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Post by jon on Sept 6, 2018 20:42:58 GMT -5
millionairenut The Fastest Finger First questions with only one answer were only for Series 1. They switched to the one everyone's familiar with starting in Series 2. Anyways, I feel like I should keep going for the entirety of Series 1, so here goes. Airing on 5 September 1998, Episode 2 starts off with rollover contestant Rachel De Costa continuing her run for the million at the £1000 question. Obviously, you can see the major differences from today's Millionaire right off the bat. First up, the opening titles, which were, in my opinion, one of the best. Obviously the graphics, and the monitors, but there's also something you'll see in most international versions before 2000: the box of money below the monitors. So anyways, enough rambling on. In this episode, they seem to have finally learned how to use speakerphone, but Rachel's father doesn't seem to know the answer to a question on English geography, and influences Rachel to walk away. She does, with a broken voice, and after picking Cornwall as her choice if she didn't walk away, she learnt that she would've won £16,000. Time now to pick a new contestant, and Arlene Harper correctly answers the Fastest Finger First question about fibres and ancient civilisations! Fast forwarding to the £8000 question, she decides to use her phone a friend on a question about ethanol. Her sister says she thinks it could be plastic, when Arlene, right at the last second, mentions she thought it was gas. Cut to a petrified Chris Tarrant! So after that, she decides to use her 50:50, which leaves her with plastic and alcohol. You can see where this is going, can't you? Yep, she confidently answers plastic, smiles and all...and then gets told she just lost £3000. "Arlene, it's alcohol." "Ok, cool." So she walks out with £1000, becoming the first person to give a wrong answer, but we're not done yet! We've still got time for another Fastest Finger First question about the Indy 500! Ross Jackson answers it quickest in just over 2 seconds, and gets to play for a million pounds! He wins £300 before ITV comes to remind us all that the runtime is only 30 minutes. So we'll have to wait until the next show to find out how he does. Or in my case, another giant wall of text. Good Lord.
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Post by jon on Sept 6, 2018 21:05:35 GMT -5
6 September 1998, the 20th anniversary of the third ever episode of Millionaire.
Rollover contestant Ross Jackson continues his run at the million, starting where he left off at the £500 question. Fast forwarding to the £1000 question, he uses his first lifeline of the day, which is (what I believe to be the first time someone's used) Ask the Audience! Over half go for picador on a question about what the name of a bullfighter on horseback is. Turns out they're right, and he's won £1000! So in the next question comes a question about football (or soccer). The question is "Which team won the Premiership title in 1998?" He uses 50:50, which leaves him with Manchester United and Arsenal. He's still not sure, so he uses his Phone a Friend, using all three of his lifelines. He phones Phillip Brooks, his former neighbour, Phillip instantly answers with Arsenal, with Ross commenting that he would go for that answer, which ends up winning £2000. A joking comment won him money, I wish it were that simple. So anyways, with no lifelines left after question 6, we fast forward to the twelfth question (Yes, just like Charles Ingram, except he wasn't a cheat!) where he finally walks away on a question about population and people who live today. Brilliant. So after a Shakespeare FFF question, Tina Bird is next to play, and fast forwarding to the £2000 question, she uses up all of her lifelines on a question about Marco Polo, but still picks the wrong answer out of two, so she walks away still at £1000. After a FFF question about piccolos, Samantha Thomas answers correctly in the fastest time! But she only gets through one question before ITV comes in, warning Chris that they need more money to advertise. So you'll have to wait until the next block of text tomorrow to find out how she does.
