Tuesday, April 01, 2025
The Luckiest Man in America
From Television City in Hollywood, it’s time to play Press Your Luck…
This is the true story about a CBS game show contestant who had quite a winning streak back in 1984. This is a backstage look at how this TV game show operates & is told from that point of view. As potential contestants are being prescreened for TV viability worthiness, a mistaken identification auditions the wrong person, but the director likes his personality & asks this scruffy man to compete if he cleans himself up. This man is Michael Larson (Paul Walter Hauser), a part-time ice cream truck operator & a huge fan of the Press Your Luck TV game show. He is playing against two other contestants for cash & prizes by just pressing a stop button. It’s pass or play but don’t light up the Whammy symbol. As his winning streak gets longer, station begins to worry about the cost to the station. However, they try to spin this negative into a positive for the station. Then as Larson’s fortune amasses, the station suspects that he is cheating somehow. Is he cheating or is he just outsmarting everyone? This is a very intriguing & entertaining look at one of the big game show scandals.
Alien gives it 3 “18 squares on the Big Board” stars out of 4.
