Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Come On Down

Chuck Woolery stepped onto the set of Fox television's game show "Super Greed." The audience cheered and the camera panned from contestant to contestant for brief introductions, finally landing on Phyllis Harris, who declared with unrelenting fervor, "I'm a Las Vegas homemaker and a gamblin' gal."

"They told me to say that," Harris said later with a knowing smile while watching the taped episode in her living room.

"They ask you to give them a show," she said. "They're giving you a lot of money."

Harris would know. As a serial game show contestant, she's familiar with TV protocol. She's also familiar with the large sums of money that can be won by contestants who know odd tidbits of information.

Since 1979 Harris has garnered $435,300 in cash for her appearances on "Super Greed," "Trivia Trap," "Scrabble," "Card Sharks" and "Wheel of Fortune." (And of course, a small assortment of consolation prizes a juicer, a lamp, Lee Press-On Nails and Eskimo Pie coupons.)

"I do it for the money," said the attorney-turned-housewife-turned-voice-over artist who is a mother of two. "It's a great supplement to your income and it's a whole lot of fun."

Because of her monstrous winnings Harris is ranked No. 31 out of 103 people on a national list for all-time network TV quiz or game show cash winners, according to the online service Game Show Convention Center, which chronicles cash winners from network game shows. She recently appeared on ABC's "20/20" for a segment on game-show contestants titled, "The Know It Alls."

Her journey through the land of wheel spinning, bell ringing, finger-crossing, tantalizing questions, guessing games and sentence completion began 22 years ago when Harris, then a New Jersey resident, spent a summer in Los Angeles working at her father's business.

As Harris flipped through an entertainment trade paper she saw an ad seeking contestants for the game show "Card Sharks."

"The day I went down there they put me on the show," she said. "I won $9,300. It was more than (the cost of) my entire college education."

Harris told herself, "If I ever have the chance to do this again, I'm going to."

And she did. After graduating from law school at UCLA Harris decided once again to try her luck at game shows.

"I'm not fanatical," she said. "It's just an interesting part of my life, like watching football. Believe me, if I could play football I would."

Harris said she doesn't read trivia books, nor does she make studying for game shows her "life's work."

"I just happen to have a mind that retains stupid information for a long time," she said.

This didn't make her hugely popular at parties, but it did prove fruitful on television game shows, as well as for passing the bar exam.

Knowing that the movie "The Joy Luck Club" was set in San Francisco won her $200,000 on "Super Greed" in May.

Guessing which soft drinks had the biggest market share in 1999 won her and her teammates $1 million on "Super Greed," and knowing that Clarence Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court in the same decade that Michael Jackson wed Lisa Marie Presley, Jerry Garcia died and Johnny Carson's final episode of "The Tonight Show" boosted their total winnings to $2 million.

"Most people who choose to do this have an incredibly broad range of knowledge, not so much a deep range," Harris said. "Strategy is also important."

On the ABC hit game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," "knowing how to use your lifelines is a huge strategy issue," she said. "On 'Greed,' (knowing) the fourth answer is the killer."

Knowing when to take the money and run or continue playing the game can also benefit a contestant.

On "Super Greed" Harris was given the option to go on to play for $4 million, but declined because her teammates had also declined so that they could keep their money rather than risk it. "As much money as that is, I can't do it without these guys," Harris told Woolery on the show. "I'm going home."

Not surprisingly, "Super Greed" was her favorite show to appear on. One of her teammates on the show, David Juliano, was also a Las Vegas resident and dealt craps at New York-New York. Since the show the two have become close friends.

Although they shared the bus to the studio, they hadn't even spoken until after the show was over, when they were waiting outside for the limo, she said.

"We were all freaking out and started hugging," Harris said. "I mean, it was a lot of money we'd just won."

Harris said that she's applied to be on other "millionaire shows," such as "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Twenty-One" but so far "Greed" representatives were the only ones to return her call.

"It takes a lot of skill to get there," Harris said of appearing on the game shows. "You have to jump through a lot of hoops. Once you get there it's luck. The questions are very random."

Still, TV audiences are likely to see her again.

"I'm going to try to get on whatever show comes up next," she said.

Right now Harris is at a standstill. Network policies state that people can be contestants on game shows only once a year for a maximum of three times in a 10-year period. Harris must wait until May to apply for another show.

"Every show was a fun show," she said. "Everyone there was having a good time. The contest coordinators are awesome. Their job is to pump you up."

Unlike her friends and the others she encourages to participate in game shows, she's never worried about embarrassing herself or freezing up on the show. It's just not like her, she said.

"If someone asks, 'Who wants to try something new?', if I can do it physically I'll do it," she said.

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