I Won Ben Stein's Money!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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(Note to moderators: I wasn’t certain whether this belongs in MPSIMS or Cafe Society. Feel free to move the thread to its proper home.)

Yes, folks: I was a contestant on “Win Ben Stein’s Money.” The taping was Nov. 7th, and as of this moment I don’t know when my appearance will air. And I really did win his money: I tied Mr. Stein in the final round, taking home $1550.

Granted, it’s not a lot of money. I won’t get paid until four months after the show airs. And between travel costs, taking my wife on a clothes shopping spree and my family to Disneyland, I spent more on the trip than I won. But I didn’t do this for the money, I did it for the fun of being on a game show.

And it was fun! It’s definitely the funnest, coolest thing I’ve done in a long while. I’d do it again, but you can make only one appearance on their show.

I must say, I learned a lot about the inner workings of game shows. According to my wife and my best friend, who were in the audience, almost all of the audience is paid to be there. They are out-of-work actors who are paid $7/hr plus a meal to sit in the show. My friend struck up a conversation with one of the paid audience members, who told him that almost all of the game shows pay their audiences. Of course, my wife and friend were not paid…they were given the “priviledge” of being guests.

I found that the hardest part of playing wasn’t so much knowing the answers as buzzing in on time. The contestant buzzers are disabled until the question is read completely. Then a light goes on and the buzzers are activated. If you try to ring in when the buzzers are disabled, there’s a 1/2 second lock-out on your buzzer. So, you can wait for the light to come on and hope you beat the others to the punch, or you can rapidly press your button, hoping that the lock-out will come off just as you’re pressing the button again. I found that neither method works much better than the other. Most of the money I won in the first two rounds came from picking off questions that someone – who had rung in before me --missed.

And there is a certain brain-drain under the stage lights that you don’t get playing along at home. On one answer, I tried to say “fluorine”, but it came out “fluoron”…and I’m sure there were a few other embarrassing moments in there.

All in all, it was a great day. The only downside is the production company doesn’t pay travel expenses for contestants, so most of the contestants are from the Southern California area. But if you’ve ever wanted to be on a game show, try this one out: it’s a lot of fun.

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WOohoo!!! That is so cool! You have to let us know when it will air!

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local boy does good!

i told you us Nevada folks are a little smarter than the average bear!

i’ll be watching for you…

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That’s great! I had a similar experience on the French version of that show that Ben loathes, i.e. Jeopardy! (I was a contestant, and lost:().

How did you qualify (What’s the procedure?)? During the taping of the show, did you have to do many takes or was it smooth sailing? How did you do in The Booth? Tough questions? Ben still guzzling his Pepto Bismol, or whatever it is? Is the $1000 given on the air real or fake money?

And finally:), give us the skinny on foxy Nancy Pimental (although I do miss Kimmel’s off-the-wall humour).

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Unfortunately, Nancy Pimental was not renewed for the next season. The host this year will be Sal (apparently Jimmy Kimmel’s cousin), who has also appeared on “The Man Show”. I was devastated by that, because I’d really hoped that Nancy was looking for a sugar daddy :slight_smile: I didn’t think Sal was as funny as either Jimmy or Nancy, but it was very early in the season and he obviously needs time to get into the swing of things. (It was only the 4th day of taping for the season!)

How did I qualify? It was pretty standard. I had called them last February, when I was still living in So Cal, but they weren’t looking for contestants then; so, I sent an email and asked them to keep me in mind for the next season. They called me in early October, and I flew down to L.A. the next week for the audition. You have to take a written test, and if you score high enough, they keep you around to participate in a mock-up of the show. If they like what they see, they call you the next day to inform you that you’re on the “active” list. What that means is that you’ll probably be a contestant in that season, but since they do keep more people on the active list than they really need, sometimes you get bumped to the next season. I was called in to be on the 12th show they taped for the season.

My show was the third and final one taped that day. They don’t pick the contestants for each show from the day’s pool until right before the taping. (There’s one alternate in case someone gets sick or disqualified, but the alternate is guaranteed to be a contestant on the next taping day.)

