Super Password Put This Liar In Jail - Game Shows Part IV

00:00This is World's Greatest Con. I'm Brian Brushwood.

00:06Here's the thing about scoundrels. We love them.

00:12We love them in our books, in our movies, in our comic books.

00:17And to be clear, we don't hate to love them the way we would an anti-hero, somebody we don't like but feel we have to go along with. We love scoundrels.

00:28Folks who are naughty, who skirt the very edges of propriety.

00:33But if there's one thing we love more than a scoundrel, it's a scoundrel who begrudgingly does the right thing.

00:41I spent 20 years touring all over the United States as a stage magician.

00:48And whenever I had the choice, I would never use the M-word.

00:53Because when I say the word magician, you're already thinking of birthday parties and somebody who has a plan to make you look like a fool.

01:01And it's an unfair bias. I love magic.

01:05When I pitched Scam School, an entire channel dedicated to learning the fundamentals of magic, I refused to ever admit that it was a magic show.

01:15And in fact, for the first few years, you'll never hear me say the M-word on this show.

01:22Instead, we positioned it as, how would you like to be the coolest guy at the bar?

01:28The one who is always drinking for free.

01:31Now when you phrase it that way, there's only one archetype you're thinking of.

01:36And it isn't a magician.

01:38We love a scoundrel.

01:40Now there are several ways a movie can make you love a scoundrel.

01:46First is to make him handsome.

01:49Chiseled, symmetrical face, your Danny Oceans, your Han Solos.

01:53Dreamboats, all of them.

01:55The second trick, and this goes back to Robin Hood and beyond, all the way back to The Odyssey, is to pick a victim who's got it coming.

02:05When you're stealing from somebody who the audience agrees is sufficiently rich or evil or both, then we justify not only what they're doing, but we cheer for how they pulled it off.

02:17For obvious reasons, we don't focus on the little people who got hurt on every step in the past of our favorite scoundrels.

02:26There's pretty good evidence that, among other things, the Millennium Falcon was designed for human trafficking.

02:33For all we know, Danny Ocean was in prison for running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded the elderly of their pensions.

02:41But when they use that same scheming brain to make the powerful less so, we root for them.

02:48The third part, and this is crucial, is the unearthing of their hidden humanity.

02:54Hot damn, do we go wild when we find out that a con man has a hidden heart of gold.

03:01Just a touch of honest work goes a long way towards an arc of redemption.

03:08Okay, look, I thought we could play this cool, but I don't know that I can.

03:14So far, throughout the short run of this podcast, we've told you four stories, and two of them, just within the last year, have been adapted into movies.

03:23Both Operation Mincemeat and Quiz.

03:25Operation Mincemeat, of course, is the story that we told in Season 1, all about fooling Hitler, and Quiz is the story of Charles Ingram and the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire scandal that we just told you about last episode.

03:38But what you might not know is that both of those movies star the same man. Matthew McFadden.

03:49He plays Charles Chumley in Mincemeat and Charles Ingram in Quiz.

03:54But if you're like me, you probably know him best as Tom in Succession, for which he was nominated for an Emmy.

04:03So here's my confession.

04:04Yes, we're going to tell this epic story, but know that in my heart of hearts, I am pitching to one person, Matthew McFadden.

04:13If you are not Matthew McFadden and you're listening to this, then it is your solemn duty to do whatever you can to get it in his hands, to casually mention that maybe he should give this a listen. Hello, Matthew.

04:28Look, you clearly have an amazing taste for stories with rich characters and gripping conflicts, but now that you've done two movies of stories so good that we covered them on World's Greatest Con, I think it's only fitting that you complete this trilogy.

04:44Now don't worry, we're not going to give you a homework assignment.

04:47I handpicked a story, something that has never been made into a movie, something just for you.

04:52And it is a good one, too.

04:54See, you're a great actor, but in the previous two movies, you played men who were cogs in a machine.

05:02What you need to play is a scoundrel.

05:06This is the story of a legitimately bad person who is on the run.

05:18He has hurt people with his actions.

05:20But in this story, he's not only going to do honest work, but he's going to do it at the expense of a faceless corporation that could definitely stand to lose it.

05:31A man on the run from the law tricks a major corporation into believing he's a United States spy.

05:38He gets on one of their most popular game shows and goes on an epic run, hobnobbing with celebrities.

05:46And day after day, he just keeps winning.

05:50Ends up with one of the biggest jackpots in the history of the show.

05:56Best of all, he does it all fair and square.

06:00And just at the moment of success, when victory is assured, all of his past sins come to revisit him.

06:08To the best of our research, everything I'm telling you is 100 percent real.

06:14However, it already is so cinematic, I'm going to pitch it to you just like a Hollywood meeting. So get comfortable.

06:22You need a bottle of water?

06:24I can have Susan run and get coffee for you.

06:27Because I want you to steeple your fingers.

06:29I want you to close your eyes and picture this movie about the world's greatest con.

08:05Okay, so we opened outside a used car dealership in Indiana.

08:19There's a salesman and a guy looking for a car.

08:23They're haggling over a BMW.

08:25Freeze frame, this is our protagonist, Carrie Ketchum, which sounds like a made-up Hollywood name, but it's his real name, which makes it even better.

08:35Obviously, Matthew McFadyen, who I definitely hope is still listening at this point, this is you.

08:40You are Carrie Ketchum.

08:42Okay, back to the scene.

08:44Carrie and the salesman are friendly.

08:47Ketchum says he can make the deal right now.

08:49He just can't quite pay what they want.

08:52Look, man, he's willing to buy it, but he needs a discount.

08:55Ketchum says, look, I know how this goes.

08:58I have to pretend like you're going to talk to the manager to see if I can pay less, but you're really just going to go get a cup of coffee and hope I lose my nerve and say the sticker price is fine.

09:08Salesman is like, I wish.

09:09I mean, this manager is a real hard ass.

09:13Don't worry, I'll make it quick, though.

09:15Salesman heads inside and just like Carrie predicted, sits down to get a cup of coffee.

09:20Waits about 10 minutes, watches some TV, then he heads back out.

09:25And when he gets out there, Ketchum is gone.

09:28So is the BMW.

09:30Cut to Carrie and the stolen car.

09:34Big old wide smile.

09:38We pan up out of the car with a big blue Hoosier sky and the name of our movie fades in. The Liar Man.

09:47I'm not good at titles.

09:50Somebody, they're going to change it anyway.

09:55Harry is a legitimate con man.

09:59This is not an opinion, accusation or speculation.

10:04It is an outright indisputable fact.

10:07In 1987, he's on the run for his life.

10:11This is no small potato situation either.

10:14He has warrants in multiple states all across the U. S.

10:19That stolen BMW from Indiana?

10:21By the time it's found, it's abandoned on the side of the road in North Pole, Alaska.

10:27A place where it's Christmas all year round, apparently.

10:30It's a real place, look it up.

10:33Harry's plan seems to be to lay low for a while, but he wants to stay busy in North Pole.

10:40He commits, you know, just a little bit of credit card fraud, racking up a massive bill with the goal of never paying anything.

10:46And maybe worst of all, he fills out paperwork claiming that his ex-wife, a member of the U. S.

10:53Air Force, has died.

10:55So what say I collect all that insurance money in her name?

10:59These are the moves of somebody on the lam.

11:02Harry's on the run because he knows what's waiting for him when he gets caught.

11:09By the time we meet him in the middle of his con spree, he's already spent 18 months of his life behind bars on a felony charge.

11:18That's enough time to convince him that no matter what, he is never going back.

11:23The longer he's on the run, the more he needs money, and the more money he needs, the more crimes he has to commit.

11:30And that list of crimes is building pretty fast.

11:34So he knows he can't spend forever in North Pole.

11:42It's a small town.

11:45Word gets around quick. So he bails.

11:47Harry knows he's crossed the Rubicon, but he's looking for an out.

11:51He needs a plan, something that can help him get back on the road just a little while longer.

11:58Nothing major, just a quick way to score big enough to get him back on his feet.

12:03He's got a plan.

12:04He's got to head south.

12:05He needs some quick cash.

12:06But how to get there?

12:07We don't know for sure where Carrey gets his inspiration for this.

12:12So this is where we can do some Hollywood magic and bridge things together in a neat little scene that sets our story into motion.

12:20Maybe Carrey's at his house packing up to leave Alaska, and in the middle of the day, Super Password comes on.

12:26Carrey gives us one of those iconic Matthew McFadden smiles.

12:30Suddenly he knows exactly what he needs to do.

12:33He's going to head to Los Angeles, the famed city of angels, and he's going to blow them away on Super Password.

12:43Except for one tiny detail.

12:44You see, Carrey Ketchum is a criminal, a wanted man.

12:51And polite society doesn't really have time for his kind, right?

12:56He can't just walk up to some TV producers, show some papers, and get on to the show like everything's fine and dandy.

13:04He needs a new identity.

13:06All right, let's think this out.

13:09It has to be boring, unassuming, inconspicuous, and at the same time, maybe...

13:14maybe an actual person from his past? Quinn. Patrick Quinn.

13:19That was a professor that Carrey had in college.

13:25He liked Patrick Quinn.

13:27He liked his classes.

13:29And it's a common enough name.

13:31Nobody would suspect a thing.

13:34Yeah, Patrick Quinn from Alaska. Sure.

13:36But what does he do?

13:39He can't be a professor.

13:41That would be too on-the-nose.

13:43Maybe the kind of job where, with a wink and a nod, people almost expect that you're fibbing about your name? Something classified?

13:53Patrick Quinn is gonna be a secret agent.

13:57Yes, it's too much to walk around saying that you're a secret agent, but if you give it a boring title, a government systems analyst who happens to be stationed all the way up near Russia starts to fit together.

14:16Patrick Quinn is a secret agent.

14:19Works for the United States as a super-secret spy, an American James Bond.

14:25By the way, this'll be the part of the movie where you start to wonder just how smart Carrey Ketchum is.

14:36Sure, he's good at staying on the road, not getting caught, making money, but he's more one of those Coen Brothers-style protagonists.

14:41Kind of dumb, real lucky, not exactly a mastermind.

14:44All right, back to the pitch.

14:47Carrey Ketchum might be the con man on the run from the law.

14:54Ah, Patrick Quinn is an intelligent, soft-spoken, humble and well-mannered man.

14:59He is on the road to Los Angeles, the place where dreams come true.

15:04Transition, cue the music.

15:06We've got palm trees, we've got Rodeo Drive, we've got the Walk of Fame, we've got those characters dressed up as bad Spider-Men, and that guy who just runs around saying, you know.

15:31And there it is, the Hollywood sign.

15:34We've made it to Los Angeles and we're about to meet the man who's going to put Carrie Ketchum on TV.

15:42Robert Sherman, the producer of shows like Match Game and Hollywood Squares. Nice enough.

15:47Typical industry climber who just so happens to be in charge of some of the most popular daytime programming on the air.

15:56OK, who are we going to cast for him? 1980s Hollywood action. Michael Keaton.

16:02That's our Robert Sherman.

16:03OK, so Michael Keaton's there.

16:06At this time, Robert Sherman is working on the third version of Password called Super Password.

16:12Password has a beautifully simple premise.

16:14Two teams face off against each other, one made up of an everyday Joe.

16:20The other is a celebrity.

16:22The regular Joe is competing for real money.

16:25The celebrity is just there to be awesome.

16:28One of the two players knows the password and the other player has to guess it.

16:35The player who knows can give a one word clue to their partner.

16:39But if they get it wrong, then the other team gets a turn.

16:43Passes back and forth until somebody gets it right. It's so beautiful.

16:47There's no trivia, no physical exertion.

16:49Hear a word, say a word.

16:52Score points, score cash.

16:54It's not like you're being rewarded for genius.

16:57You're being rewarded for that unspoken communication, that ability to look into someone's eyes and know what they're trying to get you to think.

17:08It's this new iteration where Robert Sherman takes the helm.

17:12He's the guy in charge of all the day to day aspects of the show, and that includes sitting in on the contestant auditions.

17:21He knows that the best contestants are characters, people that hypnotically just turn you on, that you want to know more about.

17:29People that immediately read as interesting for that distracted daytime television audience.

17:33Now enter the newly minted Patrick Quinn, the American spy who can't quite tell you that he's a spy who desperately wants to play Super Password.

17:48Needless to say, Robert Sherman knows a character when he sees one.

17:52And Patrick Quinn might just be a winner.

17:55For this part, imagine the camera is seeing everything from Robert Sherman's perspective.

18:00Hands up, revealing this soft-spoken, shaggy guy with a cast on his right arm that he is absolutely unprepared to explain.

18:12You squint, he looks a little bit like Charles Manson.

18:17If Manson took a shower once, decided to try his luck at a daytime game show.

18:23And in his interview, he keeps going on and on about his Alaskan CIA outpost and the work he does with the U. S. government.

18:32I mean, it's all a little over the top, but that's what makes for good television.

18:38And Sherman isn't new to this.

18:40He's produced 12,000 episodes of TV.

18:43This is old hat.

18:46And yes, even he finds some of Quinn's stories to be a bit unbelievable, a little bit over the top.

18:54But man, this is a character from his look to his vibe, to his stories.

18:59So with his interview complete and the documents checked, convinced enough to cast him, Sherman hands Quinn a contract.

19:06Just a standard release for the boys over at Legal. Keep them happy.

19:12Quinn barely glances at it and signs his name.

19:15But the camera, we linger on that contract for a while, you know, to make sure you know it's important because like foreshadowing and stuff, right?

19:24Before he knows it, he's on.

19:27December 1987 shoot date and scheduled to air in early January.

19:32Patrick Quinn is going to play the game, but we all know it's Kerry Ketchum who's on his way to some quick moolah. It's password. It's super password.

19:43Our special guest this week, Phyllis Diller.

19:45And from Entertainment Tonight, Leonard Maltin. OK, scene change.

19:50Now we're on the super password set. Things are busy.

20:02There's grips and production assistants running around.

20:08Everybody's smoking all over the place because it's the 1980s.

20:14Catch someone product placement, drinking a tab on the corner.

20:19Here is fidgeting, maybe getting a little bit of butterflies in his stomach as he waits to be called out and introduced by Super Password's host on one hand, carries a con man at his core.

20:33Lying is what he does.

20:34Reading people is what he does.

20:37And by all accounts, he's pretty good at it.

20:40He's gotten this far after all.

20:43It's hard to picture him screwing up once he gets on stage.

20:46But in our movie, I bet you see a single bead of sweat dripping from Carrey's brow.

20:52This is national TV and he's putting himself on stage where the whole world can see him.

20:58There's risk involved in getting on that stage.

21:02But before Carrey can have another moment to think about whether or not this is a good idea.

21:09Why don't we introduce our new contestant?

21:11Let them play the game.

21:13Does he happen to have a beard?

21:15His name happens to be Patrick.

21:16Then let's bring him in. Come on, Patrick.

21:18Patrick Quinn is called to the stage.

21:19Luckily, Patrick's one of those folks who just seems comfortable on TV.

21:22He's cheery, relaxed, genuinely ready to play a game that hopefully will be his ticket out of small time crime and bumming around Winter Wonderland.

21:35I'd imagine he's feeling pretty lucky because his first celebrity teammate to kick off day one is none other than Phyllis Diller.

21:42OK, if you're not already familiar, just know that Phyllis Diller is a comedy legend, a massive personality with an iconic laugh.

21:55Ellen DeGeneres, Roseanne Barr, Joan Rivers, they've all listed her as an inspiration.

21:59And at this stage of her career, she's a fixture on Robert Sherman shows.

22:08She brings that celebrity sizzle.

22:10Oh, damn, though, this is one of those movie moments where we have to overcast a cameo like Tracy Ullman.

22:19Tracy Ullman would be great.

22:21Patrick is ready to play, but unfortunately, his cleaned up Charles Manson with a cast look is grabbing all of the attention of the audience and the host.

22:32So it's no surprise that the second he sits down, Burt's quick to ask about the cast. Hi, Patrick. Hi. What happened there?

22:40I had a little bit of an accident a couple of weeks ago, but I'm feeling fine.

22:46It's, you know, the least of my worries right now. Yes.

22:49Not exactly his best response, but it's all good.

22:51You just deflect, work your way around the line.

22:53You say what you need to say.

22:56Come on, man, let's get to playing the game. Right.

23:00Did someone slam your hand on the computer there?

23:03It looks like you. No.

23:04You're not going to tell us how it happened, are you?

23:06Well, just a motorcycle on a motorcycle, a motorcycle ran over your hand. Yeah, I see.

23:10OK, it's probably not what he means.

23:12Despite the fact that the host is obsessed with the cast, and honestly, so am I.

23:17Kerry manages to play Patrick perfectly.

23:19Boring government job, you know, super secret spy stuff.

23:22All the confidence he needs in front of those cameras.

23:27And here's the surprising part, given that I'm trying to convince you this should be a top tier movie.

23:34Pretty much nothing crazy happens during his run.

23:37He's just really good at Super Password nationality. German. Yes.

23:41That's a bunch of. Chaplin, Charlie. German Berlin.

23:45Well, yes, that's a good point. Denim's jeans. Relatives. All family.

23:52Yes, that's a good clue.

23:56There's no behind the scenes kerfuffles.

24:04There's no suspicions of cheating.

24:10There's no weird coughs.

24:19It's just a guy with the skill, the ability to really listen to a person and then to say exactly what they need to hear.

24:30So, of course, he has a surprisingly good run on a classic 80s game show.

