Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Everything You Didn't Know

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Speaker 1: Too Much Information is a production of iHeartRadio. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Too Much Information, the show that brings you the secret histories and little known facts behind your favorite movies, music, TV shows, and more. We are your final answers of Frivolity. You're maestros of the multiple choice questions. Your regents of regis Philbin.

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Speaker 2: My name is Jordan run Tag, You're Call of Friends who Don't answer phone calls.

00:00:32
Speaker 1: And I'm Alex Cycle. And today we are talking about the game show phenomenon that burned fast and bright like shooting star across the y two k landscape. I'm talking about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The title lack of question mark, because let's face it, it's not really a question, is it.

00:00:49
Speaker 2: It should have just been called once to Be a Millionaire?

00:00:52
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:00:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, you want this? Yeah?

00:00:56
Speaker 1: E pathetic dreamer? Oh I keep a little less so bees happy. Those thrilling initial episodes honestly felt like less of a game show than a televisual event when it first began airing in the United States. Is a two week special in the late summer of nineteen ninety nine, almost exactly twenty five years ago, and honestly, I think this was the key to its success. It wasn't just a quiz show with unusually high dollar amounts. This felt like history. No one had ever been given this kind of money on television before, and this take might be more unique to me. I'm curious to what you have to say about it, but I was a budding historian around this time in nineteen ninety nine, and this was right before the turn of the millennium, when we were inundated with coffee table books and TV mini series and special edition magazines that all offered like highlight reels of major twentieth century moments. So in a way, I feel like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was able to ride that wave because of all those supercuts of the Beatles on ed Sullivan or Nixon's resignation. That all kind of helped prime the population to recognize and crave another major television moment. And it was also kind of the perfect way to close out a century that had been defined by TV.

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Speaker 2: I would agree with your take. It was a neat way of hearkening back to this thing that everyone loves game shows and providing some kind of fresh format in it. Even if it was just jewel tone ties. I forgot about like Reach's actual style on the show until research. Well, so I went to when I went to a Catholic school, and we had to wear ties, and I didn't know that, yeah, ties were part of the middle school uniform. So then when this show came on, obviously I went out and bought like three cheap jewel tone ties and just rotated through those for the rest of my school career.

00:02:45
Speaker 1: Did you have to wear ties in high school too?

00:02:47
Speaker 2: I didn't go to Catholic high school, probably where it started going wrong for me, at least in terms of making connections, not in terms of actually getting closer to my faith.

00:02:59
Speaker 1: I mean. And that's the other thing about Who We Se to Be a Millionaire that made it so distinctive is that it didn't look like any other game show we'd ever seen at that time. This wasn't some colorful, bleep bluepe carnival like game like Wheel of Fortune or even Jeopardy around this era, Who Has to Be a Millionaire? It looked like the set of Entrapment starring Sean Connery and Captain Setta Jones or some other thriller. And of course that doesn't factor in the actual drama at the show's core, as people competed for this life changing opportunity. It was basically reality TV a year before it's generally agreed upon birth the following year in two thousand at the start of Survivor. But this was also reality TV at a time when the monoculture still existed, which made Who Wants to Be a Millionaire seemed completely ubiquitous in a way that very few aspects of pop culture have felt since, Like Barbenheimer and the Super Bowl and I'm.

00:03:54
Speaker 2: Out Barbenheimer was real.

00:03:57
Speaker 1: I was there, I was there, Were you a big fan of me? I just loved every second of this. I mean, I know I mentioned this on the show a lot, but it was very rare that I actually engaged with pop culture as a kid, So this was very special to me to be involved with this. I loved feeling like I was witnessing history and a part of something. And of course I've also been very vocal on this podcast about how much I loved the game shows, especially quiz shows. I was already a trivia nerd, studying trivial pursuit cards at this time in a desperate attempt to convince my family that I didn't need to go to school because I was a genius, because I hated going to school because I had separation anxiety. Didn't work, but kind of got my foot in the door of the whole trivia landscape. Also one of my favorite movies around this time was Quiz Show, directed by Robert Redford about the nineteen fifties quiz show scandals, which is a great movie if you've never seen it. John Traturo and refines really good. So all in all, who el Swemilonaire hit all sorts of buttons for me? What about you? Is this mandatory viewing in your house?

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Speaker 2: I definitely remember watching it a good bit. We were not a Jeopardy house or really any kind of game show house, but it just came on in like the primetime time slot more than anything, and so I think that's how we were exposed to it. But I did love trivia. I still love trivia. I mean I was on a middle school quiz Bowl team and I love that.

00:05:17
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:05:18
Speaker 2: I still can't do math and still don't know that much about sports. So those are my my week spots.

00:05:23
Speaker 1: But you get geography.

00:05:25
Speaker 2: Geography was okay. I don't feel like maths should be included in trivia.

00:05:29
Speaker 1: No, that's not trivia, that's a skill. No, I feel strong.

00:05:32
Speaker 2: And that's where we would get creamed in the competitions. It's just like the second we were up against someone who had like a math whiz on the team, it would just be like, well, I can't carry this one, sorry guys, And then uh, yeah, I do remember watching this. I very specifically remember all the dramatic lighting cues and like laser shows and all of that stuff that was like, it really did feel different from like The Price Is Right or Real Fortune or whatever else I had kind of stumbled upon on as far as televised game shows period. And uh, you know Regis Man, he's a great behind the mic. He's he's Regius.

00:06:09
Speaker 1: Like, come on.

00:06:10
Speaker 2: The thing that I always end up plowning on the most for who wants to be a millionaire was like, isn't Even as a child, I knew that they were like clearly trying to that the contestants were clearly told to like milk as much out of each at bat that they got. So even if it was something like it was like, what is one of the chief ingredients in mozzarella, and they're like, well, I have an uncle who lives in Germany, so it's not curry.

00:06:41
Speaker 1: Worst the producers behind the camera Stretcht's like, I've got you know, I went to I went to high school in Jacksonville, so I know it's not alligator meat.

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Speaker 2: And one time Elton John bottomed me at the roxy. You know, so I know the answer isn't ky jelly. So I'm gonna go ahead and say milk, Regis, what is milk? It's just like that that kind of as a very attention deficit child that that was just like just say the just just say the right answer, Just say it and move come on.

00:07:22
Speaker 1: So, I mean, I never really thought about this until right now.

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Speaker 2: But there was a kind of like sweet and sour aspect of the show where like the whole set and vibe of it seemed very menacing and frightening, but at the heart of it was the most genial man on television, Regis Philip, who genuinely.

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Speaker 3: Seemed to want you to win, which was very nice. Oh and the other thing I hated was the classic fake out you really want to go with milk, Well, it's a good thing. Answer longer pregnant pause.

00:07:54
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm so sorry that your journey.

00:07:57
Speaker 2: With us has to continue.

00:08:00
Speaker 1: The answer was mail, that's Oprah, But.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a lot of That's like when I first started being exposed to a lot of those tropes from game shows, and then I got into Weakest Link because that lady was so mean, and I liked the mean lady Shocker.

00:08:20
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't watch it that much because she was too mean, and I thought it seemed like a pale limitation of who was to be a millionaire and it was group play. I didn't like the group play. M Yeah, yeah, No. For me, it's it's an endurance test, it's a sprint. It's just you against the questions and or Reegi's I mean, I guess this is probably the time to mention that this episode has a very special residence to me, because asn't mention where you're going to get that I finally did. I mean, I've talked about this way too many times on this show, and I'm afraid I'm going to get some one star reviews for shoehorning in a personal anecdote, but this one's relevant. I was lucky enough to make an appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire back in twenty thirteen, and it was simultaneously a dream come true and also one of the biggest disappointments in my life. This was well past the show's glory years. It had moved out of prime time and was buried in daytime syndication. The hot seat was long gone. I had to just stand there awkwardly, which is weird. Regis had also moved on, and so did Meredith Vieira, and I had to make do with Cedric the entertainer, who was like a couple of weeks into his i think one year reign as the host of the show. His heart wasn't it? Yeah, I kind of hate to say I kind of felt that too. It was also a huge letdown because by this point the rules had completely changed on the show. And we'll get into this later in greater detail, but the show was in its shuffle period. Are you familiar with this? No? Yeah? Good? It upsets me now even thinking about it. Instead of having the questions increase with difficulty and monetary value, which is you know, the entire premise of the show, the first ten questions were just given to you at random, and the difficul culty had no relation on how much the question was worth, So your first question could be the hardest, and you really had no idea if the question was like actually easy, or if it was a trick question, or what it was really hard to like strategize, which maybe was the point because, as we'll talk about the show, I ended up getting sued by the insurers who paid out the jackpot early in its life because it felt that the questions were too easy. Yeah, it just it was really really hard. And if I sound a little bitter, it's probably because I am, because clearly I did not win a million dollars. I actually made it kind of far and then I and then I blew it.

