WEBVTT - No Whammies…Ever: Michael Larson 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.320 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:06.600 En Elizabeth, Are you yeah? I'm doing all right? 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:10.039 Listen here? Do you know what's ridiculous I do? 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:10.680 Elizabeth? 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:11.879 Please share? 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.640 I found some word I think you may not know. 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:16.200 Okay, yeah, I know you're. 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:18.520 Like what, I know a lot of words that's not 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:19.120 true at all. 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:20.680 Like here, I'll give you an example. 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:22.760 Do you know the word at the end of your 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:24.040 shoelace is what that's called? 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:25.759 Right, We've talked about. 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:27.040 This before, dangle or something. 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:28.680 You actually told me. 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:30.320 This, so I know you know it at one point, right. 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:32.839 Or the way it smells after it rains is one 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.479 of my favorite words is petrocore. Yeah, these are just 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.080 like random words, right, But here's the one that I 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:38.960 think you may. 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:40.320 Know or who knows. 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.600 The armhole enclose where the sleeves are. 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:47.440 What's that call? What's that whole called? It's called the 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:49.240 arm sky, the arm sky. 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:53.400 It's like arms eye, but it's s okay, c y 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:55.400 e armsig armside Okay. 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:55.920 Yeah. 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:57.480 And so then it's one of the ones where people 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:59.160 actually did it backwards. They thought it was like a 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:01.880 printing air. And that's why people call it armsky because 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.280 these letters got pushed together. It turns out no, we 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:06.959 had reversed it and said, oh, it's arms eye because 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.320 of it's armsky, and we just prefer that it makes 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:11.959 more sense to say arms eye. So for a while 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.280 older printers would say arms eye. Then they went back 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.240 to it's actually arms sky. Anyway, the whole of a shirt, 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.160 T shirt or whatever, it's called an arm sig. I 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:24.000 got one last one for you. Yeah, okay, I actually 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:25.679 use this one all the time. I thought i'd invented it, 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:27.520 but apparently I did not. They have a term for 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.880 it when you combine the question mark with an exclamation point. 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:31.960 Do you know what that's called? 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:33.119 Isn't that something that. 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:35.920 It's on the tip of your tongue. I can see 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:37.360 it right there, just spin it out. 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:37.880 I can see it. 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:43.560 It's right there, Elizabeth, there's the tarot bang you said 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:50.840 bang first? Then yeah, yeah, so there that is. It's 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.080 not ridiculous. We have all these little words, you know. 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.680 I love those little hidden secret words that don't really 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:57.720 ever come out to play. 0:01:57.920 --> 0:01:58.600 Yeah, they do. 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:00.360 Exactly, and then you find it and then you know, 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.080 some of us often sound pedantic wreck Actually that's an 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:04.040 entro bag. 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:06.720 But this is just you and me right now? Is 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:07.200 that fun? 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.160 It's beautiful and it's ridiculous. Do you want to know 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:11.280 what else is ridiculous? 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:12.200 I am horror for it. 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:38.360 No whammies ever. What this is a ridiculous crime A 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:42.880 podcast about absurd and outrageous caper's heists and cons. It's 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:46.200 always ninety nine percent murder free. And guess what, one 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:47.519 hundred percent ridiculous. 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:48.480 Damn right. 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.359 We were just talking about game shows the other day. 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:54.239 You and I we both love Jeopardy. 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:55.040 Yes, big time favorite. 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.639 That's about the only game show I like. Really, I 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:00.680 liked rock and Roll Jeopardy on V one. 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:01.240 Back all day. 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:03.519 I had a friend who won that really yeah, he indact, 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:04.480 he bought like a mini. 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.400 Cooper with the I killed. 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:08.919 If I'd have gone on there, I'd still be winning, 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:09.400 the show. 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:11.440 Would still be on. He'd be that shows Ken. 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:13.280 Jennings, Yeah, I should have been on the show. 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:14.040 You should have. 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:15.120 You really do kill it that. 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.200 I'm so good tell me this long. 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:20.840 Time about that era. We were talking the other day 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:24.040 about how his kids we knew people who were stoked 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:26.840 to stay home sick and watch game shows, and I 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:28.079 never really got into that. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:29.880 My sister was a Price is Right girl. She was 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:31.959 really into that. So she said home. I had to 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:33.639 stay home because she was my younger sister. Mom's like, 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:35.080 you stay home too and take care of her. I'm like, 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.640 all right, single mom rules, okay. So then yeah, she 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:38.720 love the prizes right well. 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.240 Like so, back in the eighties, there was a game 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:42.720 show called Press Your Luck. 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:43.960 She loved that one too. 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.839 It was contestants answered trivia questions in order to earn 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.440 spins on a game board, and like the board would 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.880 sort of randomly shuffle the spaces on itself, and the 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:58.400 spaces were for stuff like prizes or cash or extra spins, 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.640 or the space could have like a little scruffy cartoon 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:06.480 qtie gremlin thing called the Whammy. Yeah yeah, And if 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.440 you landed on the Whammy you lost everything. You'd one 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.080 up to that point, and the Whammy would do like 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.360 a little dancer skite. It was kind of like a 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.080 like a little cartoon devil meets Animal from the Muppets 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.480 meets Baby Babu frick. 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.000 Yeah meets the Sandman from the Apollo Yes. 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.440 Exactly, So Press your Luck. It was a CBS show 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.239 and it ran from nineteen eighty three to nineteen eighty six. 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:33.760 The host was Peter Tamarkin. 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.240 Rod Roddy was the Great Voice Rody. 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.560 And Bill Carruthers was both the director and the voice 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:46.919 of the Whammy Oh. There were three contestants on each episode, 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.880 competing against each other, and the game had four rounds. 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.719 There were two question rounds and then two big board rounds, 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:54.839 so it would go like question, big board, Question, bigboard, 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.560 and the big board round. Contestants used all the spins 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:01.119 that they had gathered up to try and win cash 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.599 and prizes, and the game board it had eighteen spaces 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.279 laid out in like a rectangular loop six by five. Yes, 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.600 I feel like this is like when someone's trying to 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:13.880 explain a border card game to me at a party 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:15.560 and I'm totally lost and I have to act like 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:17.240 I know what I'm doing, and I keep thinking like 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:19.440 this is why I don't leave the house, Like I 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:23.479 don't have to learn these things. I'm a slow learner. Anyway. 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.600 A light would flash randomly around the board, marking one 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.680 space at a time, and then the contestant in control 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.280 uses the spin by hitting their buzzard to freeze the 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:36.680 board and collect whatever's lit at that moment. Okay, so 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:41.440 remember if you hit the whammy, you lose everything totally. Well, yeah, 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:46.400 contestants would say no whammy's if you landed on the 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:50.160 whammy a total of four times, that was called whammying out. Yes, 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:51.600 you got the boot from the game. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:53.479 Dude. My old roommates still love the show. 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.080 And he used to say, like in things, just in life, right, 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:57.839 like we were going up and we were waiting in 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.000 line and there's like two different lines. He's like, no way, 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.320 I mean, mammy, like, we're going to get the shorter line. 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:03.559 I mean, he's it all the time. 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.880 It's part of the culture. So I've established that. Now 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:09.400 we understand press your. 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:11.200 Luck total, We're all for the most part. 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:15.360 With that established, Let's talk about a guy, Michael Larson. 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.080 He was born in nineteen forty nine in Lebanon, Ohio, 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:21.800 and he had three older brothers. 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.919 He's just like little classic baby boomer born in the 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:29.680 Middlewest brother troll Baby. He's got older brothers. This is 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:30.760 a big boomer energy. 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:33.560 They said that his first scam was in middle school 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:35.919 when he would buy candy bars and sell them to 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.000 other students at an inflated price. During pe class. 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:40.479 Sat capitalis it's not a. 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.240 Scam, that's capitalism. Like I'm like, okay, Well, you know, 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.480 after high school he elevated his scam game beyond snickers 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:48.000 the scam. 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:51.039 They weren't really candy bars, Now that was a scam. 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.200 He had this thing going where he would open and 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.960 close bank accounts because at the time, some banks would 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:01.000 offer money for you customer new toe also, she could 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:02.919 get as much as like five hundred bucks for opening 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.040 the bank account. Those days are long gone. Yeah yeah, 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.560 but back then, Larson would open account, get the cash, 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:11.800 close the account, lather, rinse, repeat. 