You can win or you can lose or you can quit
September 22, 2013 2:48 PM Subscribe
You have to give them this simplified narrative of yourself, or they won’t let you try to get their money. The danger is the distraction. The danger is letting yourself care whether Meredith or the studio audience or the millions of people watching out there in America like you. The danger is that it pulls your mind away from the absolute need to be perfect at the game, to make not even a single mistake. Easy Money: My Experience on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
I was on Millionaire, during the Meredith Vieira era! I wound up having to take a consolation prize. I would have just walked away, but I was at the $25,000 milestone, or whatever they call it. I thought fortune might favor the bold. Well, that time, it didn't.
Oh well. It was fun.
I read this comment, then looked at your profile, and was greeted with a money-laden cat. I see you (and your cat) are quite enjoying the winnings.
posted by averageamateur at 3:25 PM on September 22, 2013 [4 favorites]
Oh well. It was fun.
I read this comment, then looked at your profile, and was greeted with a money-laden cat. I see you (and your cat) are quite enjoying the winnings.
posted by averageamateur at 3:25 PM on September 22, 2013 [4 favorites]
Time for me became like time when you are on a roller coaster, something irrelevant and strange, a parameter that has lost its usual ability to define the shape of your life.
I liked this line.
posted by SpacemanStix at 3:49 PM on September 22, 2013
I liked this line.
posted by SpacemanStix at 3:49 PM on September 22, 2013
I wound up having to take a consolation prize.
Where did you put all of that Rice-a-Roni?
posted by octobersurprise at 4:02 PM on September 22, 2013 [5 favorites]
Where did you put all of that Rice-a-Roni?
posted by octobersurprise at 4:02 PM on September 22, 2013 [5 favorites]
Advantage play gambling paid off my house. He made the correct decision on the last question.
posted by localroger at 4:04 PM on September 22, 2013
posted by localroger at 4:04 PM on September 22, 2013
He made it further than I did; I got an on-camera interview but I never got the call-up for the actual filming. On the plus side, they said I could apply to be in the next series. There hasn't been another series since 2008.
posted by John Shaft at 4:22 PM on September 22, 2013
posted by John Shaft at 4:22 PM on September 22, 2013
That is the best ending I've ever seen in a piece of longform journalism.
posted by Brodiggitty at 5:03 PM on September 22, 2013 [6 favorites]
posted by Brodiggitty at 5:03 PM on September 22, 2013 [6 favorites]
I have always been good at spelling.
So in 1983, when I was at school, I get put forward for TV high school quiz show 'It's Academic' as their spelling guy.
Three man teams. First question is always a spelling question. Our team is first up. I'm eying the host, knowing I'm going to get the first question of the show and it will be a spelling one. Feeling alert, calm, running through the possibilities in my head: 'What's a good hard (but not too hard word? Conscientious. C-O-N-S-C-I-EN-T-I-O-U-S. Got it.'
First question - spell 'conscientiously'. I open my mouth, say 'C-O-N-C-S -- fuck
And that's how I swore on national TV when I was 13.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:33 PM on September 22, 2013 [14 favorites]
So in 1983, when I was at school, I get put forward for TV high school quiz show 'It's Academic' as their spelling guy.
Three man teams. First question is always a spelling question. Our team is first up. I'm eying the host, knowing I'm going to get the first question of the show and it will be a spelling one. Feeling alert, calm, running through the possibilities in my head: 'What's a good hard (but not too hard word? Conscientious. C-O-N-S-C-I-EN-T-I-O-U-S. Got it.'
First question - spell 'conscientiously'. I open my mouth, say 'C-O-N-C-S -- fuck
And that's how I swore on national TV when I was 13.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:33 PM on September 22, 2013 [14 favorites]
What's the website he mentions that has an archive of questions from the gameshow?
posted by threeants at 6:05 PM on September 22, 2013
posted by threeants at 6:05 PM on September 22, 2013
It was at this stage of the process that I overheard one of the friendly twentysomething (white) producers coaching a heavy-set African-American woman before her on-camera interview to “just go in there and be a crazy mama. Just be a crazy mama.”Oh, for crying out. Fuck.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:10 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
What's the website he mentions that has an archive of questions from the gameshow?
I think it's this one.
posted by DRoll at 7:32 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
I think it's this one.
posted by DRoll at 7:32 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
First question - spell 'conscientiously'. I open my mouth, say 'C-O-N-C-S -- fuck
M - A - Y - S
AUUUGGGHHH!
posted by JHarris at 7:38 PM on September 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
M - A - Y - S
AUUUGGGHHH!
posted by JHarris at 7:38 PM on September 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
What's the website he mentions that has an archive of questions from the gameshow?
$9.95/year, same as at namecheap?
posted by davidjmcgee at 7:38 PM on September 22, 2013
$9.95/year, same as at namecheap?
posted by davidjmcgee at 7:38 PM on September 22, 2013
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Oh well. It was fun.
posted by Sticherbeast at 3:17 PM on September 22, 2013 [6 favorites]