Expert: John Bergman - 7/16/2006

Question
Hi,
1) I was a huge fan of the show "Match Game" with Gene Rayburn. How many seasons did it run? And did Gene host all of them? Also, when did he die?
2) The original version of "Press Your Luck!" Apparently, a contestant figured out the sequence of the board and used it to win the game. I remember a special a few years back on GSN about it, and they had his 2 opponents play off for some cash. How did he do this? Whatever happened to the guy?
Thank you for your time!

Answer
Dear Trevor:


Aah, two of my favorite game shows, rolled into one question.  How blessed can I be.


Actually, involving MATCH GAME, I don't know if you know this or not, but there were two versions of the show titled THE MATCH GAME.  One was on NBC from 1962 to 1969 and Gene Rayburn was the host.  It had two teams of three people, one, a celebrity, the other two contestants.  It was more of a straight forward question game like NAME A PRESIDENT or NAME ONE OF THE PLANETS, etc.  The one that is famousily known ran on CBS form 1973 to 1979 and then it ran on syndication until 1982.  The syndicated version, MATCH GAME PM ran from 1975 to 1979. All was hosted by Gene Rayburn.

Involving your second question, it is true.  The guy's name was Micheal Larson, who was an unemployed ice cream man.  He did it by videotaping many of the shows while he was off work and noticed that the lights that went around the board follwed a pattern. He also noticed at the time that squares 4 and 8 had no WHAMMIES but were with cash and a spin.  He figured ou the pattern, as well, as to time it where the lights would land on those two squares. From the documentary, he had to learn 5 sets of 18 squares patterns.


You can see all of the nuances of that at www.wikipedia.com and type in PRESS YOUR LUCK.

As for Micheal, after the winnings, his ego got the best of him with wild ideas about making money fast.  he had an idea of winning $30,000 from a radio game show if he had the same serial number of a $1 bill.  So with some of the winnings that were left, he had it converted to $1 bills, and franticaly tried to find the number.  One Christmas night, his money was stolen from his house as two robbers cam in and saw the bags full of money left in his living room.


He died of cancer in 1994.



Thanks
JOHN