TiVo Community Forums Archives - Press your luck "scandal"

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Press your luck "scandal"
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Posted by: omnibus

Pretty interesting.

This unemployed Ice Cream Truck driver won $110,000 and change by figuring out and memorizing 5 patterns on the Big Board.

After some discussion CBS decided that he did nothing illegal and he did follow the rules and so he was paid.

This took place in 1984. The producers of the show immediately increased the randomizer patterns so the episode did not repeat itself.

The new incarnation of the show, called "Whammy" uses a modern computer and they stated that it produces a truly random output. I don't know about that. I may be wrong but in computing I don't think there is any such thing as a truly random number.

Posted by: pyrite504

I thought that was urban legend. Was it true?

And I don't like the new version anywhere near as much as the old one.

Posted by: jmenjes

Yep, it's very true. The episodes were shown for the first time in over 17 years tonight. Quite a fascinating stroy about how Larsen did it.

The program will air again Monday night at 9:00 pm ET, after the new season of Whammy! starts,

Posted by: Cathy/Vik

There's a new version of it??? COOL!

Posted by: vertigo235

MAN! I wanted to see it when it was finally re-shown. When was it on?

LAst I heard they were making a movie about it and Bill Murray was going to play Larsen.

Posted by: sallypnut

For those looking to record it, it's called "Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal".

I'm looking forward to watching it. Thanks for the heads up!

I remember hearing a few years ago that a movie was in the works about this story. Anyone know anything about it?

EDIT: You guys are fast! ;)

Posted by: jmenjes

Last I heard about the movie was that it was shelved.

The second season of Whammy! starts Monday night at 8:00 pm. (Look for Peter Tomarken to appear on the 8:30 show, BTW.)

Almost forgot: The two players who went against Larsen and lost will play Whammy on Monday night against Larsen's brother (Michael Larsen himself died in 1999). It'll be the 8:30 show.

Posted by: trainman

quote:
Originally posted by jmenjes
The episodes were shown for the first time in over 17 years tonight.

Well, sort of...they weren't quite shown in their original form. You missed the freeze-frames they had to do to cut it into two episodes (which GSN called "Act One" and "Act Two" without really explaining what that meant) and to add a couple of commercial breaks while Michael Larson was still spinning on the second episode, and then the long interview segment Peter Tomarken did with Larson actually showed up, in part, near the beginning of the documentary. Also, they didn't show the part where Rod Roddy described Larson's trips to Bermuda and Kauai, plus the part where he described the "lovely parting gifts," and the original closing credits.

But you'd have to be an obsessive game show fan to care that they didn't show that stuff...of course, most obsessive game show fans have seen these episodes on tape from their original broadcast anyway. :D

Posted by: Cathy/Vik

Oh, it's on the Gameshow Network...
I dont' ahve that... :(

Posted by: jaynas

Cathy, are you really blind?

Posted by: Skittles

quote:
Originally posted by jmenjes
Last I heard about the movie was that it was shelved.

Sad to say, that's correct. The script was passed around Hollywood for awhile and was considered one of Murray's pet projects for most of the late 90's. Unfortunately, none of the major studios offered funding, and the project was later shelved.

Posted by: vertigo235

quote:
Originally posted by SkittlesDFW
Sad to say, that's correct. The script was passed around Hollywood for awhile and was considered one of Murray's pet projects for most of the late 90's. Unfortunately, none of the major studios offered funding, and the project was later shelved.

Bummer

Posted by: DancnDude

The scandal show was really interesting.

omnibus, You are correct in assuming that there is no "true" random number generator, but the idea here is that the new Whammy board doesn't move in set patterns. With this, it would be impossible for any human to be able to predict what space will be landed on since the board is acting in a random pattern.

Posted by: doom1701

quote:
Originally posted by DancnDude
omnibus, You are correct in assuming that there is no "true" random number generator, but the idea here is that the new Whammy board doesn't move in set patterns.

Actually, after Mr. Icecream won big, the old Press Your Luck board was reprogrammed to be random as well.

I might have to TiVo this thing tonight; with this and Dune I'm pretty much booked up. I remember when it originally happened; we had heard about it a couple days before it aired, and my dad taped it both mornings. Too bad he probably doesn't have the tapes anymore...

Posted by: JolDC

quote:
Originally posted by doom1701
Actually, after Mr. Icecream won big, the old Press Your Luck board was reprogrammed to be random as well.
<snip>

Actually (:)), they only added 16 more screens to the rotation to make it more difficult.

A good page with screenshots and the story:

http://gscentral.net/larsen.htm

Posted by: Dubbadown

Fascinating episode. I turned it on midway through after reading about it on here. I had to switch my Boomtown recording to VCR. I remember this story when it first happened and about Bill Murray wanting to make a movie out of it. I wonder if this special will resurrect the project. It looks like it will be on all week long so those of you with conflicts should find a way to get it. And I agree, the new version of Whammy has none of the luster of the old Press Your Luck!

Posted by: kyote

If by "Modern Computer" you are referring to 200mhz pc then your correct. :)

I was shocked when they said what PC was running the board. But then, if it's running under linux then that would explain it.

quote:
Originally posted by omnibus
Pretty interesting.

This unemployed Ice Cream Truck driver won $110,000 and change by figuring out and memorizing 5 patterns on the Big Board.