The actual taping took about an hour. There were all kinds of problems with the video monitors; often, the category that was displayed didn’t match what was on Sal’s card and they had to halt taping to get the board reset. During the down time, Ben would sing various songs, ranging from Mother Goose to Bob Dylan. In the second round, they credited me with a correct answer that they shouldn’t have, so they took the money away before the bonus round; since the amount wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game, they let me stay but they will bring my opponent back for another taping. In addition to explaining that ruling to me after the second round, they had to have me stand up and read a category again because it had been written poorly the first time.

Yes, Ben really does guzzle stomach medicine in his booth. I heard someone say that it was paregoric, but I don’t know that for a fact. Ben Stein is very charming and soft-spoken in person.

As I said in my original post, I tied Ben in the final round. I answered 6 correctly, and was certain that he would beat me. But when he racked up his 4th miss on question #8, I knew that I had at least a tie and a good shot at winning it all. He stumbled a bit on the final question, but said the correct answer, and I came out with a tie. They gave me the card that Sal reads the questions from after the show; if no one minds me spoiling the show a bit, I’ll post the questions here (along with what was going through my head at the time).

The money Ben hands out is fake. The stage is so much smaller in real life than it appears on television that I was astonished they could fit everything on it. I guess that’s part of the magic of television :slight_smile: They don’t send the parting gifts to the other two contestants until 90 days after the show airs, and the cash doesn’t come to me until 120 days after air.

Hope that answers all your questions…

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The qualification procedure (almost to a T), the picking of contestants on the day of taping, the video problems, set being smaller than you’d think, etc.: shades of déjà vu all over again. If I closed my eyes, I could see myself back on the set of that French-language TV show in Montreal, six or seven years back. Luckily for you, the outcome was more remunerative than it was for me (except for your ‘incidentals’:D).

So, perky Nancy got the axe, huh? Pity.

(P.S.: I personally wouldn’t mind you posting the questions, with appropriate comments as to your state of mind)

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I’m glad you won, you also educated me ! I thought the show paid the contestant’s travel and hotel, the talk shows do. Oh hell, was that my out loud voice ? They know I have watched talk shows. I must now kill everyone who reads this.

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Ben Stein was my dorm proctor at UC Santa Cruz about a hundred years ago. He hasn’t changed a bit. I love it when
he loses (or ties), it seems to bother him so much.

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Please do!

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Yes, please do!!!

O

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Crap. First, no Jo in the Facts Of Life reunion movie, and now no more Nancy Pimental. Oh well.

Ya know, I was just wondering about this yesterday, if any Dopers would make it onto Ben Stein. I love that show, and it’s great to get some Straight Dope about it. Let us know when you’ll be on.

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One of the things they tell you in the Green Room is that you don’t have a lot of time in the final round. You’ve got 1 minute to answer 10 questions, so that’s about 6 seconds per question. And 3 of that is taken up by the reading. So, if you don’t know the answer, you have just a couple of beats to come up with it. Unless it’s on the tip of your tongue, you’re better off passing. If you pass on a question and blurt out the answer before they read the next question, you’ll be credited with the right answer. And if it’s the last question, they’ll tell you that there are no more questions and you should take a guess anyway.

One thing that makes Ben so good in this round is that he clears his head after each question. I saw one contestant get a doozey for the second question, and it rattled him for the remainder of the round. You can’t do that: you’ve got to put the last question out of your head, right or wrong, and move on. I was able to do so, and it saved me.

In the booth, I couldn’t see the audience at all. The glare of the lights on the glass made almost everything invisible. I could see a very faint reflection of me, as well as that of the clock, but that’s about it.

By the way, Ben’s irritation at losing or tying is just an act. Granted, he loses all or part of his appearance fee for that show, but he’s not hurting for cash. He’s as gracious in defeat as he is in victory.

Okay, gang, here are the 10 questions from the final round:

1. Who directed the 1939 Jimmy Stewart classic, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”?

When Sal read “1939,” I was thinking This has got to be ‘Stagecoach’, but then he read the star’s name. I didn’t realize Mr. Smith was made in 1939, but I did know the answer: Frank Capra.

