I’m an old guy, 74 next month, and I remember watching the episodes with Dan Blonsky in particular since he was playing the week of my 50th birthday (important only to me). I was recently divorced and living alone, although I was at a friend's house one night and the same person was at my place the night he won. Dan was such a confident player and now, almost 24 years later, I’d guess he still is. I loved Who Wants to be a Millionaire and watched it faithfully every night it was on.
@@Mark-wx6xr As the contestant himself said, all the answer choices revolve around the number 93 million. No you don't need to know the answer already.
@@Mark-wx6xr From the childhood we were all told the fact that light from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach the earth. The speed of light is also a well known thing 300.000 km per sec. It took me about half a minute to do the math and convert it into miles (i am from Europe) As a result i got 100 million miles which is close to correct answer
Indeed, why would someone know who was on the cover of a magazine issued almost 50 years ago? "Hollywoodland" is also one of those useless trivia things to know, nobody needs to know that (I did happen to know, by chance). But knowing at least approximately how far the earth is away from the sun is something every educated person should be capable of. It's not like the answers were 91 mio, 92 mio, 93 mio and 94 mio ...
@@n.b.380 The distance is actually called "astronomical unit" and it's not that hard to know it is roughly 150 mio km. That combined with knowing how many km there are in a mile immediately leads to the correct answer. 🙂
I still remember the distance from a 4th grade musical I was in in 1960! These questions were a bit harder than the ones the first million dollar winner had, but they still were amazingly easy for a lot of money...
Great job! No hesitation in any of his answers! I still have the first issue of People magazine from 1974 with Mia Farrow on the cover! The last two questions were super easy to me!
I haven't watched this programme in yrs, but here in the UK the host usually asks (especially with high amounts at stake) the contestant whether they want the amount divulged to the 'phone a friend'. Personally I always thought that was fair.
Oh Danny boy, you are a millionaire. From glen to glen and down the mountainside. 😂 Dan Blonsky became the second person to win $1 MILLION on the us version of who wants to be a millionaire in 2000.
It is funny how the questions break down. I was 10 when I watched this the night it happened and I knew the answer. But I definitely didn't know who was on Laugh In lol
I cant believe someone would say that about John Carpenter. He didnt have his parents there at the spot so he called them in a way that was allowed (its not like you could pick up your phone and call them).
I live outside of the US, hence I don't know the pledge of allegiance, so wouldn't have even got to sit in the chair. We don't have pink slips here, I've never played cat's cradle or smoked a cigar, so even if I was in the chair, I would have blown my lifelines and possibly still not made it to the $1,000. But I knew Lassie was a collie ($300), cells in an amoeba ($500), WTC ($4k), Colombia ($16k), Hollywoodland ($32k), Switzerland (125k), Mia Farrow ($500k) and I still remember the distance between the earth and the sun from my schooldays in the 1960s. But would have flunked all the others, and therefore got nowhere. My point being that for me personally, the early questions were just as difficult (or easy, whichever way you look at it) as the later ones. Anyway, all kudos to Dan, he played the perfect game and I'm delighted for him, he seemed like a real down-to-earth kind of guy, and I bet he got his 'personal issues' sorted pretty darn quickly after the win !!
Never heard of cat's cradle either, that one, the comedians for 64k and the 250k one about Betty Ford (although I'd have guessed that one right, but no way I would have taken the risk) were typical questions that could only be asked in one specific country. No chance with those. But the more "international" ones were quite simple actually. Only the question about People magazine was really tough, but for half a million, completely fair.
I remember watching this episode live. The easiest million dollar question of all time. I was 9 when this episode aired and knew immediately. Almost rigged if you ask me.
He was already an accountant and my favourite winners and half-mil winners were the less well off ones (Kevin Smith, Justin the DMO, Bob-O) but I respect good game and good learning. He seems nice.
Dan Blonsky was on the shows on Jan. 16 & 18, 2000. 6:50 "Which NYC building was bombed by terrorists in 1993?" 19:00 "Which celebrity appeared on the first cover of People?" How do we know Jeff didn't just look it up online? Yes, they had internet back then 21:00 Actually the million dollar question is something any 4th graders would know.
