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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: En Elizabeth, Are you yeah? I'm doing all right?

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Speaker 3: Listen here? Do you know what's ridiculous I do?

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Speaker 2: Elizabeth?

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Speaker 3: Please share?

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Speaker 4: I found some word I think you may not know.

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Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I know you're.

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Speaker 4: Like what, I know a lot of words that's not

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Speaker 4: true at all.

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Speaker 2: Like here, I'll give you an example.

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Speaker 4: Do you know the word at the end of your

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Speaker 4: shoelace is what that's called?

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Speaker 2: Right, We've talked about.

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Speaker 3: This before, dangle or something.

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Speaker 2: You actually told me.

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Speaker 4: This, so I know you know it at one point, right.

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Speaker 4: Or the way it smells after it rains is one

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Speaker 4: of my favorite words is petrocore. Yeah, these are just

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Speaker 4: like random words, right, But here's the one that I

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Speaker 4: think you may.

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Speaker 2: Know or who knows.

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Speaker 4: The armhole enclose where the sleeves are.

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Speaker 2: What's that call? What's that whole called? It's called the

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Speaker 2: arm sky, the arm sky.

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Speaker 4: It's like arms eye, but it's s okay, c y

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Speaker 4: e armsig armside Okay.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: And so then it's one of the ones where people

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Speaker 4: actually did it backwards. They thought it was like a

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Speaker 4: printing air. And that's why people call it armsky because

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Speaker 4: these letters got pushed together. It turns out no, we

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Speaker 4: had reversed it and said, oh, it's arms eye because

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Speaker 4: of it's armsky, and we just prefer that it makes

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Speaker 4: more sense to say arms eye. So for a while

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Speaker 4: older printers would say arms eye. Then they went back

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Speaker 4: to it's actually arms sky. Anyway, the whole of a shirt,

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Speaker 4: T shirt or whatever, it's called an arm sig. I

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Speaker 4: got one last one for you. Yeah, okay, I actually

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Speaker 4: use this one all the time. I thought i'd invented it,

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Speaker 4: but apparently I did not. They have a term for

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Speaker 4: it when you combine the question mark with an exclamation point.

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Speaker 2: Do you know what that's called?

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Speaker 3: Isn't that something that.

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Speaker 4: It's on the tip of your tongue. I can see

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Speaker 4: it right there, just spin it out.

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Speaker 2: I can see it.

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Speaker 4: It's right there, Elizabeth, there's the tarot bang you said

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Speaker 4: bang first? Then yeah, yeah, so there that is. It's

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Speaker 4: not ridiculous. We have all these little words, you know.

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Speaker 3: I love those little hidden secret words that don't really

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Speaker 3: ever come out to play.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they do.

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Speaker 4: Exactly, and then you find it and then you know,

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Speaker 4: some of us often sound pedantic wreck Actually that's an

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Speaker 4: entro bag.

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Speaker 2: But this is just you and me right now? Is

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Speaker 2: that fun?

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Speaker 3: It's beautiful and it's ridiculous. Do you want to know

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Speaker 3: what else is ridiculous?

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Speaker 2: I am horror for it.

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Speaker 3: No whammies ever. What this is a ridiculous crime A

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Speaker 3: podcast about absurd and outrageous caper's heists and cons. It's

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Speaker 3: always ninety nine percent murder free. And guess what, one

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Speaker 3: hundred percent ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: Damn right.

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Speaker 3: We were just talking about game shows the other day.

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Speaker 3: You and I we both love Jeopardy.

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Speaker 2: Yes, big time favorite.

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Speaker 3: That's about the only game show I like. Really, I

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Speaker 3: liked rock and Roll Jeopardy on V one.

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Speaker 2: Back all day.

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Speaker 4: I had a friend who won that really yeah, he indact,

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Speaker 4: he bought like a mini.

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Speaker 2: Cooper with the I killed.

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Speaker 3: If I'd have gone on there, I'd still be winning,

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Speaker 3: the show.

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Speaker 2: Would still be on. He'd be that shows Ken.

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Speaker 3: Jennings, Yeah, I should have been on the show.

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Speaker 2: You should have.

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Speaker 4: You really do kill it that.

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Speaker 2: I'm so good tell me this long.

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Speaker 3: Time about that era. We were talking the other day

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Speaker 3: about how his kids we knew people who were stoked

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Speaker 3: to stay home sick and watch game shows, and I

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Speaker 3: never really got into that.

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Speaker 4: My sister was a Price is Right girl. She was

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Speaker 4: really into that. So she said home. I had to

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Speaker 4: stay home because she was my younger sister. Mom's like,

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Speaker 4: you stay home too and take care of her. I'm like,

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Speaker 4: all right, single mom rules, okay. So then yeah, she

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Speaker 4: love the prizes right well.

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Speaker 3: Like so, back in the eighties, there was a game

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Speaker 3: show called Press Your Luck.

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Speaker 2: She loved that one too.

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Speaker 3: It was contestants answered trivia questions in order to earn

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Speaker 3: spins on a game board, and like the board would

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Speaker 3: sort of randomly shuffle the spaces on itself, and the

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Speaker 3: spaces were for stuff like prizes or cash or extra spins,

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Speaker 3: or the space could have like a little scruffy cartoon

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Speaker 3: qtie gremlin thing called the Whammy. Yeah yeah, And if

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Speaker 3: you landed on the Whammy you lost everything. You'd one

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Speaker 3: up to that point, and the Whammy would do like

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Speaker 3: a little dancer skite. It was kind of like a

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Speaker 3: like a little cartoon devil meets Animal from the Muppets

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Speaker 3: meets Baby Babu frick.

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Speaker 4: Yeah meets the Sandman from the Apollo Yes.

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Speaker 3: Exactly, So Press your Luck. It was a CBS show

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Speaker 3: and it ran from nineteen eighty three to nineteen eighty six.

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Speaker 3: The host was Peter Tamarkin.

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Speaker 2: Rod Roddy was the Great Voice Rody.

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Speaker 3: And Bill Carruthers was both the director and the voice

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Speaker 3: of the Whammy Oh. There were three contestants on each episode,

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Speaker 3: competing against each other, and the game had four rounds.

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Speaker 3: There were two question rounds and then two big board rounds,

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Speaker 3: so it would go like question, big board, Question, bigboard,

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Speaker 3: and the big board round. Contestants used all the spins

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Speaker 3: that they had gathered up to try and win cash

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Speaker 3: and prizes, and the game board it had eighteen spaces

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Speaker 3: laid out in like a rectangular loop six by five. Yes,

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Speaker 3: I feel like this is like when someone's trying to

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Speaker 3: explain a border card game to me at a party

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Speaker 3: and I'm totally lost and I have to act like

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Speaker 3: I know what I'm doing, and I keep thinking like

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Speaker 3: this is why I don't leave the house, Like I

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Speaker 3: don't have to learn these things. I'm a slow learner. Anyway.

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Speaker 3: A light would flash randomly around the board, marking one

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Speaker 3: space at a time, and then the contestant in control

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Speaker 3: uses the spin by hitting their buzzard to freeze the

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Speaker 3: board and collect whatever's lit at that moment. Okay, so

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Speaker 3: remember if you hit the whammy, you lose everything totally. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 3: contestants would say no whammy's if you landed on the

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Speaker 3: whammy a total of four times, that was called whammying out. Yes,

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Speaker 3: you got the boot from the game.

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Speaker 2: Dude. My old roommates still love the show.

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Speaker 4: And he used to say, like in things, just in life, right,

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Speaker 4: like we were going up and we were waiting in

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Speaker 4: line and there's like two different lines. He's like, no way,

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Speaker 4: I mean, mammy, like, we're going to get the shorter line.

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Speaker 4: I mean, he's it all the time.

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Speaker 3: It's part of the culture. So I've established that. Now

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Speaker 3: we understand press your.

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Speaker 2: Luck total, We're all for the most part.

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Speaker 3: With that established, Let's talk about a guy, Michael Larson.

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Speaker 3: He was born in nineteen forty nine in Lebanon, Ohio,

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Speaker 3: and he had three older brothers.

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Speaker 4: He's just like little classic baby boomer born in the

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Speaker 4: Middlewest brother troll Baby. He's got older brothers. This is

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Speaker 4: a big boomer energy.

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Speaker 3: They said that his first scam was in middle school

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Speaker 3: when he would buy candy bars and sell them to

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Speaker 3: other students at an inflated price. During pe class.

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Speaker 2: Sat capitalis it's not a.

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Speaker 3: Scam, that's capitalism. Like I'm like, okay, Well, you know,

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Speaker 3: after high school he elevated his scam game beyond snickers

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Speaker 3: the scam.

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Speaker 4: They weren't really candy bars, Now that was a scam.

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Speaker 3: He had this thing going where he would open and

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Speaker 3: close bank accounts because at the time, some banks would

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Speaker 3: offer money for you customer new toe also, she could

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Speaker 3: get as much as like five hundred bucks for opening

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Speaker 3: the bank account. Those days are long gone. Yeah yeah,

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Speaker 3: but back then, Larson would open account, get the cash,

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Speaker 3: close the account, lather, rinse, repeat.

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Speaker 4: Well this is before they deregulated the banks and near

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Speaker 4: fighting over customers exactly.

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Speaker 3: So one time he registered for another scam. He registered

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Speaker 3: a business under a family member's name so he could

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Speaker 3: then hire and fire himself and collect unemployment. Amazing.

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Speaker 2: I like that one.

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Speaker 3: His brother James said, quote, he didn't understand the value

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Speaker 3: of good, hard, honest work. He thought those people were fools.

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Speaker 4: There like suckers. He's like, he was very out of

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Speaker 4: step with everyone else in the Midwest. Yeah, we all thought,

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Speaker 4: what's wrong with this guy? He should go to la.

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Speaker 3: Between nineteen sixty nine and nineteen eighty two. Sure, he

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Speaker 3: got arrested three times for stuff like receiving and concealing

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Speaker 3: stolen goods. Okay, petty theft, larceny by trick. Three arrests

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Speaker 3: in thirteen years isn't bad by a ridiculous crime?

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Speaker 2: Stand pretty good. They're all small.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and like my personal standard is zero in thirteen years.

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Speaker 3: You have a ball, you know, among these folks. So

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Speaker 3: that takes us up to nineteen eighty three. By this time, Larson,

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Speaker 3: he's been divorced twice. He has three kids with three

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Speaker 3: different women.

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Speaker 2: Awesome, no judgment.

