September 4, 2023 • 9 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
I'm Seth Andrews said, what you'reabout to hear is a true story.
These days, game shows with bigprizes are not all that unusual. And
by big prizes, i'm talking aboutmore than just the prices, right kind
(00:23):
of thing. You get a vacationpackage and maybe a new car, good
stuff, right, But let's dothe math on that. A weekend Florida
and a new Toyota that might cometo we'll call it fifty grand. Toss
in some furniture and maybe some appliancessixty grand. That would be chump change
(00:45):
to a guy like John Carpenter,a contestant on Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire. He'd actually never heard ofthe show before he heard his wife's friends
talking about it. They brought itup on the TV and he played along,
and he said he was shocked,shocked at how easy all of these
questions were, and he decided hewas going to give it a shot.
(01:11):
Now, remember this is nineteen ninetynine. Nobody had seen a game show
that gave out money at this level, and it was high profile. Usually
game shows ran between the soap operasduring the weekday, but this show ran
in prime time back in the latenineteen nineties and it took the world by
storm. It's basically a quiz showfifteen multiple choice questions. The first one
(01:37):
is alarmingly easy for small money,and then you move up the chain with
increasing difficulty. You get three lifelines. If you get stock, you can
phone a friend, you can askthe audience, or do the fifty fifty
where they take out two wrong answersso you have a better chance of getting
(01:57):
the right one. And as yougo up the tiers there are benchmarks where
you can decide to play it safeand take the money and run. But
if you decide to go on andyou get one of the answers wrong,
you lose everything. This was highstakes, entertaining stuff. So here we
were November nineteenth, nineteen ninety nine, John Carpenter in the hot seat.
(02:23):
The first question for one hundred dollarsin the Warner Brothers cartoon what sound did
the road Runner make? You?See what I mean about the astoundingly easy
start, But John was moving upthe board. A dance name that's also
used to name a dot a polkafor three hundred dollars. The only football
(02:49):
position that can be sacked the quarterback. That's two thousand dollars. Which Steven
Spielberg movie Climax is at Devil's TowerClose Encounters for eight thousand dollars. You're
playing along here, aren't you.I can hear you playing along. But
the final five questions they were nopicnic. They were pretty tough. And
(03:14):
I'm going to give you all fivehere and you can play along for fun.
Question eleven for sixty four thousand dollars. What mythological beast is reborn from
its own ashes? The multiple choiceswere the phoenix, the dragon, the
minotaur, and the golumn. Turnsout that the phoenix can be reborn from
(03:39):
its own ashes. The twelfth questionfor John Worth one hundred twenty five thousand,
and I bet you actually know thisone who developed the first effective polio
vaccine, Jonas Salk. And youmight know thirteen as well. Which religion
(03:59):
is is not a monotheism? Ithas more than one God? Is it
Islam, Hinduism, Judaism or Christianity? If you had said Hinduism, you
would have won a quarter million dollars. We're almost there. Question fourteen for
five hundred k what architect designed theglass pyramid at the Louver Oh I had
(04:28):
to go look this one up.John Carpenter actually knew the answer. He
said it was a man named IAm pay Pei. Correct. At the
five hundred thousand dollars tier with onequestion to go, John had not used
a single lifeline. He had goneall the way up the chain without any
(04:51):
help. He'd done it all alone. And here he was at question fifteen
for a prize that no previous canTestant had ever achieved, the ultimate million
dollar prize, and the question waswhich US president appeared on the television series
(05:14):
laugh In, Wait a Minute,Talk about a niche question. Laugh In
was a sketch comedy show that ranthirty years before. This was back in
the late sixties and early nineteen seventies. John was only thirty one. This
was thirty years ago, and helooked at his four choices. Which president
(05:35):
appeared on laugh In? Was itLyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon
or Gerald Ford? And in thatmoment, John decided it was finally time
to use a lifeline. He wasgoing to phone a friend and he decided
to call his father, and aftertalking to his dad, John gave his
(06:00):
final answer, the correct answer thepresident who appeared on laugh In was Richard
Nixon. It was an amazing dayfor a man who worked in collections with
the Internal Revenue Service. He paidforty percent in taxes. Wow, forty
(06:24):
percent, that's four hundred thousand dollars. But still John got to keep six
hundred k. He called that lifechanging money, if not independently wealthy money.