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:13.560 Well this is before they deregulated the banks and near 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:15.000 fighting over customers exactly. 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:19.440 So one time he registered for another scam. He registered 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.680 a business under a family member's name so he could 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:27.560 then hire and fire himself and collect unemployment. Amazing. 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:28.360 I like that one. 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.239 His brother James said, quote, he didn't understand the value 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:36.040 of good, hard, honest work. He thought those people were fools. 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:37.760 There like suckers. He's like, he was very out of 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.240 step with everyone else in the Midwest. Yeah, we all thought, 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.400 what's wrong with this guy? He should go to la. 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.880 Between nineteen sixty nine and nineteen eighty two. Sure, he 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.560 got arrested three times for stuff like receiving and concealing 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:56.760 stolen goods. Okay, petty theft, larceny by trick. Three arrests 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:59.400 in thirteen years isn't bad by a ridiculous crime? 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:01.040 Stand pretty good. They're all small. 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:05.119 Yeah, and like my personal standard is zero in thirteen years. 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:07.960 You have a ball, you know, among these folks. So 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:12.360 that takes us up to nineteen eighty three. By this time, Larson, 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.080 he's been divorced twice. He has three kids with three 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:15.640 different women. 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:16.920 Awesome, no judgment. 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:19.840 Oh no, I'm not judging. I'm laughing at his commitment 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.080 to bad decisions. 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:21.640 Like this doesn't work. 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:28.200 Moving on, His main squeeze was his girlfriend Teresa dinwitty dim. 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:30.560 Witty with an end, And yeah, I thought it was 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:32.640 dim witty. I was like, that's just come on, family. 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.320 Here's how she described her man quote, he always thought 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:38.880 he was smarter than everyone else and had a constant 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:39.920 yearning for knowledge. 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:41.439 Is that like a dim witty to say that? 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:43.680 Well, I mean like he thinks he's smarter than anyone else, 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:48.600 but for knowledge. It's just like, yeah, what was he. 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:50.679 Doing for a living and what was he doing for knowledge? 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.360 He was an h back guy and he also drove 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:55.439 a mister Softy ice cream truck. 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:57.320 Oh, mister Softie. I talked about them. 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.520 And in his free time he read magazines and news papers. 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:01.720 Oh yeah, I'm. 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.200 The Other thing he did was stare at a wall 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.920 filled with twelve TVs? What looking for get rich quick schemes? 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:11.240 Wait? Wait? What? Yeah? Wait? 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:13.440 Is this his own wall? Or he go to like 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:14.360 a TV salesman? 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.199 And this is what Dinwiddy said. Quote He had an 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:21.440 entire wall of twenty five inch televisions stacked one on 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:24.000 top of the other. What He watched them all at 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.840 once and it got so hot the paint peeled off 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:27.280 the wall. 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:28.800 Oh wow. 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:32.120 You know I always saying I can't ever get enough information. 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:34.679 I want as much information as you have. I please 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.480 give me more than why always say that? He found 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:40.480 the line that I won't cross twenty five TVs stacked 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:41.960 and just sitting there going watching all. 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:47.240 The twelve TVs twenty five inch television in nineteen eighty 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.560 three was expensive, totally and hot. And how are you 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:51.040 plugging all? 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.080 These these are flat screens? These are just radiating. 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:56.240 One of them, he says, sitting in a hot box 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:57.720 with these screens like Elvis. 0:09:57.760 --> 0:09:59.480 At the end, I feel like maybe it's not the 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.640 best way to come up with get rich Quick schemes. 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:03.599 It's a lot of power, it's also. 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:06.080 Incredibly creepy visually all of it. 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:07.800 So but apparently it worked. 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.400 But here's the yeah, Well, so the get Rich Quicks games, 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:12.679 they started to zero in on game shows. 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.280 That's because that's what's on in the daytime, right, that's 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.239 all he's got, Like I'm a rob, a soap opera actor. 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.959 Or like Bob Ross. Anyway, So he watched a ton 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:26.040 of The Prices Right and Wheel of Fortune, and he 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.439 determined that those were unhackable. He wasn't going to be 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:31.439 able to beat those games. He couldn't outsmart him. 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.360 I thought someone hacked Planko. Anyway, it doesn't matter, I don't. 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:35.440 He just wasn't under the show. 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:37.680 He couldn't do it. In November of nineteen eighty three, 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:39.800 he sees an episode of Press Your Luck. 