Peter Tomarken
Encyclopedia
Peter David Tomarken was an American
television
personality primarily known as the host of Press Your Luck
.
in 1960. Tomarken graduated from UCLA
with a bachelor's degree
in English and married his high school sweetheart
, Dana, his first wife who later served on the Beverly Hills Board of Education from 1985 to 1993. He and Dana had three children: Jason, and fraternal twin sisters, Alexis and Candace. He worked on the magazines Women's Wear Daily
and Business Week in New York City
during the late 1960s before moving back to California
to work at various advertising agencies
, including Young & Rubicam
.
for NBC
— Rodeo Drive
in October 1980 (later picked as a series for Lifetime) and Duel in the Daytime in August 1981, both produced by Jay Wolpert
— Tomarken got his first network job as host of Hit Man
for NBC
; it lasted just thirteen weeks, from January 3 to April 1 of 1983. Also, he briefly co-anchored a news show on the Playboy TV in New York City at the same time. Tomarken was then offered the hosting job for Press Your Luck
, which he hosted for three seasons on CBS
from 1983-1986.
After Press Your Luck, Tomarken hosted the very short-lived Bargain Hunters
for ABC
. After a year hiatus, he returned to host Wipeout (which he also produced), which ran 1 season. He was slated to host Monopoly
, however, not enough stations signed up to launch the show, and it was eventually aired as a weekly game show on ABC with a different host, Mike Reilly. He hosted at least 2 other pilots, TKO for Mark Goodson
, and Two Heads Are Better Than One for PYL producer Bill Carruthers
before the game show market stalled in the early 90's. Tomarken also hosted Paranoia
for Fox Family Channel from April–May 2000.
during its conception and early years in the mid to late-1990s and served as host for their evening interactive telephone games, Prime Games
, which featured Decades and Race for the Numbers. He also appeared on several infomercial
s and acted in small roles, including on the TV show Ally McBeal
, during that time. He semi-retired from television to work as a real estate agent. Tomarken hosted a documentary for GSN, Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal (which focused on winner Michael Larson
), in March 2003. As part of the special, he hosted a segment of Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck
which reunited the two contestants who competed against Michael Larson with Larson's brother, James, for a grudge match (Michael Larson had died in February 1999 of throat cancer
).
, and his second wife, Kathleen, were killed when his Beechcraft
Bonanza A36
, N16JR, crashed a few hundred feet off shore in Santa Monica Bay
during climb-out from the Santa Monica Airport
in California on the morning of March 13, 2006.
The aircraft had engine trouble shortly after takeoff and Tomarken attempted to turn back to the airport before crashing into Santa Monica Bay
. The National Transportation Safety Board
determined that the crash could have been survivable if they had been wearing shoulder harnesses along with their seat belts.
The Tomarkens, who were volunteers with Angel Flight West, a non-profit organization
that provides free air transportation to needy medical patients, were enroute to San Diego to pick up a cancer patient who needed transportation to UCLA Medical Center for treatment. The charity has since set up the Tomarken Heroes Fund in memory of the couple.
Tomarken and his wife are buried in the same plot at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
in Culver City, California
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
personality primarily known as the host of Press Your Luck
Press Your Luck
Press Your Luck is an American television daytime game show created by Bill Carruthers and Jan McCormack. It premiered on September 19, 1983 on CBS and ended on September 26, 1986. In the show, contestants collected "spins" by answering trivia questions and then used the spins on an 18-space game...
.
Early life
Born in Olean, New York, Tomarken was the middle son of Barnett and Pearl Tomarken, who owned Dee’s Jewelry store in Olean. Barnett and Pearl moved the family to Beverly Hills, California in the early 1950s, and Peter graduated from Beverly Hills High SchoolBeverly Hills High School
Beverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...
in 1960. Tomarken graduated from UCLA
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
with a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in English and married his high school sweetheart
Sweetheart
Sweetheart can be:*The term of endearment applied to a person's significant other**Childhood sweetheart*Forgetful of bringing drinks to fellow coworkers*Sweetheart , recorded by Rainy Davis and re-recorded by Mariah Carey and Jermaine Dupri...