This is the one million dollar question that I knew the answer with no hesitation. That stuck in my head in HS when I learned it. Easiest question ever!
Considering he put all the blame on this Law partner(if he was wrong) i hope he gave him 100k+ because without him he would have walked away on 250k and not won 1 million.
To quote the first "Millionaire"-Winner: "after the taxes, it's not change-your-life kind of money if you want to eat every day." Adjusted for Inflation the Million Dollar in 2000 would be worth around 1,7 Million Dollars now. As Winnings are considered Income and a yearly income of 1,7 Million will place you in the highest tax-bracket you will pay about 37-50% taxes, so you will be left with about 1,1 Million to 850.000 $. Sure, that is nothing to scoff at but you know.... You buy a nice house, you put something to the side for the future and that Million is gone fast.
@@RConnickJr That depends what you mean with the general term "people". Do you mean "world population"? To get an accurate assessment, you would have to adjust the winnings to the local PCI, as the show does in other Countries.
@@Marcel_Augustin The median lifetime earnings for the world's workers is a bit under two million dollars. Putting aside the fact that by definition that means a massive amount of people make significantly less than that, that means that even today getting one million dollars in a single lump sum would be a massive windfall. You aren't very good at this game.
man, i would answer the question because i know the speed of light (who doesnt) and i knew it takes aproximmately 8 minutes to reach earth, i calculated 144M km and 1 mile is about 1.6 km so there was no other suitable answer
I only watched the very last bit so I assume there were some pretty hard questions, but how on Earth can that be a $1million question. I knew the answer to that when I was 6 years old.
Guarantee you the original run of “Millionaire“ would’ve lasted longer (although 1999/2002 isn’t a bad run at all,) had ABC kept it on one night a week instead of getting greedy/overconfident and over exposing it.
@@Trep3 Why should it been more difficult back then - Were they still measuring and not sure about the distance? I didn't know it by heart, and I use metric system - With 3 small & rounded calculations I have ended up at 90 millions. Close enough to give a call. Way too easy for the million-$-question.
I just hate the million dollar question, it's super easy if you were a 90s kid I guess that kept getting tought about the solar system and such, random questions earlier would've got me but the million dollar question was so easy
considering how easy questions were back then ^^ and the questions suck in every country now. especially German questions are straight out of wonderland, even with a very good education and a physics degree + reading all day you wouldnt probably be able to do 32k without a joker.
It's kind of weird to ask a pretty subjective question at a million, with ZERO clarification about Earth's "generally accepted distance" or "Earth's average distance...". I guess it's made to be tough, but also opening the door for technicalities.
Speed of light is 300million m/s (common knowledge) A mile is 1609m, approximate to 1500 for simple maths 300million÷1500 200,000miles per second 12 million miles per minute Light takes 8 minutes to reach the Earth from the sun. I heard many times the fact that if the sun disappeared right now it wokld take 8 minutes for us to find out
the actual distance in miles 186,282.4 miles per sec and its only 299792.458 metres close to 300k but not quite the time is 8 min 20 secfr 186,262.4 x 500 = 93141200 miles
@@vincenzofranchelli2201 but being almost 300 km or miles is a bit of a distance every second that is about how much off the round figures are for the extra seconds you ar twice the distance acorss the the US off. At thatspeeds in the tmie it takes you to sneeze you have gone 186Mi 300KM
why hurry the winners away so fast. At least an interview after and let them share their thoughts on the win and how what was going through his mind at the final question.
If time is remaining they want to get th next player in playing. At the end of the first episode they gave the names o the players for the next game after Jeff left. If they talked to jeff they would lose any chance t making money. he takes until te end of gsame none of those mention even get to play a fast finger question
As a resident of the UK, its interesting to know nothing of US culture and yet I do 'OK' at the UK version. I wonder if US residents watch the UK version and think the same?
This was refreshing to watch. The first guy to ever win the million was a bit of a douche, so it was cool to see the excitement and gratitude from Dan Blonsky (and his mom).
