Penn State Employee On Quest For One Million Dollars
October 9, 2000

Photo: Courtesy of ABC

In New York City, Penn State employee Robin Riglin and her husband, Jim, had a little time to eat dinner and visit a museum before heading to the first meeting where they met the other eight contestants that evening. The next morning, they had to rise early and head to the ABC studio by 6:45 a.m. for extensive meetings about ground rules, game strategies, and biographical interviews.

"The staff really does try to help you," said Riglin. The contestants rehearsed pushing the buttons on the consoles for the "fast-finger" preliminary round and getting in and out of the chairs and the hot seat itself.

The actual set of the game show — the dramatic music, the lights, the clear floor and the hot seat — is designed to make the contestants nervous, she recalled, but the staff and the host Regis Philbin worked to make it a "relaxing atmosphere." "Regis is very personable, and he is easy to converse with," said Riglin, 32, a research administrator with the University’s Office of Sponsored Programs. "He even talked about Penn State football with my husband."

After lunch, it was show time. The first "fast-finger" question was about musical devices and the second was about the location of beaches. The third time was the charm for Riglin. "I was so mad at myself for missing the first two questions, that as soon as the third question about U.S. Olympic gold medalists went up, I knew I was going to get it," she recalled.

And she did. Finally sitting on the coveted hot seat, Riglin doesn’t remember some of the questions but she whipped through them and nailed the correct final answers until the $1000 point when the end-of-the-show horn blared. However, the next show was being pre-recorded the same day so she was to continue her momentum only a few hours later.

A law school graduate, Riglin sailed smoothly until the $8000 level where she finally had to use a lifeline, polling the audience on a question about the fairy-tale character Rumpelstilskin. Successful, she continued until she had to use another lifeline, reducing the choices to two, dubbed "50-50," about countries and flags.

"I was more nervous before the show, I was more relieved when I got to the hot seat," she said. "As you go along, you really don’t know what level you are at. You are thinking about the next question."

The $500,000 question about a 1925 advertising slogan and related consumer product finally stumped Riglin. She called her father, who was her "phone-a-friend" lifeline, but he didn’t know the answer either, so she walked away with the $250,000 prize.

"For the first few days, I was mad at myself for not getting the last question, but I realized that I didn’t want to lose what I won already," she remembered. In all, that prize made her the third most successful woman contestant in the show’s history.

The Riglins are considering paying off bills with the prize money and making some investments. When she returned to work, her colleagues had decorated her office in celebration.

"Everyone was thrilled," she said. "It’s just a great office and staff. The whole thing has been a fantastic experience."