⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Rated R | 90 minutes

“Big Bucks, No Whammies!” is the mantra chanted by every contestant on “Press Your Luck.” Almost. There was one contestant who said that phrase only once and made television history.

I have been a game show fan my entire life and “Press Your Luck” has always been one of my favorites. I’ve been fascinated about this story for decades and always thought it would make a great film. I have a lot of personal high hopes, but does “The Luckiest Man In America” live up to them?

Based on a true–and tragic–story, we are whisked back to the heydey of 1984 when game shows ruled the airwaves and a certain show was climbing its way to the top of daytime television as part of the CBS stable of game shows: “Press Your Luck.”

“The Luckiest Man In America” tells the legendary story of the Michael Larson, a sensation among game show contestants for taking “Press Your Luck” viewers and staff on the ride of a lifetime, portrayed picture-perfectly by Paul Walter Hauser. Hauser truly transformed into 34-year old Larson (yes, only 34 at the time) and really helped make it feel like we were witnessing history.

His story and scandal helped cement “Press Your Luck” as a bonafide hit game show, and this film serves as a sort of love letter to those involved and fans alike.

Hosted by Peter Tomarken, “Press Your Luck” was in its fledgling season and still finding its way when Michael, an unassuming ice cream truck driver from Ohio, nearly wiped it off the schedule (and CBS’s entire daytime game show lineup with it)!

You see, Michael was a big game show fan and “Press Your Luck” quickly became one of his obsessions. He was always looking for his next “get rick quick” opportunity… so he wasted no time in driving out to Hollywood for a chance to be on his newest favorite game show, produced by The Carruthers Company led by veteran producer Bill Carruthers (David Strathairn) at CBS Television City.

We are treated to a trip back in time here, and the filmmakers did a pretty solid job representing what CBS Television City would have looked like at the time, even referencing “The Price is Right,” which was famously housed in the same studio complex. We get a brief studio tour along with the contestants for that day’s taping schedule by a spunky if not anxiety-laden production assistant played realisitically by Maisie Williams (“Game of Thrones”) as she unwittingly becomes an accomplice in Michael’s unpolished plans.

With a little bit of luck, and a whole lot of misunderstood skill, Michael commands control of the entire production within minutes of arriving on the lot.

Getting details accurate in films about historical events – especially television shows for whatever reason – often proves elusive, but this one succeeds relatively well. They got certain elements dead-on like the “big board” sound and buzzer sound, but for hardcore game show fans, some incorrect details could take them out of the immersion of the story.

NERD ALERT: Yes, I’m one of those hardcore game show fans (I have the giant Costco Plinko board in my office right now) and we have to talk about the things they got wrong. Pardon this moment of geek-out. There are some mild spoilers. I’ll start with the positives… the things they got absolutely right-on-the-nose… and the note that go with:

NERD POSITIVES:

• Portrayal of Michael Larson: Paul Walter Hauser hit all of Michael’s ticks and personality awkwardness nearly perfectly. You can tell Hauser must have watched and studied the original “Press Your Luck” episode endlessly to get it right and did an amazing job. I would watch a three-hour film about Michael if Hauser would play him again.
• Portrayal of competing contestant Ed: As a pastor, Ed had a very Ned Flanders attitude in real life on the show, and Brian Geraghty captured that essence in ways I didn’t think were possible without casting the actual person! Truly mesmerizing and I wanted more of him on screen.
• Portrayal of host Peter Tomarken: Walton Goggins is usually so great in any role he’s given, and he definitely captured Peter’s ego – but I think they might have gone just a little too “sleazy” with him in one throwaway scene that didn’t add much to the film. Other than that, the portrayal was pretty spot-on.
• Wardrobe! They deserve an academy award for matching the exact clothing everyone was wearing in the shows from 1984. Walton Goggin’s had Peter Tomarken’s awful pink/teal sweater vest, Janie had on her neck-frilled red dress, Ed was in his pastor-ish tweed sport coat with top bar glasses, and Michael was in his thrifted sport coat and shirt with a borrowed tie. It was really a nice touch that brought authenticity to every scene.
• Logos! The logos for CBS, CBS Television City, and Press Your Luck itself were spot-on and looked terrific on-screen.
• The big board graphics were PERFECT. Someone did their research!! Byl Carruthers, Jr (son of protagonist Bill Carruthers in the movie) was the film’s consultant. Kudos to the game programmers for the film for getting everything so correct. It’s deeply appreciated by this game show fan.
• Script: moments of the movie were lifted DIRECTLY from the actual Michael Larson episodes…word-for-word. Cool!
• If you have seen the original episode, the host did a freeze-frame green-screen about having to carry over to a second episode. They did this in the film as well!! An amazing touch that really stood out. Stay for the credits, as they show a clip from the real show. You can see for yourself how close they got it.
• They handed out t-shirts to contestants in the green room waiting to tape their episodes that were period accurate to a real t-shirt used as a promo item for the show!
• Rod Roddy! The flashy announcer everyone remembers from “The Price is Right” had his big break as the announcer for “Press Your Luck” as even though the person portraying him doesn’t have the same vocal tones, it’s nice to see Rod honored on the big screen.

