Ed and Jamie, Larson's opponents, are still alive AFAIK; it would be a neat little nod if they gave them non-speaking cameos at some point.

Why can't they have a line?

Larson DID have a benefactor who financed him getting out to LA so he could audition and later flew out with him to watch him do his thing. If you rewatch the episodes, you will observe him looking back to his left several times, presumably looking for advice on when to stop. Apparently the cash that was won was split between them for his efforts.

This is the story that Randy West tells.  My question is what is the source of that information?  Because that's a pretty big piece of the story that I don't remember being mentioned in Big Bucks or anywhere else.

As I said on someone's Facebook post, looking at the cast list, the name that jumped out at me as a possible Tomarken was James Wolk (probably most famous as Bob Benson on "Mad Men"). Johnny Knoxville seems more like he would play Michael Larson's (fictional) best friend who helps him figure out the board pattern and is then sitting in the audience during the show -- something like that.

Larson DID have a benefactor who financed him getting out to LA so he could audition and later flew out with him to watch him do his thing. If you rewatch the episodes, you will observe him looking back to his left several times, presumably looking for advice on when to stop. Apparently the cash that was won was split between them for his efforts.

This PYL movie has a story here. Considering that this movie will be a drama will be interesting. It has the marks for it. I saw Buzzerblog make a post saying that they don't see how a guy sitting in front of a button getting to $100k isn't interesting. I would love to see how it got there in visualized form. How Larson got real crazy with the idea of going on the show, learning the patterns, how Bobby Edwards didn't trust him, how Bill Caruthers and CBS execs were nervous at how much money he won...plus the idea of him being a "cheater," the stamina that he had during the game when he began to wear down, and the aftermath of how he blew all of his winnings. Crazy as kept, and I'll be crazy here...this could be an Oscar-nominated film.

I’m tickled David Strathairn is in it. So good in Good Night and Good Luck and Eight Men Out. I hoped he’d play Peter, then discovered he’s in his 70s. (Yikes.)

I know several people who won money in the latter half of the run of engagement, and you have lots of people who were earning a salary from the show.

That’s terrific, really it is, but I’m looking at this from a viewer’s perspective. Loogaroo laid out reasons it got tired. Millionaire was so big, it was probably likely to fade. Not to sound callous, but cancelling The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime put people out of work, too.

I don’t see Shaq as a possible Strahan. Strahan is the Joe Garagiola of the modern age. He handles the Pyramid really well.

Shaq mumbles to the point closed captioning doesn’t work. (I’ve tried it.) He’s funny as Barkley’s foil, but he doesn’t generate the comedy, and Ernie’s the one responsible for running the show.

I realize I’m pre-judging, but heck, every night on the pregame show, Shaq pre-judges. If I’m wrong—I hope I am because Lucky 13 sounds cool—I’ll admit it, same as Sir Charles confessed he was wrong about my Timberwolves. Naz Reid.