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NOT YOUR AVERAGE GAME SHOW HOST CONTINUED [ 2 OF 2
]
How did he get into show businesss? As arts editor for The
Wall Street Journal, working in California, he began
freelancing and writing screenplays. He was at Paramount talking
with a friend when director John Hughes heard his voice and
immediately cast him as the boring teacher in Ferris Bueller
-"totally serendipitous," says his wife, Alexandra Denman. Other
roles include a rabbi in Miami Rhapsody, a public works
official in Ghostbusters II and science teacher Mr. Cantwell
in the television series The Wonder Years. Al Burton, a
friend who was a producer in Hollywood, pitched the idea of the
game show to Stein in 1997.
"When he asked me if I wanted to do it," Stein recalls, "I
thought they'd be giving me the answers. I didn't think they'd
cheat - I just figured they would put a notice in the credits about
it. But it's worked out fine after all." In addition to the game
show, Stein also hosted a talk show on Comedy Central for a couple
of seasons. What separated that show from other talk shows was that
Stein would sit with one guest for a half-hour, permitting more
in-depth conversations. "You could learn something," says
Stein.
Thirty-six years
after graduating from Columbia, Stein numbers several classmates
among his closest friends - David Paglin, Arthur Best, Neill
Brownstein and Larry Lissitzyn, all members of the Class of 1966,
and fraternity brothers Radford West, Chuck Hamilton and Charlie
Hewes, all '66, and Clem Sweeney '64. Another close friend from
Alpha Delta Phi was Grant Roberts '66, now deceased.
"My Columbia friends," he says, "all wish they had careers like
mine. I have a friend who's a venture capitalist and who makes a
million times more in a few minutes that I will make in a lifetime.
But he doesn't get the enjoyment out of life that I do. I get a
kick out of being rich and famous - you get a certain amount of
adoration wherever you go. There are some people who say you're a
scumbag, but they are aberrant personalities."
Being rich and famous and smart is all well and good. Being a
Columbia graduate is icing on the cake. But there are better
measures of worth, Stein will tell you. There's his wife of 32
years, Alexandra ("a saint"), and his 13-year-old son, Tommy ("a
god"). And there's the chance, like Ferris Bueller, to appreciate
it all.
"'Life goes by pretty fast - if you don't slow down, you might
miss it,'" Stein quotes. "That's totally true. I try to be
conscious of that. Sometimes, I go into my son's room and just sit
there and watch him play video games. I became a parent later in
life, and I am grateful for the blessing. I think the great
majority of humans fail to understand how important it is to be
grateful for the everyday moment."
Hollywood doesn't seem so far from Morningside Heights, after
all.
Nancy Fitzgerald, a freelance journalist and the parent
of a a College alum, has never appeared on Win Ben Stein's
Money, but was once a contestant in the play-at-home version
of The Price Is Right. She won a year's supply of
Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco Treat.
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