Press Your Luck?
 

I just got the game show network last month. I"ve been waiting for the show where the contestent beats the game. How often do they show this episode. I remember reading that they had to turn this episode into two episodes. SO do they still so this episode.

What do you mean, "beats the game"? What's there to beat? You win cash and prizes.

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"big bucks the press your luck scandal"

http://www.gameshownetwork.com/gsn_p...hp?press_id=98

Oh yeah, I think I vaguely remember hearing about that. Did he get busted? How did they find out?

If he voluntarily told them that he memorized the sequence and was therefore forced to give back the money and prizes, he's an idiot.

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He didn't break any rules. The sequence thing was their own fault.

D

Game Show Network replayed the docu "Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal" last night. It was pretty fascinating. They showed the entire 2-ep game from 1984 in chunks with some deleted scenes, and analyzed the game along the way. You could see that at the beginning the guy, Michael Larson, needed to determine the reaction time between hitting the button and the board stopping, and that's why he started with a whammy. But once he got that down, he just kept going and going, continually landing on 2 spots that his research had shown never had whammies. They did a lot of slo-mo where you could really see him focusing and then later struggling to stay focused. It took a lot of energy to win for that long. He had like 40 spins in a row, and then had to do 3 spins he got from a pass when he was already wiped out.

The 1984 host was the host of this documentary, and they had lots of interviews with CBS execs, the creators and crew, his ex-wife and family and the 2 other contestants that day. The crew knew something was wrong after about 4 spins but couldn't stop it. The host suspected something but was geniunely happy for the guy and concerned that he'd blow it once he got into the $70K plus range. The execs didn't want to pay but knew they couldn't get out of it. He hadn't done anything wrong. It was their own fault.

It turned out there were only like 5 patterns of about 18 different squares the guy had to memorize. When they showed the pattern he keyed on the most, you could see how easy it was to win the game.

He ended up with $110K. His life went downhill from there, though - really sad. He had about $40K in cash stolen soon after the show, and later disappeared after getting in trouble with the law and died in '99 from throat cancer, spurned on his deathbed by his estranged son. Really, really sad.

Anyway, the docu was great and it's worth looking for. Unfortunately the GSN web site sucks - it doesn't look like you can search to see when it'll be on again.