, Dana, his first wife who later served on the Beverly Hills Board of Education from 1985 to 1993. He and Dana had three children: Jason, and fraternal twin sisters, Alexis and Candace. He worked on the magazines Women's Wear Daily
Women's Wear Daily
Women's Wear Daily is a fashion-industry trade journal sometimes called "the bible of fashion." WWD delivers information and intelligence on changing trends and breaking news in the fashion, beauty and retail industries with a readership composed largely of retailers, designers, manufacturers,...
and Business Week in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
during the late 1960s before moving back to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
to work at various advertising agencies
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
, including Young & Rubicam
Young & Rubicam
Y&R is a marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting.-History:...
.
Game show career
He later started his own advertising firm, which put him behind and in front of the camera for many commercials in the late 1970s. His agent then suggested that he should try his hand at game show hosting, to which Tomarken replied, "Why would I want to do that?" His agent said, "Because you work four days a month and get paid six figures!" After a pair of failed pilotsTelevision pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
— Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district known for designer label and haute couture fashion. The name generally refers to a three-block long stretch of boutiques and shops but the street stretches further north and south....
in October 1980 (later picked as a series for Lifetime) and Duel in the Daytime in August 1981, both produced by Jay Wolpert
Jay Wolpert
Jay Wolpert is an American television producer and screenwriter.His first television appearance came as a contestant on the original version of Jeopardy! in 1969. He competed in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions that year and won....
— Tomarken got his first network job as host of Hit Man
Hit Man (game show)
Hit Man is an American television game show that ran from January 3 to April 1, 1983 on NBC. Peter Tomarken hosted this Jay Wolpert production in association with Metromedia Video Productions, while Rod Roddy was the announcer.-Round 1:...
for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
; it lasted just thirteen weeks, from January 3 to April 1 of 1983. Also, he briefly co-anchored a news show on the Playboy TV in New York City at the same time. Tomarken was then offered the hosting job for Press Your Luck
Press Your Luck
Press Your Luck is an American television daytime game show created by Bill Carruthers and Jan McCormack. It premiered on September 19, 1983 on CBS and ended on September 26, 1986. In the show, contestants collected "spins" by answering trivia questions and then used the spins on an 18-space game...
, which he hosted for three seasons on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from 1983-1986.
After Press Your Luck, Tomarken hosted the very short-lived Bargain Hunters
Bargain Hunters
Bargain Hunters is a game show that aired on ABC in the summer of 1987, hosted by Peter Tomarken, which combined elements of The Price Is Right with home shopping. The show was canceled after nine weeks and replaced by reruns of Mr. Belvedere....
for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. After a year hiatus, he returned to host Wipeout (which he also produced), which ran 1 season. He was slated to host Monopoly
Monopoly (game show)
Monopoly is an American television game show based on the board game of the same name. It aired on ABC from June 16 to September 1, 1990. Mike Reilly, a former Jeopardy! contestant, hosted while Charlie O'Donnell announced....
, however, not enough stations signed up to launch the show, and it was eventually aired as a weekly game show on ABC with a different host, Mike Reilly. He hosted at least 2 other pilots, TKO for Mark Goodson
Mark Goodson
Mark Goodson was an American television producer who specialized in game shows.-Life and early career:...
, and Two Heads Are Better Than One for PYL producer Bill Carruthers
Bill Carruthers
Bill Carruthers , born in Detroit, Michigan, was a television executive who gained his first fame as the director of the Ernie Kovacs-helmed game show, Take a Good Look, in the early 1960s. He went on to be the director on The Newlywed Game and The Dating Game before starting his own production...
before the game show market stalled in the early 90's. Tomarken also hosted Paranoia
Paranoia (game show)
Paranoia was a short-lived offering on the Fox Family channel that aired from April to May in 2000. The show was the last game show hosted by Peter Tomarken, and the first game show since the 1950s to be recorded live with contestants playing in the studio, by satellite, over the phone, and on the...
for Fox Family Channel from April–May 2000.