He did not quit his job.He took a new position as an
adviser. His wife went from fulltime work to part time work, and
(06:44):
he indulged just a little bit.He bought a brand new BMW five twenty
eight, a new mobile phone,which was novel at the time, and
a new digital camera to take photosof their new family dog. And here's
the best part of this story.On that November day in nineteen ninety nine,
(07:05):
as he sat in that chair oninternational television, John didn't actually use
that lifeline, not in the sensethat you and I think about it.
Yeah, he called his dad,but he didn't ask about the Laughin President.
(07:27):
He didn't pose a question to hisdad at all. Would you like
to hear what actually happened? Here'sthe audio. I'd like to call my
parents right now. Sure, usemy lifeline. Call my parents. What
are their names? My father,I'll talk to my father, does name
(07:49):
to friends at AT and T willget to your dad on the line and
we'll see if he can help you. Hello, Hello Tom, Hi,
reades philbin here from who Wants toBe a Millionaire. Hi. We've got
your son John with us right now. He's doing pretty well good. He's
(08:09):
one of a half billion dollars andhe's going for a million dollars and he
needs your help to get there.So he's gonna come on the line.
Read a question, four possible answers, one of them is the right answer,
and the next voice you hear willbe John's John. You've got thirty
seconds, starts right now. Hi, Dad, Hi, and I really
(08:33):
needs your help. I just wantedto let you know that I'm going to
win the million dollars. And thatstory of every Man and Game Show contestant
John Carpenter, who climbed a fifteenquestion ladder all by himself to win a
(08:56):
million bucks is a true story.True Stories podcast dot Com
I'm Seth Andrews said, what you'reabout to hear is a true story.
These days, game shows with bigprizes are not all that unusual. And
by big prizes, i'm talking aboutmore than just the prices, right kind
(00:23):
of thing. You get a vacationpackage and maybe a new car, good
stuff, right, But let's dothe math on that. A weekend Florida
and a new Toyota that might cometo we'll call it fifty grand. Toss
in some furniture and maybe some appliancessixty grand. That would be chump change
(00:45):
to a guy like John Carpenter,a contestant on Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire. He'd actually never heard ofthe show before he heard his wife's friends
talking about it. They brought itup on the TV and he played along,
and he said he was shocked,shocked at how easy all of these
questions were, and he decided hewas going to give it a shot.
(01:11):
Now, remember this is nineteen ninetynine. Nobody had seen a game show
that gave out money at this level, and it was high profile. Usually
game shows ran between the soap operasduring the weekday, but this show ran
in prime time back in the latenineteen nineties and it took the world by
storm. It's basically a quiz showfifteen multiple choice questions. The first one
(01:37):
is alarmingly easy for small money,and then you move up the chain with
increasing difficulty. You get three lifelines. If you get stock, you can
phone a friend, you can askthe audience, or do the fifty fifty
where they take out two wrong answersso you have a better chance of getting
(01:57):
the right one. And as yougo up the tiers there are benchmarks where
you can decide to play it safeand take the money and run. But
if you decide to go on andyou get one of the answers wrong,
you lose everything. This was highstakes, entertaining stuff. So here we
were November nineteenth, nineteen ninety nine, John Carpenter in the hot seat.
(02:23):
The first question for one hundred dollarsin the Warner Brothers cartoon what sound did
the road Runner make? You?See what I mean about the astoundingly easy
start, But John was moving upthe board. A dance name that's also
used to name a dot a polkafor three hundred dollars. The only football
(02:49):
position that can be sacked the quarterback. That's two thousand dollars. Which Steven
Spielberg movie Climax is at Devil's TowerClose Encounters for eight thousand dollars. You're
playing along here, aren't you.I can hear you playing along. But
the final five questions they were nopicnic. They were pretty tough. And
(03:14):
I'm going to give you all fivehere and you can play along for fun.