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Post by millionairenut on Sept 7, 2018 9:07:10 GMT -5
Jon, thank you for continuing this series with anniversaries from the first series from across the pond. Do you happen to know why they made the fastest finger switch? Anyway, lots of busy activity has been going on this month, and that continues. For many years, I wondered why Game Show Network never aired Ed Toutant's return to the hot seat after his $16,000 question was thrown out. Thankfully, somebody has his full run from when he returned to the hot seat. For many years, this was the most we had on his return run: I always wanted to see the entirety of his return run, though. Thankfully, there's this: Looking back at it, and watching his full run, it reminded me of why Ed is one of my favorite contestants of all time. He's in the top five with Doug Van Gundy, Bernie Cullen, Steve Perry and Phil Gibbons. Speaking of Doug, Regis reminds Ed that he loses $32,000 if he misses his $125,000 question, which Ed says easy come, easy go, just like Doug did after going for it for $250,000. I know it's a common saying, but that popped into my head. What I love so much about Ed is his guts, his willingness to go for it. Other people would've used that 50:50 early on, and I probably would have myself. It's that courage that paid off. Look at the run. From $32,000-$250,000, he got the answers right, but he wasn't absolutely sure like he was on $500,000, and he got a lucky question. His logic, deduction and reasoning was very sound here, too. Look at his $16,000 question. It asks that Emmentaler is a type of what food. Meanwhile, just days later, Emmental is a type of cheese from which country? That's the 16,000 question of none other than Charles Ingram, and you know we'll be talking about that. Ed is on Twitter, though he hasn't tweeted in quite some time. You also know about Ed being a fastest finger contestant in January 2000 when David Fite got into the hot seat and won $500,000. That's quite some brain power right there. He also is a former Jeopardy champion, and clearly has lots of smarts, hence his success on multiple game shows. Here is his run on Grand Slam: I also would love to see another Grand Slam in the future with other people who won $500,000 or the top prize on Millionaire, as well as some great Jeopardy champions since that time such as Roger Craig and Julia Collins. Ed has been on Millionaire in recent memory as a Plus-One. He looks pretty much exactly the same. millionaire.wikia.com/wiki/File:Tountant_Ed_millionaire_2016.jpgOf course, I doubt he would actually win the top prize now because of the difficulty in question. Ed's run shows that guts are up there with knowledge in terms of importance of success on the show. A lot of people like to criticize Ken Basin, but look at the courage he showed on $250,000 and especially $500,000. If not for the bravery that Ken showed, he doesn't even get a chance to answer the $1 Million Question. The same goes for Ed. He actually didn't seem to shy away from the thought of being the first person to get the final person wrong. That deterred somebody like Tom O'Brien, who would have won had he guessed. So, yes, the anniversaries continue in the coming days, and we also have a couple of big ones in Britain besides Charles Ingram that are coming up later this month. |
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Post by jon on Sept 8, 2018 10:10:48 GMT -5
Alright, so since I’m doing this all on phone atm (my wifi isn’t the best rn), I’m not gonna drag it on at all. Yesterday, 7 September 2018 (Which I did write a wall of text for but I lost connection right as I clicked to send it), returning rollover contestant Samantha Thomas starts at £200, and gets all the way to the £32,000 question, where she walked away with no lifelines left. Also, at the £4000 question, we hear Chris say “Final Answer?” for the first time! Anyways, John Stewart is next to play, and he correctly answers the £2000 question before the klaxon blares. So there’s that show done. youtu.be/mOUAnTcM3fASo, today’s 8 September 2018, episode 5. With no lifelines remaining, we rejoin John Stewart. He gets all the way to the £32,000 before deciding he’s had enough. And it was a good thing he did, his guess turned out to be wrong. So, ten new contestants, of course, John McKeown is next to play for a million pounds. He correctly answers the £64,000 question before the klaxon comes in, but with his Phone a Friend remaining, how far will he be able to go? You’ll have to wait until tomorrow. youtu.be/3lIVgJ7koJU |
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Post by millionairenut on Sept 9, 2018 11:32:12 GMT -5
This is a pretty big anniversary right here. It began on Sept. 9 and continued into Sept. 10.
