"Press Your Luck" turns forty!

[Masha]

Press Your Luck (1983-1986) premiered forty years ago.

The streaming channel: BUZZR is doing a marathon of it this weekend. That is a live channel which can be viewed for free with commercials on services such as: PlutoTV and: TubiTV.

I am of two minds. Peter Tomarken is not totally offensive as a host. The show's structure is sufficiently varied that it interests those who prefer trivia games as well as those who prefer contestant antics. The questions are not challenging but I have been wrong an uncomfortable amount of the time.

I am not quite sure if I should like it or should consider it mindless fluff or if I should watch more to solidify my opinion while my brain turns to mush.

[txfilmfan]

Press Your Luck (1983-1986) premiered forty years ago.

The streaming channel: BUZZR is doing a marathon of it this weekend. That is a live channel which can be viewed for free with commercials on services such as: PlutoTV and: TubiTV.

I am of two minds. Peter Tomarken is not totally offensive as a host. The show's structure is sufficiently varied that it interests those who prefer trivia games as well as those who prefer contestant antics. The questions are not challenging but I have been wrong an uncomfortable amount of the time.

I am not quite sure if I should like it or should consider it mindless fluff or if I should watch more to solidify my opinion while my brain turns to mush.

LOL. There was a man who studied the flashing light patterns on the board and learned how to defeat the game. He used that new-fangled thing called a VCR to do his homework. He went on to win over $110K in just one day, then a record for single-day game show winnings. His turn at the board went on for so long, the game had to be split across two episodes. Producers and network officials were frantically looking for some way to disqualify him during the taping, but could not find any rule that he had broken. Even so, he was ineligible to return due to CBS's rule on maximum game show winnings ($25K). Once you won over $25K cumulatively, you could not come back for another episode.

The flashing pattern was not random (true randomness being difficult to achieve), and he cracked the code. His life story probably peaked at that moment. You can read more in his Wikipedia article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Larson

There have been subsequent versions of the show, but none as successful as the original run.

BTW, Buzzr is also available over the air in many markets.