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Speaker 4: Oh no, I'm not judging. I'm laughing at his commitment

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Speaker 4: to bad decisions.

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Speaker 2: Like this doesn't work.

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Speaker 3: Moving on, His main squeeze was his girlfriend Teresa dinwitty dim.

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Speaker 4: Witty with an end, And yeah, I thought it was

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Speaker 4: dim witty. I was like, that's just come on, family.

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Speaker 3: Here's how she described her man quote, he always thought

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Speaker 3: he was smarter than everyone else and had a constant

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Speaker 3: yearning for knowledge.

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Speaker 2: Is that like a dim witty to say that?

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Speaker 3: Well, I mean like he thinks he's smarter than anyone else,

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Speaker 3: but for knowledge. It's just like, yeah, what was he.

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Speaker 2: Doing for a living and what was he doing for knowledge?

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Speaker 3: He was an h back guy and he also drove

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Speaker 3: a mister Softy ice cream truck.

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Speaker 4: Oh, mister Softie. I talked about them.

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Speaker 3: And in his free time he read magazines and news papers.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm.

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Speaker 3: The Other thing he did was stare at a wall

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Speaker 3: filled with twelve TVs? What looking for get rich quick schemes?

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Speaker 2: Wait? Wait? What? Yeah? Wait?

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Speaker 4: Is this his own wall? Or he go to like

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Speaker 4: a TV salesman?

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Speaker 3: And this is what Dinwiddy said. Quote He had an

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Speaker 3: entire wall of twenty five inch televisions stacked one on

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Speaker 3: top of the other. What He watched them all at

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Speaker 3: once and it got so hot the paint peeled off

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Speaker 3: the wall.

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Speaker 2: Oh wow.

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Speaker 4: You know I always saying I can't ever get enough information.

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Speaker 4: I want as much information as you have. I please

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Speaker 4: give me more than why always say that? He found

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Speaker 4: the line that I won't cross twenty five TVs stacked

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Speaker 4: and just sitting there going watching all.

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Speaker 3: The twelve TVs twenty five inch television in nineteen eighty

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Speaker 3: three was expensive, totally and hot. And how are you

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Speaker 3: plugging all?

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Speaker 2: These these are flat screens? These are just radiating.

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Speaker 4: One of them, he says, sitting in a hot box

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Speaker 4: with these screens like Elvis.

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Speaker 3: At the end, I feel like maybe it's not the

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Speaker 3: best way to come up with get rich Quick schemes.

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Speaker 2: It's a lot of power, it's also.

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Speaker 3: Incredibly creepy visually all of it.

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Speaker 2: So but apparently it worked.

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Speaker 3: But here's the yeah, Well, so the get Rich Quicks games,

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Speaker 3: they started to zero in on game shows.

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Speaker 4: That's because that's what's on in the daytime, right, that's

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Speaker 4: all he's got, Like I'm a rob, a soap opera actor.

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Speaker 3: Or like Bob Ross. Anyway, So he watched a ton

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Speaker 3: of The Prices Right and Wheel of Fortune, and he

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Speaker 3: determined that those were unhackable. He wasn't going to be

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Speaker 3: able to beat those games. He couldn't outsmart him.

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Speaker 4: I thought someone hacked Planko. Anyway, it doesn't matter, I don't.

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Speaker 4: He just wasn't under the show.

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Speaker 3: He couldn't do it. In November of nineteen eighty three,

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Speaker 3: he sees an episode of Press Your Luck.

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Speaker 2: For the first time, all right, and he's smitten.

244
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Speaker 3: Fired up the old VCR.

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Speaker 2: Yes whammy, Yes whammy.

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Speaker 3: He starts taping episodes to study the show. For six months,

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Speaker 3: he watched the show for eighteen hours a day. What

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Speaker 3: for six months eighteen hours a day.

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Speaker 4: I'm getting to the eighteen hours six months he did

250
00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:03,760
Speaker 4: this then now eighteen hours every one of those days,

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Speaker 4: the same show.

252
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Speaker 3: And over and over different episodes.

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Speaker 4: Sure, but I'm saying the same, Like, he's not watching

254
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Speaker 4: Jeopardy and this show. He's just watching this pressure all

255
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Speaker 4: the time.

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Speaker 3: He came away with observations.

257
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Speaker 2: I bet he did.

258
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Speaker 4: I bet he came away with a religion.

259
00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:21,200
Speaker 3: Well, first he figured out that the lights on the

260
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Speaker 3: board moved in five different predetermined patterns. They weren't random

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Speaker 3: like the show said they were.

262
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Speaker 2: Yeah.

263
00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:29,680
Speaker 3: And then the other thing he figured out was that

264
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Speaker 3: the whammy never appeared in squares four and eight.

265
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Speaker 2: Whoa never showed up there.

266
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Speaker 3: This was big intel and it was the key to

267
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Speaker 3: cracking the show. No Whammy's for real.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So months.

269
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Speaker 4: Went by, it hits four and eight right.

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00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:48,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. And he keeps watching episodes of Press Your Luck.

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Speaker 3: He memorizes the episodes. He like tested his reflectures to prepare.

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Speaker 2: Like when you watch Jeopardy.

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, he's like pausing the tape to see if

274
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Speaker 3: when he pauses on the right thing. He practiced mirroring

275
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Speaker 3: the mannerisms of the contestants who did well, and they'd

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Speaker 3: say certain things and he like committed those to memory.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so like fake it till you.

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Speaker 3: Make it, I guess in May of nineteen eighty four,

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Speaker 3: so just before Olympic fever began sweeping the Oh of.

280
00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:20,280
Speaker 4: Course, yes, before the world and learned if Mary lou

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Speaker 4: Retti what I.

282
00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:23,800
Speaker 3: Was gonna say? Like he just like Mary Lourettin hopping

283
00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:28,120
Speaker 3: up onto the balance beam. Larsen made his move. Yeah, sassy.

284
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Speaker 3: So he didn't make a whole lot of money. He

285
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Speaker 3: didn't make a lot of money, so he didn't have

286
00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:37,040
Speaker 3: a lot of cash lying around. So he took what

287
00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:39,760
Speaker 3: he had and he bought a ticket to fly from

288
00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:42,880
Speaker 3: Ohio to California to audition for pressure Luck. So he

289
00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:45,000
Speaker 3: takes everything he's got, heads out.

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Speaker 4: There, go to La where the Olympics will be occurring.

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Speaker 3: Right, Lewis, I'm sure that the pricing was getting higher.

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00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:53,680
Speaker 4: Yes, take a lot of excitement. Did Cardi get a

293
00:12:53,679 --> 00:12:54,719
Speaker 4: hotel room?

294
00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:59,040
Speaker 3: Totally? He's like, you know what, I am a compelling

295
00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:00,520
Speaker 3: contestant character.

296
00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:02,680
Speaker 2: Sure, I'm perfect fest I'm good for TV.

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00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:05,880
Speaker 3: He tells the producers that he's unemployed, and he tells

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Speaker 3: him that he rode the bus all the way out

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00:13:07,679 --> 00:13:12,000
Speaker 3: to Hollywood a shot on his favorite show. He said

300
00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:14,440
Speaker 3: he was broke. He said he was so broke that

301
00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:17,480
Speaker 3: he couldn't even afford a birthday present for his daughter,

302
00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:19,200
Speaker 3: who just is about to turn six.

303
00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:21,079
Speaker 4: He's like, you know, you heard that new song Jack

304
00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:22,520
Speaker 4: and Diane. I'm from their town.

305
00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:25,600
Speaker 3: He's got a chili dog in his hand. He said

306
00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:28,480
Speaker 3: he was so broke that the dress shirt he was wearing,

307
00:13:28,559 --> 00:13:30,360
Speaker 3: he said he bought it at a thrift store down

308
00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:33,480
Speaker 3: the street for sixty five cents. Yeah, that's what he

309
00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:36,280
Speaker 3: tells him, and that the show would be a chance

310
00:13:36,280 --> 00:13:38,440
Speaker 3: for him to finally make something of himself.

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00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:39,760
Speaker 2: This is my chance.

312
00:13:39,800 --> 00:13:42,200
Speaker 3: I only win while doing what he loved.

313
00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:44,640
Speaker 2: You held the key to my dream exactly.

314
00:13:44,679 --> 00:13:46,679
Speaker 3: This is what I've always wanted. This show that's been

315
00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:51,359
Speaker 3: on for like six months. So the show's director, executive

316
00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:54,640
Speaker 3: producer and voice of the Whammy, Bill Carruthers, he likes,

317
00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:56,920
Speaker 3: he liked larcense, jim.

318
00:13:57,120 --> 00:14:01,440
Speaker 4: I bet good, dudetanding of all got charisma.

319
00:14:01,559 --> 00:14:04,199
Speaker 3: He's got that special something, this spark that's going to

320
00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:10,760
Speaker 3: resonate in the Madness Contestant coordinator Bob Edwards was not feeling.

321
00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:11,240
Speaker 2: He knows people.

322
00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:15,360
Speaker 3: He said, He's like, I would not recommend Larsen. When

323
00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:17,920
Speaker 3: they said why, he said he couldn't put his finger

324
00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:19,960
Speaker 3: on it, but he knew that he was just no good.

325
00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:22,800
Speaker 4: Yeah, he could in the eye. There was that extra

326
00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:23,360
Speaker 4: watching it.

327
00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:28,640
Speaker 3: Carruthers overruled this decision. This is what This is what

328
00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:29,720
Speaker 3: Edwards said.

329
00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:30,280
Speaker 2: Quote.

330
00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:33,560
Speaker 3: We held daily auditions, one in the morning and one

331
00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:36,760
Speaker 3: in the afternoon, maybe fifty people in each session. Larson

332
00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:39,400
Speaker 3: walked up right off the street and told us he

333
00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,120
Speaker 3: was an ice cream man from Ohio. There was something

334
00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:45,080
Speaker 3: about him that I just didn't believe. I didn't trust him.

335
00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:45,520
Speaker 2: Hmm.

336
00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:49,160
Speaker 3: So he's like, I'm an unemployed ice cream man. Remember

337
00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:53,400
Speaker 3: how Larson spent all that time studying the tapes that

338
00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:57,160
Speaker 3: I forget. In his audition, he repeated the phrases he

339
00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:00,560
Speaker 3: heard most often from contestants, and he even some of

340
00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:02,120
Speaker 3: their facial expressions.

341
00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:05,760
Speaker 2: That's super odd. And do you think they remember it well?

