I actually thought that was the point of it, to put you in the mindset of the contestant. So many other quiz shows become more about playing along. But this one actually featured the personality of the contestants.
Though I guess maybe that got old. Still, I just thought it was because most people didn’t know there was a morning version, especially since Regis wasn’t hosting it.
This is my number-one annoyance, too. It’s so fake. She has no idea that everyone listening knows she’s attempting to manipulate them into seeing her as Light-Hearted (or ebullient, or ‘on top of it all and amused by it,’ or whatever it is she’s going for). It just isn’t working.
I suppose if she does this in real life all the time, there would be less room for criticism. Anyone ever see her interviewed? Does she add a little chuckle to every other sentence?
Mayim also doesn’t always call attention to quotation marks in the categories as Alex always did and Ken always does. And ISTM that many more players in her games recently have given responses in those categories that didn’t include the quoted letters/words, perhaps because that hadn’t been pointed out to them.
And is it me, or does it seem that there are a lot more triple stumper clues these days? Are players getting dumber or are the writers getting too tricky?
Finally, tonight my wife gave the correct response to FJ tonight as soon as the category was revealed (as I have done a few times before). It just so happens that one of the stops on a cruise we’re taking next month is in Slovenia, so it’s little surprise that that country was on her mind.
The contestants the last few weeks haven’t seemed the sharpest, still smarter then me, but no real stand outs. Even the current champ is getting lucky in his wins and nobody is dominating the game.
The New Yorker has an interview with Ken Jennings. He doesn’t care for the contestant anecdote segment of the show.
Aw, he’s such a sweetheart. Interesting read, thanks Dewey!
Some years ago, the “Readings” section near the front of Harper’s mag excerpted some J! contestant chat under the headline “world’s smallest talk”. I don’t know, though, if that judgement has been certified by Guinness.
Agreed. But they are still smarter than me.
The Cujo Symphony, premiered in 1808 in Vienna.
Actually that was my biggest complaint about the otherwise excellent Trebek. He almost always said, “XYZ in quotes. You know what THAT means.”
NO, WE DON’T!
It could mean the response begins with that letter (if only one). It could mean the response contains those letters consecutively. It could mean the response contains those letters sequentially but not consecutively. Did I miss anything?
Hey, Trebek, be more specific!
I don’t remember that ever actually being an issue. Whenever Trebek said “you know what that means,” it was always for a single word in quotes which always mean that exact word had to be in the answer.
And Bunker Hill got moved from Boston to Cuba. Hmm. It was like watching Kevin Pollak’s Jeopardy answers in She’s All That.
You don’t even have to know that San Juan Hill is in Cuba (honestly, I didn’t). You don’t have to know why the Rough Riders were there, the significance of the battle, or even what war it was.
“Teddy Roosevelt/San Juan Hill” is just one of those combinations that I assumed was burned into every American’s brain since childhood.
And wasn’t there a recent clue about a future president who chopped down a cherry tree, to which the contestant answered “Who is Lincoln?”
The not-reading-any-of-the-clue-except-“big dog” response of “Cujo” notwithstanding, I feel like this was a tough one. A quick search reveals that four of the Beethoven movies had titles in the format “Beethoven’s [ordinal number],” Beethoven’s 2nd through Beethoven’s 5th. You’d have to know cold either that 1) the movie Beethoven’s 5th was released in 2003, or 2) that Ludwig van Beethoven’s fifth symphony premiered in 1808. Both of those seem like pretty obscure things to know down to the exact year.
Or simply that a movie about a dog was called “Beethoven” and Beethoven was a composer who wrote symphonies. The years weren’t really important.
The clue/response weren’t about just the name “Beethoven.”
Here is the clue:
And the correct response was “Beethoven’s 5th.”
If all you have to go on is “movie dog named after composer of symphonies,” how would you know the correct response wasn’t “Beethoven’s 2nd,” or “Beethoven’s 3rd,” or “Beethoven’s 4th?” All of which were movies, and symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Because the two best known of his symphonies are the fifth and the ninth. And I’d wager the fifth is the most well-known.
This is a great point, and you bring up the fact that it’s a really really hard clue.
Beethoven’s 2nd: symphony premiered in 1802; movie, 1993
Beethoven’s 3rd: symphony, 1804; movie, 2000
Beethoven’s 4th: symphony, 1806; movie, 2001
I admit that I guessed the correct answer, probably because Beethoven’s 5th is his most well-known work.
Maybe if you’re a classical music aficionado, it’s easy to overthink it, and the writers were just thinking most people are going to go “oh, Beethoven, must be Beethoven’s 5th.” I also love Beethoven’s 3rd, 6th, and 7th symphonies, so I don’t automatically assume any reference to a Beethoven symphony must be to the 5th.
A couple of observations about today’s program:
When giving a question that was a title, Suresh dropped the word “the” from the title and his response was allowed. Is that typical? I ask because I know they are normally very strict with titles.
Then, right after the above, Suresh chooses the same category (Narrator of the Novel), finds the Daily Double, and then bets only $5! On a category he selected! And then, after missing the clue, he selects the same category again!
Discuss.
mmm