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Speaker 2: Would you blow the money on? Or what did you get down to? And then what did you walk away with? I don't care about the questions. I care about the money.

00:10:42
Speaker 1: I was up to fifty thousand dollars and I thought I knew the answer, and I got it wrong.

00:10:47
Speaker 2: With fifty fifty years of safe safe stone. No, no, it's not not not in this, not in this way, not in this to nothing one thousand, But I mean.

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Speaker 1: Just happy to be there, et cetera, et cetera. It's like, what eight hundred after taxes, it was like six hundreds, maybe five hundred. Yeah, it was it was I really thought I knew. I really thought I knew, you know what it was. I had one lifeline left. It was a fifty to fifty, and I knew I already used the other two, and I thought, you know what, if I use this now, there's no way I'm going to make it to the million with no lifelines. It's just not going to happen.

00:11:23
Speaker 2: I'm reasonably certain I know this answer, and I didn't.

00:11:28
Speaker 1: What was the question? Question was who's the only person to have filled in as a guest host for the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Was it Jerry Seinfeld? Was it Betty White? Was it Katy Kirk?

00:11:40
Speaker 2: Or was it Dick Van Dyke? And I don't know that I probably would have guessed.

00:11:45
Speaker 1: Say them again, Jerry Seinfeld, Betty White, Katie Kirk, Dick Van.

00:11:50
Speaker 2: Dyke, those are all NBC people, though I'm.

00:11:54
Speaker 1: Gonna give you all the information I had.

00:11:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. Was it Dick Van Dyke?

00:12:00
Speaker 1: I said Jerry Seinfeld because I thought they had some kind of like car collection.

00:12:04
Speaker 2: You'd think friendship. He doesn't have the charisma for that.

00:12:07
Speaker 1: Well, no, it was when I tell you the answer, you're gonna be like, oh it was Katie Couric Today Show, Tonight Show, a little synergy there, NBC synergy. I should have guessed Katie, yeah, I know, yeah, me too, and I didn't, and it was it was really sad. Oh. The worst part was the like every contestant's assigned a producer to kind of like you know, shepherd you there throughout the day. Well okay, well no. Two things that were really bad. One was that I definitely got the sense that they were trying to like feed me questions that were like tailored to me. I got the sense that they thought that I was like good on camera and all the auditions and were like trying to like make the show go. Because I talked about how much I loved like, you know, game shows and late night TV hosts and like that kind of stuff. A lot of the questions were, like it felt not that random, bearing in mind a lot of the stuff I told them during like the pre show interviews and stuff that had occurred during the previous weeks. So I felt like they were like trying to help me and I blew it. And the producer that was like assigned to kind of be my guardian that day. Oh, she was beautiful and she was like, I'd like to look in her eyes. Afterwards, was like, so she seems so disappointed. And then when I went to work at People Magazine, she was there. She'd gone to work on the People TV show, and so I had to go see her every single day I worked there. Yeah, So that was just salt and the wounds all the time. So that pains things to this day, but it hasn't dampened my ardor for this fantastic show. While researching this episode, I discovered that some psychotic website lists all the questions for every episode ever and I found my batch. Do you want to try some of mine other than that one? Oh? Sure? Hit me? All right, there we go. Okay, my first question. FEMA recommends keeping all but which of the following items in your disaster supply kit. A, A radio, B, water, CE, food or D condoms.

00:14:09
Speaker 2: D condoms Yes, correct, that is the lasers.

00:14:14
Speaker 1: That is five thousand dollars. That was five thousand dollars. Again, the difficulty has no bearing on the monetary value, and that was like, yeah, I know, okay, next question with a shade called tweety. Sally Hanson's fuzzy coat products are a novelty line of what a facewash, B self tanner, CE nail polish, or D handflotion. None of those words are in the Bible.

00:14:42
Speaker 2: Say all that again. I thought I just went into a feud.

00:14:44
Speaker 1: State A state, facewash, B self tanner, What was the brand name? Sally Hanson, C nail polish or D hand lotion with a shade called tweety. Sally Hanson's fuzzy coats are novelty line of what houzz he coats? So oh, nail polish? Correct? You now have twelve grand What is nail polish? Which of the following has Dennis rod been never done? Starred in a peda campaign, headbutted a referee said he was going to marry himself or wrestle a pig.

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Speaker 2: I want to say head butt a referee, but it could also be wrestle a pig, because I feel like I would have seen that in like a countdown of things that Dennis Robin has done head better referee, they would have kicked him out of the league.

00:15:33
Speaker 1: Probably. I'm gonna say that. I'm sorry that's incorrect, but I didn't know the answer, and one of the lifelines at this stage was skipping a question, So I skipped that one. So you're still in the game. You are still in the game.

00:15:45
Speaker 2: Okay, What was the correct answer?

00:15:47
Speaker 1: It was wrestle a pig. Considering wrestle a pig and starring in a peda campaign run the same question. You kind they kind of canceled each other out, so I feel like it was one or the other. What not only quote helps the medicine go down, as Mary Poppins noted, but also may help curb the burn from spicy foods. Just give it to me, it's spoonful of sugar. Correct, You now have twenty two thousand dollars. Easiest might have ever made my mind? I trust me, I know. In a twenty twelve commercial for the iPhone, Zoey Deschanel asks her phone, what bizarre question? Where's my dog? Is that rain? Can you ski? Or what's for dinner? This was more zeitgeisty in twenty thirteen. Is that rain? Yes? Correct? Yeah?

00:16:29
Speaker 2: She asks it what's for dinner after she realizes it's raining.

00:16:33
Speaker 1: M h, you're absolutely right, you know how forty seven thousand dollars. Damn, I know it was only one left. In an article about songs with incorrect grammar, readers Digest said a famous James Brown line should technically be what father has a brand new bag, like a love making machine in a cold perspiration? Or I feel well, I feel well correct. I don't know why, but I asked the audience on this. I think I just because is good?

00:17:07
Speaker 2: Is It's like the same thing when you're like if you ask someone how they're doing and they say I'm doing good, and you say, no, you're doing well, the Superman does good? Yes, yes, yes, yes, that the same pedantic And then the next one was the one was the one I got wrong, but you got.

00:17:23
Speaker 1: It wrong too, So now I feel better?

00:17:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, so hey, and we walked away with six hundred dollars. Probably could have gotten more money, more money from that for just like stealing Cedric the Entertainer's hat, or like just stealing something off the set and selling it on eBay.

00:17:39
Speaker 1: I do remember we were told to like approach him very reverently, and I remember just kind of thinking, why mister the entertainer, please, please, mister the entertainers my father well, from the time Regis Philip and dramatically resigned as early TV gig on air, to the retired British Army major who was busted for allegedly cheating through a series of coughs, the way the set was designed to psychologically break contestants, and the truly badass move made by the first top prize winner in the franchise's history. Here's everything you didn't know about Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Very good. Like so many of my favorite things in this world, Who Wants to be a Millionaire has its origins in my beloved United Kingdom. It's a show that's been remade and aired in one hundred and sixty countries worldwide. Can you believe that? I can't, That is shocked. Yeah, but it has its beginnings in the UK. And you know what else has its beginnings in my beloved UK. Front of the Pod Lee w a wonderful fan and generous contributor to our coffee page. Thanks Lee, we love you and friend of the Pod John two. Of course, Who Wants to be a Millionaires famous format was created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehall and Stephen Knight, who'd previously developed other promotional games for a morning radio show hosted by British broadcaster Chris Tarrant, who had become the eventual host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in the UK. Just a quick word on one of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire creators, Stephen Knight. He went on to be kind of a big deal. He created the BBC series Peaky Blinders and also wrote a draft of Shutter Island before it was rewritten for the Scorsese movie. There's also a smaller anecdote that's funny to me personally. A friend of mine had a boss, her editor, who she absolutely despised, and he wrote a book called The One hundred Foot Journey, and when it was a marginal success, it pissed her off. And when she learned that it was being made into a film starring Helen Mirren, it pissed her off even more. And it turns out that one of the creators of Who Wants Toy a Millionaire wrote that screenplay.

00:19:52
Speaker 2: That was not a very good movie though, no, it's a terrible movie.