342
00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:08,240
Speaker 3: I think that he's thinking like this was successful in

343
00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:10,600
Speaker 3: the past and they're not going to connect it. This

344
00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:13,040
Speaker 3: is how he put it later. Quote, I took six

345
00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:15,080
Speaker 3: months out of my life and said I was going

346
00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:17,440
Speaker 3: to do this, and everyone said it was silly until

347
00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:22,320
Speaker 3: I did it, and then they said, hey, that's pretty neat.

348
00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:25,280
Speaker 2: That's what I did it for the Neat.

349
00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:28,680
Speaker 3: May nineteenth, nineteen eighty four. Time to record an episode.

350
00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:33,800
Speaker 3: All right, Zaren closure, Oh yes, close, I want you

351
00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:37,240
Speaker 3: to picture it. So Zaren, you are not Zaren Right now.

352
00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:41,640
Speaker 3: You are a dental assistant named Janie Leeitris. You're a

353
00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:43,760
Speaker 3: big fan of the show. Press your luck and you've

354
00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:45,640
Speaker 3: finally got in the call to be on the show.

355
00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:48,920
Speaker 3: It is your big day. You get all dulled up

356
00:15:48,920 --> 00:15:52,080
Speaker 3: in your favorite red striped ruffleneck rayon blouse with a

357
00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:54,920
Speaker 3: thin maroon ribbon in a bow at the neck. You

358
00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:57,560
Speaker 3: got the day off work. You're ready for your fifteen

359
00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:00,400
Speaker 3: minutes of fame. If you sit in the producers is

360
00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,280
Speaker 3: a very nice woman applies powder to your face. The

361
00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:06,560
Speaker 3: backstage area of the set bustles around you, peeple chat.

362
00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:09,440
Speaker 3: A squeaky cart rolls by with reels of films stacked

363
00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:12,800
Speaker 3: on top. Up tempo music plays softly in the background

364
00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:15,920
Speaker 3: as a man hypes up the studio audience. A production

365
00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:19,119
Speaker 3: assistant approaches and tells you it's time to take the stage.

366
00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:22,640
Speaker 3: You push back your chairs, smooth out your sensible pant legs,

367
00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:25,720
Speaker 3: and follow the assistant to the main area of the

368
00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:29,040
Speaker 3: sound stage. Your low heels click on the hard floor.

369
00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:32,160
Speaker 3: As you approach the stage, you see a long table

370
00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:34,680
Speaker 3: with three spots, each with a light up number board

371
00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:37,080
Speaker 3: in front of them. There are six spaces on the

372
00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:40,160
Speaker 3: number board, with the first space dedicated to a dollar sign.

373
00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:43,240
Speaker 3: It hits you that you could possibly win tens of

374
00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:47,480
Speaker 3: thousands of dollars today. Dare you dream so big? A

375
00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:50,080
Speaker 3: production assistant leads you to your spot at the far

376
00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:53,080
Speaker 3: end of the lectern. As the studio audience laughs and

377
00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:56,200
Speaker 3: chats in their seats. Two other assistants lead in the

378
00:16:56,240 --> 00:16:59,640
Speaker 3: other contestants. A man in a tan suit sits at

379
00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:02,600
Speaker 3: the other end of the lectern. He's Ed Long, a

380
00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:05,359
Speaker 3: Baptist minister and the winner of the last episode, the

381
00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:09,479
Speaker 3: reigning champion. Then up comes the fella in the center spot,

382
00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:12,520
Speaker 3: Michael Larson. He's in a blue suit and his beard

383
00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:15,960
Speaker 3: is as wild as his eyes. The host, Peter Tremarkin,

384
00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:20,400
Speaker 3: comes out to greet you all. You are starstruck. He's

385
00:17:20,720 --> 00:17:23,280
Speaker 3: just as personable and handsome in real life as he

386
00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:27,040
Speaker 3: is on TV. The audience quiets down and settles in

387
00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:30,400
Speaker 3: for a great match. You are so nervous, your palms

388
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:33,080
Speaker 3: are sweating. The theme song starts up and you put

389
00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:36,920
Speaker 3: a deep breath. Time to Shine, Janey, Time to Shine.

390
00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:41,800
Speaker 3: Let's take a break. Here's some ads. Get our wits

391
00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:43,840
Speaker 3: about us. When we come back, I'm going to tell

392
00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:47,200
Speaker 3: you all about this particular episode of this particular game show.

393
00:17:47,560 --> 00:18:09,520
Speaker 2: All right, Zaren, did I win?

394
00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:10,880
Speaker 4: I've been waiting this all time.

395
00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:13,160
Speaker 3: Well you're gonna have to wait a little bit longer.

396
00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:18,560
Speaker 3: So we've got returning champion baptist minister ed long dental

397
00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:22,199
Speaker 3: assistant Janie Lee Trice. That was just me and Michael Larson.

398
00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:24,720
Speaker 3: They're all lined up for a chance to literally press

399
00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:25,800
Speaker 3: their luck on a game show.

400
00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:27,680
Speaker 2: No Whammies, girl, No whammies.

401
00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:32,440
Speaker 3: The show's host, Peter Tamarkin, asked Larson what he did

402
00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:35,159
Speaker 3: for a living, and he answered, quote, I drive an

403
00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:36,960
Speaker 3: ice cream truck in the summer, and I hope to

404
00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:39,800
Speaker 3: win enough money to not have to do that. That's

405
00:18:39,800 --> 00:18:43,840
Speaker 3: a good answer. So this was the first question you've

406
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,000
Speaker 3: probably got. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in your pocket or

407
00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:51,720
Speaker 3: purse right now, because his likeness is on the headside.

408
00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:57,159
Speaker 3: Larson buzzed in prematurely and yelled fifty dollars Bill, Well,

409
00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:00,560
Speaker 3: first of all, wrong, yeah it's a dime. Second of all,

410
00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:04,280
Speaker 3: I thought you were broke, buddy, He well with the

411
00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:06,320
Speaker 3: what's with the high roller? Twenties on the top and

412
00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:08,760
Speaker 3: the fifties on bottom the top not as oh yes,

413
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:09,280
Speaker 3: we got them?

414
00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:10,040
Speaker 2: Oh damn right?

415
00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:13,320
Speaker 3: What was that about? Did you know, Zaron, that has

416
00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:15,080
Speaker 3: spent a long time since I first got down, but

417
00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:16,760
Speaker 3: I still keep making these funky sounds.

418
00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:19,600
Speaker 2: I did know that get your money.

419
00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:22,199
Speaker 3: Yeah, So this this bum answer kind of knocked the

420
00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:25,160
Speaker 3: wind out a Larsen. He sat back for the rest

421
00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:27,680
Speaker 3: of the question round, but eventually he earned three spins.

422
00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:32,080
Speaker 3: On his first spin, he stopped on square seventeen. What

423
00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:36,000
Speaker 3: was the prize A whammy? Sons? Yeah, this gave him

424
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:38,320
Speaker 3: a chance so to kind of figure out his buzzer timing.

425
00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:42,199
Speaker 3: Remember how he determined that the whammy never showed up

426
00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:45,360
Speaker 3: on squares four eight? Yeah, Well, his next two spins

427
00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:48,800
Speaker 3: landed on square four both times, and that made him

428
00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:51,000
Speaker 3: twenty five dollars.

429
00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:52,480
Speaker 2: Yes, positive yeah.

430
00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:54,800
Speaker 3: So on the second half of the show, they've answered

431
00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:58,040
Speaker 3: more questions. Big board comes back up. Squares four and

432
00:19:58,119 --> 00:20:00,960
Speaker 3: eight are still safe, but in this it they also

433
00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:04,560
Speaker 3: come with extra spins in addition to the cash prizes noted.

434
00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:07,560
Speaker 3: So while some of the squares had like fifteen hundred,

435
00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:11,760
Speaker 3: others had fifteen hundred plus one spin, and so four

436
00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:13,639
Speaker 3: and eight always had the plus a spin.

437
00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:14,840
Speaker 2: Okay, keep it going.

438
00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:17,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, And like I said, they also never have whammies. Yes,

439
00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:18,200
Speaker 3: so these are.

440
00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:20,840
Speaker 2: And to keep it going.

441
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:24,440
Speaker 3: Yes. So he knows all this from his intense studies,

442
00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:28,840
Speaker 3: and he just cut loose in the second half of

443
00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:33,199
Speaker 3: the show. He knows he's unstoppable, and he could not

444
00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:36,240
Speaker 3: only collect cash, but he could like keep the extra spins.

445
00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:40,080
Speaker 3: So he earned seven initial spins in the question round,

446
00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:43,720
Speaker 3: and since his previous showing during the big board round

447
00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:46,959
Speaker 3: was pretty weak, he got to go first. In his

448
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:52,040
Speaker 3: first fifteen spins, he'd sometimes hit squares four or eight,

449
00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,680
Speaker 3: but he managed to avoid the whammies altogether. His luck.

450
00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:57,040
Speaker 3: It was pressed.

451
00:20:57,119 --> 00:20:58,359
Speaker 2: It was very much pressed.

452
00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:02,840
Speaker 3: Then came spin sixteen, so from then on he landed

453
00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:03,520
Speaker 3: only on.

454
00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:06,200
Speaker 2: Four or eight, just to keep it safe.

455
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:10,840
Speaker 3: For twenty nine consecutive spins. Yeah, he racked up one

456
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:13,600
Speaker 3: hundred and two thousand, eight hundred and fifty one dollars.

457
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:15,440
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, that's prizes.

458
00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:17,399
Speaker 4: What was I standing there thinking? When I was on

459
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:17,960
Speaker 4: the set.

460
00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:20,280
Speaker 3: Next to him, he would just who knows.

461
00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:21,520
Speaker 2: Picking my job off the floor.

462
00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:25,840
Speaker 3: You can find the montage of spins on YouTube like

463
00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:29,040
Speaker 3: search Press your Luck Michael Larson, and there's one by

464
00:21:29,119 --> 00:21:32,840
Speaker 3: the account killer Watt VIDs. That's pretty good. It's thrilling.

465
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:36,600
Speaker 3: I imagine watching it and not knowing how going to be.

466
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:39,640
Speaker 3: It must have been wild. So at the tapings.

467
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:42,640
Speaker 4: Money Carlos stuff, a big gambler comes in, Yes.

