It was a typical summer day in August and Erin Walberg was on her way to a softball game when an advertisement came on the radio. "Do you have a fun family?" the announcer asked. Erin, a 2004 graduate of Annandale High School thought, "Yeah, I do," she said. So she picked up the phone and started dialing, igniting a chain of events that would land her and her family on national TV as contestants on "Family Feud." For four days next week, Erin, her sister Michelle Macalena of Buffalo, mother Renee Walberg of Annandale, cousin Becki Kelly of St. Michael and aunt Shirley Bruns of Annandale will be on the TV set of every household tuned into KSTC, Channel 45. The family’s appearances will air at 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Oct. 19, 20, 21 and 22. "It was definitely something that you don’t think you’re ever going to do," said Erin, whose spur-of-the-moment call led to a flurry of activity that included rounding up four family members willing to go along for the ride. "I thought it sounded like fun," Michelle said. "I went along for the free lunch," Becki admitted, and Renee told her daughter later that she went to "humor" her. Two days later, team Walberg was headed to the Mall of America where "Family Feud" was holding auditions in honor of its 30th anniversary. More than 200 families had responded to the radio ad and were invited to try out. The audition was set up as a mock version of the game show where families dueled for a shot at an all-expense-paid trip to Hollywood and thousands of dollars in prize money. Competition was fierce, but team Walberg had come ready to win … sort of. After stopping at all the malls between Annandale and The Mall of America, the women got serious and pulled out the old 1970 Bruns family "Family Feud" board game, which Shirley had the foresight to pack. "It didn’t really help," Becki admitted, although Michelle contends it worked to put them in the right frame of mind. Fortunately producers of the game show weren’t as interested in who won as they were in who put on the best show. The fiercely competitive Walberg family couldn’t help but deliver an energetic performance, and it landed them a private interview with one of the producers. "He says, ‘Tell me something interesting about yourselves,’ and seriously, we sat there and looked at each other," Erin said. "It turns out we’re boring," Becki said. "Then the guy says, ‘I need something that stands out to get you on TV.’" Desperate Desperate to make up for lost ground, Michelle decided to risk all and tell the story of how she fractured her foot playing mini golf on her honeymoon. "Then he started typing furiously," Shirley said. Three days later, on Monday, Aug. 10, Erin got the phone call she was waiting for. Producers had liked their interview and five plane tickets to Hollywood were waiting for them. A screaming Erin quickly called her teammates to deliver the good news. "That’s when the panic set in," Becki said. "So we went shopping." They reasoned that if they didn’t do well they would at least look good. Limited only by the "Family Feud" dress code, which doesn’t allow solid black or white shirts, high heels or opened-toed shoes, the women went to work putting together a snappy wardrobe fitting for national TV. They were also advised to not dress "matchy matchy," Erin said. On Friday, Aug. 21, they were packed and ready to board their plane to stardom. Two days later they were battling the returning champion, a family from California, under the lights and cameras of a Hollywood studio. "It was totally awesome … Oh, I was scared out of my mind," Michelle said. From 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. they competed relentlessly with various families in front of a live audience. The studio was better than they expected and host John O’Hurley was "nice, but very businesslike," they said. In general they did very well, but they had their moments of embarrassment too. "My worst question was ‘Name a phrase that has the word junk in it,’" Becki said. "The guy beat me to the buzzer and said junk yard. So I say, junk dog. It made absolutely no sense. It was so embarrassing." "At least you didn’t say that ‘Rocky’ was a Mel Gibson movie," Michelle countered. Shirley’s worst question was "’How many times a day does your husband give you a dirty look?’ I said 20 times." And Renee missed the "name a famous tiger" question. "I said Lion King. We have Tony the Tiger in the cupboard! We love Tiger Woods, and I come up with Lion King." But mostly the Walberg family didn’t screw up. And while they would rather not give away the surprise ending, they went so far as to say, "We won some money, but no one’s going to retire with it."
