It was a moment that went down in Australian television history after Rob Fulton was asked: “Which popular ‘60s TV shows premiered first?”
He looked at his girlfriend Claire in the audience and locked in Bewitched as is his answer.
After the anticipation-heightening commercial break, Eddie revealed to Rob that he was the first ever person, out of the 600 contestant who sat there before him, who walked away a millionaire!
Talking to News.com.au Rob explained that before his appearance on the show, “I was pretty much living off a credit card, I had bugger all in the savings account.”
Embarrassed by his tiny apartment and inability to take his new girlfriend out on nice dates, the games show whiz added: “I’d always wanted to go for broke on the show, I had nothing to lose.”
The moment was quite literally a dream come true for the millionaire, he told the news website, “I’d imagined myself winning quite a few times before so if you look at the replay I probably don’t look that excited, because I’d won a lot of times in my mind.”
Eddie was the man who got to play witness to it all and he discussed with News his fond memories of the 10-year-old moment.
“What was great for me is that it was totally natural, it wasn’t hyped up by a producer. It wasn’t him auditioning for his own variety show or reality show. It was just Rob,” the presented observed.
He added: “It was one of the great moments in my career in the media. Rob sat down and I just remember him being this really good guy who obviously knew his stuff.”
It took six weeks for the episode to air which meant that Rob had to keep the secret and return to work.
Not interested in a luxurious lifestyle, the 46-year-old continued in his job as a graphics operator only taking a year off to travel with Claire.
In what must have been a feeling better than winning a million dollars, Rob finally married his long-time partner in 2010.
Still one for the simple life though, the Sydneysider now has two daughters under five and lives with his family in their Blue Mountains home.
“We’re having a pretty nice life at the moment,” he said, before revealing that they still have some money left over from the original winnings.
The father-of-two would love to have another crack at a game show, in particular Eddie McGuire’s new quiz program Millionaire Hot Seat, but he added “I can’t see it happening.”
Rob may be in luck though, with the famed game show host explaining: “I’d love to add another million dollars to his bank account and I’d argue in his defence that it’s a different format so he’s eligible to play, I’ll be chatting very long and hard to our producers and might even put in a personal plea to David Gyngell to get him back on the show.”