468
00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:45,199
Speaker 3: So to Marke, and he's kind of freaking out, Like

469
00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:48,159
Speaker 3: first he's all blown away by this guy's supposed luckily

470
00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:52,240
Speaker 3: we've never seen this happen roll. Then he's like trying

471
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:53,840
Speaker 3: to process. He's like, this is unreal.

472
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:55,640
Speaker 2: That's thirteen in a row. I don't know how that's possible.

473
00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:58,199
Speaker 3: And then he's getting frustrated. Yeah, it's like six, and

474
00:21:58,240 --> 00:21:59,760
Speaker 3: it says, you've got to be kidding me.

475
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,359
Speaker 2: At one point, I mean, your hands.

476
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:07,359
Speaker 3: When he hit thirty thousand, he was already doing something

477
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:12,680
Speaker 3: unimaginable total show. Tamarkin said, then, quote, Michael, you are

478
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:16,399
Speaker 3: really pressing your luck. After this show, you're going to

479
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:18,960
Speaker 3: get a special call from the president of CBS.

480
00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:22,399
Speaker 2: Oh, like he's already you must be cheating.

481
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:27,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's just you know, he's thinking, like this isn't good.

482
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:28,200
Speaker 3: This is not good.

483
00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:30,320
Speaker 4: One of us is getting a call from the president.

484
00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:35,400
Speaker 3: Just spinning and spinning. After each successful spin, he has

485
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:38,280
Speaker 3: a choice to stop or keep going, and like the

486
00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:42,639
Speaker 3: tension and drama is he just charges ahead. Is great television.

487
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,200
Speaker 2: Everyone thinks he's about to lose it all everything.

488
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:47,399
Speaker 3: And he wins it and so then it was like,

489
00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:50,320
Speaker 3: oh my god, stop, you're going to lose it all,

490
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,320
Speaker 3: you idiot. And then he'll say let's do it again.

491
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:55,320
Speaker 3: It goes crazy.

492
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:57,840
Speaker 4: So I would love to see the footage of the

493
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:01,200
Speaker 4: people's faces. Yeah, I'd spin seventy then at twenty three

494
00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:01,680
Speaker 4: and then.

495
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:04,280
Speaker 3: You can hear it, like you've got to watch the montage.

496
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:07,960
Speaker 3: It's amazing. He gets to spins forty four and he's

497
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:12,040
Speaker 3: getting tired, and on spin forty five he didn't hit

498
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:12,680
Speaker 3: four or.

499
00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 4: Eight pass the other competitors. Could you do the spin?

500
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:19,920
Speaker 3: So forty five he misses. According to him, he misses finally,

501
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:22,399
Speaker 3: according to him quote, I remember that moment. I was

502
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:25,920
Speaker 3: just so drained. I suddenly forgot where their whammies were.

503
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:28,199
Speaker 3: So I stopped and passed control of the board to

504
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:31,000
Speaker 3: the other players. I felt so relieved that it was over.

505
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:34,360
Speaker 3: So he doesn't hit a whammy, he doesn't get four

506
00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:36,280
Speaker 3: or eight, and then he's like, okay, I've got a star.

507
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:38,520
Speaker 4: He really could have hit the wammy by mistake.

508
00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:40,800
Speaker 3: Then completely and he realized his only real wrisk.

509
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:42,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's like, oh, I don't want that.

510
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,879
Speaker 3: He hands it off to Ed Long's Baptist minister. He

511
00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:50,360
Speaker 3: gets the leftover spins, and because remember Larson has been

512
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:51,480
Speaker 3: banking spins.

513
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:52,480
Speaker 2: Each time.

514
00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:57,480
Speaker 3: Ed got a whammy on the first he cursed got.

515
00:23:57,359 --> 00:23:58,680
Speaker 2: It's like one of those.

516
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:00,960
Speaker 3: Those people who say that like a slot machines hot

517
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:02,480
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden, now it's bad.

518
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:03,639
Speaker 2: Don't go near it.

519
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:07,920
Speaker 3: Yeah. So what what were the odds that that Larson

520
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:11,359
Speaker 3: was beating? So, according to the Hollywood Reporter quote, the

521
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 3: odds of hitting a whammy were one and six, the

522
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,160
Speaker 3: same odds as rolling a seven at a craps table.

523
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:21,200
Speaker 3: Larson had made forty five spins without hitting one. It

524
00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:23,200
Speaker 3: was a statistical impossibility.

525
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,040
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like in the trillions are yeah, higher than that.

526
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:28,439
Speaker 3: So at this point, the show's control booth operators like

527
00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:29,240
Speaker 3: they know something.

528
00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:30,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, they just don't know what.

529
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:33,120
Speaker 3: They figured that Larson had cracked the board in some way,

530
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:35,200
Speaker 3: so they called Michael Brockman.

531
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:36,840
Speaker 4: And you said that there was only five patterns or

532
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 4: whatever they're running, and they did. They didn't quickly put

533
00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:39,280
Speaker 4: that together.

534
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:42,239
Speaker 3: Yes, I think they did. They're like, something's gone on.

535
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 3: They called Michael Brockman, CBS head of daytime programming. All right,

536
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:47,640
Speaker 3: he told TV.

537
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:49,080
Speaker 2: Guide later, what's happening? They call?

538
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:52,119
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, he tells tv Guide later. Quote, something was

539
00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 3: very wrong. Here was this guy from nowhere and he

540
00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:58,520
Speaker 3: was hitting the bonus box every time. It was bedlam,

541
00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:02,359
Speaker 3: I can tell you. So there's talk behind the scenes

542
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:03,200
Speaker 3: of pulling the plug.

543
00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:05,439
Speaker 4: He's like doing like, oh, yeah, the cancel. There's a

544
00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:06,000
Speaker 4: fire along.

545
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're like stop the taping somehow. But like Larsen

546
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:14,160
Speaker 3: hadn't technically broken any rules as laid out by the show.

547
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 3: So the CBS compliance person Darlene Tipton said, quote, it

548
00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 3: wasn't unusual for contestants to go on streaks. It was

549
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:25,240
Speaker 3: kind of the way the game was designed. But after

550
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:27,800
Speaker 3: about ten spins of the board, it started to become

551
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:30,119
Speaker 3: obvious that he was hitting the same prize on the

552
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:31,360
Speaker 3: same square every time.

553
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:34,600
Speaker 2: He's always hitting four and eight, and that's skill.

554
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:35,399
Speaker 3: It's not random.

555
00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:37,439
Speaker 4: He's doing that with his stopping of the timer, right,

556
00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:39,480
Speaker 4: So it's literally a physical talent.

557
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:41,200
Speaker 2: Yes exactly, not saying like stop.

558
00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:43,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, well and she goes on. It's not random and

559
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 3: it's not luck. He could aim and hit, which we

560
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,200
Speaker 3: didn't think was possible. First the booth got very quiet.

561
00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 3: Then there wasn't Oh my god, oh my god, oh

562
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:53,639
Speaker 3: my god, what do we do? People were turning to

563
00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 3: me saying, can we stop this? We knew how to

564
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:58,800
Speaker 3: deal with every other situation, but all we could do

565
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:00,399
Speaker 3: with this was hang on for the ride.

566
00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:01,240
Speaker 2: Damn.

567
00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 5: Yeah.

568
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:03,720
Speaker 3: So this is kind of like.

569
00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 4: That, like a sniper and the rigging with like an

570
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:07,879
Speaker 4: elephant's franke gun, Like, all right, we're gonna have to

571
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:09,280
Speaker 4: go at option unicorn.

572
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:14,639
Speaker 3: Did you see during the Olympics all the speed walking, yes,

573
00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:18,880
Speaker 3: controversy that like, uh, it's like mall walking. I guess

574
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 3: it's very sassy and they're not supposed to run her job.

575
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:27,760
Speaker 3: You can't leave the ground, yeah, like they you have

576
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:29,800
Speaker 3: you can't have both feet off the ground at the

577
00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:32,560
Speaker 3: same time to the naked eye. And so like when

578
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:34,920
Speaker 3: they were slowing down the footage, these people were very

579
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:38,120
Speaker 3: obviously jogging, but just in a super sassy way. But

580
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:41,679
Speaker 3: like because that was in a slowed down version, it didn't.

581
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 2: Count because it's not the naked eye, right, so.

582
00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:45,360
Speaker 3: You know, so it goes Yeah, have.

583
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 4: You seen those kids that what they do it? But

584
00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:48,440
Speaker 4: they looks like they're floating, like stepping on the air

585
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 4: the whole time. I'd like to see a competition of

586
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:52,200
Speaker 4: them where it looks like you can't ever touch.

587
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 3: The more interesting to me, Yeah, that's two di visual

588
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 3: eyes naked eye. So the real question with Press Your

589
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 3: Luck sure is how lazy did they have to be

590
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:02,160
Speaker 3: to build a.

591
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 2: Board totally the five patterns? Even I whould come up

592
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:06,639
Speaker 2: with something more about.

593
00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:11,080
Speaker 3: Head of Daytime Programming Michael Brockman he addressed this issue, quote,

594
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:15,840
Speaker 3: pilots are test vehicles. You can cut corners on this show.

595
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,359
Speaker 3: What was expensive to create was the light pattern on

596
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:20,680
Speaker 3: the board. No one wanted to spend that much money

597
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,360
Speaker 3: on the pilot, and then the pattern wasn't improved enough

598
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:25,920
Speaker 3: when the show went into production. So what that tells

599
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 3: me is they didn't think this show was going to.

600
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 4: Go into production, oh exactly, or I didn't think their viewers

601
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:30,360
Speaker 4: were that smart, you know.

602
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, why not?

603
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:32,160
Speaker 2: Both?

604
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:35,240
Speaker 3: So back to the episode It's your turn janeye Lee

605
00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:38,240
Speaker 3: tris to her turning against exactly what did she do?

606
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 2: Prester luck?

607
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:44,480
Speaker 3: She no this agent of chaos as from one agent

608
00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 3: of chaos to another recognized, she gave her last three

609
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 3: spins to Larsen. Way to go, let's do this. She's like, yeah,

610
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 3: this is insane, break me off some exactly. So Larson,

611
00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:02,679
Speaker 3: because of the rules, had to use those spins. So

612
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:05,159
Speaker 3: at this point, his score is so high that they

613
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:07,439
Speaker 3: had to ditch the dollar signed space on his light

614
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:10,840
Speaker 3: up number board and just go with all totals. Remember

615
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:14,080
Speaker 3: he's over one hundred thousand dollars. He hit squares four

616
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:17,160
Speaker 3: and then eight on the first two spins, like dastard.