Whew, first question was one that I knew off the top of my head. I was feeling much more at ease.

2. In September 2001, who did George W. Bush appoint to head the newly created Office of Homeland Security?

I didn’t let Sal get past “newly created”, calling out the right answer: Tom Ridge.

3. Charcoal is an impure variety of what common element?

Another easy one: Carbon!

Three for three? I was feeling very good at this stage.

4. What Algerian-born author wrote the 1956 philosophical novel “The Fall”?

Ack! Algerian-born??? I knew that I would never come up with the right answer, so I passed immediately.

Albert Camus was the answer. I recognized the name, and knew he was an author, but I couldn’t have told you anything he had written.

5. In U.S. automobiles, how many doors does a coupe traditionally have?

Whew, an easy one again: 2. I’ve got 4 right so far.

6. What color has the longest wavelength on the visible spectrum?

I knew this one! Red. Five of the first six questions, and I’m feeling very good about the round…but then The Dark Times came upon me.

7. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty settled the boundary dispute over what U.S. state?

Yikes! I had no idea. I’ve never even heard of the treaty, and it’s been a LONG time since I took U.S. History. I guessed ‘Oklahoma’, but was wrong. The correct answer is Maine.

8. What type of vegetable most often has a large white head called a curd?

I was thrown by this question and passed immediately. If I’d had some time to think, I might have come up with the right answer eventually, but the word “curd” had me baffled. It’s cauliflower, folks.

9. In 1992, the Church of England agreed to allow what disenfranchised group to join the priesthood?

It was one of two answers: women or homosexuals. I guessed homosexuals, and the answer was women.

Wow, three straight misses. I’m still not rattled, but not feeling as good about life as I had been after question #6.

10. The capital city of what Southeast Asian island nation was formerly called Batavia?

Batavia? Shoot, I had no idea. I passed. But Sal told me it was the last question and I should take a guess. So, I blurted out the first Southeast Asian island nation that came to mind: Indonesia. And I was right! That guess was worth $1000 to me :slight_smile:

Okay, so I got 6 right. But I thought Ben would easily beat me. I sat in my booth, counting his misses. He got questions 1 and 2, but then missed on #3. He picked off #4, as I expected, and got #5 as well. So he had one miss in the first 5, just like me. But then he missed #6…and #7…and #8! That was his fourth miss: I had a tie! And a possibility of a win…I was on the edge of the cheap little stool they make you sit on in the booth. Ben got #9 right, and it appeared that he didn’t know the answer to #10, but he recovered and answered correctly.

Everyone in the production crew was great. They’re as friendly a group of people as you can meet. And they’re rooting for you on stage: they love seeing someone beat Ben. They seem to enjoy their work and the show doesn’t take itself too seriously. That attitude helps all the contestants relax and have a good time.

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I have one question, pertaining to the sentence that Ben says just before the one on one begins.

He says, “You have won $XXX dollars from me and that is yours to keep no matter what happens. Now you have a chance…”

As indicated by my bolding, my question: If you beat Ben for his $5000, do you also get to keep whatever you won in the first two rounds?

I mean, yours to keep no matter what happens. So if Ben wins, you keep, say your $550 from the first two rounds. But if you win, don’t you get $5550?

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The prize fund for the show is $5000, and everything you win is paid out of that. You can never win more than $5000. What you won in the first two rounds is paid from the prize fund, but if you beat Ben in the bonus round, you get the entire fund. If you tie Ben, you keep whatever you won in the first two rounds plus $1000. If you lose to Ben, you get whatever you won in the first two rounds. (I’m guessing that if you win $4050 in the first two rounds – which is HIGHLY unlikely – and tie Ben in the bonus round, that you will receive $5000, and not the $5050 you’d expect from that outcome.)

Ben’s appearance fee is whatever is left of the $5000 after the prize money is paid, so he really is defending his money.

