The MOST SHOCKING game show contestant in HISTORY! - Press Your Luck | BUZZR 

Exactly! He simply beat the game at its own system by recognizing the patterns.

iiAwesomeJ They ended up fixing the description.

True

Just like memorizing pacman

Agreed. It's like counting cards: how can using your brain be cheating?

5 different patterns he memorized

Suppressed for 19 years.

What finally convinced CBS to show the episode after so many years?

@@tomdalfonzo9959 $

@@tomdalfonzo9959The copyright got bought by another company

​​​since GSN got the rights to Press Your Luck' at that time, and expressed they were doing this documentary. They reluctantly allowed GSN to show these episodes. By CBS practices, shows that were extraordinary in accomplishment, but was questionable in potential problems, they never reaired episodes of that magnitude. There were other instances that weren't related to Press Your Luck specifically where game shows CBS showed initially were never shown as well, but those shows were more related to celebrities on shows disagreements with their agents with the show and what not that forced CBS to never reair those or allow syndications to reair them. But PYL was the only show that was not reaired because of the scandal that played out afterwards, and the emb6rhey endured from it. And because of the immediate aftermath in 1984 of what transpired after the airing, CBS did not re air this nor allowed whoever bought rights to rerun games on syndcation to allow those two episodes to be rebroadcast either, which was why you never seen these 2 episodes ever until this documentary was shown to the public, to fully understand how the entire scandal that CBS called it, told. Yes, as it was, many people outside of CBS, did give a lot of flack to the network in terms of how a computer giant like this was "beatable". And all because of CBS itself, not making sure it was beatable, by only placing 5 lists of 18 on its computer instead of putting many patterns from the initial offset, to deter something like Micheal did from happening. Again in revamped iteration of the game after this was broadcasted in GSN, and they also mentioned during the documentary, their game used a simple 200 MHz PC and that was ran completely random, and no pattern ever repeated. Back in 1983 however, where computers were far more inferior to today's computer, you simply could not make super advanced randomization because it didn't have the power to do so, because again humans program these patterns and randomization, and back in 1983 humans also didn't understand the ways to randomize the board, this was new stuff then. So they figured since using PCs to randomize a game they figured a contestant would never try to replicate what a PC does, but when you put a simple 5 list pattern set up, it was doomed to happen at some point and it took less than a year after the initial premiere for that to happen.

sin lolo no sabríamos de esta maravilla

Yo tambien vine despues del el dollop lol

Aquí después Del dollop con lolo

Yo también vine a ver esto por el Dollop jaja

Gracias por hacerme consciente de que no debo tener 50k dlls en billetes de 1dlls en casa

And the last, as they reprogrammed the Big Board after that to prevent a duplication of his success.

John Lee he actually wasn’t the last. In the Big Bucks special on GSN, the former producer mentioned that several other potential contestants after him also had cracked the pattern but they were not allowed beyond the tryouts. And they reprogrammed the board with 5 new patterns then a month later with 32 new patterns to make it “Larsen-proof”.

Actually it was probably legal the method he used to beat it. He used his own VCR, recorded the show and noted the pattern. He had no insider information. Since the case Universal v Sony in 1982 (the Betamax case), they ruled that time shifting of TV shows on over the air broadcasts for home use was legal. CBS qualified as on over the air broadcast at the time. Then on press your luck, you press when you think it is right. He used his knowledge of the light patterns which are encoded in the frames of video when deciding when to press.

Not so sure he was the first, as there were a few players that seemed to figure it out, just didn't exploit it the way Michael did.

True.

*2003 reboot

@@casenumber23 Actually, 2002.

@@gameshowguy2000 Yes, thank you

The Reboot was in 2002 the rematch was in 2003

I remember watching that episode when it was new. Funny enough Micheal's brother James won that the game and also Peter Tomarken also returned to host the 2nd question and answer round.

He was a con artist though. He was later arrested for being a higher up in a pyramid scheme and helping set up illegal lotteries.

He was and you can defend your position all you want.

@@XCodeHelpHub And I will.

He was not a cheater he was brilliant and clever

Did he pass away

Also William Carathers

@@benwilliams2469 Larson passed from throat cancer, Roddy from various health issues (including male breast cancer), and Tomarken in a plane crash.

Lucky for them, he passed!

"We'll see on Monday!" *To Be Continued...*

That's why these shows/networks and their sponsors have insurance against just this sort of thing.

He stopped because he was losing his stamina... He was only 35 here, but look how old he looks.. If he was 60+ here. Nobody would think differently if they didn't know.. He was in terrible shape and bused his body obviously, so he decided it was better to take the winning and run.. on the last spin, he hit the wrong square...

CBS had a $25,000 cap at the time anyway.

@@mayukittyrescue8728 But you could keep everything above that amount if won during the show.

@@mayukittyrescue8728 Nope. It's a soft cap. If he wins 25k, he won't be able to play again. His winnings could not be capped.

Eh... Not even a million is that much money today ,IMO.... it''s just enough to live comfortably for a long time in low cost areas

250K adjusted for inflation

It was specifically targeted at Ed, since Michael actually met with Ed during auditions for the show, and Michael learned that Ed only saw the show once before coming on.

The difference between Charles Ingram and Michael Larson is that Michael got his $110,237 and Charles got publicly humiliated and shamed.

👏

@@foxmccloud7055 Well, Michael Larson's real humiliation came when he blew all his winnings in various ways, including investment in bogus real estate.