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:42.480 For the first time, all right, and he's smitten. 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:44.120 Fired up the old VCR. 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:45.840 Yes whammy, Yes whammy. 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:50.359 He starts taping episodes to study the show. For six months, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.960 he watched the show for eighteen hours a day. What 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.280 for six months eighteen hours a day. 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.240 I'm getting to the eighteen hours six months he did 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.760 this then now eighteen hours every one of those days, 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:05.400 the same show. 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.079 And over and over different episodes. 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:10.640 Sure, but I'm saying the same, Like, he's not watching 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:13.400 Jeopardy and this show. He's just watching this pressure all 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:13.839 the time. 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:15.520 He came away with observations. 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:16.360 I bet he did. 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:18.120 I bet he came away with a religion. 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.200 Well, first he figured out that the lights on the 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:25.679 board moved in five different predetermined patterns. They weren't random 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:27.199 like the show said they were. 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:27.880 Yeah. 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:29.680 And then the other thing he figured out was that 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:33.080 the whammy never appeared in squares four and eight. 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:34.920 Whoa never showed up there. 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:37.680 This was big intel and it was the key to 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.280 cracking the show. No Whammy's for real. 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:41.719 Yeah, So months. 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:43.840 Went by, it hits four and eight right. 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:48.000 Yeah, exactly. And he keeps watching episodes of Press Your Luck. 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:53.400 He memorizes the episodes. He like tested his reflectures to prepare. 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:54.280 Like when you watch Jeopardy. 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:57.199 Well, yeah, he's like pausing the tape to see if 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:02.400 when he pauses on the right thing. He practiced mirroring 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:07.240 the mannerisms of the contestants who did well, and they'd 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.160 say certain things and he like committed those to memory. 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.240 Okay, so like fake it till you. 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:14.840 Make it, I guess in May of nineteen eighty four, 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.400 so just before Olympic fever began sweeping the Oh of. 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.280 Course, yes, before the world and learned if Mary lou 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:20.920 Retti what I. 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.800 Was gonna say? Like he just like Mary Lourettin hopping 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:28.120 up onto the balance beam. Larsen made his move. Yeah, sassy. 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:32.719 So he didn't make a whole lot of money. He 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:34.480 didn't make a lot of money, so he didn't have 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.040 a lot of cash lying around. So he took what 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:39.760 he had and he bought a ticket to fly from 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.880 Ohio to California to audition for pressure Luck. So he 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.000 takes everything he's got, heads out. 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:47.640 There, go to La where the Olympics will be occurring. 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:51.720 Right, Lewis, I'm sure that the pricing was getting higher. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:53.680 Yes, take a lot of excitement. Did Cardi get a 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:54.719 hotel room? 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:59.040 Totally? He's like, you know what, I am a compelling 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:00.520 contestant character. 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:02.680 Sure, I'm perfect fest I'm good for TV. 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.880 He tells the producers that he's unemployed, and he tells 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:07.679 him that he rode the bus all the way out 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:12.000 to Hollywood a shot on his favorite show. He said 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:14.440 he was broke. He said he was so broke that 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.480 he couldn't even afford a birthday present for his daughter, 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:19.200 who just is about to turn six. 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:21.079 He's like, you know, you heard that new song Jack 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:22.520 and Diane. I'm from their town. 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:25.600 He's got a chili dog in his hand. He said 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.480 he was so broke that the dress shirt he was wearing, 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:30.360 he said he bought it at a thrift store down 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.480 the street for sixty five cents. Yeah, that's what he 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:36.280 tells him, and that the show would be a chance 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.440 for him to finally make something of himself. 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:39.760 This is my chance. 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.200 I only win while doing what he loved. 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.640 You held the key to my dream exactly. 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:46.679 This is what I've always wanted. This show that's been 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:51.359 on for like six months. So the show's director, executive 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.640 producer and voice of the Whammy, Bill Carruthers, he likes, 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:56.920 he liked larcense, jim. 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:01.440 I bet good, dudetanding of all got charisma. 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:04.199 He's got that special something, this spark that's going to 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:10.760 resonate in the Madness Contestant coordinator Bob Edwards was not feeling. 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:11.240 He knows people. 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.360 He said, He's like, I would not recommend Larsen. When 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:17.920 they said why, he said he couldn't put his finger 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:19.960 on it, but he knew that he was just no good. 