GSN's "Big Bucks"

[That Don Guy]

I assume this was a repeat airing of Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal on GSN on Sunday night (12/28), although I couldn't find any references to it when I did a forum search, so pardon me if this has been brought up before; however, I did notice that there were two words missing from that show:

Second Chance.

I can only wonder how many patterns, if any, the board on that game used.  (It would have been easier to get around whatever they called the Whammies on SC, as they never changed positions during a round.)

(And why was it subtitled "The Press Your Luck Scandal"?  What was scandalous about it?  It's not as if anybody cheated...)

-- Don

[PeterMarshallFan]

Perhaps SC was left out because no eps exist other than that poor-quality pilot that many traders have.

I seem to recall reading that there was only one pattern on the board, and a contestant once took it for $60,000 in a Larson-like run [reported by those who spoke to Jim Peck at a GSC a while back]

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' date=\'Dec 29 2003, 03:39 PM\'] I assume this was a repeat airing of Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal on GSN on Sunday night (12/28), although I couldn't find any references to it when I did a forum search, so pardon me if this has been brought up before; however, I did notice that there were two words missing from that show:

Second Chance.

I can only wonder how many patterns, if any, the board on that game used.  (It would have been easier to get around whatever they called the Whammies on SC, as they never changed positions during a round.)

(And why was it subtitled "The Press Your Luck Scandal"?  What was scandalous about it?  It's not as if anybody cheated...)

-- Don [/quote]
 I'm guessing they considered it a scandal because of the controversy it caused at CBS, and how they were afraid it was set up another quiz show scandal.

[HSquares2003]

This documentary is at least a minute old, first run was March 2003. And the 2 full episodes of the Larsen fiasco were run of Feast of Favorites Thanksgiving Day.

[gameshowguy2000]

Those Larson episodes were first aired on GSN in June 2003, exactly 19 years since Larson's shows original airings on CBS.

USA Network was prohibited from airing those shows.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' date=\'Dec 29 2003, 03:39 PM\'] (And why was it subtitled "The Press Your Luck Scandal"?  What was scandalous about it?  It's not as if anybody cheated...)
 [/quote]
 Very true. He didn't cheat. He just paid attention.

[itiparanoid13]

I am going to assume that scandal was used just to get an increase in ratings.  If something has the word "scandal" or "mystery" placed in it, I think it would probibly help get more people to watch the show.  Just a marketing ploy.

[HSquares2003]

[quote name=\'itiparanoid13\' date=\'Dec 30 2003, 12:00 PM\'] I am going to assume that scandal was used just to get an increase in ratings.  If something has the word "scandal" or "mystery" placed in it, I think it would probibly help get more people to watch the show.  Just a marketing ploy. [/quote]
 GSN actually lured ratings in on a show? Who woulda thunk it? (sarcasm) Go to gscentral.net, that dude has some good Larsen stuff on his PYL page.

[gameshowguy2000]

In addition, Larsen's run is put into a 3-part video.

I've downloaded the clips numerous times, and still get a laugh out of them to this date.

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'HSquares2003\' date=\'Dec 30 2003, 09:09 PM\'] [quote name=\'itiparanoid13\' date=\'Dec 30 2003, 12:00 PM\'] I am going to assume that scandal was used just to get an increase in ratings.  If something has the word "scandal" or "mystery" placed in it, I think it would probibly help get more people to watch the show.  Just a marketing ploy. [/quote]
GSN actually lured ratings in on a show? Who woulda thunk it? (sarcasm) Go to gscentral.net, that dude has some good Larsen stuff on his PYL page. [/quote]
 Well, the lure could have been in paid programming, hosted by Chuck Woolery instead...

[Kniwt]

[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' date=\'Dec 29 2003, 03:39 PM\'] Second Chance.

I can only wonder how many patterns, if any, the board on that game used.  (It would have been easier to get around whatever they called the Whammies on SC, as they never changed positions during a round.) [/quote]
 And the board on Second Chance went very, very fast -- at least in the pilot and in the actual show, if my rapidly fading memory (ah, that glorious last summer before college) serves me well.

"Whammies" on SC were Devils.  And the board symbols never changed -- except that, at some point in the show, the $5000 square in the last round changed to $x000, with the "x" cycling between the very same 3, 4, and 5 still used today -- but via a tiny dot matrix (no rear projection) for the one digit.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Kniwt\' date=\'Dec 31 2003, 08:29 AM\']

And the board symbols never changed -- except that, at some point in the show, the $5000 square in the last round changed to $x000, with the "x" cycling between the very same 3, 4, and 5 still used today -- but via a tiny dot matrix (no rear projection) for the one digit. [/quote]
 A post on Usenet a couple years back says  the values in that square rotated between $1K-$5K, later in the run anyway(after a win of some $80K occurred)