Watch Regis Philbin psyche out Norm MacDonald on a 2000 episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
Aux Features Regis Philbin
It takes nerves of cold steel to anchor as much live television as Regis Philbin did in his long career. Now, following his death on Saturday, fans are celebrating Philbin’s trademark unflappability by recirculating an old episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire that finds the host deftly navigating the high-stakes drama of a million dollar question as he terrorizes celebrity contestant Norm Macdonald, who’s usually the one doing the terrorizing.
After an introduction in which Philbin pats Macdonald’s head as if he were a child, he pokes and prods until the comedian’s poker face, so rarely torn asunder, collapses into a vortex of anxiety. Having used up his last lifeline, Macdonald approaches the final question—Which golf course has a Cold War-era bunker beneath it?—with trepidation. He’s as riled up as we’ve ever seen him, spurred on no doubt by the high stakes—he’s playing for Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp—but also by Philbin’s straight-faced probing. “You got a little gambling streak in you, don’t you?” Philbin asks, knowing full well that Macdonald does. “You wanna see if you can beat the game, don’t you? You wanna win a million dollars, don’t you?” The audience is on the edge of their seat. Macdonald is squirming, hopping between two answers
Unable to potentially sacrifice the half a million he’s already raised for the camp, Macdonald eventually buckles under Philbin’s ribbing, only for the host to dramatically reveal that Macdonald’s shaky guess was the correct one. It’s not only great TV, but further evidence that Philbin could keep up with (and sometimes shake up) the best comedians in show business. Macdonald clearly revered him, too. In a 2017 tweet, he said that he was still hoping to work with the host one day. “[S]till the best,” he wrote.
Watch Macdonald’s full game in its entirety below. You can jump ahead to 24:30 for the final question, or start from the beginning to learn that he and Kato Kaelin had been friends for 15 years by that point.
[via Digg]
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16 Comments
And that golf course was named?You guessed it: Frank Stallone.
Or so the Germans would have us believe.
All the stars are here!
Supposedly, Norm kept looking for a “tell” on Philbin’s face for what the right answer was, similar to a poker game. Only problem is that Regis didn’t have the answers in front of him either, so trying to game the system like that wasn’t going to work.
I’ve seen more than a few people blame Regis for this, but Norm was clearly mass wild guessing here, and that’s just an amazing bank he had already for the charity. That said, Norm blowing everyone’s expectations away with his run is the greatest Millionaire moment ever, even more than the actual winners.
This version of Celebrity Millionaire was repeated a few weeks (?) later with pop-up video facts, and it said that Norm was pretty confident about this final question because he had read an article recently in Time magazine that contained this fact. But it was for charity and he wasn’t 100% sure so he let Regis talk him out of going for it.
This is the kind of content I like from the ‘Great Job, Internet’ column, Norm MacDonald videos. I’ll watch them all day.
Goddammit, I’m going to miss Regis. That was such a great moment.
Oh snap, ABC ENHANCED TV
It’s weird for me, that being the final question, because I grew up in WV (where the Greenbrier is) and I knew that before I got out of junior high. I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who didn’t know that.
I wonder why Pinehurst was the obvious answer at first. I live kinda close to Pinehurst, but the distance alone makes no sense for it to be a safe haven for people from DC.
Maybe it’s the only one of those places he’d heard of or knew anything about?
I only knew this because it’s a location in Fallout: 76.
I do kind of feel like Norm came close enough where the show should have made up the difference. It’s only 500k, and it’s for charity, and it would be great pr. It’s a win win
A few weeks (?) after this version of Celebrity Millionaire aired, ABC re-aired it but with Pop-Up Video style facts for all the contestants. The only two ones for Norm that I remember are:1) For the Fastest Finger question, he *hated* the “spell ‘Norm’ question. He wanted an actual question to “win”, even though he was the last celebrity left.2) For the final question, he was pretty sure of the answer because he had read an article in Time magazine recently that mentioned this bunker. But because it was for charity and not his own money he didn’t go for it.
Regis: “Why do you guess Sorel?”
Norm: “Because Scrod, Sole and Skate are all fish … dumbass.”Norm is so awesome here.