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:22.800 Yeah, he could in the eye. There was that extra 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:23.360 watching it. 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:28.640 Carruthers overruled this decision. This is what This is what 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:29.720 Edwards said. 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:30.280 Quote. 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.560 We held daily auditions, one in the morning and one 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.760 in the afternoon, maybe fifty people in each session. Larson 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.400 walked up right off the street and told us he 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.120 was an ice cream man from Ohio. There was something 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.080 about him that I just didn't believe. I didn't trust him. 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:45.520 Hmm. 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.160 So he's like, I'm an unemployed ice cream man. Remember 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:53.400 how Larson spent all that time studying the tapes that 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:57.160 I forget. In his audition, he repeated the phrases he 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:00.560 heard most often from contestants, and he even some of 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:02.120 their facial expressions. 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.760 That's super odd. And do you think they remember it well? 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:08.240 I think that he's thinking like this was successful in 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.600 the past and they're not going to connect it. This 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:13.040 is how he put it later. Quote, I took six 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.080 months out of my life and said I was going 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:17.440 to do this, and everyone said it was silly until 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:22.320 I did it, and then they said, hey, that's pretty neat. 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:25.280 That's what I did it for the Neat. 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:28.680 May nineteenth, nineteen eighty four. Time to record an episode. 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:33.800 All right, Zaren closure, Oh yes, close, I want you 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.240 to picture it. So Zaren, you are not Zaren Right now. 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:41.640 You are a dental assistant named Janie Leeitris. You're a 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:43.760 big fan of the show. Press your luck and you've 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:45.640 finally got in the call to be on the show. 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.920 It is your big day. You get all dulled up 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.080 in your favorite red striped ruffleneck rayon blouse with a 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:54.920 thin maroon ribbon in a bow at the neck. You 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.560 got the day off work. You're ready for your fifteen 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:00.400 minutes of fame. If you sit in the producers is 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.280 a very nice woman applies powder to your face. The 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.560 backstage area of the set bustles around you, peeple chat. 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:09.440 A squeaky cart rolls by with reels of films stacked 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:12.800 on top. Up tempo music plays softly in the background 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.920 as a man hypes up the studio audience. A production 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.119 assistant approaches and tells you it's time to take the stage. 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.640 You push back your chairs, smooth out your sensible pant legs, 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.720 and follow the assistant to the main area of the 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.040 sound stage. Your low heels click on the hard floor. 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.160 As you approach the stage, you see a long table 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.680 with three spots, each with a light up number board 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.080 in front of them. There are six spaces on the 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:40.160 number board, with the first space dedicated to a dollar sign. 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:43.240 It hits you that you could possibly win tens of 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:47.480 thousands of dollars today. Dare you dream so big? A 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.080 production assistant leads you to your spot at the far 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.080 end of the lectern. As the studio audience laughs and 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:56.200 chats in their seats. Two other assistants lead in the 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.640 other contestants. A man in a tan suit sits at 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:02.600 the other end of the lectern. He's Ed Long, a 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.359 Baptist minister and the winner of the last episode, the 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:09.479 reigning champion. Then up comes the fella in the center spot, 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:12.520 Michael Larson. He's in a blue suit and his beard 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.960 is as wild as his eyes. The host, Peter Tremarkin, 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:20.400 comes out to greet you all. You are starstruck. He's 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.280 just as personable and handsome in real life as he 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:27.040 is on TV. The audience quiets down and settles in 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.400 for a great match. You are so nervous, your palms 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.080 are sweating. The theme song starts up and you put 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.920 a deep breath. Time to Shine, Janey, Time to Shine. 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:41.800 Let's take a break. Here's some ads. Get our wits 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:43.840 about us. When we come back, I'm going to tell 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.200 you all about this particular episode of this particular game show. 0:17:47.560 --> 0:18:09.520 All right, Zaren, did I win? 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:10.880 I've been waiting this all time. 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.160 Well you're gonna have to wait a little bit longer. 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:18.560 So we've got returning champion baptist minister ed long dental 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.199 assistant Janie Lee Trice. That was just me and Michael Larson. 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:24.720 They're all lined up for a chance to literally press 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:25.800 their luck on a game show. 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:27.680 No Whammies, girl, No whammies. 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:32.440