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Comment count is 20
John Holmes Motherfucker - 2012-07-16

This isn't exactly a dupe, but an 11 part version of this was accepted a couple of years ago:

http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=82150

I watched that several times, and I'm seeing footage in this version that I don't remember seeing before.

What's up with that brother? He seems... bitter.


Chizmurder - 2012-07-16

I like the music and the editing. It makes him seem like a serial killer.


dek863 - 2012-07-17

Yeah, the contempt for the dude is pretty humorous. All over a stupid game in which they allowed themselves to get fucked by.


chumbucket - 2012-07-16

Kill screen coming up!!


SteamPoweredKleenex - 2012-07-16

Really, I don't think he cheated. He saw the pattern and used it. That's what happens when your game show's centerpiece is run by a computer that could be outwitted by an Atari 2600.

Note to the narrator: Obscene wealth and "greed is good" didn't stop in the 80's.


boner - 2012-07-16

Greed in society coincides exactly with the original run of "Dallas".


SteamPoweredKleenex - 2012-07-16

It makes me wonder why they're reviving it on TNT. Since it's hard to have even more fictional greed to compete with actual greed, is the reason because they can get away with more sex in this day and age?

Except none of that with JR. I don't even think 4chan would want that.


sosage - 2012-07-16

He used his brain to crack our shitty pattern based game, so he must be a cheating weirdo and should be vilified.


Seven Arts/H8 Red - 2012-07-16

To be fair, he was a weirdo, but big deal. He managed to hide his intentions from the producers, and exposed the game's obvious flaw. More people would have found out eventually.

You don't even need the patterns to win at Press Your Luck. It's more of a timing issue than anything. Randomization just makes it harder to hit the cash-and-a-spin-in-perpetuity spaces.

If anything, Michael Larson bought the game show a couple of years on air. Savage Steve Holland/Bill Kopp animations only went so far.


John Holmes Motherfucker - 2012-07-16

Go to 1:20 the producers, and the contestents who played that game, drink a toast to Michael, and the host says that in the end that Michael was underpaid for what he accomplished. If he had cheated, they wouldn't have given him the money.

He was certainly a tragic figure, and part of what makes it poignant is to see this poor guy so very happy for just a moment. He literally jumps up and down in his seat like a three year old at his birthday party, clapping his hands with joy.


John Holmes Motherfucker - 2012-07-16

I'll say it again. Apparently the Game Show Network could show A & E something about how to make a documentary with real facts and footage instead of bullshit filler.


sosage - 2012-07-16

You have to get to the very last few seconds of this thing to see him or what he did being put in any kind of positive light. The underlying theme of the hour and 20 minutes seems to be that people beating a game's system utilizing half-assed intelligence are likely weird and devious.


John Holmes Motherfucker - 2012-07-16

Not really. I'm not going to find it now, but there a long scene toward the middle where the host and the two contestants break down and try to reproduce Michael's trick, and there's a lot of admiration for how difficult it was, even after the pattern had been figured out.

But look, the guy was certainly weird and somewhat crazy. That side of things exists. His life before and after Press Your Luck demonstrates that, and to a certain extent, he did put one over on them. He didn't let on that he had figured out the spinner. It definitely a deliberate omission. Considering that the people who produced the show are largely behind the documentary, I don't think they're treating him unfairly.


Old_Zircon - 2012-07-16

Wow, Janie was and apparently continued to be, a truly unpleasant person.


FABIO - 2012-07-16

Seanbaby did a little article on him on cracked.com.

-1 star for being way too long. "There was a fixed pattern sequence and 2 spaces always had a free spin with no whammy."


FABIO - 2012-07-16

and "Greed is good" was 1987.


John Holmes Motherfucker - 2012-07-16

I can see why someone would think it's too long, but I like that it's so exhaustive. There no filler, just a whole lot of information on an obscure incident. ALL the footage, all the facts. I feel like I know all about it.

Still, if anybody wants to know a little more... I originally found this when a radio story on THIS AMERICAN LIFE sent me looking for footage on youtube.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/412/mil lion-dollar-idea


FABIO - 2012-07-17

Seemed like a lot of filler to me. They reeeally try to play up the secret being this big mystery ("Can you guess it?!!!") when it was obvious the 4th time in a row he picked the same square. I guess they tried to frame the whole narrative around the full episode, but did we really need to see the entire trivia rounds and every turn by the other contestants?

I like how all that effort went into increasingly randomized sequences and no one ever thought to just put whammies on those two spaces, or at least SOMETHING besides "cash + another spin".


John Holmes Motherfucker - 2012-07-17

You're looking at it from the perspective of someone who isn't going to be watching this on the Game Show Network, which, I'll grant you, is most of humanity. If you're watching this on the Game Show Network, you want to see the game. If you love game shows, this is as good as it gets. The documentary stuff is all backstory.


John Holmes Motherfucker - 2012-07-16

This should be a link to the specific 18 minute story, not the whole 1 hour show.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/play_full.php?play=412&act=4


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