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 pilots 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.
Tomarken worked with GSN 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 infomercials 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).
Read more about this topic: Peter Tomarken
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