When New Hyde Park resident Dan Madigan finally got the phone call to be on “Wheel of Fortune,” he had a strange feeling that his late grandmother had something to do with it.
His grandmother, Katherine Barone, watched the game show religiously. That was why Madigan first took a shot at being a contestant in 2005, when he was living in Los Angeles and attending film school there.
“My grandma was always a fan of the show. That’s actually why I applied,” he recalled.
When the phone call came at the time inviting him to the taping, he couldn’t make it. But he’d already told his mother, Camille, that he was going to be a contestant and she had told his grandma.
So for the next three years, his grandmother kept asking his mother about it.
“I don’t see Danny on the show,” she would repeatedly tell her daughter.
When his grandmother died three years ago, it made Madigan start thinking about his grandmother’s unfulfilled expectation of seeing her grandson competing on her favorite game show. So two years ago, he finally took another shot at it, filing an application online.
He finally received a letter late last year, telling him to expect a phone call about auditioning for the show 18 months later. But the phone call came in June, eight months after the letter.
The New Hyde Park Memorial High School graduate had since returned to live in his hometown.
So his audition was in New York City, where he survived a highly competitive – more daunting than the on-air experience – to0 make the cut.
“It was actually more nerve-racking than being on the show. You were in a roomful of strangers who all want you to fail,” the 28-year-old DVD producer said.
Then three weeks ago – on his grandmother’s birthday – the phone call about his shot at brief fame and fortune playing “Wheel” came. It was more than an odd coincidence to Madigan.
“She must have really wanted to see me on that show,” he said.
The recent taping in Los Angeles – on his mother’s birthday – was a bit of a grind, according to Madigan. He had to arrive at the studio at 7:45 in the morning and sit through several tapings before the show he was to appear on was taped at 4:30 that afternoon.
He had been told that the show would have a “green” theme, so he prepped himself with a little ecological background reading. But as it turned out, none of the subjects he researched popped in the phrases to be solved.
But he’s still looking forward to seeing himself on “Wheel of Fortune” on April 8 – and he’s convinced that his grandma will be tuning in too.
