'Press Your Luck' scandal
I saw a blurb that Ken Jennings (of Jeopardy fame) is returning to the show in April for a Tournament of Champions. This got me to thinking about some game show champions of the past.
When I was 10 or 11, I was a Press Your Luck junkie. You may have seen reruns of it on the Game Show Network, or watched it back when it aired. Towards the end of its run, there was one guy named Michael Larson who MEMORIZED the pattern of the board, and raked in about 120,000 dollars (huge cash back in the mid-80's).
I did a searcgh and came up with this link/story. Apparantly, the Game Show network did a special on this guy.
Quote:
Synopsis: Tune into Game Show Network's First Documentary about Michael Larson, Press Your Luck's all time money winner.
Michael 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.
Larson, who had watched "Press Your Luck" since it premiered on September 19, 1983, tried out to become a contestant in the spring of 1984 after fervent study of the show’s game board. The "Press Your Luck" game board was comprised of flashing TV screens which featured money in dollar amounts, prizes and the cartoon character "Whammy." Contestants stopped the flashing sequence and "landed" on a screen by pressing a control button on his or her podium. Landing a "Whammy" would wipe out a contestant’s winnings. After researching the pattern of the flashing screens, Larson deduced that there were only "six" different sequences and upon memorizing each pattern he would theoretically be able to control the board any way that he wished as a contestant.
With this insight, Larson flew to LA with only enough money in this pocket to try out to be a contestant. The executive producer and head contestant consultant disagreed over his acceptability as a contestant, however, ultimately he got his chance. Larson was ready to take on the board.
As a contestant, Larson played it safe on his first spin by hitting a whammy, but on the following two spins he garnered the top dollar amount, $1250. Larson began to really heat things up in round two when he earned seven spins. He pinpointed two screens which he wanted to continuously hit to earn money and additional spins. He immediately started to raise his prize winnings from $14,000 to $18,000 to $28,000. As Larson kept rolling, the show ran out of time and had to cut the show at his 15th consecutive spin and record earnings of $36,851. Prior to Larson’s experience, "Press Your Luck" never had to resume a show that wasn’t completed in the allotted 22 minute time frame.
Spinning on and on, Larson increased his earnings to $70,000 before he began to struggle with the synchronization between the timing of the buzzer and the flashing of the board.
When he hit the $102,000 mark after 40 consecutive spins, Larson relinquished his remaining spins to the other contestants. In the end, Larson won the game and left with $110,237, with over $100,000 of it in cash.
As a result of his outsmarting the board, the producers added sixteen more patterns and the network set a $75, 000 cap on winnings. What did he do with his money? Larson spent his entire earnings in less than two years. Larson, who was later interviewed by the FBI for his alleged involvement with unsecured securities dealings, died in 1999 of cancer in Florida while on the run from the SEC.
