Nice to meet you Tim! I have to ask, what was it like being on the show? Were you nervous?
It's been quite a while since I've told my story, but here goes. I'm telling the long version, so I have to break it into parts.
Part 1
It all really starts with the onset of WWTBAM in August 1999. Just like every other game show geek I was fascinated with the possibility of getting on and making a strong run. I had lost my one game of "Jeopardy!" in 1997, and had not thought that I would have another shot at significant money for knowing trivia. However, I don't have as much flexibility in my schedule to be able to take off to NYC at a moment's notice, so I did not try the phone game that month. Knowing that great ratings would bring the show back, I scheduled some vacation time for the middle of November, the next ratings "sweeps" period.
When the phone game was announced again for 11/99's shows, I planned my strategy for the phone game. As you may recall, passers of Round 1 would select ANY of the future tape dates and be placed into a pool of passers on that day selecting that particular future date. Then 30 people would be picked at random and called to set up the Round 2 phone game (which would occur 2 days before the tape date). I decided to enhance my chances of a Round 2 call by picking the latest possible tape date, figuring that Round 1 passers early in the month would dilute themselves out among all the earlier tape dates, It worked, and I got the Round 2 call at work one day (also a lucky break, since much of the day I'm not at my office desk, but with patients instead).
Round 2 consisted of five FF questions, and I think I got only 3 of 5 correct in my hurry to be as fast as possible (part of the process of determining the top 10 for the ROF at that time). I didn't think it was good enough, but it was enough to squeak by as the first alternate for a free trip to NYC. Having no one to accompany me at short notice, I made the flight across country from LA by myself. The driver who picked me up at Newark told me that someone had won the $1M the night before, and I watched John Carpenter's show in my room at the Empire Hotel.
All of the other contestants showed up as well the next day, so I sat on the sidelines with the 2nd alternate for the long day of taping. It was a Saturday, so Regis bantered with the audience about college football. In my tape group, Jane Oviatt from Minnesota won $250K, and everyone had a good time with the experience. I definitely wanted to come back.
Back in LA, the other networks were putting on their game shows to counter ABC's juggernaut. I saw "Greed", but did not want to risk my outcome to be affected so much by my teammates. Then NBC brought out "21", which was more my style. It would tape in Burbank on Saturdays to fit Maury Povich's schedule, also perfect for me. I called the phone line, went to take the written test, passed it, then played a mock game. A few weeks later I got a call to meet with the Exec. Producers Phil Guerin and Fred Silverman for another interview. Fighting LA traffic one Friday afternoon, I barely made it in time to sit down with them. The contestant coordinators told me that I would likely be called for a tape date depending on how many more shows they would be making.
(cont)
- Tim H.
