Huffington Post: WWTBaM 15th Anniversary

[alfonzos]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/15/millionaire-15-years_n_5673088.html

[Thunder]

The first comment contains a giant understatement.

[PYLdude]

Happy fifteenth, Millionaire.

Now how many former contestants do we actually have within our midsts? Off the top of my head I come up with seven.

[brianhenke]

   Regis Philbin said "Is that your final answer?" for the first time, as ABC premiered Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

   After WWTBAM crashed and burned in primetime (Many of us have their reasons why), someone said the show would have had a 15-year run on the network if ABC hadn't screwed it up. However, the show enters its 13th syndicated season with this fall with Terry Crews as the new host.

    Brian

(Merged with existing thread. -- RS)

[SuperSweeper]

Just read the entry about it in Adam's book.  I'm sad that I was too young to really enjoy the show when it was first on; it sounds like it was EVERYWHERE.

[PYLdude]

The frigging lead topic and you had to create a separate thread?

[aaron sica]

Remember who you're dealing with. For a long time the concept of copying and pasting was foreign to him.

[TLEberle]

That's our Henke!

[clemon79]

it sounds like it was EVERYWHERE.

It was. That was part of the problem.

[BrandonFG]

Just read the entry about it in Adam's book.  I'm sad that I was too young to really enjoy the show when it was first on; it sounds like it was EVERYWHERE.

You would be right, but I don't think anyone expected it to become the overnight sensation that it did (almost literally). But yes, I remember a ton of Millionaire parodies and "Final answer?" becoming an immediate catchphrase in the fall of '99. That and "I need a lifeline" becoming popular jargon for when you're facing a conundrum.

When the show became a regular series in January 2000, Regis did a pre-recorded intro stating how the show took everyone by surprise in the ratings. By spring 2000, there were PC and board games, (I believe) a trivia book based on the show, a behind-the-scenes special that aired on ABC, and even a book written by Regis! Now that I think about it, I'm surprised the show didn't burnout even quicker. The show was hot in the ratings (#1 in 2000, #2 in '01), but yet, ABC still felt the constant celebrity specials were the answer.

Don't even get me started on damn near every game show having darker sets and rave lighting nowadays. :-P

[SuperSweeper]

Just read the entry about it in Adam's book.  I'm sad that I was too young to really enjoy the show when it was first on; it sounds like it was EVERYWHERE.

When the show became a regular series in January 2000, Regis did a pre-recorded intro stating how the show took everyone by surprise in the ratings. By spring 2000, there were PC and board games, (I believe) a trivia book based on the show, a behind-the-scenes special that aired on ABC, and even a book written by Regis! Now that I think about it, I'm surprised the show didn't burnout even quicker. The show was hot in the ratings (#1 in 2000, #2 in '01), but yet, ABC still felt the constant celebrity specials were the answer.

Don't even get me started on damn near every game show having darker sets and rave lighting nowadays. :-P

I know that we rag on the addition of celebrities and/or celebrity specials often (and for good reason), but has there ever been a show that has benefited from that move?  I can't think of any off of the top of my head.

[Fedya]

Don't even get me started on damn near every game show having darker sets and rave lighting nowadays. :-P

How could you forget the brushed aluminum?  :-p

Hell, even the Osmond Pyramid gave us a post-apocalyptic brushed aluminum set,  :-(

[SamJ93]

Don't even get me started on damn near every game show having darker sets and rave lighting nowadays. :-P

And that's actually a question I've been pondering for a little while now.  Was WWTBAM really a good thing to happen to game shows in the long run?  It seems like virtually every game show since has been a carbon-copy of its more notorious aspects, to the point where they're just plain annoying: contestants playing against the house, menacing atmosphere, drawn-out "suspenseful" reveals, a money ladder with "helps," and the idea that every game show now has to be this big, dramatic life-changing "event" rather than just a fun game that's easy to play along with at home.

Actually, now that I think of it, maybe it was the one-two combo of WWTBAM followed by DoND a few years later.  Millionaire at least required skill and trivia knowledge to compete; Deal removed even that from the equation.

[BrandonFG]

I think Millionaire more or less inspired the money trees on shows, but there was still more of a competitive element with the other shows that premiered that season (Greed, 21, Winning Lines, et al). I agree that the other annoying elements (one vs. the house, pregnant pauses, loud family members) were more from D/ND. I actually liked Millionaire's "relationship chair"...it added a nice personal element to the show, esp. when a big winner would celebrate with family.

And honestly, even though they seemed a little formulaic at the time, I actually really enjoyed the shows from 1999-2000, although it seems they all went out of their way to one-up each other in setting the highest winnings record. I think 21 and Greed broke a record within the same week.

The D/ND-esque shows from 2005-c. 2008 (esp. Ende-maul's lot) damn near turned me off from the genre.

/And yeah, I did forget the aluminum girders all over the damn place :-P

[PYLdude]

So since we're not merging topics, I'll ask again. How many Millionaire contestants are in our midsts? I count at least seven.