Hello Jeopardy fans it’s Brian your guest blogger for a fortnight. I’ll dispense with the usual niceties to bring you a breaking story, an exclusive on thejeopardyfan.com. That’s right, while Jeanie is taking it easy and the world press is distracted with the BP oil spill this blog (guest) reporter has tackled the biggest news sensation since Watergate. It all started with yesterday’s talk about the Jeopardy Challenger and Robert making a comment about a letter from Interactive Television Corporation (ITV) back in 1989 promising a Jeopardy Challenger competition that never came to be. I began to wonder what is the story behind the Challenger–here is what I have dug up.
In 1987 ITV made a deal with Jeopardy to license a product called the Jeopardy Challenger. Although Jeopardy! officials won’t comment on the particulars the deal saw the device plugged by piggybacking on the show’s syndicated programming time. The device was a popular commodity and within a couple of years plans were made to tie it into Jeopardy! contestant searches via a Challenger competition. Ideally it was envisioned as one day having a network capability that could literally allow viewers to play along. But ITV’s plans never materialized, the technology became anachronistic, and Jeopardy! cooled to ITV’s proposals.
Today ITV is around in name only or so it seems. The telephone number to the company goes to a tinny sounding voicemail that repeats the number and permits messages but doesn’t return my calls. The last known address of ITV is to a vacant commercial building in Florin (Sacramento), California. A view of Google’s street view shows a tired set of buildings adjacent to a large empty lot and phone calls to neighbors were met with scepticism (never tell someone you are a Canadian journalist working on a fast breaking story for a Jeopardy! blog) and no memory of the former tenant. Another call, this time to a realtor revealed the fact that the building had been sold to a non-profit group, with the financial dealings only just completed this afternoon.
In 2000 ITV contested and lost a case decided by the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center in which ITV claimed another company improperly used their registered trademarks as domain names. At that time ITV was located in Fair Oaks, California and its only stated business was the Jeopardy Challenger. The trail has gone cold and I can only assume ITV has joined forces with North Korea’s iconoclastic leader Kim Jong-il in creating an interactive device for watching political rallies while simultaneously tracking the success of DPRK’s soccer team in the world cup. I’ll keep you posted regarding this story but I think it is safe to assume it is a dud–but then that’s what Woodward and Bernstein thought about Watergate initially.
Well enough of my version of All the President’s Men, let’s talk about today’s show. Today I killed. Easiest Jeopardy ever (excepting Celebrity and age class episodes) — in my humble opinion. Aesop’s Fables (swept it)–try, What the Hare was doing when the tortoise pulled ahead*–, Sports Stars’ Memoirs and Bios (swept it), The Food Chain (swept it), Foreign Mayors (struggled with two of them), Here’s A Quarter (swept it), and Call Someone Who Cares (4 for 5). I got the $400 clue in Sport Stars’ since I knew the book although I haven’t read it– I loved the tidbit, “He talks about wearing a hairpiece during tennis matches in his 2009 Memoir “Open””*. Only slightly better is “Where Men Win Glory: is “The Odyssey of” this man who quit the NFL to enlist in the U.S. Army*. I read the Jon Krakauer book with low expectations and was deeply moved by the story of the footaballer patriot–I’m a bit of a peacenik but I think what he did was one of the bravest and most principled acts I’ve recently witnessed.
Double Jeopardy had A “Little” Reading, What’s On Your iPod, You Gotta Represent, The Current Supreme Court Justice Who, Horse Smarts, and Word Puzzles. Very easy, although the clue, My iPod is rarely without this Motown Man who performed “Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer” at Michael Jackson’s memorial,* left all three looking stunned. The category Supreme Court Justices stumped the field with what could have been a game breaking clue of, …has a presidential surname and made it to the bench after Robert Bork was rejected*. Very strange lapse of general knowledge–get to know your Supreme Court Justices people (past and present). Word puzzles had the visual interpretation of “win with ease” that stumped all (including me)–who says that?
Marty, the assistant district attorney from Texas was back today to battle Jonah Busch an environmental economist (wearing both a suit jacket and a V-neck as if to demonstrate the incongruity of his job title) and Anne Triolo a screenwriter and used bookstore manager. During the contestant chat portion Anne soberly told Alex about her unique ability to edit music for figure skating (issues of tempo, syncing, and time were critical–yawn). I can only assume she uses the Black Eyed Peas’s music liberally:
Jonah’s job as an environmental economist was given a look of incredulity by Alex (perhaps he should of said he was a Canadian Jeopardy! blog reporter). I think people have a hard time in this day and age of reconciling economics and environment–must be quite the conversation starter for Jonah. Moreover, Alex seemed to actually believe Marty’s claims of being a tap dancing phenom–I was floored by the news. It is like finding out the owlish looking fellow at the library is really a UFC champion. Marty does not look like a tap dancer (a solid football lineman maybe) but then again lawyers often know how to dance well.
Now in his fourth game it was Marty’s game to lose and he did so impressively. What happened to Marty? Much like his film namesake Marty’s time was short and eventful. Anne wowed me with a slow building momentum and aggressive wagering that was awesome, she gambled big on two daily doubles and it paid off in spades–she had 6 grand before the commercial break. Her final Jeopardy bet of $9,000 of her 18 grand pot was just gutsy–if you want to play Jeopardy! play it like you mean it. Jonah often looked like he was reenacting the Psycho shower scene with his wild buzzer stabbing in the air and his final bet was odd considering he wagered in such a way as not being able to hedge his hedged bet (perhaps like most economists of note math is not his strong point)–but he did capitalize on the second daily double of the second round by betting it all. Also, in Jonah’s defense he rolled over Foreign Mayors like a champ.
But overall the questions were ridiculously easy (only one category, Supreme Court justices had more stumpers than successes for me). Both rounds and the final were child’s play. Here is my revised clue of, It’s the only 2-word state name in which neither word appears in the name of any other state*–When in doubt about a state always go with this one that has the longest name, was the first to outlaw slavery and has the smallest area.
I walked away with $40,000 imaginary dollars that are gaining ground on the American dollar. Our nanny said I was a god among mortals today in Jeopardy.
*Sleeping, Andre Agassi, Pat Tillman, Stevie Wonder, Justice Kennedy, Rhode Island