617
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 3: He missed on the third one and hit square seventeen.

618
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:23,280
Speaker 3: Oh but no whammy.

619
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 4: Took Okay, another time he took an honest chance.

620
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:27,680
Speaker 3: He didn't get a whammy. Instead, he won a trip

621
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:32,200
Speaker 3: to the Bahamas, and with that the game was over.

622
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,639
Speaker 3: Like so all told, Michael Larson won a sail boat wow,

623
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 3: an all inclusive vacation to Kawaii, which like yes, please

624
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:43,680
Speaker 3: that trip to the Bahamas and one hundred and ten

625
00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:46,120
Speaker 3: two hundred and thirty seven dollars in cast.

626
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:48,960
Speaker 4: She won like half their season's prize budget.

627
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:52,480
Speaker 3: Oh completely, it's nearly three hundred and fifty thousand dollars today,

628
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:56,240
Speaker 3: ed long, he still got his eleven grand from the.

629
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:59,720
Speaker 2: Previous episode, Old.

630
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 3: Gal Janey, she and it on a whammy and she

631
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 3: walked away with nothing, just her dignity.

632
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 4: And the memories Elizabeth, and you can't take those away.

633
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,760
Speaker 3: While the control booth had figured that he wasn't really cheating,

634
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:14,600
Speaker 3: CBS Standards and Practices they were sure, oh, cheating.

635
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 4: The control is basically talking electronic cheating. They're like, you

636
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:20,320
Speaker 4: have nobody exactly in your ear. You're not getting electronic

637
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:21,440
Speaker 4: you know, signal on your foot.

638
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:24,120
Speaker 3: And that's like in the taping and afterwards, Standards and

639
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:26,440
Speaker 3: Practices looked at it and they're like, no, he's a cheater.

640
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 3: He's all crimed up and They're like, because of this,

641
00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:32,680
Speaker 3: we can't pay him out. Oh, they're just positive.

642
00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 4: There's just no way pulled the casino move, Like, I

643
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 4: question your wins.

644
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:38,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they went over CBS went over the footage

645
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:41,120
Speaker 3: frame by frame, but came up.

646
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 2: Like this a pruider film.

647
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 3: Because he wasn't using he wasn't using a device to

648
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:49,040
Speaker 3: control the board or working with someone else.

649
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, he wasn't doing any known cheats.

650
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 3: He just basically beat him at their own game.

651
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:54,200
Speaker 4: Well, he did a mental algorithm.

652
00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:59,840
Speaker 3: Essentially, he pressed their lucks not being better about the setup.

653
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 3: So a former executive for CBS Daytime Programming, Bob Boden.

654
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:07,960
Speaker 2: Not Bob Boden, Bad Bobby Boden.

655
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:11,560
Speaker 3: And Bobby Boden said, quote, he fit every criteria. He

656
00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:14,040
Speaker 3: had not broken any rules of the game, he had

657
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:17,840
Speaker 3: played fairly, and he was an eligible contestant. We paid

658
00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 3: him his money. He was simply smarter than CBS.

659
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:24,280
Speaker 4: Yeah, are you smarter than a CBS the.

660
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:28,600
Speaker 3: Show Brockman, that head of Daytime Programming, he said, quote,

661
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 3: I said, how did he cheat? He beat the system.

662
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:34,479
Speaker 3: CBS finally agreed to pay him what he'd won, So

663
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:36,400
Speaker 3: he's won. That guy's on his side.

664
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:39,560
Speaker 2: There's a new mayor in Television City, and this is

665
00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:40,360
Speaker 2: Michael Larson.

666
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:42,640
Speaker 3: They cut Larson a check a couple of weeks later,

667
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:45,959
Speaker 3: but they didn't let him come back for the next episode,

668
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:50,360
Speaker 3: as was the custom, because he's blown by the network's

669
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 3: prize limit of twenty five thousand dollars. Yeah, this boom gone.

670
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:58,800
Speaker 3: The episode was such a beast that they had to

671
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:00,480
Speaker 3: split it into two parts.

672
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:01,600
Speaker 2: What Yeah, it was.

673
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,720
Speaker 3: A two parter. So the first half aired on June eighth,

674
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:07,880
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty four, and the second half was shown on

675
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 3: the eleventh. And some at CBS didn't want to show

676
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:12,200
Speaker 3: it at all.

677
00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 2: I bet not. I'm surprised they did.

678
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 3: They did come to an agreement that it wouldn't air

679
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:20,960
Speaker 3: as a rerun or in syndication. Oh and then also

680
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:25,960
Speaker 3: CBS established a seventy five thousand dollars cap on contestants winnings.

681
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:30,040
Speaker 2: Huh, So that's you know, wow.

682
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,720
Speaker 3: That's it. It did air though, and then there's the

683
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:33,240
Speaker 3: big board.

684
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 4: I kind of understand, like, it seems to me that

685
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:37,000
Speaker 4: would be the kind of show you would want, if

686
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:39,240
Speaker 4: you're in their position, you'd want would want to air

687
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 4: that to put out the challenge for other people to

688
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 4: try to beat your show become yeah all the time.

689
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 4: Maybe I'm too like, you know, trained by our modern

690
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 4: virality and the idea of like you want to get

691
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 4: you know, you want to get the gourd of mouth.

692
00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:53,720
Speaker 4: So obviously this probably wasn't the big thing in the eighties.

693
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 4: They would have called it, you know, the water cooler moment,

694
00:31:56,360 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 4: but it seems to be this is your water cooler

695
00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:00,239
Speaker 4: moment if you have a new show this and get

696
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 4: everyone think about it.

697
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:04,320
Speaker 3: Is they the network gave them a cap of twenty

698
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:07,840
Speaker 3: five thousand. They don't career contestant, so they don't have

699
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 3: a big budget. Sure, and they're probably thinking that now

700
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,280
Speaker 3: that the networks had to get legal involved and they've

701
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 3: had to pay out over one hundred thousands money there,

702
00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:18,160
Speaker 3: so they don't want to do a call to action

703
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:20,240
Speaker 3: of other people to be like, oh, yeah, I guess what, Like,

704
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:20,760
Speaker 3: I've got.

705
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:21,080
Speaker 2: A big brain.

706
00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:23,840
Speaker 3: I can get on there and outsmart this. That's my guess.

707
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 2: That's a good read.

708
00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:26,200
Speaker 3: It's just a cheap show.

709
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:27,600
Speaker 4: You can see the blood in the water, and they

710
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:28,680
Speaker 4: don't want to invite more sharks.

711
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:31,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's supposed to be a cheap show. They're

712
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:32,480
Speaker 3: not going to spend a lot of money and get

713
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:33,040
Speaker 3: a good return.

714
00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 4: And now they're spent a lot of money and I'm

715
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:37,160
Speaker 4: saying that they could get a bigger return. They're like,

716
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:38,280
Speaker 4: that's not what we want.

717
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 3: Right exactly, that's my guess. So the big board, right,

718
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:42,840
Speaker 3: they had to reprogram it.

719
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:45,160
Speaker 4: Of course, hopefully more than five patterns.

720
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:48,240
Speaker 3: They put in twenty seven additional light patterns. That's a

721
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:50,920
Speaker 3: good number to make things seem more random. Although I

722
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:53,160
Speaker 3: assume someone could memorize those two you memorize.

723
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 5: Not me.

724
00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:57,000
Speaker 3: I couldn't memorize one of them, but there are people

725
00:32:57,040 --> 00:32:57,280
Speaker 3: out there.

726
00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,760
Speaker 2: I bet you could. You could do it. If it's visual.

727
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:01,040
Speaker 3: This is purely visually.

728
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:02,960
Speaker 4: If it was like my ear, I might not be

729
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:03,400
Speaker 4: able to.

730
00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 3: I'd be like trying to get whammies because I like

731
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:12,920
Speaker 3: the little cartoons totally. It was like it's very babus,

732
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 3: which I love. I like that.

733
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:18,960
Speaker 4: You couldn't help yourself even trying to wind.

734
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 3: You'd still do my my animal brain would be like,

735
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:24,880
Speaker 3: let's watch another ram cartoon.

736
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:27,040
Speaker 2: I wouldn't lie to you again.

737
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:31,480
Speaker 4: This is it better than a trip to the you're

738
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:32,720
Speaker 4: for yourself?

739
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 3: Oh yeah? The Whammy wears like a little cape and

740
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:38,440
Speaker 3: has double horns. It's like a bad teeny little super guy.

741
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:41,560
Speaker 4: A lot of that in the eighties, like the Annoyd

742
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:43,120
Speaker 4: from Domino's.

743
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:48,320
Speaker 3: Remember Curious Larson heard about the big board overhaul, and

744
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:52,400
Speaker 3: he wrote to the contestant coordinator at pressure like quote,

745
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 3: it's like a zodiac letter. I know you've added patterns

746
00:33:56,480 --> 00:33:58,480
Speaker 3: to the board, but I bet I can beat you again.

747
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:00,720
Speaker 3: How about a tournament of champions?

748
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:04,600
Speaker 2: I like his heart. I got to bet they didn't

749
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 2: answer no. I bet they were just like whatever.

750
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:10,400
Speaker 3: Larsen set the record for most game show winnings in

751
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:14,120
Speaker 3: a single day with that one ten in nineteen eighty four.

752
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,480
Speaker 3: It stood until two thousand and six, when The Price

753
00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:20,840
Speaker 3: Is Right had someone win one hundred and forty seven thousand.

754
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 3: Whoa and then another Prices writer A pr contestants broke

755
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:30,240
Speaker 3: that with one hundred and seventy thousand and twenty thirteen.

756
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:31,840
Speaker 2: In one show Yeah, and then.

757
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 3: Michael Stauber won a total of two hundred and sixty

758
00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:38,960
Speaker 3: two thousand, seven hundred and forty three on the October fourteenth,

759
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,160
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen episode of The Prices Right.

760
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 2: How are they winning this much? On the pres Has

761
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 2: this show changed?

762
00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:45,680
Speaker 3: I have no idea. I never watched it in the

763
00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:47,480
Speaker 3: first place. Shocking, I know.

764
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:48,320
Speaker 2: Yeah.

765
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:50,399
Speaker 4: Do you remember when the Wheel of Fortune you would

766
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:52,040
Speaker 4: get some money after a round, then you'd have to

767
00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:54,799
Speaker 4: do shopping. They'd like open up her room. Yeah, that's

768
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 4: seed my sister. She was into game shows. I remember,

769
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,200
Speaker 4: so people don't even know existed growing up.