Correct. He did not break any rules of the game. Where did he get the patterns,? Simply by watching previous episodes on his TV at home, recording it with his VCR, and doing a frame-by-frame analysis. All the information about the flash patterns embedded in the broadcast as the lights flashed onscreen when others pressed their luck. Since recording programs to watch them later was ruled legal for personal use in the famous supreme court case Sony Corporation of America v Universal City Studios, and in Press Your Luck, a contestant decides at what moment to press the button to stop the lights on the board, he simply pressed it at the right time, winning a lot more money than other contestants and he picked squares that gave extra spins and did not have whammies in them in round 2. CBS could not find a single rule that Michael Larson broke and their lawyers and producers determined that Larson be paid his money which he won fairly and honestly. The real people at fault were the producers at CBS and its production company. They ran six light flash sequences over and over. The flash sequences were not random by any means. When one sequence ended, the next started. CBS did not change the flash sequences between shows. Later after Larson, they revised this to 32 flash sequences to be much more pseudorandom making it more difficult for someone like Michael Larson to defeat. But all in all Michael Larson exploited a flaw in the game's design honestly to win. CBS did not want to ballywho to the press at the time that they had a system that was completely beatable when the show was still in production.

Wrong!

He figured out it was a pattern. Its brilliant

Michael Larson is a legend

He is killin' it! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!! THIS...IS...AWWESOME!!!!!!

True

True.

Gremlins is also released

I was also released around that time.

Where I lived it was the day after an F-3 tornado rolled through our county seat and did significant damage.

Fun fact: He actually timed it to land on the whammy to check if the timing he memorized is used in the board!

Look on the bright side, since Michael hit a Whammy on his 1st spin, he had no money to lose.

Peter read out the names at the end of part 1 and said that they had two very smart Whammy t-shirts for them. I believe Ed and Janie read their names at the end of the game, as usual but they were cut because Peter had already read them out. I noticed a bad edit after Peter finished speaking to Ed when he added "and I need...". I assume he said that he needed Ed to read out the name of the player for whom he would have played.

Lucky for the network that the rules for the Home Player didn't mean that if you landed on x money and a spin that the home player still got to enjoy the benefit of the additional spin!

@@billyboobtubeboy9244 I wish they would have provided more of the unedited footage, including that crazy moment when the fans rushed down to the set around Michael Larson.

X2

Dr. Steve Brule: "I have a very special grest, name of Mickey Langus."

Oh.

@KMac That "documentary" made me sick to my stomach. Shame on GSN.

With the amount of $$ that was showing on Larson’s scoreboard, Peter could’ve fainted if Larson stopped on a Whammy and saw that big cash total disappear

R.I.P MICHAEL LARSON 1949-1999

Stop repeating yourself!

RIP MICHAEL LARSON 1949-1999

HIS NAME WAS MICHAEL LARSON

Rest his soul.

There were few patterns at the time of taping (it was only in its first season); Michael Larson was fortunate to possess a VCR, record episodes off of CBS, and study the patterns in his preparation. After the Larson episode, the board would be reprogrammed every so often to discourage others from doing what he did -- I believe up to 32 different sequences were stored at one point. Come _Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck,_ the new Big Board was randomized by nothing more than an impressively-specced PC (for the early-2000s, anyway). With the ABC revival of _Press Your Luck,_ the board is wholly Larson-proof -- even if you record various episodes and play them in slow-motion to study the patterns, you still can't replicate what Larson did.

Even his name is 2/3 of Ned

He was a youth pastor at the time(I think he later went into college administration).

@@somerandomgameranimator4481 "Hello are you Ed Long?" "No, Ned Long!" "My mistake!"

If CBS had tried to hold back his winnings, Larson would have had half the litigation lawyers in the country begging to take his case: Fraud, breach of contract, defamation, and patent stupidity (I know, that last one isn't a valid cause of action, but a jury would have found a way to make it one!).

Maybe he didn't cheat but he robbed the system because he took advantage of the game, and it's ironic that he did because he got robbed in the end

@@carmencitadavis3751 "Taking advantage of the game" is the whole point. He BEAT the game. The robbery a decade was indeed a robbery. To compare that and his win is dishonest at best.

@Brandon Bennetzen Shut up, troll.

@Brandon Bennetzen Oh, and BTW, James 'Jeopardy' Holzhauer was NOT a cheater, EITHER. Don't know what it is with the conspiracy theorists.

😂😂😂

انا😂

انا

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He was just like any other guy or gal recording the show on a Beta VCR and taking advantage of the frame-step function, which came with pretty much any 1980s VCR manufactured in the Land of the Rising Sun. (I know my Sony SL-HF750 has that capability...and I refuse to let go of it until I find an SL-HF1000, the undisputed King of Betamax VCRs.)

No way. If that guy was 35 then I'm 16 now....not!

@@jthoen61 That's how old he was. He didn't take care of himself.

He lived a hard life!! Think about it he was unemployed and had his own ice cream truck (which probably didn't make much doing that all the time!)

@FlagDUDE08(open): "(Freemantle rigs) their questions and heavily edit(s) their shows." Man... even Jack Barry and Dan Enright would blush!

Funny thing is, come the 70's, B&E were the strictest company when it came to a fair game and transparency in their live-to-tape programs. Even Jack said in an interview that he believed that seeking entertainment value over the game was wrong. They just chose to make the questions easier to keep the shows running, especially after one of the first episodes of "21" (done honestly) saw nearly none of the questions answered correctly, and the sponsors threatening to drop the show.