New Hyde Park resident Daniel Madigan got his 15 minutes of fame recently on “Wheel of Fortune,” winning $4,000 in an episode that ran on April 8.
Actually, it was 20 minutes of time on the TV screen in the early evening, preceded by telephone calls from friends who had seen Madigan in a 15-second promotional spot about the episode.
“It was great to see myself on national television,” Madigan said. “It was surreal seeing me on there, and I was shouting at the TV set, hoping things would go differently.”
They didn’t. He still lost, notwithstanding the $4,000.
For Madigan, the experience at the Hollywood taping in February was a bit of a blur, which became manifest as he watched the segment.
“I don’t actually remember saying some things that I said,” he said. “It’s only 20 minutes of actual game play. And when you’re shooting it, there are no retakes.”
He watched the segment with some friends, taking a bit of ribbing about his performance, which came after watching other segments being taped before going on for his episode.
“I did hit a lot of bankrupts, so it was difficult. But it was a lot of fun too. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said.
The time goes so quickly during the taping, Madigan didn’t even have time to tell host Pat Sajack the story about his late grandmother, Katherine Barone, the family “Wheel of Fortune” fan who had inspired him to apply for a shot at being on the show.
Several years ago when he was going to film school in Los Angeles, he had an opportunity to appear on the show. But he had a conflict on the day of the taping and couldn’t go on. But his mother already had told his grandmother, who kept telling her daughter she still hadn’t seen her grandson on her favorite game show.
When his grandmother died a few years ago, Madigan thought about his missed opportunity to please her. After a grueling experience in New York at a taping to audition for the show, Madigan received a phone call several months sooner than he was told to expect it – on his grandmother’s birthday – telling him he’d made the cut.
“I think she’s somewhere smiling about it. She’s definitely proud of me,” Madigan said.
And now that he’s been bitten by the TV bug, Madigan’s thinking that he might just try to recoup with a stronger run on some other game show the next time around.
“There’s a little part of me that wants to redeem myself. Who knows? There’s ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ in New York, so I wouldn’t have to fly across the country,” he said.