00:19:55
Speaker 1: No, no, no uh. He also wrote a biopic on check master Bobby Fisher, starring Toby Maguire, which I've never heard of, but I'd be interested in seeing a sequel to World Wars Z called World War z Z, World War Z two, World War ZII Beneath the Planet of the Z. And most recently, and probably most notably, he wrote the script to the Lady Diana biopic Spencer starring Christen Stewart, And now he's apparently writing both a Star Wars film and the remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, with Robert Downey Junior eyed for the Jimmy Stewart role. Wow, Dodge, that's weird. Yeah, all from the Huasui millionaire creator guy.

00:20:40
Speaker 2: So he's never had any good ideas, no good car ideas, not one who making attached to being attached to being a Star Wars film in twenty twenty four. It's like kind of embarrassing and remaking Vertigo. Okay, sick job, buddy. I can't wait to see what you'll do with that. I mean, idiot, it's like somebody trying to remake Goodfellas or like, I don't know the conversation, how do you remake Vertigo?

00:21:09
Speaker 1: I mean it's a movie that like I feel like the script in the story isn't really the selling point. It's what Hitchcock did with it.

00:21:16
Speaker 2: And yeah again, in like Star Wars, at this point, they're just like focusing in a guy who was like vaguely out of focus at one point one shot of like the second Star Wars film for like thirty seconds, and they're like, it's now called like.

00:21:30
Speaker 1: The Book of Empire ble Plow.

00:21:33
Speaker 2: And it's just like a stupid little droy And then that's the new character. I don't know, don't Jordan. You didn't miss that too much.

00:21:46
Speaker 1: Well, much of the same way that we forget. One of the initial hooks of the game show Jeopardy was that it featured a novel twist. In that case, contestants are given the answer and are asked for the question who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Was developed as a variation on standard game shows of the day. For example, there would be just one contestant playing, as opposed to a group competing against one another like Jeopardy or Wheel Fortune, and they would be allowed to pull out at any time, even after they'd seen the question and the possible answers, which was unusual. Also of note were the three lifelines that would offer them assistance, which you'll remember were initially the fifty to fifty, the Phone a Friend, which was quickly phased out after Google and ask the audience. The working title for this game was initially Cash Mountain, which makes a certain amount of sense because you know the money increases with the difficulty of the questions, but Cash Mountain is not that grabby, and the ultimate title took its name from a Cole Porter song used in the nineteen fifty six film High Society starring Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm.

00:22:47
Speaker 2: Another thing that's had Who Wants to Be a Millionaire apart was the set was created by the British born production designer Andrew Walmsley, who also designed sets for several theatrical musicals, including The Buddy Holly Story, and later went on to do TV shows like So You Think You Can Dance and America's Got Talent. His work on Millionaire, though, was innovative. While while most game shows of the eighties and early nineties resembled casinos with bright fashion lights and lots of colors, like the Wheel of Fortune set is what you should all have in mind, the set for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire looked like something out of a sci fi thriller. Other game shows wanted contestants to feel at ease. Millionaire literally wanted to make you uncomfortable. It resembled the interrogation chamber on a spaceship, with contestants literally in the hot seat, although to be fair, those chairs were modeled after those found in hair salons, which I don't well, I know, I associate that with stress. The floor was made of plexiglass, beneath which they lay a huge dish covered mirror paper. The lighting cues were designed for maximum drama, with the lights dimming as the contestint cressed further in the game. There were also spotlights situated at the bottom of the set that zoomed down on the contestant when they answered a major question, again like an interrogation. To increase the visibility of these light beams, oil was vaporized, creating a haze effect. So just like fog, like a brand fog machines.

00:24:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I definitely said that it wasn't dramatically that I needed to.

00:24:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna say it wasn't like you know, high test. A professor at Syracuse University, doctor Robert Thompson has said that the show's lighting system made the contestant feel as though they were outside of a prison with an escape in progress.

00:24:31
Speaker 1: Sure man, yeah, by that.

00:24:33
Speaker 2: The original licensing agreement for the US version of Millionaire required that the show's set design be replicated faithfully to the tune of two hundred thousand dollars, while this same licensing agreement applied to all other international versions of the show, which made the Millionaire set the most reproduced scenic design in TV history. What was like the poorest country that had had a millionaire?

00:24:55
Speaker 1: Oh, here we go, Okay, I actually put this later, but yeah, some of the international show kind of skimped out on the top prize. Angola's top prize was worth five thousand US dollars, Vietnam's top prize was worth roughly two thousand US dollars, and Mongolia's top prize was worth a reported three hundred and forty seven dollars US dollars.

00:25:17
Speaker 2: So they definitely weren't paying two hundred thousand dollars worth of set.

00:25:20
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of it was like you know, I mean a millionaire in different like in Japan, like a million yen is not that much money. I think that the top prize there was like ten million yen, which was only worth like, I think eighty thousand dollars. You asked see if they really knew what they were doing in Mongolia, would have been who wants to be a horse lord? And they would have just been giving away horses. That means more to people than three hundred and forty seven dollars American. It's probably what they're going to spend it on. Anyway.

00:25:48
Speaker 2: I don't mean that derogatorially. I wish I lived in Are you kidding me? I wish I was a Mongol just right around your horse all day.

00:25:56
Speaker 1: Sheep.

00:25:56
Speaker 2: I guess fight wars they have dumplings at least oh momos. Yeah, that might be Tibetan. Yeah, So either way it sounds great. Sign me up. The licensing agreement also stipulated that other elements of the show's on air presentation be rigidly adhered to. This included the musical score, lighting system, and even the host's wardrobe, so the gemtne tie y.

00:26:21
Speaker 1: Interesting.

00:26:23
Speaker 2: Initially, the hosts were required to wear Armani suits, as host Chris Terran did in the UK, though Regis later released his own clothing line on Van Hweson. I know, right, the department store thing everybody buys their homecoming suits from. Yeah, so some of those rules were later relaxed as the years went by. Speaking of the music, the music for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was composed by father and son duo Keith and Matthew straitchin stretching, Stretch, hand.

00:26:55
Speaker 1: Stratching, I'll go stratching.

00:26:57
Speaker 2: Unlike order game show musical scores, Millionaire's music was or was created to feature music playing almost throughout the entire show. As the game progressed and the prize amounts increased, the theme was raised in semi tone increments to increase the tension. Also, the soundtrack make the sound of a beating heart, which added to the stress level as both the audience and contestants pulse increased. There's a great there's a is it Sonny by Bobby Bobby Head.

00:27:23
Speaker 1: Yeah. It just keeps going up a.

00:27:24
Speaker 2: Half step, yeah, yeah, every every time that the form starts over again. That's cool, that's right.

00:27:30
Speaker 1: There's like there's no chorus to that or bridge.

00:27:33
Speaker 2: It's just just the same, why semny, And it just gets more and more desperate as it gets further out of the rain.

00:27:40
Speaker 1: I never thought about that. That's so crazy. That is a great tune.

00:27:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, there're ninety two separate pieces of music written for who some millionaire?

00:27:48
Speaker 1: Is that nuts? Holy? I know.

00:27:54
Speaker 2: As you meditate on that, we'll be right back with more too much information after these messages.

00:28:11
Speaker 1: Now we're in a section I like to call I want to be a millionaire in America song like the West Side Stories. I want to be in a Miamie. Yeah, like exactly, thank you. It's a lot better than I can have done it.

00:28:27
Speaker 2: This scanchion it doesn't quite work, but you know, we'll just no badaddies and brainstorming, buddy.

00:28:32
Speaker 1: One of the coolest things.

00:28:36
Speaker 4: Go on.

00:28:37
Speaker 1: One of the coolest things about Patty LuPone close was in green Point when they had that like drive in movie theater right along the East River. They played West Side Story one night. We went to go see it, and you know, the opening has those like incredible overhead aerial shots of Manhattan. It was so cool to like watch that and then like right off to the side was like actual Manhattan. Yeah, it was really cool. Whosm Millionaire premiered in the United Kingdom on the ITV network in September nineteen ninety eight and quickly captivated the nation for its ability to harness cinematic drama with what we now call reality TV. News of the show traveled across the Pond to the United States, where it caught the attention of British born, US based TV executive Michael Davies. Davies was vice president at ABC, which was languishing in third place of the big three networks to such an extent that it was in danger of actually being beaten out by Fox, which was then still seen as a relatively scrappy upstart. Davies knew he needed to make a bold move, and he turned his attention to game shows. This was kind of a weird move, considering the fact that the popularity of game shows was at an all time low in the United States. Aside from The Price Is Right, they were entirely absent from the daytime network lineups at the time. However, Davies helped create a game show for Lifetime called Debt and More Germane to My Interests Comedy Central's brilliant win Ben Stein's money, so he decided to take a big swing at a primetime game show. Originally, he set his sites on reviving the classic quiz show The sixty four thousand Dollars Question, but then Millionaire debuted in the United Kingdom. Being British by birth, he asked some of his family members over there to tape the show and send them a VHS copy, and he subsequently ended up receiving about eight FedEx packages from different family members, each containing a copy of Millionaire's first episode. Davies was so won over that he showed The sixty four thousand Dollars Question reboot and decided to pursue an American version of Millionaire. In the storied tradition of good ideas getting presented to executives, ABC initially passed when Davies brought the idea to network brass, so he resigned his position there and became an independent producer, which, as I can personally attest, is a ballsy thing to do. Davies felt that the key to the success of Millionaire in the United States was attaching a celebrity host. He considered many broadcast stalwarts during development, including Peter Jennings, Bob Costas, Phil Donahue, and Montel Williams. What do you think of.

