Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?

Never watched this show when it aired, having thought something like, "There goes FOX again with the edgy route". Remember that in 1999 "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" came to the US and was a big hit at first for ABC. FOX decided to do its own spin, and it's doubtful the big wigs who approved the show took it seriously. As if they wanted to make a quick splash with 2 hours of tacky TV. What made "Who Wants To Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" fun was the additional controversies it generated after it aired. Was the "husband" Rick Rockwell really a multi-millionaire? What about those past criminal complaints against him? Didn't the producers of the show research this stuff? What does it say about these women who were going to marry a stranger on his perceived wealth alone? And to do on it on a TV show too. Some of the "brides" acknowledged they did the show for the trip and experience. Darva Conger became the "wife" and repeatedly distanced herself from the show like it was the morning after a bad hook up. Show deserves high marks for the entertainment value it provided.

This show started two crazes: The reality show craze and the marriage show craze. I remember seeing this. It was so silly. All day I thought of who was the mystery millionaire, and then find out it is this guy nobody knows named Rick Rockwell lol (I vaguely remembered him from the Killer Tomatoes movies). It was an interesting premise though: take a rich guy, line him up with 50 beautiful women, and marry him off to the one he likes. Sounded like a done deal, right? Wrong.

First you had a nobody like Rockwell who turns out to be the millionaire, then you have his personal life dredged up by investigative news shows and smokinggun.com, and then you have the competitors. Half of them there lied and just wanted a free trip to Vegas, and the other half seriously wanted to get married. Even its winner, Darva Conger, said she just entered to have a free trip to Vegas. Other competitors would get their 15 minutes of fame by giving exclusive interviews to their local television news outlets (In Washington DC, one competitor told how she was thankful she wasn't chosen because her BOYFRIEND wouldn't have liked that).

The show would be followed by many marriage reality shows, and even Fox went back to the Pandora's Box with Joe Millionaire. About two years later, an E! True Hollywood Story would be made detailing what went on behind the scenes (Host Jay Thomas said he advised Rick to "stay away from the blonde").

Unlike some of the marriage shows, this did more harm than good to the people involved. Rick took the annulment hard because he truly thought he would find a bride on the show. He eventually got over it and now works on the comedy club and motivational speaker circuit. Darva Conger was labeled by many as a vixen. She would also get her 15 minutes, but it would cost her a job and a life. She tried making a pay website of her own, but it was unsuccessful. She remarried in 2003, got divorced a few years later, and has stayed out of the spotlight. In the end, everyone just moved on and was forgotten (thank God).

There is nothing "real" about reality TV. If you haven't learned that by now...there's nothing really left to say. I knew what was going on from the start and didn't do it to get a husband. That's ridiculous. I - and almost all of the others - knew this was about sensationalism and not romance. It was made as entertainment NOT, real life...just like all reality TV shows. I got to spend 11 days in Vegas, all expenses paid, paid SAG-AFTRA wages plus my daily cash per diem, meals were provided and got to attend a few Vegas shows. That's why I agreed to do it. Stop believing what you see on TV and the internet is "real" because it is ALL fiction to varying degrees. But, of course, if you really believe reality shows are true...then my words are wasted. Carry on...

This one was a hoot. Everybody was getting into the reality TV show game and this was Fox's turn. This just turned out to be a bad idea all around. I guess they meant it to be a combination run at February sweeps/take off on Valentine's day. It aired the day after, Feb 15, 2000. Women competed in a beauty pageant type format for a guy who was supposed to be a multi-millionaire, but whom the girls only saw in silhouette. The winner was a veteran of the first Gulf War. The groom was ....well not all he was cracked up to be. The couple actually did get married on the show. That multi-million was actually two million and included the groom's home which was an ordinary California starter home with a toilet seat in the backyard. It turned out that he was only semi-employed as a comedian/motivational speaker. The marriage was annulled in April and never consummated.

I remember the night it aired that all of the hosts - in what is now famous fast talking Fox style - were gabbing about it. One host - don't know her name but she had bleached blonde hair and all the collagen in the world pumped into her over 60 lips- kept saying "Oh it will last, it will last." Whoever you were, I hope you did not try a career as a psychic. There are pieces of it available on youtube.

Reality shows were so new back then. Half of the contestants were there because they wanted a free trip to Vegas (like the winner) and the other half were seriously there to get married. One finalist gave an interview to her local news after it happened. She said she was glad it was not her that got chosen since her boyfriend wouldn't have liked that! The beginning of the end of civilization.

Here is a show that historians will dig up years from now as an example of TV run amuck - even if they won't ever learn about the scandal that resulted from this show.

Yes, I watched the last hour of this "show" and I found it absolutely silly, sick and tasteless...and yes, it was like watching a train wreck as Fox threw away all of its reputation it had earned as home of Homer, Bart, Mulder and Scully. Jay Thomas was probably the most smarmy host around IN HISTORY to preside over this fiasco (laughing as Rick Rockwell proposed to Darva Conger).

February 15, 2000 will go down in TV infamy - that was the day this show aired.