770
00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:03,440
Speaker 3: And to this day, I watched Jeopardy and then change

771
00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:05,200
Speaker 3: the channel as fast as I.

772
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:06,319
Speaker 2: Can hear the song.

773
00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:09,279
Speaker 3: I hate it because I can't stay you know what.

774
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:11,719
Speaker 3: I'm glad. I'm glad he had three careers, but I

775
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 3: can't keep then Pat Sajack's little face, Yeah, I don't

776
00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:18,600
Speaker 3: want to see it sounds like and it's just to me,

777
00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 3: I think it's a dumb game totally.

778
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,120
Speaker 4: He was like a human, like chipmunk and like the

779
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 4: only and like normally you'd be like, oh, that'd be

780
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 4: kind of cool.

781
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:28,320
Speaker 3: You can tell him, no, he doesn't have a babu ACoM.

782
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:32,200
Speaker 3: And it's also they get the dumbest contestants. Oh my god. Anyway.

783
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:37,160
Speaker 3: Twenty eleven, Damn Interesting media outlets said that despite the

784
00:35:37,239 --> 00:35:39,640
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty four win having been called a cheat, a

785
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 3: scammer scandal.

786
00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:41,080
Speaker 2: Quote.

787
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:44,160
Speaker 3: His impressive performance on Press Your Luck maybe one of

788
00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:49,800
Speaker 3: the only honest days of work that Michael Larson ever did.

789
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:55,400
Speaker 3: When Peter asked Larson on air what was going what

790
00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:57,560
Speaker 3: he was going to do with his winnings, Larson told

791
00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:01,880
Speaker 3: him quote invest in houses is his answer. Yeah. He

792
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:04,160
Speaker 3: paid the taxes on his winnings. And then he bought

793
00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:06,600
Speaker 3: his daughter a bunch of presents for his sixth birthday

794
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:08,880
Speaker 3: that happened to be the day before the show was taped.

795
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:12,399
Speaker 3: As he said, I can't even afford the presence. Then

796
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 3: he took a year off of work, I suppose driving

797
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 3: the ice cream truck or the h fact that he

798
00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:19,360
Speaker 3: didn't want anyone to know about. He gave the sailboat

799
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:21,719
Speaker 3: to his son, and I don't know if he took

800
00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:24,080
Speaker 3: the trips or he opted for the cash payout on those,

801
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:27,160
Speaker 3: or if that was even an offer for him. He

802
00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:32,080
Speaker 3: opened a marketing company marketing yeah, his brother James. His

803
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:34,799
Speaker 3: brother James said, quote, I tried to get him to

804
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:38,120
Speaker 3: look at some reasonable investments. He put it in the bank,

805
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:41,880
Speaker 3: and for some time he was doing the right thing, well, Zaren,

806
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:44,320
Speaker 3: For some time he was until.

807
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:46,120
Speaker 2: He was how long did sometime last?

808
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:48,440
Speaker 3: Let's take a break and when we come back, we'll

809
00:36:48,520 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 3: check in on Michael Larson post pyl victory. No Wammy's,

810
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:17,440
Speaker 3: no Wammy's, no wammies. There it is Michael Larson Saren.

811
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:21,560
Speaker 3: The episode of Press Your Luck where he dominated aired

812
00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:25,359
Speaker 3: in June of nineteen eighty four. By late nineteen eighty four,

813
00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:29,160
Speaker 3: following a dizzy in case of Olympic fever, he withdrew

814
00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:32,120
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand dollars from five different banks.

815
00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:34,400
Speaker 4: I gotta ask my friend's style if he remembers this

816
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:37,080
Speaker 4: because he was so into it. Yeah, actually is old

817
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:38,000
Speaker 4: enough you can remember it.

818
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:41,040
Speaker 3: So he goes around, He takes out one hundred grand,

819
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:45,160
Speaker 3: five different banks. He gets them all in one dollar bills.

820
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:48,120
Speaker 3: Why well, he was not heading to sloths.

821
00:37:48,239 --> 00:37:51,840
Speaker 4: I say, that's my only guest. Immediately lost loyal hower.

822
00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 3: The gals and bills while they ignore him and sleep

823
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:57,080
Speaker 3: soundly under down comforters at a very generous area of

824
00:37:57,120 --> 00:37:57,840
Speaker 3: personal space.

825
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:00,120
Speaker 4: Maybe I try to tuck one in a pocket of

826
00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 4: a robe.

827
00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 2: You get you don't get that, you get that clothes.

828
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:05,480
Speaker 4: Oh, I thought you could maybe like daintily chuck it up.

829
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:08,879
Speaker 3: On that table and then the well when we wake up,

830
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:13,040
Speaker 3: the gal say, they'll get over there. No, he was

831
00:38:13,080 --> 00:38:15,880
Speaker 3: trying to win a radio game that offered a prize

832
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:19,239
Speaker 3: if you matched announced numbers with those on a dollar bill.

833
00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:21,640
Speaker 4: Oh so he wanted many chances possible and he was

834
00:38:21,680 --> 00:38:22,480
Speaker 4: not successful.

835
00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:23,839
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a bad one.

836
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:27,480
Speaker 3: He gave up. He redeposited half the bills. Oh no,

837
00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:29,600
Speaker 3: and what did he do with the rest of the money.

838
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:30,399
Speaker 2: Lottery scratch offs?

839
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,879
Speaker 3: No, he hid it in various places in his girlfriend's house,

840
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:35,600
Speaker 3: remember her Dinwitty.

841
00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:38,359
Speaker 4: Yeah, so one night he's acting like a guy who

842
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:41,680
Speaker 4: watched his twelve TVs it once again exactly, he's got

843
00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:44,239
Speaker 4: like Mason jars of one dollar bills basically buried in

844
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:44,840
Speaker 4: the backyard.

845
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:47,439
Speaker 3: One night, the two of them, the couple, they're out

846
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:49,560
Speaker 3: on the town, living it up at a Christmas party.

847
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 3: That's fun for them. While they were out, though, something

848
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:56,720
Speaker 3: bad happened. Burglars broke in and they took the fifty

849
00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:58,480
Speaker 3: thousand he had squirreled around the house.

850
00:38:58,719 --> 00:39:00,799
Speaker 4: How did they know where it was? Sounds like an inside.

851
00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:03,720
Speaker 3: John Arson was convinced that his girlfriend.

852
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, was not so dim wady.

853
00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:08,640
Speaker 3: She woke up one morning and he was standing over her,

854
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:12,200
Speaker 3: staring at her like after this, just staring, So she

855
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:16,560
Speaker 3: bounced like good for her, no room for creepy. Sure, yeah,

856
00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:19,120
Speaker 3: I mean this guy has a wall of television sets

857
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:20,400
Speaker 3: and you know, and this is.

858
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:22,319
Speaker 4: What makes her bounce. She wakes up one day and

859
00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:25,360
Speaker 4: he's staring. After the robbery, I get, there's a greater concept.

860
00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:28,120
Speaker 3: So she grabbed five thousand dollars that he had hidden

861
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:30,799
Speaker 3: in the kitchen drawer that the burglars hadn't gotten. She

862
00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:33,840
Speaker 3: grabs the kids, she runs. That was her house, though,

863
00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:37,239
Speaker 3: so she stayed at a hotel while she waited for

864
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:39,719
Speaker 3: him to get his stuff and go go. He did.

865
00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:42,759
Speaker 3: They never figured out who stole the cash, and they

866
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 3: never will. Nineteen eighty six, Press your luck went off

867
00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:48,280
Speaker 3: the air, moment of silence.

868
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:49,520
Speaker 2: Please really that quickly?

869
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 5: Yeah?

870
00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:52,880
Speaker 3: It did not last long. Let's jump forward to the

871
00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:56,040
Speaker 3: mid nineteen nineties. I wasn't even born then. I was

872
00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:59,799
Speaker 3: born in twenty fifteen. So by this point, Larson he

873
00:39:59,840 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 3: had moved to Dayton, Ohio, and he was working as

874
00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:04,280
Speaker 3: an assistant manager at Walmart.

875
00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:08,319
Speaker 4: Was this mid nineties, Okay, so I was a retiree

876
00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:09,160
Speaker 4: in Ohio, at this.

877
00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:11,200
Speaker 3: Yes, you had already retired at this point.

878
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:12,600
Speaker 2: Being one of the greatest generation at all.

879
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:15,760
Speaker 3: Yeah. So he's he's living in Dayton, Ohio. He's working

880
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:19,400
Speaker 3: at Walmart, not the Walmart and bowling green over big

881
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:22,600
Speaker 3: shout out that appeared in the Pokemon episode. This is

882
00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:26,359
Speaker 3: the Walmart date store. Yeah, is it a superstar? I'm

883
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 3: curiously so Larson. He had a job, he had a

884
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 3: new girlfriend, and he had a new con He was

885
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:36,960
Speaker 3: selling shares in a multi level marketing scam run by

886
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:41,239
Speaker 3: a company called Pleasure Time Incorporated. Oh god, Hubba hubba.

887
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:42,600
Speaker 2: Pleasure Time Incorporating.

888
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:47,000
Speaker 3: Well, here's what that was. So there were indeed, ahub

889
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:53,240
Speaker 3: in Taro Bay. There were ads, very early online ads

890
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:57,400
Speaker 3: on America Online. Oh whoa that said, you can't lose

891
00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:01,719
Speaker 3: about this For just one hundred and eighty nine dollars a.

892
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:03,479
Speaker 4: Share, just pennies dollars on the day.

893
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 3: Investors could get in on the ground floor of an

894
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:08,439
Speaker 3: operation that would yield them at least sixty dollars a week.

895
00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:13,919
Speaker 3: That sounds good least Yeah, more twenty thousand people thought

896
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:17,319
Speaker 3: it sounded good. And what was this scheme called the

897
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:23,399
Speaker 3: American Indian Lottery that familiar. Basically, it's unregistered securities. Yes,

898
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 3: which translates to classic Ponzi skis. Pleasure Time Incorporated did

899
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:33,120
Speaker 3: business under the name Telephone Information Systems and Group Dynamics.

900
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:37,600
Speaker 2: Downline, Group Dynamics done. You know that they rip people.

901
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:41,359
Speaker 3: They promised huge profits in return for signing on more

902
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:45,520
Speaker 3: investors MLM baby. Okay, but this this wasn't just taking

903
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:48,200
Speaker 3: place in magazines or through the mail. This was online.

