"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (1999/I) TV series 1999-2002

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Seasons:

4 | unknown

Release Date:

16 August 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Game-Show

Plot:

Contestants, selected by calling a phone number, are chosen based on their ability to arrange 4 answers to a question in the correct order the fastest...

Plot Keywords:

Audience Participation | Remake | Non Fiction

Awards:

12 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Regis Philbin

...

Himself - Host / ... (16 episodes, 1999-2009)

Runtime:

USA:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:TV-G

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

American Broadcasting Company (ABC)

Trivia:

John Carpenter, the first million-dollar winner, got all the way to the final question without using any "lifelines." The question was, "Who was the only U.S. President to appear on 'Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in'?" When Regis Philbin asked him the question, John decided to call his father for the "phone-a-friend" lifeline. Instead of asking his father for help, he told him "Um...I don't really need your help. I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to win the million dollars."

Quotes:

Regis Philbin: Is that your final answer?

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Saturday Night Live: Dylan McDermott/Foo Fighters (#25.4)" (1999)

Arguably the Greatest Gameshow Ever Made.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire, in my opinion, is one of the two greatest gameshows ever made, the other being Jeopardy. The premise is simple enough: a single contestant must answer 15 questions of continuing difficulty to win $1,000,000. Along the way they can use several life-lines to help them out.

Regis Philban makes the perfect host. He's non-obtrusive, but personable when he does get involved. He doesn't play at cheap unfunny jokes like Cash Cab's Ben Bailey, he doesn't have Ben Stein's annoying nasally voice, and he has more substance than The World Series of Pop Culture's Pat Kiernan.

The trivia varies, from extremely simple to extremely difficult. This assures that a viewer will at least be able to answer correctly, at least occasionally. And, being general-knowledge, there's something for everybody.

Most shows have far too much overblown melodrama that detracts from the show. Who Wants to be a Millionaire has unquestionably the most melodrama of any show I've yet seen, and yet it somehow works exclusively to its advantaged. Everything from the lighting to the music adds to this, even Philban himself. It's a show that has substance to it, some thick tangible feeling that makes the drama work. Everywhere else it always feels so contrived, but here it's a natural and necessary part of the show, and therein lies the difference.