00:31:10
Speaker 2: Those Donna you know Montel, Yeah, Peter Jennings way too stiff for costas.

00:31:18
Speaker 1: I could see costs working.

00:31:20
Speaker 2: He should have gone with uh, who's a big sitcom guy at the time, Oh.

00:31:26
Speaker 1: Jeff Foxworthy, although they did go it for him for Are You Smarter Than the Fifth Grader? Yeah?

00:31:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, was Beckett Becker?

00:31:35
Speaker 1: Oh? Ted Danson?

00:31:36
Speaker 2: Yeah it was Ted still.

00:31:38
Speaker 4: Oh.

00:31:38
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think you're right. He should have gone with Ted Danson. Oh. Man, you know who was on ABC And I think his show had just wrapped and he would have been great, And I think this was a he missed his calling John Goodman. John Goodman is a genial game show host. Yeah, that would have really worked for the stressful show. All would have been great. Yeah, I love him.

00:32:00
Speaker 2: What about Crispin Glover, David Lynch? What about David Lynch? God, that would have been amazing.

00:32:07
Speaker 1: I'm kind of shocked he hasn't done a game show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but the host and gig went to the guy who apparently wanted it the most. Regi's Philbin. According to show lore, he'd seen an episode of the British version and absolutely loved it, so he was an early adopter, and when Davies the producer approached ABC again after hiring Philbin, the network finally agreed to accept the US version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? And now we have to do a brief history of Regis Philbin. We have to must, we we must. Regis so named apparently because his father wanted him to attend this alma mater, the prestigious Regis High School in Manhattan. That's the losers.

00:32:48
Speaker 2: Well, I'm telling you right now, don't do that to your kids. I don't care if it worked. That's still like the most thirsty losers in the world.

00:32:57
Speaker 1: Well, Regis got the last laugh because he didn't go there. Oh hell yeah yeah.

00:33:01
Speaker 2: For him, it's like naming your kid choked.

00:33:03
Speaker 1: The producers for a Millionaire couldn't have picked a bigger pro than Regis Philbin. By that point, he was nearing fifty years in the biz. He's been called the hardest working man in television, and not without good reason. In two thousand and four, he earned the Guinness World Record for the most hours spent on US TV fifteen thousand, one hundred and eighty eight hours all totald. That's six hundred and thirty three days, so nearly two years of this man's life was documented on TV. Incredible. Good for him. He surpassed the previous record holder, Hugh Downs. Hugh Downs, it's like a name, I know, but I don't really remember what you know, idea he could have made it up. Yeah, while we're talking about Regis's TV records, he made one hundred and fifty appearances on David Letterman's two late night shows, making him Letterman's most frequent guest. He's such a pro that he had antioplasty on his life, left artery in nineteen ninety three and was back on the air three days later.

00:34:06
Speaker 2: That's what you need in television, just a workhorse.

00:34:10
Speaker 1: When Millionaire was being developed for the American market, Regis was most familiar as the host of the daytime staple Live with Regis and Kathy Lead. He hosted his very first talk show nearly forty years earlier, with nineteen sixty one's The Regis Filbin Show in San Diego. I mentioned this purely because of how hilariously low budget it was. He couldn't afford writers, so he began each show by just riffing with the studio Audience, which was a movie he borrowed from Early Tonight Show host Jack Parr, which he would quickly make his own. The Regis Filbin Show was picked up for national syndication in nineteen sixty four, but it didn't last and his slot was given to fellow game show legend MERV Griffin, the talk show host who in his spare time, created Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, among many other game show classics. We've talked about him on our Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy episodes. Regis got his biggest break in nineteen sixty seven when he was tapped to be second tier rat packer Joey Bishop's sidekick on the Joey Bishop Talk Show, borrowing from the dynamic of their competition Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon. A recurring bit on the show was Joey Bishop the star playfully teasing Regis, who would just kind of eat it. But this blew up in everyone's face when Regis apparently started hearing rumors at the ABC brass were not happy with him and specifically hated his thick bronx accent.

00:35:33
Speaker 2: How much did that suck if your gig was being the guy that the most get on member of the rat pack got on yep.

00:35:41
Speaker 1: Yep, Well that kind of explains why. One day on air he went on to a allegedly unplanned rant about not being wanted and being let down by the program, and he abruptly quit on air, and several nights later, Joey Bishop addressed his absent host on air and promised him that the frequent jokes were not meant to be taken personally, and Regis eventually came back a few days later. It went down as an epic bit of TV lore, but in Regis's two memoirs he claimed that this walk off was a.

00:36:14
Speaker 2: Pre arranged stunt designed to boost ratings, and I don't believe it.

00:36:18
Speaker 1: It didn't work. The show was canceled the following year, in nineteen sixty nine. In either a medium funny bit or a hilarious bit of pettiness, Joey Bishop walked off the show and announced live on air when he learned that they were canceled, leaving Regis to finish it out, and the time slot was then given to my beloved Dick Cavot.

00:36:36
Speaker 2: The whole walking off thing that Regis did may have been another bit that he picked up from his hero. Jack Parr, the famously mercurial late night host, walked off The Tonight Show in February nineteen sixty after growing frustrated that a joke about a WC water closet or bathroom, are shouse or what have you was censored. The full text of the joke reads as follows. An English lady is visiting Switzerland. She asks about the location of the WC. The Swiss, thinking she is referring to the Wayside Chapel, leave her a note that said, in part, the WC is situated nine miles from the room that you will occupy. It is capable of holding about two hundred and twenty nine people, and it is only open on Sunday and Thursday. It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the w C, and it was there that she met her husband. I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for you, if you wish where you will be seen by everyone. Probably killed in the fifties. So Jack Parr was pissed that that joke was excised from his broadcast and replaced by news coverage. His response to this overreaction was an epic one of his own, where he tearfully resigned on air, saying, I am leaving the Tonight Show. There must be a better way of making a living than this. There's a way of entertaining people without constantly being involved in some form of controversy, which is on me all the time. It's rough on my wife and child. I don't need it. I like the National Broadcasting Company. They've been swell to me, and I've been pretty wonderful to them. I took over a show with sixty stations. There's now one hundred and fifty eight. The show is sold out. It's the highest I think money producer for this network. And I believe I was let down by this network at the time when I could have used their help. You have been peachy to me always. And then he walked off kind of a mixed bag of it.

00:38:25
Speaker 1: I think it's been theorized that he was by Paular or something. He definitely was, Oh interesting, was a moody gentleman. Well.

00:38:32
Speaker 2: The man who finished out the show was our old friend Hugh Down, the man that Regis would beat out for the title of most televised Man in two thousand and four. Jack Parr stayed away for a month before his friend, the comedian Jonathan Winters, convinced him to return. His comeback was a major TV event, which opened with him strolling on stage and delivering a devastatingly deadpan as I was saying before I was interrupted.

00:39:00
Speaker 1: Plause.

00:39:00
Speaker 2: After the audience erupted in applause, Park continued, I believe my last words were there must be a better way of making a living than this. Well, I've looked and there isn't.

00:39:11
Speaker 1: Also got a huge yeah, also got a huge plause.

00:39:14
Speaker 2: He then went on to explain his departure with typical frankness. Leaving the show was a childish and perhaps emotional thing. I have been guilty of such actions in the past and perhaps will be again. I'm totally unable to hide what I feel. It is not an asset in show business. But I shall do the best I can to amuse and entertain you and let other people speak freely as I have in the past.

00:39:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, like I was saying. It's been theorized by some that he suffered from bipolo disorder or he was just really stressed out about having to come up with an hour and forty five minutes of television five nights a week.

00:39:43
Speaker 2: When did they institute writer's rooms to tonight's shows.