904
00:41:49,040 --> 00:41:54,040
Speaker 3: Stanley B. Witten with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Chicago. Yeah,

905
00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:57,359
Speaker 3: they said, quote. It's the first time the Commission has

906
00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:00,440
Speaker 3: brought a case in which most of the offer sale

907
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:04,840
Speaker 3: of securities took place in cyberspace. Oh wow, que the

908
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:09,840
Speaker 3: lasers people fibers. Investors were told that by buying a

909
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:15,080
Speaker 3: quote membership share in Telephone Information Systems, they would profit

910
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:18,200
Speaker 3: from a worldwide telephone lottery that would be set up

911
00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:22,200
Speaker 3: in conjunction with a Native American tribe. Sorry, of course,

912
00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:23,520
Speaker 3: there's no tribe involved.

913
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 2: Oh, none of this.

914
00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:26,960
Speaker 4: And twenty thousand people fell for this. Yeah, there's going

915
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:29,719
Speaker 4: to be a worldwide on the phone lottery run from

916
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:31,040
Speaker 4: an Indiana.

917
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:33,360
Speaker 3: What does this lottery work? Well, people would call a

918
00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:35,920
Speaker 3: nine hundred telephone line. Oh do you remember those?

919
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:37,480
Speaker 2: Dial a minute?

920
00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:39,560
Speaker 3: I don't remember them because I was born in twenty

921
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:42,520
Speaker 3: eighteen and I don't know what a cassette tape is.

922
00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:44,840
Speaker 4: I actually got reach and that's how I retired, was

923
00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:46,440
Speaker 4: off of one nine hundred numbers.

924
00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:50,279
Speaker 3: So like that's you would it would cost money to call.

925
00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:54,640
Speaker 2: A nine hundred line by the minute, yes, and.

926
00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:57,719
Speaker 3: Then one nine hundred yeah, and that's but this is

927
00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:00,680
Speaker 3: how the public would get into the lotto, however much

928
00:43:00,680 --> 00:43:03,440
Speaker 3: it is a minute is one thing. Sure, that's the

929
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:06,239
Speaker 3: gravy on top, because they'd call and then buy a

930
00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:08,920
Speaker 3: seven dollars ticket for the lottery over the phone.

931
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:11,040
Speaker 4: Okay, And they'd have to wait, I'm sure, on the

932
00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 4: phone to handle some of the.

933
00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 3: Process as the as racking up. And this would give

934
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:21,719
Speaker 3: money to the investors in the project, supposedly, and according

935
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,720
Speaker 3: to the ad, half of the seven dollars telephone wager

936
00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:27,560
Speaker 3: went to the lotto pot and the rest would be

937
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:31,080
Speaker 3: divided among the tribe, the investors, and operating expenses.

938
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:31,480
Speaker 2: Sure.

939
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:35,360
Speaker 3: Joan McCown, who was the chief counsel of the SEC

940
00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:39,400
Speaker 3: Enforcement Division in Washington, said that the SEC's market surveillance

941
00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:44,239
Speaker 3: department was monitoring the financial bulletin boards of online services.

942
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:49,760
Speaker 3: So she's on message boards on like an AOL board. Yes,

943
00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:56,200
Speaker 3: for the Chatter Frontier, it's the wild West. This is

944
00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:58,800
Speaker 3: the first case where most of the advertising of the

945
00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:02,680
Speaker 3: scam was online, so there's no chunk mail, no classified

946
00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:07,560
Speaker 3: ads and papers. Federal District judge froze the assets of accounts.

947
00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:11,759
Speaker 4: This still counts as as wire fraud, not postal fraud. Right,

948
00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:13,840
Speaker 4: so they've just gotten around the postal fraud.

949
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:18,239
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, so they freeze accounts in Florida, Indiana, Ohio,

950
00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:21,200
Speaker 3: but most of the investors' money had already been withdrawn. Sure,

951
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:25,439
Speaker 3: the SEC tracked more than three million that came from

952
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:31,400
Speaker 3: investors as Telephone Information and Group Dynamics downline made pitches

953
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:34,920
Speaker 3: on these computer networks. The scammers even took the idea

954
00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:36,920
Speaker 3: to Europe, where they got people to sign up for

955
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:43,000
Speaker 3: two hundred equivalent of two hundred dollars apiece that same

956
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:46,560
Speaker 3: one pleasure time. The reason it had the name is

957
00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:50,319
Speaker 3: it's a remnant of the company's old service. Something they

958
00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:53,719
Speaker 3: called quote Fantasy calls on the nine hundred line. So

959
00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:56,399
Speaker 3: it was a phone sex operator. Yeah, they switched over

960
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:59,319
Speaker 3: reached over to Indian I thought they.

961
00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:01,160
Speaker 4: Were just diversive, Like, we got to find a way

962
00:45:01,160 --> 00:45:03,440
Speaker 4: to get more elderly people in this. We've got all

963
00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:06,040
Speaker 4: these younger dirtbags going with the sex phone calls.

964
00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:07,640
Speaker 3: We can get more money out of the older You

965
00:45:07,719 --> 00:45:08,120
Speaker 3: use these.

966
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:10,120
Speaker 4: Same lines later a week had or earlier, I guess

967
00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:10,920
Speaker 4: probably in the morning.

968
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:14,239
Speaker 3: Well, and so there's Michael Larson involved in a non

969
00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:18,080
Speaker 3: existent American Indian lottery that raised three million dollars from

970
00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 3: twenty thousand investors. You know what, that made him one

971
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:23,680
Speaker 3: of the pioneers of internet scams.

972
00:45:23,719 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 2: Wow, look at him for.

973
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:28,040
Speaker 3: One of the laziest men people didn't believe in exactly.

974
00:45:27,680 --> 00:45:30,120
Speaker 4: He's out there scamming game shows the Internet.

975
00:45:30,239 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 3: In the middle of all this precedence, seem made a

976
00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:33,760
Speaker 3: play for more fame.

977
00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:34,760
Speaker 2: What see.

978
00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:37,880
Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety four, a movie came out, produced and

979
00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:39,200
Speaker 3: directed by Robert Redford.

980
00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:42,160
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, one of your favorite John.

981
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:45,840
Speaker 3: Taturo, your boy Rob Morrow, Yes, and Rafe Fines.

982
00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:48,680
Speaker 4: Oh different movies the movie I know these when you're talking.

983
00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:50,840
Speaker 3: About quiz show, yeah, dramas?

984
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:53,040
Speaker 4: Are you're talking about sneakers? Your other one?

985
00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:53,279
Speaker 2: Oh?

986
00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:55,960
Speaker 3: God, no, that was that's that's in a class of

987
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 3: its own. I would never be smirch it by bringing

988
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:02,560
Speaker 3: it into this. So quiz showed traumatization of the fifties

989
00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:06,200
Speaker 3: quiz show scandals. Larsen went on Good Morning America to

990
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:09,239
Speaker 3: talk about the movie and his experience on Press Your Luck.

991
00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:10,919
Speaker 4: Okay, I've scammed a game show.

992
00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:11,680
Speaker 2: I know this.

993
00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:13,799
Speaker 3: He told him that he was bummed out that he

994
00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:16,200
Speaker 3: never got to go on Jeopardy because, quote, I think

995
00:46:16,239 --> 00:46:19,799
Speaker 3: I have figured out some angles on that. Yeah, like

996
00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:24,319
Speaker 3: what being smart? Ken Jennings, James Holsauer with like a word.

997
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:29,799
Speaker 3: He got interviewed by from White Men Can't Jump, Yes, everybody,

998
00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:33,960
Speaker 3: everyone would like a word. He got interviewed by TV Guide.

999
00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:36,440
Speaker 3: They asked him what he did with all of his

1000
00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:41,520
Speaker 3: whammy free winnings. He said, quote, it didn't work out.

1001
00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:44,640
Speaker 3: We had a cash flow problem. Then I lost everything.

1002
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:45,719
Speaker 3: Easy come, easy go.

1003
00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:46,359
Speaker 2: Oh my god.

1004
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:48,120
Speaker 4: I was about to say, like, he's the kind of

1005
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:50,440
Speaker 4: guy who believes literally in easy comings.

1006
00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:51,879
Speaker 2: He's like burnet im.

1007
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:54,760
Speaker 3: And then he said, it's more the thrill of the chase.

1008
00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:57,719
Speaker 2: He's in for the actions, and he's literally in for

1009
00:46:57,719 --> 00:46:58,040
Speaker 2: the action.

1010
00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:01,640
Speaker 3: He told interviewers that he chose Pressure Luck to beat

1011
00:47:01,680 --> 00:47:04,600
Speaker 3: because of the cash prizes it had. Quote, I just

1012
00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:07,000
Speaker 3: memorized the patterns. I thought maybe there would be a

1013
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:09,600
Speaker 3: pattern in the way the lights moved. So I videotaped

1014
00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:11,520
Speaker 3: six or eight of them, and I watched them frame

1015
00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:14,840
Speaker 3: to frame. Six months later, I had a pattern down. Okay,

1016
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:18,880
Speaker 3: he said he was currently studying video poker casino games

1017
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:20,320
Speaker 3: in the hopes of going to Vegas.

1018
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:21,680
Speaker 2: Okay, good luck.

1019
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:25,360
Speaker 3: The next year, in nineteen ninety five, he gets charged

1020
00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:29,799
Speaker 3: for that American Indian Lottery skill. He was under investigation

1021
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:33,440
Speaker 3: by the FBI, IRS SEC and you can guess what

1022
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 3: he did. He made a run for it.

1023
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:36,879
Speaker 4: I was just gonna say, I bet he's a kype

1024
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:37,520
Speaker 4: of cut and run.

1025
00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:40,560
Speaker 3: He pressed his luck. So, according to his brother James, quote,

1026
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:43,759
Speaker 3: winning that game show was the start of his downfall.

1027
00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:46,840
Speaker 3: It made him think he could trick anybody and do

1028
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:48,280
Speaker 3: just about anything he pleased.

1029
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:49,120
Speaker 2: I'm above the law.

1030
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:52,480
Speaker 3: Yeah. So he was on the run for four years.

1031
00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:53,359
Speaker 2: Well good on him.

1032
00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:54,799
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a long time.

1033
00:47:55,160 --> 00:47:57,920
Speaker 2: From what we've found, that's not easy to stay out

1034
00:47:57,960 --> 00:47:58,480
Speaker 2: that long.

