MrAtoz

More seriously, that is one of the things that came up during discussion of Mr. Branum on some of the contestant forums. Anyone can take the Jeopardy test, even famous people, and if they qualify, they can get onto the show. There have been occasional celebrities on the regular show, for certain values of "celebrity." Paris Themmen, who played Mike Teevee in Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, was a contestant in 2018. Jackie Fox, the bass player for the band The Runaways, was a four-day champion (using her real name, Jackie Fuchs). I actually played against Frank Young, who is a writer for the children's show Paw Patrol. I guess Guy Branum is another example, even if I haven't heard of him. 😀

I guess this proves how I'm not hip. I've seen several discussions about whether this Guy Branum person is "too famous" for regular Jeopardy!, shouldn't he be on Celebrity Jeopardy! instead, just what are the rules about that sort of thing, etc. To which I can only respond, "Who the heck is Guy Branum?" I've never heard of him. Even after reading his wikipedia article, I'm still not sure why I should know him. He was on something called "Chelsea Lately" (I don't know what that is, either). He was apparently on "X-Play," which I do remember, but which was such an obscure show, on such an obscure network, that I can't consider anyone who was on it "famous." And he apparently has a podcast. These days, who doesn't? Sorry, don't mind me. Just an old man yelling at a cloud over here.

Yes, she was. Praying for one of the players (I couldn't hear which one) to "have the strength to totally dominate," or something like that. Now, I'm a church-goer and all, but that strikes me as a weird thing to pray for. Brian is no longer earning money at the end of each game, but he's already gotten a 6-figure sum, so I don't suppose he's too upset. There's a lot of game shows that don't give you that much even if you win the whole thing.

I also knew Tatiana Maslany right away, but I'm not too surprised some people didn't. Both of her biggest shows, Orphan Black and She-Hulk, are kind of "niche," genre-type shows. While she's an amazing actress, I'm not sure how well-known she is to the general public.

So, here's something that happened when I was on the show. The clue was in the category of Shakespeare, and had to do with the son of the King of France being called by "this name of an aquatic mammal." The answer they were going for was "dolphin." That is the word that is used in Shakespeare's text. One of my opponents rang in and said "What is dauphin?" Alex initially ruled it incorrect. They almost immediately stopped taping, and the judges went into an intense consultation. Ultimately, they decided that Dauphin, being the French word for dolphin (as well as the title of the heir apparent to the French throne), was acceptable. They restarted taping, and Alex's original "no" was over-dubbed with him saying, "Yes, the French for 'dolphin.'" I have no strong opinion on ursa versus bear, but it is not without precedent for them to accept a word in another language when that word is at least related to the context of the clue.

Fire wasn't such a completely off-the-wall answer. The Great Fire of London occurred in 1666. Granted she was a year off, and the Fire didn't kill that many people, but she was obviously thinking of a historical disaster that did happen at around that period.

I really should have gotten FJ. I've visited Ashland, Henry Clay's estate in Lexington, and drive past the exit for it quite frequently during road trips to Gatlinburg. But I didn't. I blame it on not watching the recording of the show until after midnight last night.

I'm glad that they specified the name of the horse. Napoleon's horse, Marengo, was also named after a battle. Like Copenhagen, he was also at Waterloo.

When I was a kid, I would often hear about various local events being held at "the Moose Lodge," which inspired interesting visuals in my head. I thought of Moose for that reason, after the Elks had been eliminated. The Loyal Order of Moose still exists, according to the internet, but I don't think they are as widespread these days as the Elks are. It may be that the Elks are the only one of those old school fraternal organizations that the younger folks have ever heard of. I knew about Benjamin Franklin's son because of the musical "1776." At one point someone asks Franklin about his son, and he replies tersely, "We are not in touch at present."

Who's going to play next is chosen randomly--the names are literally picked out of a box--right after the preceding game ends. At least that's how it was done when I was there, and I can't imagine it's changed all that much. I would think that the producers weighing in on which particular contestant should play against the current champion would be too much like collusion.

It can be an effective strategy. Remember that the winner of last season, Keelan von Ehrenkrook, only played in 3 duels total--including the 2 that he won in the "best of 3" final showdown. He won one duel early on, went back to the floor, and then just hung out until he was literally the only person left. Everybody was afraid of his category, the Periodic Table, so they avoided challenging him until there was no other choice. I'm torn on whether that's effective TV or not. Contestants can go on a long run, winning multiple games in a row, becoming popular with the audience, and then end up with nothing, Other contestants who barely get noticed can end up winning the whole thing. It's interesting strategy-wise. But this does not seem to be a show that rewards rooting for a particular contestant. Clearly the fact that you get a bonus for having the biggest territory at the end of each episode is intended as an incentive for contestants to keep playing. Otherwise, since losing a single duel means you're gone, the optimal strategy is to minimize the number of duels you actually have to play.

According to wikipedia, Burma is where Brian Sinclair (the real-life Tristan) actually served.

I should be used to it by now, since it happens every year, but somehow I'm always pleasantly surprised when the opening sequence of the Christmas episode has snow on the ground and sleigh bells mixed into the music. All of Anna Madeley's scenes were exceptionally well done. Imagine the horror of those two weeks of not knowing, searching the casualty lists every day, wanting to hear something and yet dreading what you will finally hear. Yes, a random injured sailor being able to call home was quite unrealistic, but I'll allow it as dramatic license. Unfortunately for those who know World War II history, the mention of Singapore is as big a red flag as the word "Repulse" on Edward's cap was a couple of seasons ago. The fact is, for about six months or so, there was very little good news for the Allies from the Pacific Theater. There weren't a lot of places they could have taken Edward that would have been safe. Those first few months of the Pacific War were a bad time. Tristan's storyline wasn't nearly as emotionally wringing, but I liked it. Turns out that he's a good instructor. Even if he is the jokey kind of teacher, his students are learning, and his superiors clearly respect his ability. He quickly figured out what had caused the pigeons to die, and he showed a nice sense of maturity when he heard that his trainees had been deployed, feeling the weight of knowing that they were being sent into danger while he was in relative safety. Since the real-life "Tristan" eventually ended up in a fairly responsible government position, it's nice to see the fictional Tristan maturing into a man who would be able to do that kind of work. I spot the occasional fox around here, but they never get close enough to even try to make friends with them.

There have been several times when people have obviously not realized that it was their turn. I guess with both people looking at the same picture, it's not always clear. Maybe they should have a light go on in front of the person whose turn it is, or something like that. To go back to another topic, I think "Black & White" proves that some of these categories are assigned to the contestants. First, who would choose that as the area of trivia they're good at? Second, even the guy who had that category didn't seem to have any idea what it would be about. That was mostly a pretty easy category, just identifying common things that are black and white. But then they threw in a couple of stills from old B&W TV shows. That almost seems like it belongs in a different category altogether.

The folks who get to come back for tournaments probably get closer, but even people who just play once can become pretty friendly. There are private Facebook groups for Jeopardy contestants. You spend several hours with the people in your taping group, so you do get to know each other a bit. Several of the people that I completed against are now my Facebook friends. We don't get together or anything, but we still communicate, like each others' posts, and occasionally make Jeopardy-related jokes that no one else gets.