Editing Press Your Luck (section)

===Michael Larson===
{{main|1=Press Your Luck scandal|l1=''Press Your Luck'' scandal}}
''Press Your Luck'' gained media attention in 1984 for the winnings of a contestant named Michael Larson. A self-described unemployed [[ice cream truck]] driver from [[Lebanon, Ohio]], he applied to be on the show that year. By recording episodes at home on a [[videocassette recorder]] and playing them back frame-by-frame, Larson discovered that the [[Pseudorandomness|presumed random patterns of the game board were not actually random]] and he was able to memorize the sequences.<ref name="big bucks">{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/103980798/ | title='Big Bucks' recalls scandal | work=[[The Cincinnati Enquirer]] | date=March 20, 2003 | accessdate=January 31, 2023 | author=John Kiesewetter | pages=F4}}</ref> On the single game in which he appeared, an initially tentative Larson spun a Whammy on his very first turn, but then went 45 consecutive spins without hitting another one.<ref name="big bucks"/> The majority of his spins landed on the highest-valued spaces, which offered $3,000, $4,000, or $5,000, all with an extra spin. The game ran for so long that CBS aired the episode in two parts, on June 8 and 11, 1984. In the end, Larson earned a total of $110,237 in cash and prizes.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/press-your-luck/ | title=Did Game Show Contestant Win by Memorizing Sequence of Lights on Prize Board? | publisher=[[Snopes]] | date=October 20, 2000 | accessdate=January 31, 2023 | author=Barbara Mikkelson, David Mikkelson}}</ref>

After an investigation, CBS executives concluded that Larson's memorization of the board patterns did not constitute cheating and allowed him to keep his winnings. The board was then reprogrammed with over 30 new patterns to prevent subsequent contestants from duplicating his feat. In 1994, ''[[TV Guide]]'' magazine interviewed Larson and revealed the background of this episode including his decision to pass his remaining spins after he lost concentration and missed his target squares.<ref>{{cite news|title=The day the game show got whammied |work=[[TV Guide]] |date=November 26, 1994|pages=26–29}}</ref> The story was featured in a two-hour documentary on [[Game Show Network]] titled ''Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal'' in March 2003, which Tomarken hosted.<ref name="big bucks"/> In July 2010, Michael's brother James, and his former wife at the time of winning, were interviewed for [[Public Radio International|PRI]]'s ''[[This American Life]]'' for the episode "Million Dollar Idea".<ref name="thisamericanlife1">{{cite web|url=http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/412/million-dollar-idea|title=Million Dollar Idea|date=July 16, 2010|publisher=This American Life|access-date=December 7, 2015}}</ref> His story was also featured on the first episode of Game Show Network's documentary series ''[[Cover Story (TV series)|Cover Story]]'' in 2018.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lyons |first1=Margaret |title=How Much Watching Time Do You Have This Weekend?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/watching/what-to-watch-this-weekend-tv.html |access-date=2018-01-26 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2018-01-11}}</ref>

[[Paul Walter Hauser]] played Larson in the 2024 film ''[[The Luckiest Man in America]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Richlin |first=Harrison |date=September 5, 2024 |title=The Cast of 'The Luckiest Man in America' Are Betting Big on This Biographical Game Show Thriller — and It Pays Off in Spades |url=https://www.indiewire.com/features/interviews/paul-walter-hauser-walton-goggins-on-the-luckiest-man-in-america-1235042999/ |access-date=December 18, 2024 |website=[[IndieWire]]}}</ref>