NERD NEGATIVES:

• In 1984, Press Your Luck did not tape on Stage 33. That was home to “The Price Is Right” for the entirety of its run, and while used for other shows (including “Press Your Luck” in later seasons), this episode PYL was taped across the hall on Stage 43.
• The game play in Round 2 never stopped for commericals. They stop multiple times in this film, which of course allows some of the story’s more dramatic moments to play out, but in real life, they ran straight through until the game came to a natural end.
• Portrayal of competing contestant Janie: Portrayed by Patti Harrison, there isn’t much to suggest that Janie was mean or unsportsmanlike, yet that’s very much how she’s shown in this film. I feel bad for the real Janie because from what I’ve seen in interviews, she seems pleasant, if not disappointed she walked away with nothing… but maybe the filmmakers know more than we do?
• The “losing horns” from “The Price is Right” were never used on “Press Your Luck” but they make an appearance in the film upon hitting a dreaded “Whammy.”
• The score displays (and associated sound effects) were not 100% correct. The font used on the scoreboards, for example, were close to “eggcrate” style… but not quite right.
• The buzz-in sound from the PYL trivia round was never used in the “big board” round… but they used it every time in this film. Annoying after a while.
• There was no costumed Whammy character in this first era of the show. It didn’t appear until the Game Show Network reboot titled “Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck.”
• Michael in the film passes his spins to Ed but in real life they go to Janie and the his fate rests in her hands. Not his. More on that later.

INTERESTING NERD NOTE:

• Home Player Spin – this was an element of the real show and was set to be spin #8… in the real show you can kinda see the host almost forgets about it. In the film, they really did forget to alert the host and had to do a pick-up. Makes me wonder how much of that might actually be fact!

The game show nerd in me is bothered about the things they got wrong because of the SO VERY MANY THINGS THEY GOT RIGHT!! Getting all those things right make the things they got wrong stand out that much more. It’s a nit-pick for sure, as it doesn’t really take away from the story, but it’s slightly annoying for hardcore fans.

Director Samir Oliveros brought Michael Larson’s story to the big screen after becoming obsessed over Michael’s story after discovering a clip of his “Press Your Luck” performance on an old VHS tape from a thrift shop. Oliveros’ obsession turned into a passion to tell the world about the twists, turns of fate, and forced luck of Michael Larson, a man whose life was full of swindles and scams. Did Michael con his way to the top?

You may have seen my notes above about the portrayal of Michael’s very real-life competitors Ed and Janie. I disagreed with Janie’s portrayal since I don’t know that it’s fair to her real-life persona… however, I want to note that the director of the film did a fantastic job with Ed and Janie as Michael’s angel-and-devil-on-the-shoulder. It’s a common film trope I’ve never seen done in such an inventive and subtle way as in “Luckiest Man”… and that dynamic really works to showcase Michael’s inner turmoil about whether or not he was doing the “right thing” or “cheating”. For the record, what he did was never labeled cheating. You can watch and be the judge as the original episodes this movie is based on have been published by veteran game show host Wink Martindale on his YouTube channel.

