5 patterns, wow.

Before we started watching, my wife said, "what did he do, figure out how to hit the big bucks square every time". She seemed to think it was common knowledge that slot 4 always gave away the big money (plus spins) and never had a whammy. But, like I said above, she was a big fan when this show was on.

[BobMurdoch]

Originally posted by timf
I thought the special was interesting. It's surprising how easy the pattern was and it's a wonder more people didn't take advantage of it like that. Ed certainly didn't have any problem replicating the feat once they taught him the secret.

It should be noted that Ed only had ONE pattern to memorize though instead of five. They simplified it for him to give him a chance.

[TerryC]

I laughed out loud when they bragged about their whopping 200 GHz computer now running the board. :D

[BobMurdoch]

That was 200 MHz. 200 GHz WOULD be impressive!

[TerryC]

Oops. It would be, wouldn't it?

[Mark Holtz]

I wonder if the original board controls were recycled from a older, short-lived show Second Chance.