Jeopardy! Season 32 (2015-2016)

[ByaNose]

First off, I hate the people who are in third and don't wager everything. Whew! Glad, I got that off my chest.

Now, for tonight's Final Jeopardy. I knew it was Collins but the clue and Alex reading the clue and informing them that Aldrin was wrong was confusing. I actually think all 3 should come back. IMO!

[Totale]

I call bullshit on FJ -- Collins was not involved in the 1st Lunar landing.  He was part of the mission, but had nothing to do with the landing.  So glad that Alex came on and explained that the wording of the question sucked, and Ashley would be given another chance.

 

 

Wait, what?  When did that happen? Now that I can't check out the ladies' legs during the credits, I'm out as soon as the winner is revealed.  The question was

 

 

The first woman space shuttle pilot shares this surname with a man on the 1st manned lunar landing 26 years earlier

 

and although I didn't know the woman's name it stood to reason the answer had to come from "Iron Mike" Collins, the forgotten member of the crew. I guess they could have stuck the word "mission" in front of 26, but if you didn't know you'd still be guessing, and your only bitch would be that they gave you three choices to stab wildly at rather than two.

[operalover]

Did she pronounce Harare wrong? I think Harar was okay though because an English speaking person may think this is how it is spelled if they never heard it and just read it. Alex said Yes and the corrected with "Harar-i" . I think they have not allowed similar mispronunciations before.

 

I am in my mid 50s (yikes) and watch with my sons ages 21 and 23. I seem somewhat smart when playing with them, but it has more to do with the questions are things that someone my age would know. My son does do very well on the geography and political history questions as he has a college degree in Political Science and follows all of that very closely and he is widely traveled. He knows his Africa and middle East!

 

I see they have so many questions about American Literature, especially best selling novels. I am very weak at those! I also do not know my British Monarchs so I would say that really hurts me. I know opera, Italian literature, Russian literature, nature, anatomy, music and bands (mostly because I'm 55), Italy, foreign language and I am good with the word problems.  Those damn monarchs! Also my mythology stinks too!

Edited December 30, 2015 by operalover

[Roaster]

I appreciated Johnny's laid back style, but what was with that $0 Final Jeopardy wager?  That's an unreasonable gamble that Erik is going to get FJ wrong.  Johnny lucked out.

 

And the only German astronomer I could think of was Kepler.  Copernicus was Polish and Brahe was Danish.

[BubblingKettle]

Johnny was fun to watch. He seemed to be having a good time. 

[Browncoat]

Georgia had to be the easiest DD ever.

[mojoween]

My son really liked Jonny. My husband and I, on the other hand, found his pausing before every question and picking a new category to be INFURIATING. Oh it drove me absolutely nuts. I so did not want him to move on.

[alias1]

Oh my gosh.  I loved Johnny.  What a character!  And I got such a kick out of the way he answered some of the clues, as if to say, "What dummy doesn't know that!"  (Especially when he got that DD where the answer was Georgia!).  I was surprised he didn't wager anything for FJ but he was conservative on every DD too.

[CarpeDiem54]

I didn't get to watch last night because of a bowl game. That our team lost. Boo, hiss!

Oh my gosh.  I loved Johnny.  What a character!  And I got such a kick out of the way he answered some of the clues, as if to say, "What dummy doesn't know that!"  (Especially when he got that DD where the answer was Georgia!).  I was surprised he didn't wager anything for FJ but he was conservative on every DD too.

I loved his "What dummy doesn't know that!"  style, too. He cracked me up and was a surprisingly good contestant, although his pausing before clue selection drove me a little nuts.

I actually got FJ, for a change. And Francis Gary Powers.

[secnarf]

I couldn't decide if Johnny annoyed me or not!

I thought Georgia was a Kids Tournament question, but then I remembered all of the people on social media thinking that Russia invaded Georgia the state, when they actually invaded Georgia the country. I hope none of those people ever appear on Jeopardy.

 

I was on the jeopardy website earlier today though, and I noticed that this FJ question was up on the website this morning! I didn't know that they post them up there each day, and since I wasn't paying too much attention to the context of the clue on the website, I was surprised to see it pop up tonight when watching the episode.

[Ailianna]

I liked Johnny.  He has the demeanor (and the resume) of a working class guy that a lot of people might assume was kind of stupid.  But I've known a lot of guys like that who were very smart and know a lot about the world, so it was nice to see them represented!  I feel somewhat bad for Eric, since he STRONGLY reminded me of someone I know in real life and don't like much, so I was rooting against him for that--which was entirely not his fault.  But if he got some retroactive bad luck, that was probably me!

