I didn't intentionally use the ask the audience/phone a friend combination, but it definitely is a good idea if you have properly prepared friends.

Instead, I had planned to use phone a friend from the start if ask the audience didn't give me the answer. There is no way I would have used switch the question after I had used another lifeline.

I had a choice between two of my five phone a friends to call. My cousin David studied English and is well read. I was almost certain he would have the answer. But my brother Todd has exceptional general knowledge, and was also my designated lifeline of last resort. He was sitting at my computer with a headset and a cable modem Internet connection at the ready. I had practiced phone a friend with him quite a bit to get him used to talking, typing and listening at the same time. As you heard, he was fairly certain of the right answer (Jane), and later in the call, he confirmed via Google that Jane was indeed the correct answer. I would have gone with Jane anyway, because something finally clicked for me when Todd said it.

Todd does indeed rock!


$250000- What ex-president wrote about his love for fishing in the book "Fishing For Fun and to Wash Your Soul"?

A. Harry Truman B. Richard Nixon
C. Herbert Hoover D. Dwight Eisenhower

Jeff doesn't know, so he switches the question


I have absolutely no clue. I'm familiar with when the presidents served, but not so much with their hobbies. Definitely time to switch the question. By the way, I found out after the show aired that my good friend Steve's 8-year old daughter knew the answer (she's like my niece). She had been studying the presidents, and just came back from a trip to Washington, DC with her family the weekend before the show aired.


$250000- What is the highest note on a standard 88-key piano?

A. C B. B flat
C. F sharp D. A

Yahtzee! I took a few years of piano when I was young, and this is one of those pieces of trivia burned into my skull, along with A being the lowest note. If you know anything about a piano, you know there are white keys at either end. So that rules out B flat and F sharp. Plus, I stayed with my friend Steve while I was in New York between the two tape dates. I just had helped his 6-year old son with a piano lesson the previous day.

Switch the question is a fabulous lifeline, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to use it when I really needed it. If I didn't have it, I would have used the 50:50. Whether I would have guessed or not, I don't know. I didn't spend any time thinking about the answers once I saw the first $250k question.

$500000- After nitrogen and oxygen, what is the third most abundant gas in the air?

A. Xenon B. Argon
C. Helium D. Neon

Jeff uses 50-50
50-50 left B. and D.


Argon popped into my head before the answers came up, and I was about 80% sure that it was the correct answer. Where would I know a piece of trivia like this? Well, all those years of watching Star Trek finally paid off. I have a distinct memory of the Enterprise encountering an Earth-like planet and hearing Mr Spock rattling off the composition of the atmosphere. I must have been surprised at the time that argon was the third one mentioned, because it obviously left an impression.

However, I realized I already had $250k, and I was playing for a $250k annuity (paid over 10 years). Was I really willing to risk $225k on a strong inkling based on Star Trek? Was I even sure what my name was at this point?

I decided to use the 50:50 really because I still had it, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't remembering something completely incorrectly. I remember distinctly looking at the right side of the monitor when the two answers were taken away. Neon was the only other possible option I was considering, and of course there it was after the 50:50.

As you saw, I agonized long and hard over what to do. I very nearly walked a couple of times. In fact, there was a point where Meredith asked me "final", and I answered "no". It was quite funny at the time - I heard the audience let out a collective sigh and laugh nervously.

My insides were in knots, and for the most part, the audience was dead quiet. I heard nothing but the music. Later, I heard that every member of the production crew was absolutely riveted, and all the show's executive producers had come down from their offices to watch.

Finally, I decided that I would be more full of regret if I had walked but had the right answer than if I didn't even try. Still, it was a $225k risk, and my face and body obviously showed the strain.

I don't remember Meredith faking me out when she gave me the answer. I just remember hearing that argon was correct and then collapsing after my initial celebration. I was completely spent, and felt as if I had used every bit of energy deciding what to do. Hence, the podium and I became one for quite a while.

The horn sounded and then Meredith came by to hug me and have me look up at the camera. I was aware of what I had just done, but I still wasn't quite aware of what was going on around me. That includes where the cameras were located. It sure looked much more interesting on television than I remember it being!


Jeff will return tomorrow to go for the million!!!


Well, not tomorrow actually. There was still one more show to tape that day. Once I had recovered sufficiently to walk, I was led back to the dressing room I had used between my first two programs. However, this time I was obviously in quite a state. Since I only brought two outfits, I had to change back into the blue shirt and tie I had worn on the first program.

I could barely feel anything below my neck, let alone try and put on a shirt and tie a tie. I felt like I was wearing oven mitts when changing. Plus, I knew that the break between the third and fourth shows being taped was supposed to be a short one, so I felt a little more pressure. I knew that everyone was waiting for me to come back into the studio.

When I was walked back to the studio, I had a surprise guest waiting for me under the set. It was Michael Davies. He had been listening in his office on a speaker, and wanted to talk to me before I went back into the hot seat. He told me that although they really don’t want contestants taking indefinite amounts of time when in the hot seat, I was not to feel constrained. He told me to take as much time as I needed, try and relax and reminded me to be careful.

Contestants have a series of briefing meetings with various members of the show staff before taping. These include a meeting with Trisha Miller, the show publicist, Jeff Fuhrman, the production lawyer (who puts the fear of Mickey Mouse in you about discussing your show with anyone before it airs) and Neil Bareish, the production accountant.