24:37He has great chemistry with Phyllis Diller, which is great for our movie, because, you know, you want to have an awesome back and forth with Tracy Ullman. Right, Matthew McFadyen.

24:49The exact same talents that made him a great con man is exactly what's making him great at Password. That was unbelievable. All right.

24:56Now, you know what your total is so far?

25:00You have fifty seven thousand two hundred dollars.

25:03After several days of filming, Kerry's run on Super Password finally comes to an end.

25:10Altogether, he makes fifty eight thousand six hundred dollars, which puts him in the top ten contestants of all time.

25:27And he sets a record for the amount of cash earned during the bonus round.

25:33Kerry Ketchum's plan for some quick cash could not have gone better in his wildest dreams. Quinn won hard.

25:39Kerry, however, now has a problem.

25:41He has to wait in L. A.

25:45just a little while to get his check in the mail.

25:53He's told the money will come through after his episodes air.

25:57So that means he has to wait after the holidays.

26:01Got to lay low in Los Angeles, where I would imagine the hardest part is listening to Wonderful Christmas Time one thousand times.

26:08It's probably fine, right?

26:09I mean, just keep your head down for a month.

26:13What could possibly happen in a month?

26:16Smash cut title card says Anchorage, Alaska, January 1988.

26:22Maybe we got shots of Christmas lights coming down, but it's still clearly snowy and cold as hell because it's winter in Alaska.

26:38Still feels like we're in the holidays.

26:42We zoom in on an unassuming bank branch in a small break room where a TV is on in the corner.

26:50We see, I don't know, kind of a slightly frumpy suit wearing guy making a sandwich with too much mayonnaise.

26:58And just as he's pulling up the sandwich, he hears what's on the TV.

27:02It's Super Password, the camera cuts to the face of Patton Oswalt.

27:09Yeah, no, no, Patton Oswalt. That'd be great.

27:13Cuts to the face of Patton Oswalt with a mouthful of tuna surprise, who realizes who's chatting it up with Phyllis Diller.

27:24He drops the sandwich and walks towards the TV, his mouth still full, because he recognizes not super spy Patrick Quinn, but fraudster goddamn Carrie Ketchum, the same man who just defrauded his bank with a stupid mail order scheme and left him high and dry to face the consequences.

27:49And with a mouthful of food, like he's seeing Santa Claus in real life for the first time, we get a full on close up of him saying, You gotta be kidding me.

28:02Unable to look away from the television, the bank manager fumbles backwards and grabs the phone.

31:04This is Gene Woods speaking for Super Password by Mark Goodson Television Production.

31:09We're back at Cary Ketchum's motel room and he turns off the TV just as the credits of Super Password scroll across the television.

31:29In the TV, we see the reflection of Cary sitting on the edge of his bed.

31:35He's just been captivated by his own performance.

31:37The fourth and final Patrick Quinn episode just finished airing.

31:41It all really happened.

31:42He really pulled it off.

31:44Looking around the room, the time that's passed since the last time we saw Cary have not treated his nerves well. He's clearly anxious.

31:54Picture a bunch of half empty booze bottles all the way around.

31:59Nobody from the production company has been following up about his check and he's got to get back on the road.

32:06He knows that staying in any one spot is dangerous.

32:10That check needs to be in the mail.

32:12Starting to feel like it's been too long.

32:15What if somebody at NBC mailed the check to the wrong address?

32:19They mixed up the name.

32:22Wouldn't it be weird if his old professor just suddenly got a check for 60 grand?

32:28The more he thinks, the longer the list of things that could go wrong gets.

32:33Finally, Cary can handle no more.

32:35He picks up the phone and he dials Robert Sherman's phone number.

32:39Cut to Robert Sherman being a busy guy but he manages to catch Patrick Quinn's call right on time.

32:45Cary takes a deep breath, starts explaining.

32:48Ah, it's your boy, Patrick Quinn.

32:50I can't really hang around too much longer.

32:52You know how my business is.

32:56I need the cash because I got a new outpost.

33:05You see the US government, because remember I'm kind of a spy.

33:10My country tis of thee.

33:11Call me back in a service.

33:13I'm gonna be gone anywhere from six to 18 months on a remote listening post in Turkey.

33:19Don't cry for me.

33:20You know I'll be out there protecting this country from the red menace, but man, I really do need those winnings right now. Like right now.

33:29Because I mean, who knows what I'm gonna be able to cash a check.

33:34Tell you what, to make things easier, I'm willing to come right into the office and meet in person.

33:40That way you don't have to mail nothing.

33:42Cary knows that Sherman's a busy guy.

