MrAtoz

No King Phillip, or any other foreign potentates, and their sex lives for us. Instead it was food-based clothing vandalism: Kim Put Candy On Fred's Green Suit.

I wonder what Rachel was thinking of with Rutherford B. Hayes? Maybe just a random 19th century president to avoid putting down nothing. There is at least a dance called The Madison, although it wasn't created until the 1950s, so Joey's guess wasn't entirely unreasonable. It was probably a particularly difficult clue for Chris. If they said where he was originally from, I didn't catch it. But given his accent, I'm guessing he didn't grow up in the U.S., so 19th century American presidents are probably not something he would have learned much about. I thought it was one of the easier FJ clues in awhile. Polk=Polka popped into my head immediately, and I never thought about anything else.

Ken needs to brush up on his Friends knowledge, though. Ross, Rachel, and Susan was not a love triangle.

That was my theory; I think they were just trying to think of a Best Picture winner from around that time period.

I found out about the numbers at J-Archive quite some time ago, but before then, I had never even noticed they were there. Somebody told me you could follow the order of clues by following the numbers. My reaction was "What numbers? There are no numbers." In my defense, they are very tiny numbers. I did get the "Thirty days hath September..." rhyme, but here's my hot take. That rhyme is useless as memory aid. It requires you to already know the thing you're trying to remember in order to get it right. If you get the months wrong, there's nothing to tell you that you're wrong. Consider this: Thirty days hath September/May, July, and December. That scans perfectly, and rhymes perfectly. But it's wrong. The only way you can know it's wrong is if you already know what the months are supposed to be. And if you already know that, why are you reciting this little poem?

If Facebook is to be believed, a lot of fans are saying that Weimar-rye-ner should have been accepted, because "that's how everybody pronounces it!"

I had seen some mention of it in the media ("debuting a redesigned set," something along those lines). That said, in watching I didn't particularly notice the difference, and did not remember that there was supposed to be a difference. It was only this morning, when I saw some other people online talking about it, that I realized, "Oh, yeah, I guess that change was this week." So it didn't make a big impression on me.

Well, The Sopranos debuted in 1999, so Ken was right by a tiny margin. 😀

The original version, with Julie Andrews, was broadcast live on NBC, in color. There was no color videotape in those days, so the only recording that survives is a black and white kinescope. Kinescopes, for those who don't know, are made by pointing a film camera at a television monitor during the broadcast. In the old days, it was often the only way to preserve live TV broadcasts. From what I understand, the script was later produced as a stage musical in London, and the success of that prompted NBC to produce a new TV version with Lesley Ann Warren, who was 18 years old at the time. That one was not done live, but was produced on videotape. As a result, it got shown more because it's much better quality than the old kinescope. I wish Rodgers and Hammerstein (or musical theater in general) had been a category when I was on the show. I would have rocked it.

I saw the picture, and I didn't get it. I don't think I ever knew that gizmo had a name other than "that swingy ball thing."

Last time I heard it was on an episode of Law & Order, when McCoy accused some smarmy guy of a crime (which he obviously had done). The guy responded, all innocent-like, "Heavens to Betsy! That would be against the law!"

Yeah, the K in Knossos is NOT silent. At least not in Greek.

I got FJ pretty easily, although I recognize that it's a hard clue, and even suspected that it would probably be a triple stumper. I remembered, from my reading about old Hollywood, that Mae West had been arrested for writing and starring in a steamy play. I even remembered that the title of the play was simply "Sex." Ultimately the arrest was good for her career, since it made her more famous and enhanced her image as a "sex symbol," as they said in those days.

I was wondering if Ken did that on his own initiative, or if that was the way "Father Steve" wanted to be addressed. He's recently ordained, so maybe he's still excited about having the title. It still came off a bit affected.

I'm plenty old, and I didn't think of her. As I mentioned in last season's thread, shortly before the break, I don't really pay attention to the personal lives of celebrities. The clue was essentially "Who is Mark Harmon married to?", and I had no idea. See my previous comments on the shocking secret identity of Jamie Lee Curtis's husband. 😀 I did get Final Jeopardy, thanks to repeated playing of JetPunk's "Countries of the World" quiz. Kazakhstan is BIG. China's bigger, but its border with Russia is curtailed because Mongolia is in the way. I got no problem with the way Will holds his signaling device. Contestants do what works for them.