[Trey]

 

 

My husband and I, on the other hand, found his pausing before every question and picking a new category to be INFURIATING.

 

I agree but I thought the guy in the middle was just as bad with ringing in and not even having a guess - that really slowed things up too.

 

Other than his slowness I really like Jonny.

[operalover]

Do you think they would have accepted scungilli for calamari? Italian squid? I said scungilli. 

[just prin]

I'm with you, mojo--Jonny can't go-Jonny-go out the door fast enuf for me! He reminds me of a bald Don Knotts, and belongs on a sitcom, not J!

[secnarf]

Do you think they would have accepted scungilli for calamari? Italian squid? I said scungilli. 

Apparently scungilli refers to sea snails (and is dialect, not proper Italian), so I doubt it.

Edited December 31, 2015 by secnarf

[Prevailing Wind]

Until I looked it up a few months ago, I, too, though scungilli was some tentacle-based sea creature - based solely on the fact that Captain Jack Sparrow called Davy Jones "Scungilli"  (I think it was in the "I got a jar of dirr-rrt" scene).

[YoureSoUrban]

Because of holiday travel -- and a frustrating inability to find Jeopardy on the cable guide -- I binge watched last week's games earlier today. Too late to comment on those now but in today's game I really liked Jonny. His knowledge is solid and he was fun to watch. Hopefully he'll pick up the pace a bit when choosing clues. 

 

I agree but I thought the guy in the middle was just as bad with ringing in and not even having a guess - that really slowed things up too.

I can understand when contestants think they've got a slim chance of being right but not even able to guess?? That drives.me.nuts!

[Mystery Author]

Is it me or are the games very s-l-o-w lately? I'm not sure how I feel about Johnny. Nice guy but abysmal better, especially in FJ.

[peeayebee]

I liked Johnny, too. I was rooting for him.

[Gimmick Genius]

Didn't they say Johnny was a retired convenience store manager? He made me think of Sam Drucker (Frank Cady) from Hooterville.

[Mondrianyone]

Thank you so much for this! ^ ^ ^  It was driving me nuts.  I even looked up lists of character actors, trying to figure out who he reminded me of.

[proserpina65]

I call bullshit on FJ -- Collins was not involved in the 1st Lunar landing.  He was part of the mission, but had nothing to do with the landing.  So glad that Alex came on and explained that the wording of the question sucked, and Ashley would be given another chance.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who objected to this.  I had no idea who the first female space shuttle pilot was, but I didn't consider Michael Collins as part of the lunar landing team because, as you say, he wasn't part of the actual landing.  I changed the channel before Alex came on to say that Ashley would get a second chance, but I am glad the producers did that.  She (like me) was really screwed by the phrasing of the clue.

 

But man, was that a crap game or what?  So many triple stumpers, so many wrong answers, and they didn't clear the board in either round.  Why couldn't I have had opponents like this?

 

Edited to note that last night's game was just as bad.

I got lots of TS's tonight:  How Green Was My Valley, Destroyer, Minuet, Fend, Orleans, Chicago and also Madrigal, which was a missed DD.

 

Did not get FJ.

 

Nice that Ashley will be back for a second chance.

I couldn't come up with minuet to save my life, although I'm well familiar with the dance, and I said motet instead of madrigal - I wonder if I would've been given credit for that answer.  And I was confused by the FJ clue because I thought it had to be the name of one of the men involved in the actual lunar landing and since Armstrong seemed a more common name than Aldrin, that's what I went with.

Edited December 31, 2015 by proserpina65

[proserpina65]

Again with the archive rather than seeing the show ...

 

No one knowing where Good Times or The Good Wife was set surprised me (I knew Chicago for the former, and even though I've never seen the latter I had the sense it backed me up).  Washington D.C. was even more surprising, given Murphy Brown.  That was a top 10 hit for how long?  Was this a "before your time" moment from Alex?

 

Same with Frank Capra as the director of It Happened One Night.  (Edward Albee, I knew, but wasn't surprised none of the contestants did.) 

 

No one knowing platinum as a "silvery" precious metal?!  "Fend" was also surprising as a TS, but less so.  "Destroyer" also surprised me.  Louis XV = Orleans as a TS didn't blow me away, but I'd have thought one of them would come up with it.  I blew it on the Cossacks, too, though.

 

I came up with Wal-Mart, but might have joined the rest in not knowing it under game conditions, as the "numerically" part of the clue initially threw me off to thinking about a number in the company's name/stock symbol; just me not paying attention to the wording, but maybe their minds tripped them up in the same way.