00:39:46
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean there might have been. I think there was some then too, but I think he was kind of like leading it, you know. I don't think he delegated very well. No, he's a fascinating guy, Jack Parr. Anyway, Regis bounced around various TV gigs until beginning his famous morning show in nineteen eighty three. At the time, the nine am time slot for WABC suffered from low Nielsen ratings because of competition from NBC's Donahue and CBS's Game show block featuring jokers Wild and Tickdac Doe. Within a few years, he was joined by his new co host, Kathy Lee Johnson later Gifford, and ratings took off. This allowed him to close the Ford dealership he'd opened in Gilbert, Arizona as a side investment a few years earlier, when his TV career was looking a little dicey. That's atorrible. If daytime TV made Reagis a star who wants to be a millionaire, made him a primetime legend. This was not, however, his first time on the game show circuit. In nineteen seventy five, he hosted a short lived game show called The Neighbors, in which two female contestants guest which of her three female neighbors said gossipy things about her. So it just seems like you're just like starting with your neighbors for money. Yeah, I can do that. New York Times journalist Alex Winchell wrote in nineteen ninety nine, the X factor of millionaire success seems to be besides the money, of course, that mister Philben genuinely wants contestants to win. By all accounts, Regis's reputation as a truly nice man was based in reality. One of my favorite examples of this is his friendship with Howard Stern. For years, Stern made a sport of making fun of Regi's on air during his radio show Really Mean Spirited Mockery. Then Stern moved into a new apartment building and one day he entered the elevator to find Regis Philbman. Apparently they were now neighbors. Regis could have very easily snubbed him, but instead he went full reach. Hey, you're new to the building, Howard, welcome whyt to check out my apartment, to meet my wife. That seems like a never mind. Regis gave Howard a tour of his apartment and offered him tips about where to go in the neighborhood. It was generally just a great neighbor And the next day on his radio show, Howard Stern publicly apologized to Regis and the pair became friends from that day forward, which I find adorable. And while we're on the topic of seemingly random Regis connections, his son Daniel worked in the Pentagon and was branded a hero for his brave acts on nine to eleven.

00:42:18
Speaker 2: You've worked in the Pentagon, but okay, burning, that's shredding the right dogs.

00:42:24
Speaker 1: Also, Regis and Kathlee was.

00:42:26
Speaker 2: On in the middle of the nine to eleven attacks, and it's one of the most surreal episodes of TV I've ever seen. Is I would not I could not watch that. I don't know how you do that to yourself.

00:42:37
Speaker 1: It's just them trying to make sense of what's happening.

00:42:39
Speaker 2: Like there's like a little like live news broadcast like on like the lower third, and yeah, it's it's very weird. They're like taking audience questions and just trying to like figure out what's happening, very very weird.

00:42:51
Speaker 1: It's on YouTube. Uh. Also, I don't know if you know this, but Regis has not won but two albums of crooning classics. Nineteen sixty eight, it's time for reaches. In two thousand and four and two thousand and four it's still time for reaches. He does a version of Swanny. No, yes, all right, pump it in when you get it this, I gotta I gotta hear this Swanny.

00:43:26
Speaker 4: How I love you, How I love your mind, dear old Swanny, I give the world to me among the folks in d I X, I even know my mammy Waite and for me brand for me down by the Swanny.

00:43:49
Speaker 1: Oh keep going, and two thousand and four is when You're smiling. Sadly, this last release received poor reviews, and he never recorded another record, though we frequently sang duets with guests on Live with Regis and Kelly. And of course, let's not forget this classic fact we noted back in our Beauty and the Beast episode from years ago, Regi's audition for the voice roll of the Beast in Disney's Beauty of the Beast, which I still don't fully understand if that was just like, yeah, no, now so.

00:44:20
Speaker 2: The US version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire premiered on August sixteenth, nineteen ninety nine, as a special two week event, with a half hour game airing each night in primetime on ABC. Notably, the name lacked the question mark that appeared in the title of the British counterpart, because Americans turn everything into an attack.

00:44:41
Speaker 1: It's a threat.

00:44:42
Speaker 2: Which one of you bozos wants to be a millionaire? When asked about this, producers responded by saying, who wants to be a Millionaire isn't really a question, is it?

00:44:52
Speaker 4: But?

00:44:52
Speaker 1: Which? Who? Is it?

00:44:53
Speaker 2: The who that's on first? Who's the next? Pete's among us?

00:44:58
Speaker 1: Who goes there?

00:44:59
Speaker 2: Which of the who? Oh?

00:45:01
Speaker 1: Who? Who? Hardened? Did Harten hear them? Yeah? Is it the who that? Uh? Where were we? No? First? I?

00:45:09
Speaker 2: Oh no, I've gone cross hide. It was the first US network game show to offer a million dollar top prize to contestants, and the buzz this generated was immense. By the end of the first week, they'd reached an audience of fifteen million. This initial run contained only thirteen episodes. Since the show is essentially just a summer replacement It did so well that ABC scheduled another two week long special event that November, but the episodes expanded to an hour. It wasn't until January ninth, two thousand, after well after y two K fever had calmed down, the fires were put out that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was given regular status as a primetime show, and boy was it ever. At the height of its popularity, it was airing on ABC five nights a week. That's insane, That's what I remember it as. The show drew in up to thirty million viewers during the nineteen ninety nine to two thousand season, averaging number one in the ratings against all other television shows. Naturally, the success launched game show Crezze spawned a series of imitators, as rival networks either rebooted old shows like twenty one aka the show that kicked off the quiz show scandals of the nineteen fifties, or imported other shows from England and Australia, including Winning Lines, It's Your Chance of a Lifetime, and most famously, The Weakest Link. Hilariously, the producers of Millionaire tried to milk their cash cow by signing a deal with Deic Entertainment to make an animated spin off titled to the Adventures of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? That's dumb as hell. The proposed series was to follow the fictional winners of the show, who would have used their prize money to take trips to various exotic locations, while the fictional host would keep in touch with them through the Millionaire Command Center, so that like the World Bank, the IMF. I guess this was pre nine to eleven. Yeah, it was in building seven. The idea was per Wikipedia silently scrapped without a formal announcement.

00:47:16
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break, but we'll be right back with more. Too much information in just a moment. Considering what a cultural pillar Who Wants to Be a Millionaire turned out to be, it's easy to forget that it was kind of a flash in the pan in the early two thousands. In many ways, it was a victim of its own success. Millionaire fatigues set in and ratings began to fall during the two thousand and two thousand and one season, and by the following year, episodes is no longer ranked in the top twenty. ABC started to freak out as they fell from the First Place network once again, and initially they planned to switch the format to something that would emphasize comedy more than the game and feature a host other than Regis. I don't know why that would be the solution. Mercifully that never occurred, and ultimately the primetime show was canceled, with its final episode airing on June twenty seventh, two thousand and two. Instead, they went to a half hour daytime syndicated version that September, and this would prove to be too much for Regis, who was not only busy hosting his own daytime talk show, but also he was in his seventies at this stage, so the producers sought out a new host. Rosie O'Donnell was initially offered the gig, but she turned it down, so it went to Meredith Vieira. Can't get Rosie. You get Meredith. It's what I say, so I always say. Her tenure brought about many changes to the game. In two thousand and eight, they instituted time limits on questions, the hot seat was removed, supposedly because it made contestants too comfortable, and some of the lifelines were changed, most notably phone a friend as Google began the game popularity. It was later reinstituted, but a producer was on hand at the friend's house to make sure that they didn't Google.

00:49:08
Speaker 2: Right break your neck afterwards. It's just like sitting yeah, or like a hefty wrench, like aim right at one of your kneecaps.

00:49:17
Speaker 1: He's like, I want you to think very carefully about what you're about to do. But the biggest and dumbest change was instituting my hated shuffle round. I'm obviously biased because this is what ultimately led me to fail during my appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? But I strongly feel that it just it messes with the sanctity of the game. It's no longer it's no longer a mountain. It's just random. It's just any other quiz show now. The first ten questions are just randomly thrown out. There no ascending order of difficulty or monetary value. You just answer it and you find out afterwards how much money you got, like having a career. It's just it's chaos, total chaos. The second round took things back to normal. They called it Classic Millionaire Round, with four questions of increasing difficulty one thousand, two and fifty five hundred thousand and the million dollar question. Given that this crappy system total is screwed with the game that everyone knew and loved, it's no surprise that the viewership for the syndicated show started to decrease. Murdith Vieira left in twenty thirteen and was replaced by Cedric the Entertainer for a year, before being replaced by Terry Cruz in twenty fourteen, and then the final host of the syndicated series was Chris Harrison of The Bachelor I Believe Sure Whatever. He took over from Cruz in twenty fifteen and hosted until the show was canceled, with the finale airing on May thirty first, twenty nineteen.

00:50:41
Speaker 2: I had no idea it was. It took that lot, I know.

