He Wants to Be a Millionaire--That’s His Final Answer

Jerry Halpin won’t say whether he won big, just that he won’t be quitting his day job any time soon.

Halpin, an assistant principal at Los Alamitos High School, will appear on tonight’s episode of the hit TV show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”

The rumor on campus is that the 39-year-old Cypress resident is now a wealthy man. When Halpin returned to school Thursday after taping the show that week at ABC’s studios in New York, students teased him without mercy, clamored for loans and welcomed him back with a large poster liberally sprinkled with dollar signs. But Halpin politely warded off questions until after the show airs.

“He’s been pretty tight-lipped,” said Scott Harker, also an assistant principal at the school and a friend of Halpin’s. “But you know what? It couldn’t of happened to a better guy. He’s one of the nicest guys around.”

Halpin has been around Orange County for most of his life. He grew up in Anaheim, graduated from Savannah High School and San Diego State University, and for six years taught and coached football, basketball and baseball at Loara High School. He has been an administrator at Los Alamitos for 10 years.

Word of his TV appearance spread fast. An old college buddy in Colorado called to congratulate him “because you’ve finally found a place to use all that useless trivia you’ve been storing up all these years.”

Halpin said the worst part of the experience was the pressure he put on himself to do well. He said he knew the answers to all the questions but didn’t trust his instincts enough--that’s all he would say before tonight’s program, which begins at 9.

Contestants answer a series of 15 multiple-choice questions, which grow in payoff value--up to $1 million--as they do in difficulty.

In August, Halpin began trying to get on the show. His success, he said, was a combination of skill, perseverance and luck. For months, he and colleague Harker teamed up in Halpin’s office after school every day to call the show’s toll-free tryout line.

In Halpin’s case, one of the preliminary phone competition questions was to put the following TV shows in alphabetical order based on the location of the series: 1) “Mary Tyler Moore,” 2) “The Odd Couple,” 3) “Cheers” and 4) “The Bob Newhart Show.” He answered correctly: 3) Boston, 4) Chicago, 1) Minneapolis, 2) New York.

On Feb. 3, Halpin learned that he had been picked for the show.

“I was totally elated,” he said. “It’s intriguing. Who wants to be a millionaire? Everyone wants to be a millionaire!”

The next day, high school Principal Kelly Godfrey asked for student experts in rap and ‘90s music to volunteer for Halpin’s lifeline team--individuals who may be phoned to help with an answer.

Harker assembled a “posse of people at school,” including teachers from every department and students with expertise in a particular area.

While Halpin was taping the show Tuesday afternoon in New York, more than 30 students and teachers packed the attendance office at Los Alamitos High, munching on chips and salsa as they waited to see if their lifeline help would be needed.

At 4:10 p.m., a producer called to say that Halpin had used another of his lifelines for advice.

“Everybody groaned,” Harker said. “We were a little disappointed but excited by the fact that he made it that far.”