Hacker Cinema
Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal
2003 · Film · documentary · 83 min
Directed by James P. Taylor Jr.
On May 19, 1984, an out of work ice cream truck driver from Southwestern Ohio broke the bank on CBS' hit game show of the mid-1980's "Press Your Luck" and made TV history by setting a record for the most money won by a contestant in one appearance on a daytime game show; A record which may have been long been surpassed with the Big-Jackpot game shows of today, but still stands strong as the biggest win in "Press Your Luck's" history. Was it brilliance? Was it cheating? And how did he do it? "Press Your Luck's" host and crew, the family of Michael Larson - the man who walked away with $110,237 in cash and prizes - and Michael's opponents from that fateful day gathered in Hollywood 19 years later to relive the events of that remarkable event in TV history.
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2 comments on Hacker News
The Michael Larson story is absolutely fascinating. The Game Show Network produced a made-for-TV documentary about this called Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal that I highly recommend watching. If I remember correctly, they brought in Long and Litras to play a re-created Press Your Luck game, who were both successfully taught how to time the board the way that Larson did. If one knew the board as well as Larson did, it'd be easier to beat than any arcade timing game.
If you're interested in game show cheating scandals, I also highly recommend Major Fraud, a documentary about a cheater on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The summary of that one is an audience signal via coughing.
There is a documentary about the incident called "Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal" on Youtube:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFEBCve-3Cw
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzNMCXWCZzQ
as well as the original episode itself:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h07eO0SKtUI (better quality, split into parts)
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkM10SxmmwU (lower quality, whole episode)