Bob Crowley was sipping homemade moonshine in a Bowdoinham smelt-fishing shack when he got a call from somebody claiming to be a recruiter for the reality show “Survivor.”

At first, he thought it was a prank.

“I told him I didn’t even like the show, and asked if an honest person ever won. He said he’d get back to me on that,” said Crowley, 75, a retired high school physics teacher. “But I filled out the application anyway.”

Crowley not only got on the show, he won the $1 million prize in 2008, becoming Maine’s first and only “Survivor” champion.

The money allowed him to take his wife, Peggy, on a long-overdue honeymoon and to build a forest yurt camp in Durham, which his family still runs. But he said he also came away with a renewed respect for taking advantage of all opportunities, no matter how far-fetched or odd.

“As I always said to my students, if somebody offers to bring you someplace, go. You can always come back to Maine,” said Crowley, who spent his “Survivor” time in the African nation of Gabon. “These people gave me the opportunity to go, and I’m glad I went.”

“Survivor” strands a group of strangers — usually much younger than Crowley was — in a desolate tropical location for a month and films them struggling to find food, compete in the show’s man-made challenges and obstacle courses, and play mind games with each other.

It debuted in 2000 and sparked a reality TV boom that continues today, tapping into something Americans can’t get enough of.

“Survivor introduced something different, a social strategy game where trust, deception, and cooperation constantly interact,” said Brian Mulholland, a professor of mathematics at the University of Notre Dame who teaches a class called Outwit, Outplay, Outlast: The Dynamics of Survivor.

One of the show’s continuing impacts, in a world of on-demand streaming shows, is that it encourages communal viewing, Mulholland said. Part of the fun of watching is rooting for your favorite castaways — and people from your home state.

Just as people 40 years ago gathered on Thursdays to watch “Cheers” on NBC, folks have tuned into CBS every Wednesday at 8 p.m. to get their “Survivor” fix.

The show’s 50th season began in February. (There’s more than one season of the show each year). In that time, at least seven Mainers have been on.

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Zoe Zanidakis, 2002

A lobster boat captain and scuba diver from Monhegan Island, Zanidakis was the first Mainer on the show. She did better than some, and ended up being the ninth person voted off the South Pacific island of Nuku Hiva, out of 16.

She said she applied because it appealed to her sense of adventure. She grew up on Monhegan without a TV and had never seen the show, so she really didn’t know how to play the game.

“I was keeping my head down and was like, ‘Let’s go get some firewood. Let’s go get some shells. Let’s get stuff done,'” said Zanidakis, 60, from her winter home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “I was always trying to motivate people and that’s probably why I wasn’t as popular as some.”

What “Survivor” did for Zanidakis was ignite a passion for traveling. After spending the first 40 years or so of her life raising her son on a small Maine island, she spent about four years in rural Australia running an entertainment facility called “Squatters Rest,” where she introduced the locals to fish chowder.

She rode a motorcycle to California and spent about seven years there, doing film production work and exercising polo ponies, among other things. She now splits her time between Maine and Florida, where she’s piloted charter boats and water taxis.

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Julie Berry, 2004

Berry was a 23-year-old college graduate from Gorham waiting for a Peace Corps assignment when she auditioned for “Survivor” and spent more than a month on the South Pacific Island of Vanuatu.

She fibbed and cajoled as well as most, and made it to the season’s final five. But her place in the show’s history was cemented after she was voted off, when she and host Jeff Probst revealed to the world that they were dating. Both said their relationship began only after the show’s filming ended.

The pair dated for nearly four years and were sometimes spotted together in Maine, including during a shopping trip to the South Portland Target, where they chatted with customers in the parking lot.

In a 2005 interview, Berry and Probst talked about their relationship in glowing terms. Berry said they were “learning to love each other and be life partners” while Probst said he’d “learned more about love this year than I had in my whole life.”

Berry, 45, works in reality TV production, including on the Peacock show “The Traitors.” She has a daughter, Lily, and is currently in Hawaii “to escape Maine winters.”

She said her “Survivor” experience allowed her “to tune into and soak up when life opens in deep, expansive ways.” It also helped sharpen her desire for adventure and connections to the wider world.

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Tina Scheer, 2006

Scheer was honest when “Survivor” producers asked her why she wanted to be on the show: She wanted to promote her business, Timber Tina’s Great Maine Lumberjack Show, in Trenton.

Located near Acadia National Park, it features daily feats of lumber skills like axe throwing, underhand chopping and log rolling. Scheer is, and has always been, one of the performers.

But she also had another reason: Her 16-year-old son Charlie was killed in a car accident in 2005 and she welcomed the chance to exchange living with her grief for time on an island off the coast of Panama.

The idea of being on an island with people she didn’t know and no reminders of her loss appealed to her.

Scheer was voted off after one episode, deemed a threat by the others for her skill set. But because the producers don’t want contestants going home before filming wraps, she got to take a four-week vacation in Costa Rica, all expenses paid.

“I tell people that if you can’t afford a vacation, get on “Survivor” and get voted off,” said Scheer, 65.

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Bob Crowley, 2008

Crowley was recruited because someone who knew his son knew somebody working with the show.

Casting folks were impressed with his can-do Mainer credentials: He was a high school physics teacher who had worked as a forester, fished for lobsters and could build all sorts of things. Plus he was 57 when he was on the show, a good two decades older than most of the other contestants, giving Baby Boomers someone to root for.

He stood out immediately because he’d often spend precious seconds studying a challenge — a puzzle, an obstacle course — while his younger, non-Mainer competitors would just rush in without thinking. And he’d win.

Crowley lives in Durham near the wilderness campground his winnings built, Maine Forest Yurts on Runaround Pond. His daughter, Page Atherton, runs the place but he spends most days chopping wood or starting fires in the yurts.

Crowley says maybe his favorite part of being a former “Survivor” winner is that he and Peggy have been able to raise money for dozens of causes, including Make-A-Wish, Habitat for Humanity, breast cancer research, and many more.

Known perpetually as “Survivor Bob,” he rarely misses a chance to lend his name and fame – often with other “Survivor” contestants – to a fundraiser.

“I didn’t even realize that would be a thing we could do,” said Crowley. “But I’m so glad it is.”

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Ashley Markwood, 2011

Ashley Markwood (then Underwood) was 25 and already had a pretty impressive resume when she applied for “Survivor”: basketball star at Cony High School in Augusta and the University of Maine; Miss Maine USA; nurse.

Competing on the beach of Nicaragua, she made it to the show’s final four before being ousted.

An athlete always up for a challenge, she first auditioned for the CBS reality show “The Amazing Race” but was offered “Survivor” instead. She said she became “super close” to other castaways and relished the evenings spent by campfires on the beach.

“We talked about how lucky we were to be experiencing something like this, where so many niceties of life are stripped away and you realize what you really need,” said Markwood.

Markwood is married to UMaine basketball coach Chris Markwood. They have two children and live in Bangor. She works as a representative for Arbonne, a health and wellness supplements company.

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Michael Snow, 2013

Snow was in his mid-40s and “pretty secure in who I was” when he spent nearly a month filming “Survivor” in the Philippines.

He had to eat worms, sleep in a rough-hewn hut and deal with driving rainstorms. He also had to “play the game” by forming alliances and trying to pit castaways against each other, which he admits he wasn’t great at.

Yet, when looking back, he calls the experience “magical.”

“Every moment on the show was kind of like ‘Whoa, is this really happening to me?” said Snow, 57, a media manager who lives in Portland. “It was just the weirdest, most incredible experience I’ve had in my life.”

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Dan Foley, 2015

Foley, a postal worker from Gorham, had been trying to get on the show since 2000 and said he had applied more than 100 times and driven thousands of miles to casting calls.

In an early episode he looked into the camera and said, “I am here to live my dream. I plan on being remembered, one way or another.”

He stood out. At 48, he was older than most of the other competitors and he sometimes wore a tweed cap in tropical Nicaragua.

He also got negative attention on social media after one episode where he said someone should “slap” fellow contestant Shirin Okooi because of her ramblings and behavior. Still, he was one of the show’s last six contestants before getting voted off.

Weekly viewing parties of his episodes at Thatcher’s Restaurant in South Portland were always packed and drew hundreds of people.

“Are there things I regret? Sure,” said Foley, 59. “But I chased the dream and I was fortunate enough to get a shot at it.”