The Luckiest Man in America

[silverscreenselect]

Most game show buffs on this Bored know about Michael Larson, who figured out the rotation patterns on the network version of Press Your Luck in the 1980s and won over $100,000 on one show. His story has now been made into a fictional movie called The Luckiest Man in America, with Paul Walter Hauser as Larson. (Hauser is best known for playing Richard Jewell in the Clint Eastwood movie and for his recurring role as the oldest karate student in Cobra Kai.) Much of the movie is a recreation of Larson's actual appearance on the show. Walton Goggins co-stars as host Peter Tomarken, with David Strathairn, Maisie Williams, and Johnny Knoxville in the supporting cast. The film premiered this week at the Toronto Film Festival to middling reviews and will probably be in a limited independent release by the end of the year.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/ ... etter%20AM

[Bob Juch]

Most game show buffs on this Bored know about Michael Larson, who figured out the rotation patterns on the network version of Press Your Luck in the 1980s and won over $100,000 on one show. His story has now been made into a fictional movie called The Luckiest Man in America, with Paul Walter Hauser as Larson. (Hauser is best known for playing Richard Jewell in the Clint Eastwood movie and for his recurring role as the oldest karate student in Cobra Kai.) Much of the movie is a recreation of Larson's actual appearance on the show. Walton Goggins co-stars as host Peter Tomarken, with David Strathairn, Maisie Williams, and Johnny Knoxville in the supporting cast. The film premiered this week at the Toronto Film Festival to middling reviews and will probably be in a limited independent release by the end of the year.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/ ... etter%20AM

I read it will be on a streaming channel at the end of the month, but now I can't find where I saw that.

[silverscreenselect]

This article is an update on The Luckiest Man in America. As of now, it has not aired, other than at a couple of film festivals. According to the article, it will premiere theatrically on April 4 (probably in limited release at art/independent theaters).

https://ew.com/paul-walter-hauser-game- ... term=send3

[silverscreenselect]

I went to see The Luckiest Man in America yesterday and enjoyed it, although I have a feeling that game show fans will appreciate it more than the general public. It concentrates on the taping of Larson's show, which, in the movie, they keep dragging out. Paul Walter Hauser looks remarkably like Larson (they showed a brief clip of the real Larson's appearance during the closing credits). Hauser is good, as is Walton Goggins, who plays host Peter Tomarken. The movie tries to whitewash Larson's character somewhat. The real guy was a scammer and get-rich-quick schemer with a petty criminal past. The movie version is pretty much just a schnook who's down on his luck and figured out the show's pattern.

They mention that the show only had five (in real life it was six) patterns they used for the light progressions because they were too cheap to buy more. After the broadcast, they started using more. Larson memorized the patterns, so he knew where the lights were going next and which squares never had whammies. Larson didn't just have to avoid the whammies; he had to land on squares that gave him free spins in addition to money. Once the game starts (in the movie), the show's creator/producer Bill Carruthers (David Strathairn), who insisted Larson get on the show because he had good TV vibes, began to suspect something was off. Once they realize what he's doing, they try to exert different types of pressure on Larson to get him to quit. (This never happened in real life.)

I think the people on this Bored will probably enjoy the movie once it comes to streaming (which probably won't take long).