One of the last meetings we had was with Leigh Hampton, one of Millionaire’s executive producers. She goes over some strategies for playing the game, and she’s the one that says although there is no explicit time limit when answering the questions, if it’s apparent you’re not making progress towards answering the question, the producers will come out and talk to you.

Anyway, once my talk with Michael Davies was done, I came out behind the set to get remiked. Waiting for me were the next two contestants, Amy Henry and Jennifer Dallari. Both of them saw me and screamed “We love you, Jeff!” That really made me feel good, and it helped lighten the strain I was feeling. I did also begin to sense at that point that everyone was watching me – the staff behind the set, the audience and the production staff on the set. No worries though. I still wasn’t feeling quite like I was sharing the same space-time continuum as everyone else.

I was led to the other side of the set to make my third entrance and my second one with Meredith. She joked that I was becoming an old hand at doing this. I can’t say enough about how kind and genuine a person Meredith is, and she really helped make me feel at ease even when she was teasing me.

So out from the shadows and into the hot seat again, for the question leaked in advance and so very nearly spoiled on the Tony Danza show. (Meredith, I’d like to switch the publicist, please.)

$1,000,000
Now used to refer to a cat, the word "tabby" is derived from the name of a district of what world capital?

A. Baghdad B. New Delhi
C. Cairo D. Moscow

"Well, they used to worship cats in Egypt, so Cairo is a possibility."

Jeff has an inkling that it's Cairo, but it's just not strong enough.

Jeff walks with $500,000.


Although it seemed like I made up my mind very quickly to take the money, this wasn’t the case. To me, this was an excellent $1 million question, and a very fair one. It touches on two areas in which I’m strong – geography and word origins.

The first thing that popped into my head was the resort of Taba in the Sinai desert just across the border from Israel. That convinced me that the word “tabby” was derived from Arabic. It just had an Arabic/Hebrew kind of sound to it. So I was able to eliminate New Delhi and Moscow, and I was able to focus on Baghdad and Cairo.

I was leaning towards Cairo, because as I noted on the show, they used to worship cats in ancient Egypt. However, my geography is good enough to know that Taba is nowhere near Cairo. And Baghdad has obviously been in the news quite a bit lately, so I thought it was possible that some newsperson somewhere may have remarked that they were reporting from the town that gave us “tabby”.

I had spent every bit of energy I had agonizing over the $500k question, primarily because I thought I knew the correct answer. On the $1M question, I didn’t feel the same confidence. Thus, if I had walked, but guessed correctly, I wasn’t going to feel the same sense of regret I would have felt at $500k.

Remember, at this point, I was playing for a $37,500 per year annuity over 20 years instead of a $25,000 per year annuity over 10 years. The risk of losing $475k (even with $250k deferred) was just too much for me to take the risk without being nearly certain of the answer. After spending a significant amount of time considering the question, the answers and my options, it was finally an easy decision for me to walk. I just knew I wasn’t going to have any regrets regardless of how question 15 turned out.

After Meredith showed me the correct answer to the question, and I walked off the set (when you *leave*, you go to the *left*!), I was taken to an area under the set which is curtained off. There’s two monitors where you can watch the current hot seat player. Neil Bareish came in with his clipboard and my W-4 form at the ready for me to sign. He told me at that point that I was the first person ever to receive an annuity from the show.

Rather than going back to the green room, having my things collected and being summarily ejected onto 67th Street, I was asked to wait until the end of the last show. Unfortunately, I had to watch poor Amy Henry get her $8k question about Usher wrong. I got to meet her and her husband in the secret under-set room. She told me something interesting about my $500k question. The contestants waiting in the green room had decided that the answer couldn’t be neon, otherwise the sky would illuminate like a neon light whenever lightning struck. I don’t know if that’s actually true, but it did make me think a bit.

Once the last show had taped, I was asked to come out and shoot some promos with Meredith. Trisha Miller acted as the interviewer and asked me some questions about what I would do when confronted with the $1M question, as if I hadn’t seen it. I got to see Meredith say some very nice things about me. I figured out later that Trisha was asking the questions in a way that would allow affiliates to <insert their local news reporter here>, and create an instant news piece / cliffhanger for my last show. I still haven’t seen these clips, but I’ve been promised copies from some different sources.

I have thought about how I would have played the $1M question if I had held on to the 50:50. If I were left with Baghdad and one of the non-Arab choices, I think I would have probably played. If I were left with Baghdad and Cairo, then there was a small chance I may have talked myself into picking Cairo. However, I think the probability of me guessing between the two Arab choices would have been very low.

If I had managed to hold on to phone a friend (that is, had the audience actually helped me at $100k), then I knew I would have got the answer. I looked up “tabby” at dictionary.com the first opportunity I had access to a computer after taping. The answer was right there. One of the things I was pondering while staring at question 15 was what would have happened if I had phone a friend. I knew exactly what I would have said to my brother Todd on the phone. He had three windows open – google.com, dictionary.com and imdb.com.

Ultimately, no matter how much we all like to answer the questions on Millionaire, what makes the show compelling is watching people make life changing decisions. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have performed so well on the day, and the prize I’ve won is a life changing one for me.

11/24/04