The TV game show Press Your Luck challenged contestants to spin their way to big money, grand vacations, and other prizes. But for one infamous contestant, luck had nothing to do with his record-setting winnings.
In May 1984, Michael Larson became the then-largest one-day winner in game show history by earning more than $110,000 in cash and prizes. But what Press Your Luck producers didn’t know was he studied the show and its prize board for months, discovering a foolproof way to make his “Big Bucks” and raising the question of whether it was actually fair.
Larson’s appearance on the show became so memorable, it’s now the subject of the new IFC Films feature The Luckiest Man in America. Now in select theaters, the movie stars Paul Walter Hauser as Larson in a fictionalized reenactment of the game show episode that caused a major controversy. It also explores the unlikely misfortunes that struck Larson after his huge payday. Here’s how the real Larson made history then watched his winnings slip through his hands.
Larson was obsessed with TV and money
Long before his wiliness changed game show history, Larson—born Paul Michael Larson in 1949 in Lebanon, Ohio—was fascinated with money. According to his brother, James, Michael plotted get-rich-quick schemes throughout his life. In grade school, he was caught selling candy bars to to classmates at upcharged prices. As an adult, he started a business under a family member’s name, hired himself, then eventually laid himself off to collect unemployment.
“He didn’t understand the value of good, honest hard work, and just go and do your job and get your pay,” James told This American Life in 2010. He thought those people were fools.”
By his early 30s, Larson was already married and divorced twice and living with his common-law partner, Teresa. His obsession had turned to television, specifically game shows. One that caught his eye was Press Your Luck, which debuted on CBS in 1983.
Hosted by Peter Tomarken (played in the movie by Walton Goggins), the show had three contestants answer trivia questions to earn spins at the “Big Board.” They then alternated turns hitting a button to land on cash and other prizes featured among the cycling 18-square board. However, some spaces contained a dreaded “Whammy,” or mischievous cartoon monster that would take all of players’ earnings to that point.
The game board appeared completely random to the casual viewer but not the obsessive Larson. Slowing down the footage, he discovered the spaces lit up in predetermined sequences. “I taped about five or six shows and then went through them a frame at a time, and I determined that there was some sort of pattern. Not easily—it took six months for me to actually work out all the patterns—but in about six months time, I had six sequences of 18 numbers,” he later explained to Good Morning America.
Armed with this game-breaking hack, Larson decided to audition for the show.
A Press Your Luck employee was suspicious of Larson
Larson scrounged up his savings to buy an economy plane ticket and soon found himself in front of Press Your Luck producers in Los Angeles in May 1984. In addition to the game board, he had studied the mannerisms of other contestants so he could more appear more charismatic.
Producer Bill Carruthers immediately found Larson’s background—an unemployed ice cream truck driver looking to win big—appealing. Despite suspicions from a contestant coordinator named Bob Edwards, who sensed something was off, Carruthers booked Larson for the show.
At least initially, the bright lights of the studio appeared to affect Larson, and he landed on a Whammy his first spin. In last place entering the second and final round, Larson became laser-focused and began repeatedly landing on the same two spaces—including the Big Bucks square that offered cash and a bonus spin.
Larson didn’t pick a Whammy the rest of the way and, after 47 spins, had accrued a total of $110,237 in prizes—equivalent to more than $330,000 now. The game ran so long it had to be split across two episodes. Even as the live audience raucously cheered his performance, it was clear to those in the studio that Larson kept some kind of secret.
CBS didn’t want to pay Larson
As soon the game finished, host Tomarken, the other contestants, and Press Your Luck producers were primarily in disbelief. But by the next day, executives at CBS were angry and determined to figure out what happened—and if Larson had cheated in any way.
Darlene Lieblich, a former CBS program practices department member, said in the March 2003 documentary Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal that every department head from the network attended a meeting to rewatch and discuss the episode. While trying to find a legal loophole to deny Larson’s winnings, they eventually determined he hadn’t broken any rules and won his prizes “fairly and honestly.”
“What was illegal about the process? He beat the system. So, how do you deny him the monies that he earned? What legal basis do you have to do that?” Michael Brockman, the former CBS vice president of daytime programming, recalled. “And after some discussion, it was agreed that he could receive the money that he won.”
With Larson cleared of wrongdoing, the two-part episode aired on June 8 and 11, 1984. Showrunners introduced almost 30 new patterns in the immediate aftermath of the scandal to make the Big Board harder to decipher for future contestants.
The original run of Press Your Luck continued through 1986, and the show was rebooted as Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck from 2002 through 2003. Elizabeth Banks hosts the current iteration of the program, which began airing on ABC in 2019.
Watch Press Your Luck with Elizabeth Banks on Hulu
Larson lost his winnings and died of throat cancer
Unfortunately for Larson, his luck quickly ran out after making TV history. He returned home to Ohio after his win—minus $28,000 in taxes—and continued to scheme up ways to make quick money. The results were mostly disastrous.
According to the Ridiculous Crime podcast, Larson used a good chunk of his winnings to withdraw around $100,000 in cash, all in dollar bills, by the end of 1984. He did so for a radio contest, which offered a $30,000 prize to any listener who could match a bill with a corresponding serial number. Unable to win, he redeposited about half the money.
The rest, anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000, was stolen from his home with Teresa during a robbery. After Larson accused her of a role in the break-in, she immediately separated from him and demanded he move out. Coupled with a real estate investment gone bad, within two years had Larson lost all his money from the show, the Dayton Daily News reported.
Later taking a job as an assistant manager at Walmart, Larson became implicated in a “fraudulent multi-level marketing scheme” run by Pleasure Time Inc. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the plot raised $1.8 million from 14,000 investors. Wanted for questioning by the SEC, FBI, and IRS, Larson fled to Apopka, Florida, during the mid-1990s and kept his location hidden from his family.
Ultimately, it was Larson’s declining health that became his undoing. He died in February 1999 due to complications from throat cancer. He left behind three children with three different women, though few details are known about his family or final years.
See The Luckiest Man in America in Theaters
While game show winnings of $100,000 or more are commonplace today, Larson’s lucrative run on Press Your Luck—and whether or not it was fair—is still a debated hot topic. The Luckiest Man in America director Samir Oliveros wrestled with Larson’s unique strategy and lasting legacy while making the movie.
“The way I see Michael, I just see him as somebody who was really, really smart. And instead of applying his brainy logic to something positive, and something where he could have become extremely successful, he always tried to find shortcuts, to find ways to beat the system, which, in a way, is a search for validation,” Oliveros told The Hollywood Reporter.
You can make your own determination based on Hauser’s portrayal of Larson in The Luckiest Man in America, now playing in select theaters. The movie also stars Walton Goggins as host Peter Tomarken and David Straithairn as producer Bill Carruthers.
Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