Charles is able to get the first five questions correct without any help. He also has previously been a fastest finger contestant and for couples Millionaire with Diana as well. Of course, you know Diana and her brother, Adrian Pollock, both won 32,000. As I think I've pointed out on here before, David Edwards (Known as Dave Edwards in that episode) was a fastest finger contestant when Pollock got into the hot seat.
He uses lifelines on the first two questions on the 2,000 and 4,000 questions. He asks the audience on who Gail's daughter is in Coronation Street and where the River Foyle is, he phones-a-friend. This leaves him with one lifeline left after answering the first seven questions.
Charles will be back tomorrow night.
Also, with the 20th anniversary happening Sept. 4, I discovered another big anniversary: Trevor Sauer won $500,000 and became the first contestant in the history of Australian Millionaire to see the Million Dollar question. He was asked the first person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes. The correct answer was Linus Pauling, who Trevor would have gone with had he decided to go for it. I know I saw a video of Trevor's run a few years ago, but I don't think it's up anymore.
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Post by jon on Sept 9, 2018 13:59:40 GMT -5
This is a pretty big anniversary right here. It began on Sept. 9 and continued into Sept. 10.Charles is able to get the first five questions correct without any help. He also has previously been a fastest finger contestant and for couples Millionaire with Diana as well. Of course, you know Diana and her brother, Adrian Pollock, both won 32,000. As I think I've pointed out on here before, David Edwards (Known as Dave Edwards in that episode) was a fastest finger contestant when Pollock got into the hot seat. He uses lifelines on the first two questions on the 2,000 and 4,000 questions. He asks the audience on who Gail's daughter is in Coronation Street and where the River Foyle is, he phones-a-friend. This leaves him with one lifeline left after answering the first seven questions. Charles will be back tomorrow night. Actually, this was the anniversary of the taping date, not the proposed air date, but since that proposed air date never happened (for obvious reasons we'll get to tomorrow) I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Also, I'd like to ask to do Part 2 of the Charles Ingram story.  |
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Post by millionairenut on Sept 9, 2018 14:14:41 GMT -5
This is a pretty big anniversary right here. It began on Sept. 9 and continued into Sept. 10.Charles is able to get the first five questions correct without any help. He also has previously been a fastest finger contestant and for couples Millionaire with Diana as well. Of course, you know Diana and her brother, Adrian Pollock, both won 32,000. As I think I've pointed out on here before, David Edwards (Known as Dave Edwards in that episode) was a fastest finger contestant when Pollock got into the hot seat. He uses lifelines on the first two questions on the 2,000 and 4,000 questions. He asks the audience on who Gail's daughter is in Coronation Street and where the River Foyle is, he phones-a-friend. This leaves him with one lifeline left after answering the first seven questions. Charles will be back tomorrow night. Actually, this was the anniversary of the taping date, not the proposed air date, but since that proposed air date never happened (for obvious reasons we'll get to tomorrow) I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Also, I'd like to ask to do Part 2 of the Charles Ingram story. Go ahead, but I will chime in on the discussion. |
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Post by jon on Sept 10, 2018 19:02:07 GMT -5
Well, guys, this is it. As we start a brand new season over here, let's look east for another great anniversary, the 17th anniversary of the Charles Ingram scandal. *insert giant wall of text here*
We continue our story not with the next episode, but after the first night's taping. After taping, Charles and Diana call Tecwen Whittock, who is in the Fastest Finger First chair right behind Charles in Night 2. In court (later on in the story), Diana mentions she's never spoken to Tecwen or even knew what he looked like. Anyways, they come up with a plan to cheat the system, as, understandably, no one expected him to get much further. The staff expected him to get to £16,000 at most, as Chris stated his chances of getting to the second milestone were the chances of "going to the moon in a rocket." Little did they know, they were all about to be proved wrong...for about ten minutes. With that said, let's move onto the main event, shall we?
Night 2, 10 September 2001. After the intro, Chris asks if Charles has a strategy. "I was a bit defensive on the last show, I started talking myself out of answers that, frankly, I should've known or did know, so this time I'm going on the counter attack." Yeah, sure, buddy. Keep talking, you're digging your grave further.
