Press Your Luck scandal

Press Your Luck CBS' Press Your Luck is a half-hour television game show that ran from September 1983 to September 1986, hosted by Peter Tomarken. Each half of the show began with a round of multiple-choice questions, where correct answers earn "spins" on a randomly generated game board known as the "Big Board". The Big Board was a ring of 18 light-up squares, six wide and five high, that rapidly illuminated in a seemingly random sequence until a contestant pressed their button to stop the lights. The sequence was originally limited to only five different patterns, a holdover from the pilot episode's limited budget, an Achilles' heel and calculated risk understood by the show's producers. Each chosen square represented three results, including prizes such as vacations, cash, and extra spins on the board; each spin also had a one-in-six chance to display a "Whammy", an animated character who eliminated that contestant's accumulated winnings. Over the show's first few episodes, winnings averaged about . Michael Larson Paul Michael "Mike" Larson was born to Ruth Larson on May 10, 1949 in Lebanon, Ohio. One of four brothers, he graduated from Lebanon High School in 1967. By 1983, he was twice divorced and living at the home of his girlfriend, Teresa Dinwitty; she would later say of her "boyfriend and common-law husband, 'He always thought he was smarter than everybody else,' and that he had a 'constant yearning for knowledge. Larson had three children by three different women. Larson's penchant for "always running some little scam or another" began at an early age, secretly selling marked-up candy bars to other middle-school students. Other schemes included repeatedly opening and closing bank accounts under assumed identities with those that offered for each new customer. He once registered a business under a family member's name so as to fire himself and collect unemployment insurance. He was arrested by Ohio law enforcement three times between 1969 and 1982 for receiving and concealing stolen goods, larceny by trick, and petty theft. By 1983, he worked repairing air conditioning systems, drove a Mister Softee-branded ice cream truck, and spent the rest of his time studying a wall of twelve televisions and looking for get-rich-quick schemes. ==Preparation==

Larson first saw Press Your Luck in November 1983. He bought a videocassette recorder (VCR), spent weeks analyzing the Big Board, and came to two conclusions: the lights moved in five different predetermined patterns, not randomly, and the fourth and eighth squares always contained cash and an extra spin. Larson spent the next few months honing his skill at the game, using the VCR pause button to practice his timing. Larson spent the last of his money flying from Ohio to Hollywood in May 1984, and auditioned for Press Your Luck. Hyping himself as an appealing contestant, he told interviewers about being unemployed, his bus ride to Hollywood out of love for the show, being unable to afford a birthday gift for his six-year-old daughter, and buying his dress shirt at a thrift store down the street for . Bill Carruthers, the show's executive producer, was impressed by Larson and won over by his charisma. Contestant coordinator Bob Edwards did not recommend Larson, but because he could not articulate why, Carruthers overruled the decision. ==Episode==