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A few questions: Why did you elect to go first? It would seem to me that, had you known in advance that Ben had gotten six right, maybe you could have ‘strategized’ a bit. But in your case, it might not have made much of a difference, because you really didn’t know the answers. And I’ve always wondered why a contestant wouldn’t hazard a guess even if (s)he almost certain (s)he doesn’t know the answer, given that there’s no penalty?

P.S.: I’m assuming that there were ‘History’ and ‘Politics’ questions as usual in the second round, and that good ole Ben went at them with a vengeance? I’ve always suspected there could have been a ‘tacit pact’ between Ben and the writers to have a certain percentage of these questions on every show (so as to give Ben a slight advantage, of course): could be wrong, though.

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im glad nancys gone- i didn’t like her.

i would always choose to go 2nd, cause it seems the questions get read faster the second time around and you can pass hard ones if you know ben has a low score…

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Omni-not and gatapescado: For a long time, I thought that should I ever appear on the show, I would go second as well. But if Ben gets a high score, then you can be panicked into answering too hastily. Also, it’s a LONG minute to be sitting in the booth, wondering how Ben is doing. It made sense to me to go first and get it over with. Going second would work if Ben got a low score, but he very rarely answers fewer than 5 correctly.

Omni, the questions in the second round ranged widely. When Ben selects a category, he tends to stick to stuff that deals with history and politics, but if either of the two remaining contestants answers correctly, then any category can be selected. There was a history question that NOBODY got (something about someone executed during the French Revolution), a political question that Ben got, a science question that I got, a question on Olympic swimming (that I was creditted with a correct answer, but then reversed on), and a couple of other questions that I don’t recall.

There is no apparent agreement between Ben and the question writers over content. Such a thing would be a violation of federal law. They warn everyone that any attempt to fix a game show is punishable by a year in the federal pokey and a $10,000 fine…and that’s for each instance of cheating. I doubt that the production company would risk that, and I’m sure Ben Stein wouldn’t risk either the criminal punishment or the serious blow to his good name.

I was in last place late in the first round. But I picked off a follow-up question for $50 that put all three of us into a deadheat. I got the last question just before the cuckoo sounded to end the round. One of the producers told me between the rounds that had I not gotten it, they would have had their first 3-way tie ever. I was also trailing in the second round, but gained the lead and held on just by the skin of my teeth.

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COOL!!!
Sounds like you had a blast. Great thread.

I saw Emeril Live last summer in NYC. Rhoda walks around with a red and white baton in her hand and when she twirls it around above her head you have to applaud and scream like hell. Just like on TV, though, there’s not enough food for the entire audience, just what he passes out to the people in the front row. During commercials a stagehand comes out and hurls little bags of potato chips into the audience so you can munch SOMETHING as you smell veal chops being grilled and garlic roasting.

Anyway, congrats Steverino and thanks for the info. I always wondered about quite a bit of what you mentioned and I LOVE that show! I miss Jimmy tooling on Ben though.

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Of course I wasn’t thinking any collusion between Ben and the writing staff. But it is odd, at least to me, that every show would have its History and Politics questions among the many categories the writers have to choose from. But I’m not suggesting any hanky panky. I’m sure Ben wins it fair and square.

BTW, did they keep you in isolation while other shows were being taped (that’s what happened in my case, although I don’t know why)?

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Yes, they did. All the contestants for the day had to report by noon, and we were all taken to the Green Room, where we stayed until called for our show. The production staff had us all sign papers and then talked to us about game strategy and general playing tips. (One of the big topics was buzzer strategy.) After that, the 3 contestants for the first show were called down to the stage. Those of us left behind were able to watch the taping over closed-circuit tv, but we couldn’t watch anything else. And someone from the production staff had to be with us at all times.

When your show was taped, you couldn’t leave the set until the whole thing was over, even if you were eliminated in the first round. They often had to redo a shot, so the director didn’t want anyone leaving until the show was finished.

When I got there at noon, I was hoping to be on the first show taped. But in retrospect, I’m glad I was on the last one. I was soooooo nervous for the first two shows, and didn’t calm down until about 5 minutes before I was led to the stage.