 

I failed on McDonald's, though.  And I didn't get "convoy," associating that with trucks, not ships (damn you, C.W. McCall and Smokey & The Bandit).  I also knew very little about animated movie characters (no surprise, as I've never been much into them as a whole), coming up with only Jessica Rabbit and Thumper.

 

As for FJ, I'm a space program nut, so I instantly knew Eileen Collins as the first female pilot (and shuttle commander), but the wording of the clue did give me pause since I also knew Michael Collins did not land on the moon during that historic voyage. 

Some of these I got and some I didn't, but I knew convoy from my extensive reading about the Napoleonic Wars at sea.  So thanks, C.S. Forrester and Patrick O'Brian!

And the only German astronomer I could think of was Kepler.

 

For me, it was a wild guess which was accompanied by the comment "I'm sure that's wrong".  Imagine my surprise when it was correct.  Heck, I even got the 'Johannes' as his first name.  Science is a real  hit-or-miss category for me, but every once in awhile I stumble upon the right answer.

My son really liked Jonny. My husband and I, on the other hand, found his pausing before every question and picking a new category to be INFURIATING. Oh it drove me absolutely nuts. I so did not want him to move on.

I'm with you on this one.  Plus, to me, he just seemed so wishy-washy.  He can be a one-and-done contestant as far as I'm concerned.

Edited December 31, 2015 by proserpina65

[peeayebee]

I couldn't come up with minuet to save my life, although I'm well familiar with the dance, and I said motet instead of madrigal - I wonder if I would've been given credit for that answer. 

I came up with motet, too! I learned it from doing the Yahoo daily crossword.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Camille's answer of "What is the Galapagos Islands ?" for that clue about the Argentine name for the Falklands -- was pretty bad.  Wrong side of South America, and about 4000 miles away.

[GreekGeek]

Johnny's hesitation before picking each clue drove me nuts tonight. I'm not sad he was a "one and done."

 

I'm happy that Ashley got that second chance and that she won, but I would have been happy with Sandro winning also. I wondered if the FJ category would give him an advantage, since he'd lived in Africa. I was surprised that he didn't get it. I had never heard of the kudu, but according to the info on Wikipedia it wasn't a bad guess. I did wonder how "wildebeest" describes its appearance.

 

I got quite a few of the TS's tonight: page, haunted house, Gangs of New York, In the Name of the Father, and the Byzantine Empire.

 

I was amused to learn that England has Pringle's. I wondered what they call them if they're not allowed to call them "crisps," and apparently they're just Pringles. They have a "Prawn Cocktail Flavour" that sounds tasty.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Glad they brought back Ashley so quickly -- and she's our new champ.  Johnny did ok, but he kept getting beat on ringing in.

 

The Kiwi dollar coin DD was ridiculously simple.  I thought the DDs were supposed to be MORE challenging than the regular questions.

 

I missed on FJ -- I guessed Pronghorn antelope.

 

Sandro's FJ answer of kudu wasn't a bad guess -- I like the antlers.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudu

 

ETA:  Pringles are only 42% potato -- I did not know that.  I guess I never read the ingredients list before.

Edited January 1, 2016 by ottoDbusdriver

[Browncoat]

The prawn cocktail flavour crisp is not tasty.

 

Good on Ashley for winning, although I kind of expected Sandro to get FJ.  Maybe he didn't get out much while he lived in Botswana.

[chessiegal]

I WAG FJ as gnu based on crossword puzzles and a Smothers Brothers routine. :)

[Trey]

Johnny really was annoyingly slow tonight.  I still like him but it's okay that Ashley won.

 

I said dik dik for FJ - at least it met one part of the clue. I was disappointed that FJ wasn't about meerkats.

 

Happy New Year, everyone!

Edited January 1, 2016 by Trey

[Mondrianyone]

I thought it was dik-dik, too.  But I kind of had my doubts they would end the year with that as the answer to FJ.

 

Johnny also reminds me of John Fiedler from the old Bob Newhart Show.  And someone else who I still can't dig out of my brain.  This may become my life's work if I'm not careful.

 

Happy New Year, all!

[rubaco]

Johnny also reminds me of John Fiedler from the old Bob Newhart Show.  And someone else who I still can't dig out of my brain.

 

 

Maybe Michael Jeter, who used to be on Evening Shade? He's sadly been gone for about 10 years now. 

[CarpeDiem54]

Happy New Year, everyone!

Johnny's slowness drove me batty tonight. I liked Sandro (his accent made me drool because I'm shallow like that) but Ashley was okay, too.

I was thinking of kudu for FJ but couldn't pull the name out of my pea-sized brain. Oh, well.

[just prin]

Yay, Ashley--my wish for the new year is that a nice, smiley gal like you stays around for awhile. (Which means you'll be gone, pronto). And the game must have been fairly easy--I got to yell out a few correct answers! Why wasn't dik-dik one-- love that!

[alias1]

It was nice that Ashley had a chance to come back, and then she won!  Poor Johnny just wasn't fast enough on the buzzer (or picking categories).  I liked him but I'm glad Ashley won. 

[peeayebee]

I guessed Springbok for FJ. 

 

There were several clues where I was all "Ooo, ooo, I know that...." but I couldn't think of the answer, like Gangs of New York.

[secnarf]

Johnny's hesitation before picking each clue drove me nuts tonight. I'm not sad he was a "one and done."

 

I'm happy that Ashley got that second chance and that she won, but I would have been happy with Sandro winning also. I wondered if the FJ category would give him an advantage, since he'd lived in Africa. I was surprised that he didn't get it. I had never heard of the kudu, but according to the info on Wikipedia it wasn't a bad guess. I did wonder how "wildebeest" describes its appearance.

I think wildebeest describes its appearance as a "wild beast".

I was also surprised Sandro didn't get FJ, but maybe there weren't many wildebeest where he was or he only ever heard one name for them.

 

I liked Johnny but his slowness definitely irritated me.

 

I wanted Sandro to win, but I liked Ashley as well.

[Scott]

I would totally have taken advantage of the judging to say just "Powers" the other day, because I can never remember if it's Francis Gary or Gary Francis.

[YoureSoUrban]

Too bad Jonny didn't win but I was also rooting for Sandro, who was up against not one but two competitors who had experience on the show and practice with the buzzer while he had not.

 

I also loved how he corrected Alex twice during his interview, in reference to Botswana's closeness to South Africa and its being dangerous. His accent gave the burns an elegant touch.

 

Happy New Year, Jeopardy Fam!

[ottoDbusdriver]

I would totally have taken advantage of the judging to say just "Powers" the other day, because I can never remember if it's Francis Gary or Gary Francis.

 

Though I wonder if they would have accepted Kit Powers.  :)

 

Happy New Year everyone !!!

Edited January 1, 2016 by ottoDbusdriver

[NorthstarATL]

Johnny was like a sitcom neighbor, and would have worn out his welcome quickly. Fun game. Good for Ashley, though I still don't think that the FJ she returned on was that poorly worded. I got FJ quickly! Happy Gnu Year!

[peeayebee]

I also loved how he corrected Alex twice during his interview, in reference to Botswana's closeness to South Africa and its being dangerous. His accent gave the burns an elegant touch.

From The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books I knew that Botswana wasn't a particularly dangerous place.

[trow125]

From The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books I knew that Botswana wasn't a particularly dangerous place.

Ha, I'm also a big fan of those books, and when Alex made that comment, I thought, "Mma Ramotswe would be very disappointed to hear him say that!" 

[GreekGeek]

Good game tonight! Three competent contestants, although Carl put me off a bit by sounding so smug about his toothpaste knowledge. Not too many TS's; the only one that stood out was Frigg(a). 

 

I never thought of "cinema" for "movies" as a Britishism. I thought it was just a slightly fancier synonym.

[secnarf]

I couldn't quite forgive Ashley for "prescriptionist", but other than that it was a decent game.

I also said the Tea Act for FJ. I totally forgot about the Stamp Act!

[mojoween]

I found pinball and one of the other clues in that category to be surprising TS.

I wish Ashley answered more confidently. I know the answer is in a form of a question, but most times everyone sounds like they are making a statement and a lot of the time Ashley sound like she was questioning herself.

[ottoDbusdriver]

That DD in the Wedding Isle category -- about a street named after FDR in the city of San Juan -- was way too easy for a DD.

 

I didn't think 'cinema' was strictly a Britishism either.

[Trey]

 

I couldn't quite forgive Ashley for "prescriptionist"

I thought she knew that wasn't right but was frantically searching her mind for the right word.

 

It was a pretty good game; I liked both new contestants better than Ashley but it's still okay that she won.

 

I did get FJ - something I remembered from my long ago history classes.

[Browncoat]

I said Stamp Act, but I wasn't sure that's what it was called.  I mean, I knew there was a Stamp Act, just not that that was the thing to which the clue referred.  History is not my strong suit.

[ABay]

I thought Stamp Act but all of the supposedly hard clues had been so easy (San Juan is on what island? It's a marvel they didn't show a picture, like they did of Frederick Douglass) that I figured it had to be the Tea Tax because it was more obvious.