Anyways, question 8, first question of the night. He gets a question asking who the second husband of Jacqueline Kennedy is. He says he's not too certain, but says he thinks it could be Aristotle Onassis. And immediately after Charles says that, Tecwen coughs. Their coughing plan is underway. And now, this.
"One of my sub-strategies is to take my time."
"Oh, you've got a sub-strategy as well?"
"Yes, I have a sub-strategy."
More covering up, everyone.
He says he's very confident it's Onassis, and... *cough* Tecwen delivers! Charles is now certain it's Aristotle Onassis! He answers with Aristotle Onassis, and turns out he's correct.
(It is here where suspicions of cheating really start to pick up.)
Question 9, and it's a question about where emmental cheese is from. As it's Swiss cheese, he says it's from Switzerland, and gets it correct. Keep in mind, this is the only question where he doesn't need help from Tecwen.
Question 10, this asks who had the hit UK album named "Born To Do It" released in 2000. He isn't sure, neither is Tecwen, so he uses his 50:50. Coldplay and Toploader are gone, leaving A1 or Craig David. However, both Charles and Tecwen have no clue, but Diana keeps looking towards Tecwen for the answer. So finally, there's a cough, but not from Tecwen. Diana risks the entire thing, knowing her every move is recorded, and coughs to signal he was going for a wrong answer. After a while, Charles doesn't seem to get the hint very well, so she coughs twice again, signalling to go for Craig David. Charles takes a U-Turn and goes for Craig David. And the jig seems to be, for now, up, going for commercial. And as I've got other things to do, and since I have a life myself, we're going to take a commercial break ourselves either until tomorrow or until someone else takes over. Don't go away.
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Post by millionairenut on Sept 12, 2018 14:20:27 GMT -5
Nine years ago yesterday this happened:
Lots of things can be said here. Many of us know about Aroma's win and the crazy celebration afterwards. There really was nothing like it, but this was a great game he played. He answered the first 13 questions without using a lifeline, and Frank Edoho said it's all about general knowledge, which Aroma clearly had. Aroma is another contestant who had great luck with something in his personal life coming up on Millionaire, since he actually lived in the same building as Linus Mbah, much like Judith Keppel visiting the tomb of Elanor Of Aquitaine or Gareth Kendall losing his leg, and Jeremy Clarkson brought this up.
The studio is probably the smallest I've ever seen a Millionaire studio, and notice how low to the ground Aroma and Frank were, which is a bit different than what I'm used to. This reminds me of Australian Millionaire in its early days.
Look at the way Paddy and Eddie are positioned. This is what it reminds me of with Aroma and Frank.
I see in this episode, they used the original music bed for the questions, though I think they later changed this. They used the original music bed for the questions but not for the actual theme, as the show in many countries used remixes of the original at this time.
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Post by millionairenut on Sept 16, 2018 16:18:39 GMT -5
On this date in 2006, this happened.
I sure hope James Lucy gave his wife the help she needed. He wanted to get at least 32,000, which he got, but he missed his question for 64,000.
So, that brings us a fastest finger. For those of you who are enthusiastic about other quiz shows, you might know Ian Bayley has won Brain of Britain and also Mastermind. I wonder how he would have done here.
We won't know, as Ingram Wilcox is the fastest and one of only two people to correctly get the Fastest Finger question correct. He uses his ask the audience at 1,000, then phones a friend and uses his lifeline at 32,000.
Still, as we know, being out of lifelines by the 10th question is not the end of the world. Just ask Joe Trela, Phil Gibbons, Roger Walker and Nancy Christy. Ingram displays great knowledge and has good wits about him, remembering Mr. and Mrs. Andrews as a Thomas Gainesborough painting, to which he moves on for 125,000.
He's asked in which city were the majority of the Kings of France crowned?
"It's Reims."
"Why are you so sure?"
"It's, um, it's famous for it."
Cue laughter.
That was so cool. There's a few others I liked, such as Ingram nodding on his question for 250,000 and Chris getting scared when he nods, only for Ingram to say he'll shake his head instead. He was so calm here in such an intimidating and intense game. Then he was tempted by Lake Baikal at 500,000 and went for it, giving Millionaire its first Million Pound Question in Britain since Pat Gibson in 2004. Dave Rainford could have gotten to the final question in 2005 had he gone for it, but chose to walk. Quite a few 250,000 winners could have seen the final question had they played for it.
The klaxon sounds, however, much to Chris' dismay, prompting Ingram to return a week from now. Other instances of starting a show off with the final question include Tom O'Brien in 2000 and Jeff Gross in 2004 in the U.S.
As I'm sure most, if not all of you know, Ingram is also the most recent contestant in Britain to face the final question, but you never know. That could change when the 10 episode special with Jeremy Clarkson comes back.
Maybe Ian Bayley will be a fastest finger contestant again. I'm fascinated by quiz show champions from other shows trying their luck at the hot seat. We've seen Judith Keppel, David Edwards and Pat Gibson have great success in quizzing before/after they won the million.
Barry Simmons comes to mind, having won 64,000 and Mark Labbett won 32,000. So, maybe Ian Bayley would win a more modest wage if he sat in the chair, or maybe he'd go all the way.
I'm excited to talk about Ingram again next week, and I'm even more excited for the new episodes with Jeremy that will be coming out.
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Post by millionairenut on Sept 18, 2018 11:54:24 GMT -5
Never before had somebody appeared in the hot seat twice in the same show, until September 18, 2008. It's film director Takeshi Kitano. I've said before, and will say again, how much I love how the Japanese do celebrity Millionaire with its introductions. I love the rolling of the red carpet, the grand, long entrances. They make it seem important, like it's a big deal. They also do video montages of Takeshi's life, and he brought two supporters along, as well, saying "Final Answer" in unison. Takeshi does very well, winning 1.5 million yen without using a lifeline. Then he gets to the 2.5 million yen question and phones a friend. Mino Monta build up the suspense before telling them they answered correctly, to much applause. They're able to correctly answer for 5 million yen with two lifelines to go, and use their 50-50 and Ask the Audience on the penultimate question for 7.5 Million Yen. People always talk about using the 50-50 first or Ask the Audience first. I would prefer to Ask the Audience and then narrow it down by two, though Takeshi did the opposite here. What I find really interesting here is he actually went against the audience in his first game, but it paid off. Takeshi goes for it on the final question for 10 Million Yen, but like so many before him, he incorrectly answers and goes back down to 1 Million Yen, as he was raising money for Zomahoun Idossou Rufin. He's invited back onto the show later in the night, this time by himself, but it looks like another celebrity got a turn in this video before Takeshi came back out. This time, he was given three phone-a-friends, and for only the second time ever, I see somebody using a physical phone during the phone-a-friend lifeline, with the first being Graham Elwell. He uses his first one on the question for 5 Million Yen, and two more on the 7.5 Million Yen question, but he gets this one wrong. For whatever reason, Japan didn't always show the correct answer if somebody gave an incorrect answer. For the record, here is an English translation of his questions during his first two runs. I think I saw a video of a correct answer he gave during his top prize winning run in January 2009, but I have not seen the full run. millionaire.wikia.com/wiki/Takeshi_Kitano |
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Post by millionairenut on Sept 23, 2018 20:18:10 GMT -5
Ingram returned to the hot seat:
Ingram is definitely my favorite Millionaire of the five to win the top prize in Britain. He answered the final five questions without any lifelines, and his demeanor in a game like this is truly one to behold. Hopefully he is not the last winner. We need somebody in Britain to go all the way when the show with Jeremy Clarkson returns.
Here is Ingram discussing the win:
Ingram was also on Mastermind back in 1980, when Fred Housego won. I know I've seen a video of Ingram in the chair, but I can't find it know.
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Post by millionairenut on Oct 17, 2018 20:12:22 GMT -5
We've had some pretty big anniversaries this week. First, yesterday. Peter was down two lifelines early, but he rebounded nicely to win 500,000. There are not many people who see the final question and leave a lifeline on the table. David Paterson didn't need his ask the audience for his win in South Africa, and of course, we know about John Carpenter. I wonder what other choice besides Chemist would have been had he used the 50:50, but that's incredible he lost his job and won 500,000. Steve Devlin was unemployed on his run, too. www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-78924/Contestant-lost-job-wins-500-000.htmlThen, of course, there was this: Rob got a lucky 50:50, and then he was gutsy on the $500,000 and $1,000,000 questions, choosing not to go with the audience on the 14th question. Most people probably would either have walked away or would have gone with the audience in that scenario. I read an article that Eddie McGuire had a dream that somebody won the $1,000,000 in Australia as soon as he left as the host of the show. Well, that did not happen. Some contestants such as Trevor Sauer and Maria McCabe would have won had they decided to go for it. Rob, here, actually did, fulfilling what the clairvoyant told him. The amount of preparation and determination he had should be appreciated by all, and he was a deserving contestant to be the first person in Australia to win the top prize. |
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Post by millionairenut on Nov 2, 2018 14:37:59 GMT -5
This was 18 years ago today: Kate certainly had a lot of knowledge, and she knew her 250,000 question with ease. I have to say, I thought that was a pretty simple question for 125,000, at least in my opinion. She answered the first 10 questions without using a lifeline, and this is a lot where the courage comes into play. She certainly didn't have to listen to the audience. A contestant one time asked the audience on a high dollar amount question and walked away despite 90 percent voting for the right answer. Of course, the audience can be wrong, but it's quite surprising that it was such a high amount. Chris then asks her, "What have you done?" www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-woman-who-decided-she-wanted-to-be-just-a-half-millionaire-622270.htmlShe quit her job after she won. As we will see later on, November 2000 was a great month for Millionaire, both in the U.K. and the U.S. Here also is an interesting topic. www.theguardian.com/media/2002/apr/17/broadcasting.uknews1What do you think? Should somebody who is a phone-a-friend receive anything? In this case, Kate did not give her phone-a-friend anything. She certainly was not obligated to do so, but it does seem like common courtesy. |
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Post by millionairenut on Nov 7, 2018 23:57:12 GMT -5
13 years ago today was this:
I always wanted to see Martin Flood's run, and thanks to WWTBAMClassics, I have and again watched the first episode of his run tonight.
This was Martin's fourth time as a fastest finger contestant, like it was brought up on the show. He finally got into the hot seat on a question almost everybody right just like with Bernie Cullen's fastest finger. Eddie McGuire's presentation and the camera angle of the fastest finger is certainly different.
Martin dreamed of becoming a quiz show champion, and he cruised to $16,000 without any lifelines. He also had an instinct for $32,000 but polled the audience, which was correct.
I found the portion of Martin's segment from $64,000-$250,000 to be particularly impressive. Most people would have used all of their lifelines at some point. Martin aced his $64,000 question, but his $125,000 question posed a bit of a challenge. He didn't drink. He didn't watch Formula One, but he used great logic on a lesser known answer. There was some suspicion of cheating after an audience member coughed while Martin said Mumm, but this was just a coincidence.
Then came the $250,000 question. I knew right away answer D was wrong because C.S. Lewis was Clive Staples Lewis. Had he been one of the choices on the 50:50, I'd have gone for the other answer. Martin again impressed by saying the names out loud and trying to piece it together. He went for it and got it.
Being gutsy is such a big part of this show, and Martin showed it through his first 13 questions. Stay tuned next week for the conclusion of his run and stay tuned tomorrow for another anniversary.
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