On March 7, 2001, I sat in a television studio in New York across from Regis Philbin and answered multiple choice questions until I missed. I wound up winning $32,000 at this little exercise, and along the way, Regis and I talked about my nude modeling job in front of the studio audience and the many cameras.

That episode aired four days later, on Sunday night, March 11th. I went to the store that day, and as I was checking out I looked around at everyone and wondered how many of them would be watching me that night. All they had to do was tune their televisions to ABC. In fact, that applied to anyone in the country, all 250 million of them. It was such a surreal experience. And for a few days after the show aired, people did double takes when they saw me, many of them actually approaching and talking to me as if they knew me, asking about the show and the money I had won.

It’s hard to believe that it has been seventeen years since that amazing experience, but I have grown older. My kids have grown up. My toddler son is now a father himself.

Here’s the video of my appearance on the show (D.H. Jonathan is a pen name I used when publishing The “Volunteer”).