This show started two crazes: The reality show craze and the marriage show craze. I remember seeing this. It was so silly. All day I thought of who was the mystery millionaire, and then find out it is this guy nobody knows named Rick Rockwell lol (I vaguely remembered him from the Killer Tomatoes movies). It was an interesting premise though: take a rich guy, line him up with 50 beautiful women, and marry him off to the one he likes. Sounded like a done deal, right? Wrong.
First you had a nobody like Rockwell who turns out to be the millionaire, then you have his personal life dredged up by investigative news shows and smokinggun.com, and then you have the competitors. Half of them there lied and just wanted a free trip to Vegas, and the other half seriously wanted to get married. Even its winner, Darva Conger, said she just entered to have a free trip to Vegas. Other competitors would get their 15 minutes of fame by giving exclusive interviews to their local television news outlets (In Washington DC, one competitor told how she was thankful she wasn't chosen because her BOYFRIEND wouldn't have liked that).
The show would be followed by many marriage reality shows, and even Fox went back to the Pandora's Box with Joe Millionaire. About two years later, an E! True Hollywood Story would be made detailing what went on behind the scenes (Host Jay Thomas said he advised Rick to "stay away from the blonde").
Unlike some of the marriage shows, this did more harm than good to the people involved. Rick took the annulment hard because he truly thought he would find a bride on the show. He eventually got over it and now works on the comedy club and motivational speaker circuit. Darva Conger was labeled by many as a vixen. She would also get her 15 minutes, but it would cost her a job and a life. She tried making a pay website of her own, but it was unsuccessful. She remarried in 2003, got divorced a few years later, and has stayed out of the spotlight. In the end, everyone just moved on and was forgotten (thank God).