00:50:44
Speaker 1: Jimmy Kimmel brought it back for a twentieth anniversary season in twenty twenty, for which he served as host and producer, and it was renewed for round two later that year, but then the twenty twenty chaos brought havoc to the show, resulting in a three year hiatus. Was it until twenty twenty four that it came back for a third season tied to the twenty fifth anniversary this last July. That run ended at the end of August. It paired off celebrities for each game. Are You United, Keenan and kel It was nice? Yeah yeah. At present, the future of Huisbe Millionaire seems uncertain. But you're not here to learn about the sad decline of this beloved televisual franchise. You're here to learn about the money, aren't you? Aren't you beg for It? During the US series run, including primetime, syndication and specials, there have been sixteen winners of the million dollars, fifteen solo contestants and one group of two Iken Anne Baron Holtz, the father and son comedy duo, who won for the celebrity edition just this past August, making them the second celebrities to win the top prize. The first celebrity to win the million dollars for charity was Mamafuku chef David Chang. Oh hell yeah. During the twenty twenty reboot. He was the first million dollar winner in eleven years.

00:52:05
Speaker 2: God imagine that. How bad that made everyone else who'd been there those eleven years felt yep, David Chang just came in and whipped all of your asses in between sixteen hour Ships and Coucher.

00:52:16
Speaker 1: A few other notable winners include Kevin Olmstead, who won on April tenth, two thousand and one, during a special jackpot stunt on the show, and instead of winning a million dollars, I guess the whole bit was that every time a contestant didn't win, it was like a rolling jackpot. In every episode they added a ten thousand dollars to the jackpot, So he took home two million, one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, making him the biggest winner in television history at the time. It's back in two thousand and one, so that's probably like four million dollars today. Ken Jennings today has the record for the most money won on game shows courtsudoes. His cumulative total is five million, two hundred ninety six thousand, two hundred and fourteen dollars in twenty nine, four and a half million of which came from his run on Jeopardy. Ken Jennings was on other game shows too, which feels like, of course he was shouldn't have been allowed dude, Yeah, oh you think so? I mean yeah, I mean we got a bit. Yeah.

00:53:15
Speaker 2: It does feel a little bit like Brigand and a Ringer. But you know, Michael Jordan was allowed to flop at baseball, could at least be allowed to try.

00:53:22
Speaker 1: Yeah. Fair. Another interesting story involves Ed Taunton, who appeared on the show in January two thousand and one. This is when the whole jackpot thing was going on and the jackpot was at one million, eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars. He got kicked out after getting the sixteen thousand dollars question wrong, but was later invited back that September when he discovered an error in their question. This story is just absolutely deliciously pedantic. We should really have this guy on the show. As written. A question he got wrong officially was scientists in England recently genetically altered what vegetable so that it glows when it needs water? He said tomato, which is also the answer he received by using the ASCA audience lifeline. The correct answer was potato. However, per millionairefandom dot com, after his run was over and doing some research, he discovered that the experiment had been done in Scotland, not England, and then an Oxford professor, doctor Mark Knight, having doing research growing tomato plants, thus rendering his original answer valid. After sending the show and email detailing this, they decided to bring him back. Well that's classy, I know, And during his second appearance, he resumed at sixteen thousand dollars where he left off, and he went on to win the jackpot as it was at the time of his appearance. I don't even think they were doing the whole jackpot thing anymore, but they decided to honor it, and so when he got to the last question, instead of just making a million dollars, they made it one million, eight hundred and sixty thousand, so he doubled it and he won. It's incredible. Almost seems like a stunt. I don't think it was. How deep is this rabbit hole?

00:55:00
Speaker 4: Go?

00:55:00
Speaker 1: Right? I know? I love that In.

00:55:02
Speaker 2: The first ten months of the show's American existence, six people made it to the Big Question, so many that the insurance company that paid out the big jackpots actually sued the show's creators because the game was too easy. The first millionaire in the entire show franchise was John Carpenter, not that one, and he did it without using any lifelines sort of. He went down on the November nineteenth, nineteen ninety nine episode of Millionaire, and the crowd initially booed him when he revealed that he worked by day as an IRS agent, which was the correct reaction, but he ultimately won them over by doing the most badass thing anyone has ever done on a game show. The final question was which of these US presidents appeared on the television series Laughing, with the choices being A. Lyndon Johnson, B Richard Nixon, C Jimmy Carter, and D Gerald Ford. He asked to use the phone friend option to call his father. When his father picked up, he said, I don't need your help. I just wanted to let you know I'm going to win a million dollars, before immediately selecting the correct answer, which is Richard sock it to.

00:56:06
Speaker 1: Me, NICKXA very good.

00:56:10
Speaker 2: John Carpenter, not the other guy, later said, I thought I'd looked so cocky if I didn't use my life lines, so I faked it, not realizing that what he did, of course, was so much cockier. After taking a vacation with his winnings, he returned to his job at the IRS, explaining, after the taxes, it's not change your life kind of money if you want to eat every day. As of twenty twenty four, Carpenter continues to work for the IRS. Yeah, he gets a pension. Ah, like what six other fields, and that's still a thing. Carpenter also noted that the fame had a bigger impact on his life than the money, later stating the money doesn't change your life. What happens afterwards, Mike, he kind of got overshadowed by Ken Jennings, but he was a big deal for the time. He was on the cover of People magazine, played himself in a Saturday Night Live skit in which Donald Trump, portrayed by Daryl Hammond, announced that Carpenter would be his running mate in the presidential election.

00:57:02
Speaker 1: That was much funnier many years ago. Yeah, that's weird. I don't understand the context of that skit, but it's pretty weird.

00:57:11
Speaker 2: Afterward, Carpenter pretended to call his father before shouting live from New York, It's Saturday Night.

00:57:17
Speaker 1: It was simpler time.

00:57:18
Speaker 2: Carpenter appeared to himself in the second half of the fourth season of oz HBO the brutal prison drama.

00:57:26
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:57:28
Speaker 2: He plays a contestant in a fictional TV game show called Up Your Anti that the prisoners in m City are watching. He has also appeared on various anniversary specials of Millionaire. But enough about these winners. Yeah, let's all make ourselves feel better by talking about the losers. Over the course of the program's history, two contestants have made it to the million dollar question and blown it, being bumped all the way back down to their thirty two thousand dollars. Safety net man named Ken Bason missed it during a tenth anniversary primetime special the show and a guest of two thousand and nine. He was caught with the classic rock in a hard placed position that Jordan knows all too well, walking away with five hundred thousand and finding out if he was right, or going for the million and getting it wrong, which would result in him losing four hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. The question was for ordering his favorite beverages on demand. LBJ had four buttons installed in the Oval office labeled coffee, tea, coke, and what. The button wasn't labeled what that was? The answer We'll just pause for all of you.

00:58:32
Speaker 1: Give the options.

00:58:33
Speaker 2: You gotta give the options. I'm so sorry. The options were Fresca V eight, you who, and ANW presumably root beer. I don't care for ANW.

00:58:42
Speaker 1: Cream.

00:58:42
Speaker 2: Oh oh yeah, I like the cream.

00:58:46
Speaker 1: Have you got your answers? In? All of you?

00:58:49
Speaker 2: Wonderful Basin guessed you who, and it was Fresca idiot. It was the first contestant on the US version of Millionaire to miss the million dollar question. The next unfortunate incident, though, occurred during the daytime syndicated show in September of twenty thirteen with contestant Josina Reeves, but this happened during the shuffle version of the game, so she had jumped the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and five hundred thousand dollars questions and had only one hundred thousand dollars in her bank, which still probably stung.

00:59:21
Speaker 1: The question was.

00:59:23
Speaker 2: In addition to his career as an astrologer and prophet, Nostrodamis published a fifteen fifty five treaties that included a section on what A training parrots to talk, B Cheating at card games, C, digging graves and D making jams and jellies, she said, digging graves, which was a stupid guess. There's not a handbook out there worth of materials on how to dig a grave.

00:59:50
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, oh, well, okay, I guess dig.

00:59:53
Speaker 2: A hole step one, fill the whole in step two. That's not even a pamphlet.

01:00:01
Speaker 1: Wait for somebody to die this step a.

01:00:06
Speaker 2: She said, digging graves, as I said, a stupid guess. But it was making jams and jellies, which I probably would not have got either. Yeah, would have said cheating at card games.

01:00:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. If you're able to convince somebody that you can tell the future, cheating at card games seems like a lot of Yeah.

01:00:25
Speaker 2: We should also talk about Rudy Reber from A show's first US season, who phoned a friend for the five hundred thousand dollars question and the friend was wrong. Fallout of the friendship was chronicled in a long Washington Post feature that ended in a very tragic murder suicide. That's not true. I just made that up. I just lied to you.