33:44So he's surprised when Sherman says, yeah, sure, come on in.

33:48Sherman invites him to come in, grab the check himself, makes apologies for the delay, ends the phone call, couple minutes of small talk, no questions asked, no poking holes in his story.

34:00Cary has to be thinking, man, these Hollywood dupes, they'll believe anything.

34:04Two days later, Cary's got his bags packed and a full tank of gas in the car.

34:10So he heads on down to the production studio to collect his hard-earned winnings.

34:20Even for January, it is a gorgeous day in Los Angeles.

34:23Sunny skies, high of 78, exactly the kind of weather you'd thrive in after miserable months in the gulag of Alaska.

34:31He takes a deep breath, stands up straight, and he's no longer Cary Ketchum, he's Patrick Quinn again.

34:37He heads on over, shows up a little bit earlier than expected.

34:43See him dressed in the same clothes he wore on Super Password.

34:48After all, he's got to stay packed light.

34:51The secretary recognizes him immediately, says, wow, Robert Sherman's in a meeting, but he'll be with him just as soon as it's over.

34:59Cary takes a seat, maybe he's flipping through a People magazine.

35:04The cover says that TV's Harry Hamlin is the sexiest man alive, which I'll back that play.

35:09We watch as those precious minutes drag by, the second hand of a nearby clock ticking louder and louder.

35:16God, you'd think these Hollywood people would know how to stay on schedule.

35:23Cary drops one magazine, goes to pick up another, just as the door to Robert Sherman's office starts to swing open.

35:32He stands up, brushes himself off, finally looks in front of him.

35:38And standing around Sherman's desk, he sees a bunch of guys in suits.

35:43Cary makes eye contact with one of them and realizes just a little too late that these men might actually be some of the government agents he's been impersonating.

35:57Cary's face drops and without a thought, he violently turns for the door. And freeze frame.

36:05Freeze on one of those weird faces that you can capture when you scroll through a video frame by frame.

36:13Cary knows something's up. He's 100% right.

36:18Wait, let's back up.

36:19Let's do one of those cool Tarantino out-of-order movies.

36:21And we're gonna flashback now to just before Cary called up those NBC offices.

36:30Because Robert Sherman is not expecting to hear from Patrick Quinn, but he's been thinking about him for days now.

36:41See, just after those episodes began airing, Sherman got a call from someone no one in Hollywood, and especially no one working in game shows wants to hear from, the US government.

36:56We see in his face, Sherman tenses up as he picks up the phone.

37:02Yes, this is Robert Sherman.

37:04Yeah, I produce Super Password.

37:06Oh my God, is this some kind of cheating scandal?

37:10Did something go wrong?

37:12Is he in trouble?

37:13He's doing one of those awesome like Keaton under pressure scenes before breathing a sigh of relief.

37:19Because this call has nothing to do with him or Super Password.

37:23Instead, they wanna hear more about a recent contestant who's been going by the name of Patrick Quinn.

37:30For Sherman, this is a first.

37:32I mean, sure, missing people have turned up on his shows from time to time, maybe like a long lost relative or a runaway husband trying to avoid divorce papers. US government.

37:45This was unheard of.

37:46The agent on the other end explains that the man who just competed on a show doesn't exist.

37:52Instead, his agency is pretty sure he's a wanted criminal by the name of Kerry Ketchum.

38:01Now, Patrick Quinn won a lot of money on his show.

38:05So I'd imagine that Robert Sherman is a little bit suspicious.

38:09Maybe he's about to be the target of a con.

38:14Game shows have been hit in the past.

38:17Hell, Michael Larson's run on Press Your Luck was still recent news at the time.

38:21So you know that's gotta be bouncing around in his head is somebody trying to steal Patrick's money? What's going on?

38:27I mean, Hollywood is a town full of people pretending to be people they aren't.

38:31But if somebody was wanted in three different states and managed to get into his studio, who knows what this guy might've pulled off? An earpiece, maybe?

38:40Some kind of inside job with a member of the staff?

38:44There's no way he just got lucky.

38:47Had won nearly $60,000 straight.

38:49So for the moment, Sherman feels like he's the target of a scam.

38:53Sherman doesn't know if this person on the phone is in on it.

38:59He doesn't know who this Kerry Ketchum guy is, but he knows one thing.

39:04He's gonna make sure that this Patrick Quinn guy doesn't walk away with the money.

39:09The Secret Service agent on the other end of the line says he needs help to bring Patrick Quinn to justice.

39:18And if these really are the feds, he'd be doing a public good and solving this dilemma for him, right?

39:25But now how is he gonna get Quinn or whoever this guy is to come in without arousing suspicion?

39:32This guy's gotta be good at smelling a trap.

39:36He's been on the run for so long.

39:38He's gotta lay a trap to capture a con man.

39:41And just as he leans back in his chair, the phone rings. It's Patrick Quinn.

39:46That US secret spy who explains all about how he needs his money right now.

39:52Suppressing a grin, Michael Keaton, I mean Sherman says, "'Sure, buddy, come on down.

39:58"'We can hook you up immediately.

40:01'" Damn, that was easy.

40:04We cut back to the freeze frame, the one where his face still looks all stupid and it unfreezes. Action scene.

40:12Kerry bolts, the chase is on.

40:14He takes off down the hallway, swinging open a set of doors that leads to the stairs.

40:21Kerry knows this building, but not every pathway.

40:25Doesn't matter, he's gotta get the hell out of here. Screw his cash.

40:29Freedom is worth way more than 58,000.

40:32We cut back and forth as he races down flight after flight of stairs, sweat pouring down his face.

40:38He hears the sound of agents tracking him down but has no way of knowing how close they are.

40:44As he bolts down another hallway, he sees a door off to the left.

40:47That's gotta be his best bet, right?

40:49Hide away for a few minutes, scramble out when the agents lose sight.

40:53He bursts through the door and finds he's in a bathroom.

40:55Good enough, do that thing where you stand on a stall and wait and hope that if the door does open, it's because somebody had bad Mexican food and not the folks who are about to take you to jail.

41:07And this is our quiet moment, crouching on that toilet in the men's room as he prays that the door is not gonna swing open.

41:16Trying to catch his breath, he's in full-on panic mode.

41:21All of his past misdeeds and indiscretion are finally coming back to him.

41:25The BMW, North Pole, his ex-wife, his old professor, the real Patrick Quinn, Phyllis freaking Diller.

41:30And then finally, that door does swing open and a pair of black leather shoes slowly approach the stall Cary's hiding in.

41:41The agent requests Cary come out from where he's hiding and it's over.

41:49Cary unlatches the stall door, it swings open and the reality of the situation dawns on him.

42:00Five agents surround Cary, super password winner Patrick Quinn, and he's arrested.

42:06Inches away from a toilet.

42:08Officially, Cary Ketchum is charged with one of his biggest crimes to date.

42:14That $100,000 insurance check he collected on his wife's supposed death.

42:23But at least he has one last trick up his sleeve, right?

42:32His $58,000 in winnings, that's his money.

42:36That's real money that he earned.

42:38That chunk of change could help him hire a lawyer, maybe pay his bail, get him out of this whole mess, at least for a while.

42:49Except for one thing, NBC isn't exactly rushing to pay an on-the-run accused criminal, especially one who fled and hid on top of a toilet to avoid arrest.

43:00So NBC hears Ketchum's request for his winnings and politely says, ehh, absolutely not.

43:07And this is the part that I don't know matches the movie pitch.

43:14Because, is that right?

43:16Can NBC just not pay Cary?

43:18Is that a thing that networks get to decide to do is because they don't like?

43:30The fact that you're an on-the-run criminal not pay you for the real, honest work you did?

43:44By this point, the press has caught wind of the whole fiasco.

43:48Newspapers and TV stations are covering it.

43:50And knowing the value of a PR battle, NBC goes on the offensive.

43:57We see headline after headline spinning on screen.

44:00Luck runs out for a winner as TV publicity boomerangs.

44:03And the press reads the New York Times.

44:06An early CNN broadcast covers the story, sitting down with employees and even Super Passwords host to get their hot takes on the entire situation.

44:17And all this time, Cary is sitting in a jail cell.

44:21He's not willing to let this go without a fight.

44:25I want to be clear here.

44:28We all know Cary's the bad guy. He's the scoundrel.

44:33But I'll be damned if he didn't do an honest day's work in his attempts to get out of Dodge. Cary demands.

44:41pay him the earnings that he'd won on the show.

44:48He sends a mailgram, a mailgram, from his jail cell to the production company, begging for the money, pointing out that he won everything based only on his skill and merit alone.

45:02He also makes sure to squeeze in there, hey by the way I did give your show a huge bump in free publicity.

45:10But rather than quietly sit on the letter, NBC does the exact opposite.

45:14They go right back to the press to showcase Ketchum as a greedy criminal who just wants more cash.

45:22The studio's head issues a one-word statement to the AP. Unbelievable.

45:26Lawyers at the network accused Ketchum of violating the Federal Communications Act of 1934. 1934!

45:32An ancient law originally designed for radio broadcasts.

45:36It says it's illegal to go on air under false pretenses. Ah yes, Hollywood.

45:44You know, a place full of people absolutely not pretending to be other people on air.

45:52A bastion of honesty.

45:54You know those classic characters that we all know.

45:59Marian Morrison, Francis Ethel Gumm, Archibald Leach.

46:02Oh I'm sorry, you probably know them under other names like John Wayne, Judy Garland, and Cary Grant.

46:09This is so bogus.

46:11This is a town founded on people coming up with new identities and this is what they're gonna hide behind?

46:21Ultimately, it's Robert Sherman who comes up with the final nail in Ketchum's coffin.

46:29He explains to reporters that, look, he's an accommodating guy and should somebody named Patrick Quinn show up with proof that he recently competed on Super Password, well heck, he'd be glad to hand him every single cent of his earnings.

46:49Fortunately, Cary Ketchum will never be that man.

46:53In a final act of desperation, Ketchum sues the studio for his earnings, asking for the entire $58,600 sum, plus, you know, an extra million bucks for damages.

47:06Unsurprisingly, the court says he voided his contract once he handed over fake ID records.

47:18The lawsuit is totally dismissed and as far as the network is concerned, Cary Ketchum never appeared on their program once.

47:30Cary spent so many years pretending to be people he wasn't, exploiting institutions, hurting people that stood in his way, running from the past, hoping it would give him a future.

47:47But in this moment, he knows he's done.

47:53Even though we played honestly, even though he fleeced the exact same network that looked the other way on the 21 scandal, he beat them fair and square, but his past just caught up with him.

48:14Eventually, Cary agrees to a plea deal in May of 1988, spending five years in prison for all of his crimes.

48:23Honestly, I don't know much about what happened to Cary after this, that's that's all real life.

48:31For this movie pitch, though, we got to have an ending.

48:35So here's what I'm thinking.

48:37Cary is in prison serving a sentence when he walks into the rec room and sees, of all things, some of his fellow inmates are watching.

48:54He mentions that he was on the show.

48:58See, he was on the run from the North Pole, made his way to L. A.

49:03He got on the show and won honestly.

49:07Talks about how he knows how to read people, knows what they're thinking.

49:12Talks about how the only reason he is here is because one of the guys he hit for fraud also saw the show and called the feds.

49:20The inmate turns away from the TV and looks at him.

49:23Then turns back and looks at the TV.

49:25You're telling me, the inmate says, you did all that, came down from the North Pole, won all that money because you're such a good con man. Yeah, says Cary.

49:36There's like a beat as the inmate looks back at the TV.

49:41Sure you did, Santa Claus, says the inmate, cracking up the rest of his buddies.

49:48Cary, for a brief moment, is totally annoyed by the mockery.

49:53Then he realizes the irony.

49:56He smiles one last wry smile, the same one we saw after he stole that BMW. And boom, credits.

50:04Inspired by a true podcast.

50:07Best picture, The Liar Man.

50:09Matthew McFadyen wins best actor.

50:12Brian nods sagely from the sidelines.

50:15And it all started because somebody bullied you into listening to this episode of.

50:23The world's greatest con.

50:25This episode of World's Greatest Con was written by Will Sattelberg and me, Brian Brushwood, your humble host.

50:37Production and research by Dog and Pony Show Audio in Austin, Texas.

50:46Credit to The Orlando Sentinel, The New York Times, CNN, The Associated Press and The Los Angeles Times, which, along with other contemporary news articles, retrospectives and archived video made for the bulk of our research.

51:13Additional research by Rachel Oppenheimer.

51:14Of course, you have questions and we want to answer all of them at the end of this season.

51:22So get yours in by hitting us up at World's Greatest Con at gmail. com.

51:29In the next episode of World's Greatest Con, what makes us lie?

51:33When you think about it, that's the question at the heart of this whole series.

51:37What motivations go into deception and how do you truly know what's real and what isn't?

51:43For example, next week, three people are going to tell you a story and none of those three stories are going to totally agree on the most basic of facts.

51:55The issue in question, a moment in television history when one man for the first time ever bids the exact right answer on the Price is Right showcase showdown.

52:05This leads to accusations of cheating, betrayal, greed and, of course, lying.

52:10That's next time on the season finale of World's Greatest Con.

52:14Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.

52:19Dog and Pony Show audio.