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The first million-dollar win!
The big million-dollar question was as follows:
All of us in Internet-land are very proud of John Carpenter for making television history, and we hope that there will be many more contestants to win such an amount of money in the future. According to the ABC Web site, after John won the million, he gave some of it back to our good friends at AT&T by making long-distance phone calls to family and friends, he went out to dinner, and TRIED to sleep. As for what to do with the money, he plans to take his wife to Paris, buy a nice gift for his brother's wedding, and make a donation to the Boston Red Sox.
A Salute to Game Shows © 1999-2001 Ben F. Schumin, Chris-Place.com. All rights reserved. |
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The first person to win the big million dollar prize was an IRS agent named John
Carpenter, on November 19, 1999. He went into the million dollar question with all
three of his lifelines intact. Regis commented that he "didn't need those
stinking lifelines".
The
answer, known as "the final answer heard all around the world", was B, Richard
Nixon. Getting there, John did something interesting. He used his
phone-a-friend lifeline to call his father. No problem here. However, you know
what he said? He didn't need his father's help... he just wanted to tell him that he
was going to win the million dollars! I have a feeling that many people (including
myself) would have done the same thing!
When
the million dollars was won, the whole show went into celebration mode, with confetti
falling from the ceiling. We first saw this happen for an episode of Spin City,
where Paul Lassiter (played by Richard Kind) won the big million. But this was for
real! John's wife came on stage and they shared a celebratory embrace, and then
Regis wished them both good luck, and they both, for lack of a better phrase, rode off
into the sunset. We 
saw
them again at the end of the show with the next contestant and Regis telling all the folks
at home goodbye and see you tomorrow.