Larson's episode of Press Your Luck was recorded on May 19, 1984. With production code number 0188, the episode was produced by Bill Mitchell and executive produced by show co-creator Bill Carruthers. Larson was seated at the center lectern. To his right was returning-champion Ed Long from California, a Baptist minister; to his left was dental assistant Janie Litras. In the first question round, Larson earned three spins. He stopped his first spin on square 17, which revealed a Whammy, but also allowed him to calibrate the timing of his button presses. His next two spins landed on square four, giving Larson the lowest first-half total of , while both Long and Litras managed to avoid the Whammy and respectively accumulated and with their spins. Second half In the second question round, Larson earned seven initial spins of the Big Board, and his last-place position earned him the first spin. In his first 15 spins, Larson occasionally missed his safe squares of four and eight, but was successful in avoiding Whammies, earning cash and prizes of . Beginning with spin 16, he then landed only on squares four and eight for 29 consecutive spins, totaling in cash and prizes. After this 44th overall spin, Larson was losing his focus. On spin 45, Larson missed the extra-spin squares: "I remember that moment. I was just so drained, [...] I suddenly forgot where the Whammies were. So I stopped and passed control of the board to the other players. I felt so relieved that it was over." Ed Long received Larson's remaining spins and hit a Whammy on his first. When the show's control-booth operators realized what Larson was doing, they called Michael Brockman, CBS's head of daytime programming. Brockman later told TV Guide, "Something was very wrong [...] Here was this guy from nowhere, and he was hitting the bonus box every time. It was bedlam, I can tell you." Press Your Luck producers wanted to stop the show, but without any apparent rule-breaking by Larson, they were forced to allow it to continue. When Litras's turn came around, she passed her last three spins to Larson, who was obligated by the rules to use them. Larson stopped the first two spins in squares four and eight, but he stopped the third too early and it landed on square 17. Instead of the Whammy again, though, it was a trip to the Bahamas. That ended the game, and after 47 spins of the Big Board, Michael Larson had won cash and prizes (including a sailboat and all-inclusive vacations to Kauai and the Bahamas) totaling . Ed Long still received his from the previous episode, while Janie Litras's last Whammy had left her with nothing. Fallout CBS's Standards and Practices department thought that Larson had cheated and was not entitled to his winnings. Network executives pored over the footage, but could find no evidence of malfeasance. Former executive for CBS Daytime programming Bob Boden explained in 2007 the network's "prevailing wisdom [...] was that he hadn't cheated; that he was just smarter than CBS." A few weeks later, they mailed Larson a check. He was ineligible to return to the show (as Long had done) because he had exceeded the network's limit of . The episode aired on June 8 and 11, 1984, broken into two parts due to its length. Some at CBS had wanted to cancel the episode entirely, and afterwards made the decision that it never be aired again, even including that requirement with their broadcast syndication contracts. To prevent anyone from repeating Larson's success, the Big Board was programmed with 27 additional light patterns, and CBS set a limit for contestants' winnings. Larson later contacted Press Your Luck contestant coordinator and issued an unanswered challenge: "I know you've added patterns to the board, but I bet I can beat you again. How about a tournament of champions?" ==Legacy==

With the 1994 release of the film Quiz Show, Larson appeared on Good Morning America to discuss the film and his performance on Press Your Luck. His reign as the largest U.S. daytime game show winner lasted until 2006 when The Price Is Right contestant Vickyann Chrobak-Sadowski won . She was succeeded by Sheree Heil, whose 2013 winnings on the same show totaled . Adaptations A film adaptation of the event was in the works by August 2000; titled Press Your Luck, the comedy film featured Howard Franklin as screenwriter and director, Nicolas Cage as producer, and had cast Bill Murray to portray Larson. On November 13, 2017, Modernito Books published (Larson - The Luckiest Man in the World), a graphic novel by Javi de Castro, about Larson's Press Your Luck winning streak. On September 5, 2024, the drama–thriller film The Luckiest Man in America premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, starring Paul Walter Hauser as Larson. Larson Michael Larson paid or in taxes. He immediately spent some of his winnings buying lavish gifts for his daughter's sixth birthday (the day before the episode filmed); more was invested in a Ponzi scheme involving real estate. In late 1984, Larson withdrew in one-dollar bills to try and win a local radio contest by matching serial numbers. After redepositing half of the bills, the remaining was stored around Dinwitty's house while the two exhaustedly checked each bill. One evening, while the two attended a Christmas party, and with neighbors knowing of the cash, burglars stole the money. Larson was convinced Dinwitty was involved in the theft, and she later fled her home with her children until Larson vacated. , the burglary had not been solved. After working as an assistant manager at Wal-Mart, Larson sold shares in a fraudulent multi-level marketing scheme; in 1995 he was charged for taking (equivalent to about $M in ) from 14,000 investors. Under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he fled Ohio for Apopka, Florida, where he died of throat cancer on February 16, 1999. Larson became regarded as a modern-day folk hero to some people, while others "regard him as a cheap huckster or a likable-but-occasionally-creepy crackpot." In 2003, Variety opined that the scandal nor Larson ever hit critical mass à la [the MIT Blackjack Team] and Charles Van Doren". Speaking on Larson's win the same year, the Boston Herald John Ruch wrote that Larson should be "remembered as an original hacker and a classic American hero." In 2011, Damn Interesting opined that despite the 1984 win having been called a cheat, a scam, or a scandal, "his impressive performance on Press Your Luck may be one of the only honest days of work that Michael Larson ever did." ==See also==