Question eleven for sixty four thousand dollars. What mythological beast is reborn from
its own ashes? The multiple choiceswere the phoenix, the dragon, the
minotaur, and the golumn. Turnsout that the phoenix can be reborn from
(03:39):
its own ashes. The twelfth questionfor John Worth one hundred twenty five thousand,
and I bet you actually know thisone who developed the first effective polio
vaccine, Jonas Salk. And youmight know thirteen as well. Which religion
(03:59):
is is not a monotheism? Ithas more than one God? Is it
Islam, Hinduism, Judaism or Christianity? If you had said Hinduism, you
would have won a quarter million dollars. We're almost there. Question fourteen for
five hundred k what architect designed theglass pyramid at the Louver Oh I had
(04:28):
to go look this one up.John Carpenter actually knew the answer. He
said it was a man named IAm pay Pei. Correct. At the
five hundred thousand dollars tier with onequestion to go, John had not used
a single lifeline. He had goneall the way up the chain without any
(04:51):
help. He'd done it all alone. And here he was at question fifteen
for a prize that no previous canTestant had ever achieved, the ultimate million
dollar prize, and the question waswhich US president appeared on the television series
(05:14):
laugh In, Wait a Minute,Talk about a niche question. Laugh In
was a sketch comedy show that ranthirty years before. This was back in
the late sixties and early nineteen seventies. John was only thirty one. This
was thirty years ago, and helooked at his four choices. Which president
(05:35):
appeared on laugh In? Was itLyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon
or Gerald Ford? And in thatmoment, John decided it was finally time
to use a lifeline. He wasgoing to phone a friend and he decided
to call his father, and aftertalking to his dad, John gave his
(06:00):
final answer, the correct answer thepresident who appeared on laugh In was Richard
Nixon. It was an amazing dayfor a man who worked in collections with
the Internal Revenue Service. He paidforty percent in taxes. Wow, forty
(06:24):
percent, that's four hundred thousand dollars. But still John got to keep six
hundred k. He called that lifechanging money, if not independently wealthy money.
He did not quit his job.He took a new position as an
adviser. His wife went from fulltime work to part time work, and
(06:44):
he indulged just a little bit.He bought a brand new BMW five twenty
eight, a new mobile phone,which was novel at the time, and
a new digital camera to take photosof their new family dog. And here's
the best part of this story.On that November day in nineteen ninety nine,
(07:05):
as he sat in that chair oninternational television, John didn't actually use
that lifeline, not in the sensethat you and I think about it.
Yeah, he called his dad,but he didn't ask about the Laughin President.
(07:27):
He didn't pose a question to hisdad at all. Would you like
to hear what actually happened? Here'sthe audio. I'd like to call my
parents right now. Sure, usemy lifeline. Call my parents. What
are their names? My father,I'll talk to my father, does name
(07:49):
to friends at AT and T willget to your dad on the line and
we'll see if he can help you. Hello, Hello Tom, Hi,
reades philbin here from who Wants toBe a Millionaire. Hi. We've got
your son John with us right now. He's doing pretty well good. He's
(08:09):
one of a half billion dollars andhe's going for a million dollars and he
needs your help to get there.So he's gonna come on the line.
Read a question, four possible answers, one of them is the right answer,
and the next voice you hear willbe John's John. You've got thirty
seconds, starts right now. Hi, Dad, Hi, and I really
(08:33):
needs your help. I just wantedto let you know that I'm going to
win the million dollars. And thatstory of every Man and Game Show contestant
John Carpenter, who climbed a fifteenquestion ladder all by himself to win a
(08:56):
million bucks is a true story.True Stories podcast dot Com
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