1035
00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:00,400
Speaker 4: And I mean to stay ahead of the and then

1036
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:02,279
Speaker 4: also head of your own guilty conscience, he said two

1037
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:02,799
Speaker 4: different things.

1038
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:07,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, he nineteen ninety nine. Investigators tracked him to Florida.

1039
00:48:07,520 --> 00:48:08,640
Speaker 2: He didn't even leave the country.

1040
00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:11,319
Speaker 3: No, And what did they find a gravestone?

1041
00:48:11,880 --> 00:48:11,960
Speaker 5: What?

1042
00:48:12,320 --> 00:48:16,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, he had just passed away from throat cancer at

1043
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:17,480
Speaker 3: the age of forty nine.

1044
00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:18,560
Speaker 2: Dear God.

1045
00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:20,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were too late, Darren.

1046
00:48:20,840 --> 00:48:24,000
Speaker 4: So he was smoking like massively while he was watching

1047
00:48:24,080 --> 00:48:26,040
Speaker 4: those eighteen hours of TV. So I think that kind

1048
00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:28,120
Speaker 4: of goes hand in hand. That room had like striator

1049
00:48:28,239 --> 00:48:28,840
Speaker 4: grace smoke.

1050
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:30,239
Speaker 3: I can see the whole thing.

1051
00:48:30,320 --> 00:48:31,480
Speaker 2: It's hot. Yeah.

1052
00:48:31,600 --> 00:48:34,759
Speaker 3: Yeah. There was a film adaptation of the whole mess

1053
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:36,560
Speaker 3: called Press Your Luck that was supposed to be in

1054
00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:39,000
Speaker 3: pre production as of August two thousand.

1055
00:48:39,920 --> 00:48:41,919
Speaker 4: Howard twenty twenty four, Elizabeth, I know.

1056
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:45,680
Speaker 3: Howard Franklin was the screenwriter and director What Happened? Nicholas

1057
00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:49,160
Speaker 3: Cage was signed on as a producer and who was

1058
00:48:49,160 --> 00:48:50,200
Speaker 3: supposed to play Larsen?

1059
00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:52,919
Speaker 2: Rob Morrow, Bill Murray? What?

1060
00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:54,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, Billbury?

1061
00:48:55,040 --> 00:48:57,040
Speaker 4: This is I want to be a dramatic actor.

1062
00:48:57,080 --> 00:49:00,319
Speaker 3: Fair March sixteenth, two thousand and three, the Game Show

1063
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:04,360
Speaker 3: Network showed its first ever documentary.

1064
00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:06,280
Speaker 2: About the event, first ever doctum.

1065
00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:09,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, the two hour long Big Bucks the Press Your

1066
00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:17,839
Speaker 3: Luck Scandal documentary. It brought together Janey the Preacher, Peter

1067
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:19,920
Speaker 3: Tomarkin from the original taping, did.

1068
00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:22,120
Speaker 4: Have Monty Hall just for like a commentary why not.

1069
00:49:22,920 --> 00:49:27,720
Speaker 3: There was a reboat of Press Your Luck called Whammy,

1070
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:31,880
Speaker 3: the all new Press Your Luck. I don't think so

1071
00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:34,680
Speaker 3: they had when it was on, though they had a

1072
00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:37,520
Speaker 3: March seventeenth, two thousand and three, memorial episode of the

1073
00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:41,200
Speaker 3: show with Ed Long and Janie Lee Trice. They returned

1074
00:49:41,239 --> 00:49:46,480
Speaker 3: to play against James Larson, Michael Larson's brother. The brother

1075
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:48,640
Speaker 3: was like, I'll take a taste of this, get my

1076
00:49:48,680 --> 00:49:54,800
Speaker 3: beek wet. November thirteenth, twenty seventeen, this book company, modern

1077
00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:58,000
Speaker 3: Itto Books published a graphic novel about his Press Your

1078
00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:01,520
Speaker 3: Luck winning streak called Larsen The Luckiest Man in the World.

1079
00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:03,040
Speaker 2: If the ant he kills everyone with the sword.

1080
00:50:03,360 --> 00:50:07,279
Speaker 3: It's by Hobby di Castro. So Yeah, unable to let

1081
00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:09,600
Speaker 3: it go Sure. The Game Show Network rolled out a

1082
00:50:09,600 --> 00:50:13,239
Speaker 3: documentary series What And Its first episode was about the

1083
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:15,440
Speaker 3: Press Your Luck scandal that aired in twenty eighteen.

1084
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:17,160
Speaker 4: Game Show Network I Hardly Knew You.

1085
00:50:18,080 --> 00:50:22,160
Speaker 3: On May ninth, twenty twenty four, Protagonist Pictures announced its

1086
00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:25,279
Speaker 3: adaptation to the scandal called Press Your Luck.

1087
00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:26,600
Speaker 2: I was goe A guess Yeah.

1088
00:50:26,719 --> 00:50:30,640
Speaker 3: Maggie Briggs and Sameir Oliverros wrote the script. Oliverro's directed,

1089
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:33,120
Speaker 3: and Paul Walter Hauser was cast as Larsen.

1090
00:50:33,719 --> 00:50:35,440
Speaker 2: If he says, so is Aaron.

1091
00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:36,360
Speaker 3: What's your ridiculous taway?

1092
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:37,400
Speaker 2: Man?

1093
00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:40,879
Speaker 4: If I was to sit around and imagine a game

1094
00:50:40,960 --> 00:50:44,040
Speaker 4: show to cheat from the early eighties or even just

1095
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:46,839
Speaker 4: for the eighties in particular, it's no way I would

1096
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:48,680
Speaker 4: have picked no Whammies. That one is so known for

1097
00:50:48,719 --> 00:50:50,640
Speaker 4: you not beating it. I mean, that's like the whole idea,

1098
00:50:50,719 --> 00:50:52,759
Speaker 4: no Whammy, no Wamy, and they get the wamby. Yeah,

1099
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:55,360
Speaker 4: this guy's like, I can beat the whammy. I really

1100
00:50:55,400 --> 00:50:57,360
Speaker 4: respect the fact that his goal was to beat the

1101
00:50:57,360 --> 00:51:01,680
Speaker 4: wam He beat the I mean to honestly, like I

1102
00:51:01,719 --> 00:51:03,760
Speaker 4: told you about my buddy style. This is like between

1103
00:51:03,840 --> 00:51:05,960
Speaker 4: us and inside joke that he pretty but spread to

1104
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:07,560
Speaker 4: me because he liked the show and my sister like

1105
00:51:07,640 --> 00:51:11,239
Speaker 4: the show. So I was just always kind of like

1106
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:13,880
Speaker 4: a I don't want to admire us of but I

1107
00:51:14,360 --> 00:51:16,480
Speaker 4: marveled at both he and my sister, two people close

1108
00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:18,600
Speaker 4: to me, two people I live with two people who

1109
00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:21,040
Speaker 4: I trusted implicitly were so afraid of this thing called

1110
00:51:21,040 --> 00:51:21,520
Speaker 4: the Whammy.

1111
00:51:21,719 --> 00:51:21,959
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1112
00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:23,960
Speaker 4: I just thought that was amazing. And here this guy goes,

1113
00:51:24,040 --> 00:51:27,520
Speaker 4: I'm afraid of no whammy. That's ridiculous to me. Elizabeth,

1114
00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:31,400
Speaker 4: what about you? What's your ridiculous takeaway? You see, I did

1115
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:31,880
Speaker 4: that all smak.

1116
00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:35,040
Speaker 3: Thank you for asking on. I love the fact that

1117
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:37,879
Speaker 3: the Game Show Network has gotten into documentary.

1118
00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:38,600
Speaker 2: Total in a series of them.

1119
00:51:38,680 --> 00:51:39,879
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's fair for them.

1120
00:51:39,960 --> 00:51:41,880
Speaker 2: This is our thirty for thirty, Like we're kind of

1121
00:51:41,920 --> 00:51:42,200
Speaker 2: out of.

1122
00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:47,520
Speaker 3: Game Show Show Dave. You know what I need to

1123
00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:48,080
Speaker 3: talk back?

1124
00:51:48,200 --> 00:51:58,279
Speaker 2: Hell yeah, oh my god, I w ge.

1125
00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:10,319
Speaker 6: Y'all are ridiculous. Horsey sauce is horse Radish, Horsey is

1126
00:52:10,600 --> 00:52:15,840
Speaker 6: Arby's slang nickname for horse radish, and oddly enough, I

1127
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:18,560
Speaker 6: just got back to work from eating lunch at Arby's

1128
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:21,600
Speaker 6: and eating Horsey sauce.

1129
00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:29,920
Speaker 3: Ah. There you go. That's it for today. You can

1130
00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:32,920
Speaker 3: find us online at ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also

1131
00:52:33,080 --> 00:52:36,480
Speaker 3: at Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter and Instagram. Email us

1132
00:52:36,560 --> 00:52:40,360
Speaker 3: at Ridiculous Crime at jamail dot com, and then also,

1133
00:52:40,440 --> 00:52:42,960
Speaker 3: most importantly, leave a talkback on the iHeart app.

1134
00:52:43,120 --> 00:52:44,560
Speaker 2: Do It, Reach Out, Do It.

1135
00:52:49,719 --> 00:52:52,960
Speaker 3: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,

1136
00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:57,880
Speaker 3: produced and edited by Wammy Tamer, Dave Coustatom, starring Emilie

1137
00:52:57,960 --> 00:53:02,160
Speaker 3: Rutger as Judith. Research by Marissa three thousand dollars and

1138
00:53:02,280 --> 00:53:07,200
Speaker 3: one Spin Brown and Andrea A Trip to Jamaica song

1139
00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:10,319
Speaker 3: Sharpen Tear. The theme song is by Thomas Go Back

1140
00:53:10,360 --> 00:53:14,719
Speaker 3: to spaces Lee and Travis Yes Whammies. Dutton post wardrobe

1141
00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:17,680
Speaker 3: is provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and makeup

1142
00:53:17,760 --> 00:53:21,799
Speaker 3: by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are Game Show

1143
00:53:21,880 --> 00:53:25,920
Speaker 3: Baptist Preacher Ben Bollen and Likable Dental Assistant Noel.

1144
00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:36,800
Speaker 5: Brown, Gus Clime, Say It One More Time Gequus Cry.

1145
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:41,280
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts.

1146
00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:44,560
Speaker 1: My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1147
00:53:44,560 --> 00:53:46,360
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows