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 (Essay Originally Posted April 3; updated April 11) In my previous articles (Part 1 and Part 2), I talked about my trials and tribulations in an effort to become a contestant on ABC's 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' and my preparation for actually being on the April 3rd, 2001 show. This final essay will talk about the trip to New York, the taping of the show itself and the fun if ultimately unrewarding (well at least in terms of monetary rewards) outcome. Today's article is sub-titled 'Nine Hundredths of a Second - Are You Kidding Me?' (but more on that later). My wife Darlene and I took off for New York on Sunday, March 18th. Our pre-flight itinerary was pretty uneventful (well for me they were -- my wife is much more organized than me and she agonized for days over both her and my prime-time outfits). We touched down in lovely Newark, N.J. around 2 pm. A limo driver took us to a Manhattan hotel which was just across from the Lincoln Center and within walking distance of ABC's studios. While it would be nice to tell everyone how lovely the hotel was, in actuality it was a typical old New York hotel that has seen its better days. The rooms were small, the bathrooms even smaller and the $3.50 Diet Coke cans in the hotel gift shop definitely let you know that there is a price to pay for staying in the world's most exciting city, the city that never sleeps.
When we first got to the city, we were both excited and feeling great. I gave good-sized tips to the limo driver and the hotel bellhop (I figured that if I didn't win any money, then I could revert back to my cheap ways on the trip home). Everyone kept asking me if I was going to be nervous, but I can honestly say that I don't think I ever got that nervous. Because of the twins marrying twins thing, my wife and I had been on TV before, so I was okay with that. I thought perhaps when the cameras started rolling and the lights were in my face, then I could become nervous, but so far, so good. After a quick bite to eat, the show's 10 contestants met for a quick meeting in the producers' hotel room. This was the meeting I was looking forward to - a chance to scope out and handicap my competition for the next day's taping. Our show had seven male contestants and three females. We had a pretty wide assortment of states covered - two from Texas (myself and a gentleman from the Dallas-Fort Worth area), a lady from North Carolina, a guy from South Carolina, a man from Illinois, a man from Iowa, a man from Minnesota, two women from nearby New Jersey and Pennsylvania and another gentleman from nearby Pennsylvania. I quickly determined that three of the 10 were serious competitors who I decided to label 'professional game-show contestants' - the gentleman from South Carolina was a college music professor who had been on Jeopardy! before, the guy from Pennsylvania was president of a thinktank in Manhattan and he definitely seemed intelligent, and the lady from Philly ran trivia contests for some unnamed bulletin board chat services in the evenings. The other seven were like myself - happy to be there, maybe a bit nervous and certainly out to do well but maybe we weren't anticipating great results. After the meeting, Darlene and I met my brother, his two girls and a friend for dinner at a nearby restaurant (I have both a brother and sister who live on the outskirts of New York City). My two nieces grilled me throughout dinner on trivia questions, and since the 11 and 9-year-old kept stumping me, I knew that I could be in for a long day the next day. Nevertheless, I did manage to get a good night's sleep and woke up refreshed the next day for the big taping! ABC had a shuttle sending all 10 contestants and their companions to the studio at 10:45 am, so Darlene and I did have time in the morning for breakfast at a nearby coffee shop. The show itself did not begin taping until 4 pm, so we knew that we were going to be in for a long day at the studio. After some obligatory legal briefings and pre-show interviews with associate producers, the fun stuff began. The show's 10 contestants and their companions were brought to the studio for some practice Fast Finger rounds and more information on what will take place in the show itself. The Fast Finger device is pretty standard - you have a monitor at top that lists the question (which Regis reads twice by the way before the answers appear) and six buttons below which are an 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'D' button, as well as a delete key if you want to change your answers (it works like a back-space button) and a submit button which has to be pressed to lock in your answers. My six practice rounds were a little humbling. I was actually a little nervous - plus the questions were tough - so I missed either two or three of the six outright. The ones I did get right were not all that quick (5-6 seconds perhaps). However I did get faster as I got the hang of it and actually I won the last question in the fastest time that anyone did any of the six questions (3.5 seconds or so but it was a sports question which is my specialty). So while I realized I had tough competition (and it was the people that I suspected along with my fellow Texan), the last practice round did give me some confidence heading into the evening taping. After a very nice catered lunch, we were whisked into make-up. Unfortunately there is still a good 90 minutes to wait before the show's taping. We were all a little chatty in the morning but I noticed that people got more silent and serious the closer to the actual taping. Right before 4 pm, we went to the studio for good. The audience was all seated, a lame comedian who spent the next three hours singing TV theme songs tried to warm up the crowd (but believe me, there was a sizable collection of Pearl River, N.J. students who didn't need any help in getting warmed up). We briefly met Regis (we were warned to give our first and last names, and that was all we were allowed to say to Regis). And then a little after 4 pm, the show began! The show's carryover contestant was a nice guy from Buffalo named Tony. He was originally from the Phillipines and was 25 although he looked to still be a teenager to a lot of the contestants. He began the show going for $250,000 with one lifeline left (his phone a friend). Tony lucked into a gift $250,000 question on the Phillipines which he easily got but then even though he thought he knew the half-million dollar question ('Which President's Greeting Was On The Voyager Space Probe Extraterrestial Tape?') and his lifeline gave him the year of the mission (1977), he decided not to take a chance on his guess (Carter) and walked away with $250,000. Once we dispensed with Tony, our moment in the sun began. They introduced all the contestants on the air (I had a lame smile as always and had no idea what to do so I managed a stupid cross my fingers and hope for the best smile). And then it was time for the question - I wasn't nervous, I was focused and I hoped for the best...
I quickly saw Nat King Cole and Marvin Gaye and got those two correct. My pre-show strategy was not to look at the buttons (good idea) and to immediately focus on the first and second choices, type those in and then try to figure out the final answers. Well before I knew it, I realized that my third and fourth choices were backwards. Calmly, I used the delete key twice to erase those two, and then re-type in Lenny Kravitz and D'Angelo in the right order and then locked in my choices with the submit button. Well because I had to use the delete key, I didn't give myself much of a chance and sure enough another of the contestants was faster than me (the music professor from South Carolina). The lights are kind of in your face so it's tough to see your actual time on the monitor. I thought it might have been in the 4's, but I remember thinking to myself that it had to be slower than that. Well after watching the show last night for the first time, I realized in fact that I had the second fastest time and was only nine hundredths of a second behind Larry's winning time (his was 4.50 seconds and mine was 4.59).
The Music Professor ended up winning $64,000 and not venturing a guess on $125,000. He got stuck early on the movie 'The Shawshank Redemption' (one of my favorite movies - he didn't know what Shawshank was but the audience helped him out - another note here, the companions do get to vote and my lovely wife decided to deliberately miss this question even though she knew what the answer was - nice try, honey). His segment went by pretty quick and I knew another Fast Finger was coming up. I recall thinking that I wanted to make sure I didn't use the delete key this time. After he left the stage, the second question came on the screen...
For a split second, I debated Hudson vs. Massachusetts. But I distinctly remember history classes while growing up in New York and the Hudson Bay is way up in Canada even though the Hudson River begins in New York City. So I thought I had pretty quickly entered in the correct order of Hudson, Massachusetts, Chesapeake, Biscayne. I even thought that this time I might be fastest, but when the answers were revealed I was third fastest (out of only four people who got it right with a time of 4.97 seconds). The Thinktank Prez. was the winner, more than a half second ahead of me. Since I hadn't seen my first winning time, I had nothing to compare my second time to. In retrospect, I'm shocked my first answer was faster than my second one. I'm wondering if the computer messed up, but maybe that initial hesitation over Hudson vs. Massachusetts was enough to slow me down half a second. In any regard, the thinktank guy was pretty fast and I might not have beaten him in any case. The thinktanker dude actually used the audience on his $300 question (he didn't know that Diamonds are measured by Brilliance - his wife was noticably p.o'ed about that). However, he rebounded admirably and actually went all the way up to half a million dollars without using another lifeline. He guessed a few times along the way (on the movie 'The Wonder Boys' as well as where Charlie Brown picked up Snoopy). I remember being both glad for him but also a little annoyed because time was rapidly wasting away and it didn't look likely for a third question. But the half-million dollar question ('How many actors played in the Three Stooges comedy troup - 4, 5, 6 or 7?) ended up stumping both he and his lifeline, so he walked away with $250,000. We knew that the show was almost over, but luckily we had time for a final Fast Finger question. This time, I could tell I was nervous because it was my last chance. However, I did remember thinking that perhaps the toughest two contestants were gone so maybe I had a chance.
The Brain? The Brain? What the heck is the Brain? I thought cartoons might be okay as a topic until I realized that I haven't watched cartoons in like two decades (well not exactly because I did know that Itchy was a Simpsons character but the Simpsons was the only cartoon I've seen since high school basically). I was able to compose myself and pretty quickly put in Mighty Mouse and Alvin first and second. I had to guess to the Brain though and with time at a premium, I decided to hope that Itchy's late-1980's debut was the most recent and the Brain came before him. Nope. As many people have since pointed out to me, the Brain in fact is Pinky and the Brain, an Animaniac that debuted sometime in the last five years or so. That's what I get for giving up on cartoons. The winner was the North Carolina housemom (figures - she had two little children) in a time around five and a half seconds. Since I didn't get it right, it's pointless to moan but my guess probably would have been under that. If I knew who the Brain was, I definitely would have been faster. The North Carolina mom only got to answer two questions before the show ended. The show's producers gave me a non-negotiable, fake check which I suppose might look nice in the scrapbook but isn't nearly as good as the real thing.
That night, my wife and I had a nice dinner in the city. The next day, we had time to sight-see with a trip to the Empire State Building and a shopping trip to Macy's. We got lost on the subway coming back (my fault - we were on the Express, instead of the local), so had to rush a bit to get back to the hotel in time for the limo back to the airport. And we actually ran into my brother-in-law rushing back to the hotel (he works nearby to the hotel). All in all, we had a really fun time. The other couple from Texas was very nice although we didn't see them after the show. We were hoping that they would make it to the Hot Seat. I can try out for the show again in June if I want. At first, I told myself no way. But after seeing how close I came, now I'm having second thoughts... My advice to future contestants on the show is the following -- don't be nervous, you'll do a lot better if you can stay relaxed; regardless of what the producers say about being accurate in Fast Finger, you can't wait too long and you're better off guessing (in my opinion) if you're past 5 seconds; and most importantly, don't forget to watch your Saturday Morning Cartoons! NOTE #1 - Thank you to Jim Smith with Word of Net.com for getting about 13 screen captures of my appearance on the show on his video card. |
Now I know how Kenya's Paul Tergat feels (he of course lost the Gold Medal in the 2000 Olympic 10,000 meters to Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie by exactly nine-hundredths of a second in the closest 10,000-meter race in Olympics history). To maybe put it in better perspective, an average blink of an eye is 11 hundredths of a second - so I was beat out in Fast Finger in less than a blink of an eye. Hopefully I can get over that fact as time goes on, but it's very frustrating to realize how close I came to being on the Hot Seat.
