Peter Tomarken
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Peter David Tomarken (December 7 1942 – March 13 2006) was an American television personality known primarily as a game show host.
Born in Olean, New York, Tomarken graduated from UCLA and worked on the magazines Women's Wear Daily and Business Week in New York City during the late 1960s. He moved back to California and began working at various advertising agencies, including Young & Rubicam. 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 (at least) 3 failed pilots, Tomarken got his first gig as host of Hit Man for NBC in January 1983. The show lasted only 13 weeks. Tomarken was then offered the hosting job for Bill Carruthers's Press Your Luck, a revival of the short-lived Second Chance, which had aired on ABC in 1977. Press Your Luck ran from September 19, 1983 to September 26, 1986 on CBS, and was picked up for repeat broadcast by the USA Network from September 14, 1987 to October 13, 1995, and on GSN since September 1, 2001 as well as being one of the few American game shows to be shown on British television (on Sky Television later SKY ONE). The show has gained a cult status among college students, who are perhaps seeing it for the first time.
After Press Your Luck, Tomarken hosted the short-lived 1987 game show Bargain Hunters, an unsuccessful clone of The Price Is Right, for ABC. After a short hiatus, he returned to host Wipeout (which he produced) and was slated to host Monopoly; however, not enough stations signed up to launch the latter, and it was eventually aired as a weekly game show on ABC with a different host, former Jeopardy! contestant Mike Reilly. Tomarken later hosted the big money game show Paranoia for Fox Family Channel (now ABC Family) from April-May 2000.
Tomarken hosted a documentary for Game Show Network (now GSN), Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal (which focused on controversial winner Michael Larson), in 2003. As part of the special, he hosted half of a special episode of Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck. He worked with GSN during the mid to late-1990s, and he also appeared on several infomercials during that time. He retired from television to work as a real estate agent.
Plane crash
Tomarken, a private pilot, and his wife Kathleen were killed when his Beechcraft Bonanza A36, N16JR [1], crashed a few hundred feet offshore in Santa Monica Bay during climb-out from the Santa Monica Airport in California on the morning of March 13 2006.
The Los Angeles Times offers pictures of the aircraft and reported [2] that according to the FAA, the aircraft had engine trouble shortly after takeoff and attempted to turn back to the airport before crashing into the bay. A spokesman with Angel Flight West, a nonprofit that provides free air transportation to needy medical patients, says that Tomarken was an organization volunteer pilot. He and his wife were flying to San Diego to pick up a passenger who needed treatment at UCLA Medical Center.
FlightAware shows the flight map and tracking information [3] as well as the radar track log [4] for the short flight.
Peter is buried at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, CA.