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Bonner Springs residents can watch one of their own try to win a million dollars on television next week.

George Cooper, a power plant supervisor for Kansas City Board of Public Utilities, auditioned and was selected to appear for a taping of the TV game show "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" last fall.

Cooper auditioned for the show in Martin City, Mo., after he saw an ad for it and a friend encouraged him.

"My buddy said, 'Heck yeah, you know all that useless information,'" Cooper said.

So he rode his motorcycle to the tryout, where so many other would-be contestants gathered it took nearly three hours to get through the line.

When he finally got to the end, Cooper said he had to answer 30 questions in 10 minutes and could only miss two.

Cooper put the idea out of his mind afterwards, "being old and looking like the Cryptkeeper," he joked.

Then he got the call, and flew to New York City for the show's taping.

Cooper said he couldn't reveal just how he did on the show, which will air at 4 p.m. Friday, April 4, on KSHB.

"I did good," Cooper said. "I'm happy. I didn't win enough to buy a library named after my grandpa."

Cooper did, though, mention Bonner Springs' own library on the show, and the names of several librarians there, he said.

"My main support was the best librarians in the world, at Bonner Springs," Cooper said. As a U.S. Navy veteran, he said, "I've worked everywhere - I have library cards from all over the world."

He credits his frequent visits to the library and general love of reading for helping him to get on the show in the first place.

Cooper said he is a history buff, but "I read dang near anything :if they had a thing such as Reader's Anonymous, I'd be there."

He was the first patron to visit when the library opened after the new year, he said with pride.

Sadly, on the game show "the question I missed was a book question," Cooper said. "I was knocking them out of the park. Then they threw one at my head and it buckled my knees."

However far Cooper got and however much money he won on the show, his appearance will be memorable for regular viewers of the show.

In addition to speaking with a Midwestern drawl, Cooper, a lifelong Wyandotte County resident, opted to wear what he says he always wears: overalls.

When he was wondering aloud what to wear for the show, Cooper said his friend Lois Emaree told him, "'Coop, just be yourself and wear your bib overalls.'"

Cooper said competing on the show in front of a studio audience didn't make him nervous.

"I was surprisingly calm," he said.

Speaking during a break at his job at the Quindaro Power Plant, Cooper said " Down here where I work, this is stress when things go south : We're moving a lot of fuel through, and when things go south it can be scary. Working at a power plant is way more stressful than being on a TV show."

Cooper said he still hopes to someday appear on his favorite show, "Jeopardy."

Besides the "Millionaire" taping, Cooper said he had a good time visiting New York and traveling.

It was his first visit to the Big Apple, and Cooper took a tour of the city by bus.

"I saw New York City wake up," Cooper said. "New York is a nice town. I tell you, if KU plays at the (Madison Square) Garden I'll be there."

Cooper also did some traveling around while out East, going by train to Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

In Washington, "I went around, saw what we're spending money on," Cooper said, then he met up with his buddies from the Navy in Galesburg, Ill.

Cooper said he plans to retire next year and to use his game-show winnings for a "war chest" to run for City Council or mayor.

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