01:00:48
Speaker 1: And now we've got to talk about the infamous alleged cheating incident that went down during the English version of the show. I can't believe you left me to talk about this. It seems like something to be very much your Yeah, but you love cheating, that's true, Well so you. But I love the English You love deception? Yes, elaborate on that.

01:01:06
Speaker 2: You just love all the you like all that cloak and daggers.

01:01:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought you did too, Okay. The man in question is named Charles William Ingram, and his Wikipedia introduction describes him amazingly as quote an English fraudster, novelist and former British Army major. He appeared on a September ninth, two thousand and one episode of the show after his wife and her brother had already appeared on HUSB Millionaire, each winning thirty two thousand pounds. I find it weird that some many members of the same family all qualified to get on the show, because I can personally tell you all the auditions and tests and stuff. It's not easy. That's weird. But anyway, Perry's Wikipedia to prepare Ingram practice for about twenty minutes per day on a handmade fastest finger machine. That's the game you play to like when all the hope fools line up at the beginning and put four things in order, and whoever does it quickest gets to go up to the hot seat. Ingram got to the hot seat, but used two lifelines early, ending the day at four thousand pounds with only the fifty to fifty lifeline remaining. When they brought him back the next day, the production team didn't expect him to proceed much further, but he ended up making it all the way to the million dollar top prize and this is where it gets weird. Producers were suspicious to the guy from the start due to his risky and some would say foolhardy moves. For example, one question was who had a hit UK album with Born to Do It released in two thousand. After using his fifty to fifty his last lifeline, the two remaining answers were A one, which he believed the answer to be, and Craig David, who he said he'd never heard of. After very nearly locking in A one as his final answer, he backed off and said that eighty percent of the time I'm wrong when I guess say you know what, I'll go Craig David talk about not betting on yourself working out that ended up being incorrect, and then at the five hundred thousand pound question Ingram was asked Baron Hausman is best known for his planning of what city among the options were Berlin in Paris. Initially, he assumed it was Berlin due to his belief that Baron Hausman was a German name. However, after a while he inexplicably said there's a possibility that it's Paris and suddenly locked that in as his final answer. This got Ingram to the million pound question. A number one followed by one hundred zeros is known by what name? To which he thought the answer was nanimal and initially said he didn't know what a Google was. This is pre Google, obviously the search engine. However, eventually he decided to walk in Google as his final answer, even though he didn't know what that word was, and he won the million pound prize. An executive producer for the show was quoted as saying, it became obvious that he wasn't under the pressure that he should have been somehow. He should have been very very careful and very certain, and he certainly wasn't either of those. In fact, producers were so suspicious that they conducted a physical search of his person before he left the studio, combing through his clothing, his shoes, and even his air looking for something that would have enabled him to cheat, but nothing was found. However, they did find it weird when the host of the UK version of the show, Chris Terrant, went into Ingram's dressing room afterwards with a celebratory bottle of champagne, only to find Ingram and his wife viciously arguing. Oh. Because of this, producers suspended the jackpot payout while they investigated further. And what they discovered upon reviewing the tape of the show was fascinating.

01:04:40
Speaker 2: You couldn't keep it together.

01:04:42
Speaker 1: I know until he left the studio, I know. The producers noticed a connection between Ingram's answers and a series of coughs heard in the studio. Some coughs came from one of the waiting contestants, a guy named Techwinn Whitlock, while another came from Ingram's wife, Diana while she was in the audience. Based on all this evidence, all three were accused of cheating. Basically, they thought that when the questions were read and all the answer the potential multiple choice answers were given, the person would cough during the correct answer. The producers literally made a federal case out of this. The prosecution alleged that there were one hundred and ninety two coughs recorded during the second night performance, and thirty two of these were significant in quotes, those are their words, and had been done by this guy Whitlock, who they thought was in cahoots. During the trial, another contestant on the show was adamant that he had known the answer to Ingram's questions and told the court that he'd been able to detect a pattern of coughing that he was entirely convinced had been designed to help Ingram when the correct answer was given. However, Chris Tarrant, the host of the show, denied hearing any coughing during the episode, claiming that he was too busy, you know, hosting the show to notice. Following a four week trial.

01:06:00
Speaker 2: So there is a guy who came in and snitched.

01:06:02
Speaker 1: Well, no, not snitched, but just like, wait a minute, like there was always a cough when the correct answer was given. I noticed it even at the time. Yeah, sounds like snitching. Sure. Following a four week trial, Ingram, his wife, and this other contestant, Whitlock, were convicted and given prison sentences. The Ingrams were sentenced to eighteen months, while Whitlock was sentenced to twelve months, and each fined fifteen thousand pounds and were ordered to pay prosecution and defense costs, which meant that they were out some one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds. The Army Board ordered Ingram to resign his commission as major after sixteen years of service, but allowed him to keep his pension. Well well, yeah, oh generous. Yeah. Ingram, for his part, claims that he either listened, for, encouraged, or noticed any coughing. Later, in two thousand and three, Ingram and his wife were charged with further fraud offenses after so they attempted to claim on an insurance policy after an alleged burglary at his home. He was given a conditional discharge on the charge of fraudulently claiming thirty thousand pounds on insurance. Karmosot vengeance on Ingram in twenty ten, however, when he lost three toes on his left foot in a lawn knowing accident.

01:07:21
Speaker 2: I don't know, man, like all this effort, like you know, like Apple doesn't pay taxes in some countries, Like just feels so like petty, I don't care. Let him cheat?

01:07:36
Speaker 1: What did he do?

01:07:36
Speaker 2: Who did he defraud the British television public?

01:07:40
Speaker 1: He cheated? Well, well, I guess he didn't cheat that well.

01:07:42
Speaker 2: Forcing this like it's international Well we don't even obey international law at this point, but like, why what is this? What happens? Who cares? Flip a coin? Let that be it guilty or knock guilt? Who cares?

01:07:54
Speaker 1: My god? I mean, maybe he was a precedent from the the fifties quish show scandals, which went all all the way to the Senate floor because it was the n FCC thing about like defrauding the public was that these shows were ringed, and so maybe it became more than just like hey, you took our money. It was a whole like our licenses at stake here or something like that. Maybe it was that, you know, well, before we wrap this episode up, I want to do a little millionaire quiz moment for my friend Alex Heigel oh hell, and see if he has what it takes to answer some of the million dollar questions that have been given on the American version of the show. What do you think you're going to go for it? Buddy, I'm ready, or you can give them to me, which whichever, whichever you prefer. Okay, okay, okay, well we did the laugh in one. Okay. This one's from January tenth, two thousand. In what language was Anne Frank's original diary first published? Was it a Dutch, B English, C French, d German? That's an easy one, I gotta say, is it? Yeah? Dutch? Yes? Correct? Sick Alex Heigel, you just want a million dollars? Wow, give me another one. The Earth is approximately Oh, this one's kind of boring. How many miles away from the sun? Is it a that counts as math?

01:09:10
Speaker 4: Yeah?

01:09:11
Speaker 1: No, I agree? Yeah. In what country are all US Major League baseballs currently manufactured? Is it Costa Rica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic or Cuba?

01:09:24
Speaker 2: We had a trade and barger with Cuba. You're correct, everyone hates Haiti.

01:09:29
Speaker 1: Plead the fifth? Yeah, So what were the other one?

01:09:33
Speaker 2: Dominican Republic and Costa Rica? Dominican Republic, Costa Rica. I'm sorry.

01:09:39
Speaker 1: Oh there, I go all.

01:09:40
Speaker 2: The way back down to twenty five thousand dollars. No.

01:09:44
Speaker 1: What Shakespeare character says something is rotten in the state of Denmark is it a Hamlet B. Marcellus, C. Horatio or D.

01:09:53
Speaker 2: Laertes Marcella's Wallace from pulp fiction.

01:09:57
Speaker 1: You're kind of correct.

01:10:01
Speaker 2: Oh, this is great. I think you will probably know. This is a good question.

01:10:05
Speaker 1: Which insect shorted out an early supercomputer and inspired the term computer bug? Is it moth? Roach? Fly? Or Japanese beetle? Wow?

01:10:15
Speaker 2: Japanese beetle is a tempting just because of the specificity.

01:10:18
Speaker 1: But fly moth?

01:10:22
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I guess that tracks well.

01:10:24
Speaker 1: We've established that I'm a loser. No Jordan.

01:10:29
Speaker 2: According to the Population Reference Bureau, what is the approximate number of people who have ever lived on Earth?

01:10:35
Speaker 1: That's close to math, but all out?

01:10:38
Speaker 2: Is it fifty billion, one hundred billion, one trillion or five trillion one hundred billion?