After some discussion CBS decided that he did nothing illegal and he did follow the rules and so he was paid.

This took place in 1984. The producers of the show immediately increased the randomizer patterns so the episode did not repeat itself.

The new incarnation of the show, called "Whammy" uses a modern computer and they stated that it produces a truly random output. I don't know about that. I may be wrong but in computing I don't think there is any such thing as a truly random number.

Posted by: omnibus

quote:
Originally posted by kyote
If by "Modern Computer" you are referring to 200mhz pc then your correct. :)

I was shocked when they said what PC was running the board. But then, if it's running under linux then that would explain it.

Hey, I figured I heard them wrong when they said 200mhz, that's why I substituted "modern computer" :confused:

Posted by: marksman

I caught that last night. I saw a mention of the show somewhere else, did a quick google search and got a link to some background on the story:

http://gscentral.net/larsen.htm

Anyways, I found the two hour documentary pretty interesting. Although there were two extended periods where the main audio track was turned way down and all you could really hear was the background music.

Anyways, interesting story. Not terrbily high brow, but they didn't present it as an earth-breaking serious event.

I have to give the guy a lot of credit for doing it.

Posted by: xyz

I saw it and thought it was really interesting too. I was surprised though that this guy was smart enough to figure that out and memorize those patterns, but then he left 50,000 in 1 dollar bills in his house and got robbed. That wasn't very smart.

Posted by: kyote

lol. You heard them right my friend. :)

I was a bit surprised when I heard that part. I was like, "woohoo! 200mhz of game show power!"

quote:
Originally posted by omnibus
Hey, I figured I heard them wrong when they said 200mhz, that's why I substituted "modern computer" :confused:

Posted by: HTH

I remember watching that show when I was in my early teens and figuring out the patterns myself.

Posted by: KRS

It would be much easier to do this today what with TiVO and everything. The frame advance screens are sharp and clear as opposed to the staticy stills you get from a VCR.

I liked how in the special, the one executive kept saying that he thought Larson was suspicious and did not want to book him. He clearly had secret desires to be a detective ("The Ice Cream truck story checks out, but there is something about that guy I can't put my finger on.")

While I know that the Game Show Network does not have a lot of dramatic content, I felt that stretching the special to 2 hours was a bit much. During the first half when they kept saying "Have you figured it out yet?" or "If you were paying attention, you might have spotted what Michael Larson was doing." while doing odd zooms and slow mo replays, I was practically shouting at the TV "We're not idiots - you already spelled it out for us that he memorized the freaking patterns!"

Then I remembered I could just FFWD through all the extra fluff. :-)

Posted by: thehepcat

The new Whammies are pretty weak. They should have stuck with the old school graphics.

Posted by: DLiquid

I watched this. It was pretty cool, but it should have been an hour. KRS, I was thinking the exact same thing about the "If you were paying attention" lines.

On this guy's tombstone, it says he was born in 1949, which would make him 35 years old at the time of the gameshow. 35?!!!!!! Are you kidding me? He looked like he was 50. That creeped me out more than anything else in the show.

Posted by: ZikZak

quote:
Originally posted by DancnDude

omnibus, You are correct in assuming that there is no "true" random number generator...

Not quite true. You can purchase CD-ROMS of truly random numbers generated by observing the decays of radioactive isotopes. Very important in some applications. I use them occasionally in my research; rumor has it that Vegas casinos use them for their Keno machines.

Posted by: DancnDude

quote:
Originally posted by dkorn
Not quite true. You can purchase CD-ROMS of truly random numbers generated by observing the decays of radioactive isotopes. Very important in some applications. I use them occasionally in my research; rumor has it that Vegas casinos use them for their Keno machines.

Interesting, I did not know that.

Posted by: snxn

I watched the show and found it to be pretty interesting. I recorded it on Tivo and played it on Monday. I'm sure glad that I did because it was loaded with commercials. It took me approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes to watch a program that was given a two hour timeslot.

I'm still a newbie to Tivo but, one of the first things I learned was how to master the use of the fastest of the three speed fast forward function. It was, definately, time well spent.

Posted by: KRS

quote:
Originally posted by DLiquid
On this guy's tombstone, it says he was born in 1949, which would make him 35 years old at the time of the gameshow. 35?!!!!!! Are you kidding me? He looked like he was 50. That creeped me out more than anything else in the show.

Wow I missed that fact. My wife and I were trying to figure out how old he really was, but never would have guessed that he was only 35 on the show. Wow. All that radiation from his numerrous TVs took a pretty big toll on him. I thought that he was at least in his late 40s , and that was a conservative guesstimate!

Posted by: HTH

quote:
Originally posted by dkorn
Not quite true. You can purchase CD-ROMS of truly random numbers generated by observing the decays of radioactive isotopes. Very important in some applications. I use them occasionally in my research; rumor has it that Vegas casinos use them for their Keno machines.

So... does every CD-ROM contain a unique set of random numbers, or are you thinking you could win big on Keno in Vegas?

Posted by: marksman

quote:
Originally posted by KRS
It would be much easier to do this today what with TiVO and everything. The frame advance screens are sharp and clear as opposed to the staticy stills you get from a VCR.

Scary admission alert... I actually used slow-mo and pause on my TiVo to watch the pattern and pick it up as they were showing it until I had it down.