“WE’D LIKE TO PROPOSE A TOAST TO THE WINNER: CHEERS!”
Every time I’m at a party and I hear a guest-of-honor toasted with the word “Cheers!” I recall a wonderful experience the Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol had twenty years ago when we were invited to appear in a concluding episode of the classic TV sit-com with that very name, “Cheers.”
Then, as now, we don’t want anyone impersonating us. So when one of the show’s production staff phoned us to say they’d like to use our Prize Patrol name and cast some Hollywood actors in our place, we told them, “Sorry: no stand-in’s. We appear or it’s no deal.” So a week later, Todd Sloane, Gina Riccio and I were in lovely downtown Burbank on the set of that famous bar “where everybody knows your name.”
Of course we knew their names and were excited to be rubbing elbows with Sam (Ted Danson), Rebecca (Kirstie Alley), Woody (Woody Harrelson), Fraser (Kelsey Grammer), Carla (Rhea Perlman), Norm (George Wendt), Cliff (John Ratzenberger) and Kelly, Woody’s fiancée (Jackie Swanson).
In this particular script, bartender Woody was feeling blue over the state of his bank account. But there was a happy ending planned as the Prize Patrol was to come down that famous staircase and burst into Cheers to present Woody with a Big Check for $1,000,000.00.
I knew my lines (“Woody, you’ve won a million dollars in the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes!”), and we thought we did a good acting job; but for some reason our scene wound up on the cutting room floor.
We took some comfort in the fact that many Hollywood legends have met the same fate from time to time. We know, too, that even though many of our contest winners react wonderfully to our surprise visits, their “winning moments” may be too strung out to fit in a 30 or 15 second TV commercial. (You can see lots of actual “winning moments” on our pchprizepatrol YouTube channel).
How would you like to be on TV? Hundreds of PCH contest entrants never thought it would happen to them; but they had faith and entered and – WHAM – out of the blue, the Prize Patrol arrived – with roses, balloons and a Big Check and announced “You are a winner in the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes,!” Many a time there has been champagne on hand and we’ve popped the cork with a hearty toast to the winner: “CHEERS!”
If this sounds like something you’d like to experience, make sure you take advantage of all the opportunities we have for YOU to enter to win: at pch.com, PCHSearch&Win, PCHgames, PCHlotto, PCHslots and more!
Good luck, and Cheers!
Prize Patrol Ambassador
Other blogs you may like:
Will the Prize Patrol bring Champagne to your door?
Champagne is part of the Sweepstakes Winning Moment