01:10:47
Speaker 1: At is correct?

01:10:49
Speaker 2: A rare example of a word that does indeed rhyme with orange. The bloornge is a what a river in Scotland?

01:10:57
Speaker 1: Oh?

01:10:57
Speaker 2: Sorry, a river in Ireland, a forest in Scotland, a mountain in Wales, or a desert in Australia. I'll be so pissed if it's Australia. After we just did our crocodile done the episode river in Ireland or forest in Scotland.

01:11:13
Speaker 1: Those are the mountain in Wales Scotland. It was a mountain in Wales. Oh, that seems like a Welsh word that does the war in jam. But I discounted it too because it doesn't have the prevalence of consonants that they usually have. Hmm okay.

01:11:30
Speaker 2: Which of the following is not the title of a country song released by Netflix star Joe Exotic aka The Tiger King? Is it big Hearted Cat? I saw a tiger here, Kitty Kitty or king of the Beast.

01:11:47
Speaker 1: Think of a best seems like like an Elvis song or something. I would say that tiger man incorrect, incorrect. The incorrect answer was big hearted cat. I guess in retrospect, i'd probably shad guess that. Huh.

01:12:01
Speaker 2: Compiled by Benjamin Franklin in seventeen thirty seven, The Drinker's Dictionary included all but which of these synonyms for drunkenness nim topsicle, buzzy, piffolcated, or staggerish biffolcated with a B or with a P, piffolcated like possum. I'll go with that one. You are correct, sir Ah. This one's just crazy and it's gonna be the last one. Nifello coco siggia is the practice of doing what finding shapes in clouds, sneezing with your eyes open, breaking glass with your voice, or swimming in freezing water. Can you spell it for me? N E p h E l O c O c c ygi A niffello coco siggia. Finding shapes in clouds, sneezing with your eyes open, breaking glass with your voice, or swimming freezing.

01:13:00
Speaker 1: Water, breaking glass with your voice.

01:13:03
Speaker 2: No, finding shapes in class? Oh wow, that was actually last on interesting.

01:13:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know, all right, let me ask let me ask you one more, just because it feels very I just think you'll enjoy this one. What is the last word in the Old Testament? Is it forever true, prayer or curse? Wow? Forever seems appropriate? True?

01:13:29
Speaker 2: Also does I don't think curse is Actually I don't know what was the third one?

01:13:34
Speaker 1: Prayer, forever true, prayer or curse?

01:13:40
Speaker 2: Last words of the Old Testament Old Testament curse? Yes you are correct, sir, Old Testaments the vengeful one.

01:13:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's true. All right.

01:13:51
Speaker 2: I'm just scanning to see if there's any else that are like, notably when the TV series The Brady Bunch was Carol Brady's maiden name.

01:14:00
Speaker 1: You'll never get it, Tyler. That's a great question, though, Oh this is this is actually a great question. There's no reason anyone should know it. But what club did astronaut Alan Shepard used to make his famous golf.

01:14:13
Speaker 2: Shot on the moon? That's incredible?

01:14:17
Speaker 1: Do you know? No? No idea?

01:14:20
Speaker 2: Six iron? Six iron?

01:14:24
Speaker 1: Who's the only Nobel laureate to win an Academy award? That's really good? Steinbeck Sartra, George Bernard Shaw or Tony Morrison. Tony Morrison. I would have said that to George Bernard Shaw. Really Yeah?

01:14:37
Speaker 2: What did he win his Oscar for adapted screenplay for something?

01:14:41
Speaker 1: Probably? All right? Wait, sorry, I'm sorry, it's the last one. You're losing. The US icon Uncle Sam was based on Sam Wilson, who worked during the War of eighteen twelve as what a meet and inspect a mail deliverer, a historian, or a weapons mechanic, male guy, a meet inspector. Uncle Uncle Sam was a meet inspector.

01:15:11
Speaker 2: Well, given the amount of atrocities the country would go on to commit.

01:15:15
Speaker 1: Oh wow, oh wow, Hamburger Hill. Okay, okay, yeah, well, folks, for the ride out. That's how I used to always end my college radio show. For the ride out. Tonight, I'd like to give you a quote from a piece in Slight by Justin Peters, who, like me, was a digital media writer who achieved his childhood dream of appearing on Millionaire, only to fall short of the titular question. Unlike me, he got farther and fell further and was plunged into a deep depression afterwards, whereas I was just mildly annoyed. He wrote about it several times, including in a piece called I Wanted to Be a Millionaire? How failing colossally on a game show changed my life for the better. I'd like to read you some of his writing here. The experience of IF losing big on Millionaire almost broke me. The shock of the sudden loss and it was a loss, even though it wasn't as if the Millionaire producers had deducted two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars for my actual bank account sent me into a depressive state. I'd come so close to fulfilling the show's big promise, and the act of falling short made me feel like I was worse off than if I'd never been on the show at all. To this very day, I'm still occasionally seized with paralyzing regret over my bad choice. Online journalism is not a lucrative field. The millionaire money I so recklessly risked and lost would have given me real financial security for the first time in my life. But then he talks about hearing from fellow game show losers and even playing on a trivia team with some And then he continues, there's something liberating and reaching for something meaningful, even if you aren't sure you'll get it. I guessed on the five hundred thousand dollars question because that was the only way I would ever get to the million dollar question. That decision took guts and stupidity, but mostly and once I realized I've got guts, I decided to reorder my life around them. Since Millionaire, I've done scores of things I'd always wanted to do but never took the leap to pursue. This may be the path prescribed by countless self help books. It just so happens that Millionaire was mine. The simple lesson that Millionaire taught me is that if you want to change your life, either by winning a lot of money on television or by some more prosaic means, at some point, you're going to have to take a risk. Unless you're John Carpenter, the famous winner of the show, yeah, the other guy, you will eventually have to take a step into the unknown, ban on yourself and hope that you were making the right decision. And I think that's a good note to end on, as well as a reminder that at some time or another.

01:17:45
Speaker 2: We are all losers and the weakest link. I think I'm the weakest link on this show.

01:17:55
Speaker 1: It's those solid all the people on Twitter today saying they like the mean one better.

01:18:00
Speaker 2: It's not true. Ah yeah, I don't know. It's a game show whatever, man, I ain't. This isn't serious. This isn't an album, This isn't a piece of art.

01:18:13
Speaker 1: Who is the Millionaire is a celebration of trivia and banality. I thought you would come on, it's kind of like that. I like that. I don't.

01:18:22
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna like pretend that it's more. It's not you know, it's not Puccini. I know it's not Nebraska. It's not not the Simpsons.

01:18:31
Speaker 1: It's not even the Brady Bunch. I almost did be wished for this episode, which you'll do that next turned sixty this year. Yeah, I mean, you.

01:18:46
Speaker 2: Know, take a risk, dude, life's a risk. There's a punk band called Fiddler, and they put it much more succinctly than this guy. What if Fiddler say they said, dude, life's a risk. Oh oh that was I thought that was from The Big Lebowski. But that's let's go bowling. Yeah, it's good, dude, Let's go bowling. You know at the end of it, Jordan, I don't care. H Is that your final answer? Oh? How did we escape making that into a bit?

01:19:16
Speaker 1: Uh?

01:19:16
Speaker 2: You know at the end of the day, Jordan.

01:19:18
Speaker 1: Do you want a fun of friends? I guess I'm already here. Yeah, you're my only friend. Jordan. Hi? Hello, Oh my god, Jordan, I'm in deep trouble. They're gonna bring what's going on? They're gonna they're gonna take my knees. Buddy, I said, I didn't care about a game show. Do I care about a game show? Do I care about? Who wants to be a millionaire? What's my right answer? Making money off of useless crap. Yes, I assume you would. Oh okay, we don't do that though, right, not anymore now?

01:19:52
Speaker 2: Oh we ever gonna shout out our kofe though you did at the top. Okay, all right, I'm gonna thanks man, thanks man, put back on the show. No no, no, no, no no, no, pregious, Actually, Cedric, mister entertainer, I've decided to go with my friend Jordan's answer. I believe I actually do care about who wants to be a millionaire. Thank you for listening. This has been too much information. I'm Alex Sigel, I'm Jordan Runtogg. We'll catch you next time.

01:20:31
Speaker 1: Too Much Information was a production of iHeart Radio. The show's executive producers are Noel Brown and Jordan Runtalk. The show's supervising producer is Michael Alder June. The show was researched, written and hosted by Jordan Runtogg and Alex Heigel, with original music by Seth Applebaum and the Ghost Funk Orchestra. If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave us a review. For more podcasts and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

01:21:00
Speaker 3: That's like the long you know that's clack Bat and