Other work
Tomarken worked with GSNGame Show Network
The Game Show Network is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its current slogan is "The World Needs More Winners"...
during its conception and early years in the mid to late-1990s and served as host for their evening interactive telephone games, Prime Games
Prime Games
Prime Games was a live Interactive television show produced by Game Show Network, in the mid 1990s. The show was hosted by Peter Tomarken, later joined by Marianne Curan as co-host. The format was similar to GSN Live, with the evening's live interactive segments aired in between classic game shows....
, which featured Decades and Race for the Numbers. He also appeared on several infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
s and acted in small roles, including on the TV show Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama series which aired on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. The series was created by David E. Kelley, who also served as the executive producer, along with Bill D'Elia...
, during that time. He semi-retired from television to work as a real estate agent. Tomarken hosted a documentary for GSN, Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal (which focused on winner Michael Larson
Michael Larson
Paul Michael Larson was a contestant on the American television game show Press Your Luck in May 1984 that aired on TV in June 1984. Larson's claim to fame was his winning $110,237 in cash and prizes, at the time the largest one-day total ever won on a game show...
), in March 2003. As part of the special, he hosted a segment of Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck
Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck
Whammy! is an updated version of the American television game show Press Your Luck. Taped at Tribune Studios, the FremantleMedia production aired on Game Show Network from April 15, 2002 to December 5, 2003 with repeats that continue to air...
which reunited the two contestants who competed against Michael Larson with Larson's brother, James, for a grudge match (Michael Larson had died in February 1999 of throat cancer
Head and neck cancer
Head and neck cancer refers to a group of biologically similar cancers that start in the upper aerodigestive tract, including the lip, oral cavity , nasal cavity , paranasal sinuses, pharynx, and larynx. 90% of head and neck cancers are squamous cell carcinomas , originating from the mucosal lining...
).
Death
Tomarken, a private pilotAviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
, and his second wife, Kathleen, were killed when his Beechcraft
Beechcraft
Beechcraft is an American manufacturer of general aviation and military aircraft, ranging from light single engine aircraft to business jets and light military transports. Previously a division of Raytheon, it has been a brand of Hawker Beechcraft since 2006....
Bonanza A36
Beechcraft Bonanza
The Beechcraft Bonanza is an American general aviation aircraft introduced in 1947 by The Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. , it is still being produced by Hawker Beechcraft, and has been in continuous production longer than any other airplane in history...
, N16JR, crashed a few hundred feet off shore in Santa Monica Bay
Santa Monica Bay
Santa Monica Bay is a bight of the Pacific Ocean in southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume, in Malibu, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Its eastern...
during climb-out from the Santa Monica Airport
Santa Monica Airport
Santa Monica Airport , also known as Santa Monica Municipal Airport, is a general aviation airport located largely in Santa Monica, California, United States. The airport is located about from the Pacific Ocean and north of LAX...
in California on the morning of March 13, 2006.
The aircraft had engine trouble shortly after takeoff and Tomarken attempted to turn back to the airport before crashing into Santa Monica Bay
Santa Monica Bay
Santa Monica Bay is a bight of the Pacific Ocean in southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume, in Malibu, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Its eastern...
. The National Transportation Safety Board
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine...
determined that the crash could have been survivable if they had been wearing shoulder harnesses along with their seat belts.
The Tomarkens, who were volunteers with Angel Flight West, a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
that provides free air transportation to needy medical patients, were enroute to San Diego to pick up a cancer patient who needed transportation to UCLA Medical Center for treatment. The charity has since set up the Tomarken Heroes Fund in memory of the couple.
Tomarken and his wife are buried in the same plot at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
The Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary is a Jewish cemetery located at 6001 West Centinela Avenue, in Culver City, California, USA. Many Jewish people from the entertainment industry are buried here.-Notable interments:*Irving Aaronson, composer...
in Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
.