In 1984, game shows and daytime TV meant Big Bucks for the networks… tens of millions of people watched TV in that era so when something went awry, that meant potentially millions of dollars in lost revenue for a network like CBS.

As the game plays out in the film (and as in real life), Michael starts a winning streak that almost takes the network broke. He manages to miss all but a single Whammy. For the uninitiated, a Whammy is a cartoonish devil character that will swipe all the cash you’ve won to that point in the game. It just so happened that Michael hit one in his very first spin.

Oliveros did a commendable job capturing the panic setting in behind the scenes as Michael ran away with the game. Spin after spin; adding thousands more to his bank of winnings. Trips, additional spins, and cheers that seemed to happen prematurely. Before anyone could realize what space he stopped on, Michael was already often celebrating. If nothing else, we learn Michael had a terrible poker face.

I don’t want to spoil exactly how Michael was able to amass a fortune in such a short period of time, but the way the film portrays it is mostly accurate. Game shows like “The Price is Right” used to reward loyal viewers who had the chance to become contestants. Basically, if you watched enough, you surely knew what the price of that Sunbeam Toaster was going to be!

“Press Your Luck” never expected someone would catch onto their game mechanics until someone like Michael came along. You can see in the film that even through all his awkwardness, Michael is still human. He struggles with anxiety and social interaction, recounting ways he’s wronged those in his past and how it haunts him… even if they’re just another step on the way to another scam. It’s the only way Michael seems to know how to live.

This scam starts to unravel when producer Chuck (Shamier Anderson) presses for more information about Michael and starts digging around. Who is this guy? Is he who he claims to be?

There’s a very out-of-place moment in the film where Michael’s anxiety gets the best of him and runs out of the studio during a stop-down. He ends up on the set of a talk show where the host questions who he is and what he’s doing with his life. This talk show host, played by Johnny Knoxville, might have been a fever dream, helping to show how Michael was starting to crack under pressure. Even if meant as a story device, it was still an odd off-shoot from an otherwise thrilling story as nothing of the sort happened in real life.

I feel like the behind-the-scenes panic of the producers was the REAL drama of the day and probably didn’t need much embellishment… I almost wish they had told us more about that ala “September 5” did about the Munich Olympic games.

The director expertly captured the stressed-out and flip-flopping attitudes of network executives and producers in the control room as they watched their perfect format torn to shreds by the most unassuming of people. Bill Carruthers, sweating bullets as the winning continues, is shown as a cutthroat producer ready to sacrifice anything for his own skin. Since Bill’s real-life son was the film’s consultant, I’d love to know more about that home dynamic. There must have been some interesting drama between the two in the real world.

The score by John Carroll Kirby helps tie everything together to really transport you to 1984. Full of synth and heart, the soundtrack compliments the synth-sound of the original “Press Your Luck” theme music, which sadly is not present in this movie.

The film was a fun ride from beginning to end, bringing heart and humanity to a storied history that’s easy to detach from reality.

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ACTUAL SPOILER ALERT:

In real life, Michael Larson became infamous for being the guy who broke “Press Your Luck”, taking home a haul of $110,247 in cash and prizes (equivalent to $333,642 in 2024 dollars). After his appearance on the show, the board was fully randomized to prevent any chance of a repeat. Did Michael walk away a winner? Yes, but only for a little while. He squandered away his winnings in bad real estate deals, was robbed, and eventually died at the age of 49 with thousands of dollars in debt.

Is luck a real thing? If so, Michael pressed it as far as he could in life… until he met life’s ultimate whammy, death.

“The Luckiest Man In America” opens in theaters everywhere April 4, 2025. Go see it!

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When you get back from the theater and find yourself wishing to go down the Michael Larson rabbit hole further…check out this excellent documentary produced by the Game Show Network in 2003 titled “Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal”: