Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

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MarkBarrett
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Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by MarkBarrett »

This field is sorted by TOC results.

Jerry Frankel (5) $32,650 (finals winner)
Bruce Fauman (5) $43,398 (finals 2nd)
Steve Rogitz (5) $31,399 (finals 3rd)
Paul Boymel (5) $56,200 (semis)
Larry Floyd (5) $35,800 (semis)
Ron Black (5) $47,401 (semis)
John Hannatt (5) $37,100 (semis)
Ric Moser (5) $39,200 (semis)
Liz Caccese (5) $34,500 (semis)
Elise Beraru (5) $47,350 (quarters)
Paula Tupper (5) $34,298 (quarters)
Nathan Walpow (5) $38,900 (quarters)
Michael Day (5) $53,500 (quarters)
John Genova (5) $50,595 (quarters)
Paul Croshier (5) $36,500 (quarters)

Gold chances for the 45: Steve Rogitz and Elise Beraru

Silver chances for the 45: Ron Black

Bronze chances for the 45: Michael Day

Copper chances for the 45: Ric Moser, Paula Tupper, Nathan Walpow and Paul Croshier

Tin chances for the 45: Paul Boymel, John Genova, Liz Caccese, Larry Floyd, John Hannatt

Deceased: Jerry Frankel and Bruce Fauman

Steve Rogitz is the only living finalist from the first TOC. I put his name and Facebook into a Google search and the page that came up had a photo that sure looks like him, so I take that to mean he's still around. So what if he exited Super J! and 10th Anniversary after one game?

Elise Beraru was the first 5-time winner and retired champ in the Alex Trebek run of the show. Exiting the TOC and Super J! after the first game should not hurt her chances.

Ron Black did not quite have enough in winnings to make the UTOC. He was a good contestant with a winning smiling and accent.

Michael Day had a good showing in a strong second place finish in his TOC match that I'm guessing in his case will outweigh his QF exit in the TOC. Unlike so many others in his field though, he did have the chance to play again. Give someone else a chance.

Ric Moser posted a few weeks ago, so I'm sure he would love an invite. His claim to fame is being the winner of the first TOC game.

Paula Tupper posted a few weeks ago, so if Elise is unavailable that could move her up the depth chart. Otherwise I think the QF exit hurts her chances.

Nathan Walpow did at least three other shows besides J!, so game show fans may remember more than some others in the field.

Paul Croshier was memorable playing in military uniform. If he does not get an invite then he would be a good one for an update video at least since the last we heard from him on the show was a minus 800 exit in the QF game.

Sorry, but Paul Boymel and John Genova had performances not up to par in the UTOC. It was great for them that they got another chance to play so many years later. 8 years later again? No.

Liz Caccese did get one more chance to play in Super J! I could be wrong, but my guess is playing days are past her now.

John Hannatt and Larry Floyd would be good plays for long shot bets. They did make the semis of the TOC. Unfortunately they do not have the good memorable factor of other players.

The 1985 field did not have their player names introduced with an on screen graphic, so spelling is based on Johnny's and Alex's voices, appearances on other shows and best guesses. Any corrections are welcome and of course the archive team would love to have more first season games in the archive.
Last edited by MarkBarrett on Tue Jul 23, 2013 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by Bamaman »

I brought this up when the debut game was rerun a few years ago, but I think it bears repeating. Greg Hopkins won the first ever Trebek game in a lock. He led $8,100/$3,800/$2,500. He wisely only bet $300 on FJ and was called a chicken by Alex. Like Marty McFly, he didn't handle that well. The next day, he led $9,500/$5,00/$1,100. With an MSB of only $501, he bet it all, as did both of the other two players. The clue was answering when the 20th century began and they all said 1/1/1900.

Had he won that game, I think he'd have been in good shape to sweep the week. The players who won Wednesday and Thursday were one and done. (Game #6 is not archived). If he had made even a decent showing in the TOC, I think he'd be a lock for this tournament. Who wouldn't want to see the first ever Jeopardy! champ return to take on the young whippersnappers?
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StevenH
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by StevenH »

Paul Boymel and Paul Crozier played each other in the quarterfinals. According to the archive, Paul Crozier's podium said "SGGT Paul." I am surprised that TPTB put two contestants with the same first name against each other in the quarterfinals.

Mark, thanks so much for posting the breakdowns of all the ToC classes and your predictions on who will be invited to the next tournament!
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MarkBarrett
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by MarkBarrett »

StevenH wrote:Paul Boymel and Paul Crozier played each other in the quarterfinals. According to the archive, Paul Crozier's podium said "SGGT Paul." I am surprised that TPTB put two contestants with the same first name against each other in the quarterfinals.

Mark, thanks so much for posting the breakdowns of all the ToC classes and your predictions on who will be invited to the next tournament!
You're welcome and of course I enjoy doing such things. I'm almost done except for looking over the first 8 fields and picking 15 players from them.

If Barbara Lowe can go multiple rounds no matter the eye witness testimony of many of us here 100% remember watching her play with our own eyes, then let's do the Pauls again.

The QF round for the 1985 TOC was matched exactly by order of 5xers retired. The Pauls were in the 7th - 9th range, so same game no matter about the name matching. Elise Beraru as first retired champ played in? You guessed it, QF #1.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by StevenH »

MarkBarrett wrote:
You're welcome and of course I enjoy doing such things. I'm almost done except for looking over the first 8 fields and picking 15 players from them.
Did you post predictions for 2003-2013? I missed them if you did.
MarkBarrett wrote:The QF round for the 1985 TOC was matched exactly by order of 5xers retired. The Pauls were in the 7th - 9th range, so same game no matter about the name matching. Elise Beraru as first retired champ played in? You guessed it, QF #1.
Oh wow, I didn't know that TPTB ever picked the match ups like that.
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MarkBarrett
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by MarkBarrett »

StevenH wrote:
Did you post predictions for 2003-2013? I missed them if you did.
I somewhat did it in the 2006 thread as part of the discussion about David Madden. Making a separate thread and putting Madden in is easy. Figuring out who to eliminate will be difficult, but I'll do it.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by seaborgium »

Ron Black and Elise Beraru were the first and second snubs for the UToC, I believe; Bill Dickenson's $48,401 was the lowest earnings of a 5xer who hadn't won a ToC, and so Ron was just $1,000 behind that, and Elise $51 behind him.

Ron encountered a buzzsaw in Jerry Frankel in the semis, and got the bad draw of Chuck Forrest and Dave Traini in SJ!. He was pretty evenly matched with them and Yael Sofaer, but Dave doubled up on a DD to take the lead and ultimately the game. Ron hit a DD too, but it was Audio, and he must have known he could only do damage to himself with it, so he bet and lost 50 points. If he came back, I think he could put in at least a respectable performance on the level of Michael Day in the UToC.

Elise was briefly the cash winnings record holder (until John Genova won five), and was the single-day winnings record holder for a little longer (about a year). Her $23,800 was the cutoff point for high one-day winnings in Jeopardy's Hall of Fame on their old site (pre-doubling). She wasn't steamrolled in the ToC, but she needlessly bet it all ($6,400) from second place and was eliminated on a TS. She didn't make a strong showing in SJ!, but she (and her opponents) did wager in such a way that she would have won on a sole get. (A sole get occurred, but it was Eric Newhouse's.) But strength or weakness doesn't matter for her; she was the first 5x champ and as such I expect she'll get some attention from TPTB.

And I support Ric Moser and Paula Tupper, just because they've shown up here!

edit: Oh, I wanted to mention Steve Rogitz. He didn't seem to take himself too seriously, he came third in the ToC (solidarity!), and he had a sole get on FJ in SJ!, losing anyway because Bob Verini had a lock. (Maybe if he had bet 50 points instead of 2,000 on his Audio DD, he would have won. Bob had 23,000 and Steve had 9,900 going into FJ, but Bob had gone from 10,000 to 15,000 on a later DD, and he's never been one to shy away from big DD bets.)
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by legendneverdies »

Paul Crozier and his sister Margie won a few games of BLockbusters with Bill Cullen in early 1982. Nathan Walpole was one of the single male contestants on one of the December 1984 Trebek-hosted pilots for a show called Mama Non Mama, which did later air in the US with Ross Shafer as Love Me Love Me Not on USA in 1986-87(taped in Canada)
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Rex Kramer
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by Rex Kramer »

seaborgium wrote:he came third in the ToC (solidarity!)
Righteous.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by MDaunt »

Rex Kramer wrote:
seaborgium wrote:he came third in the ToC (solidarity!)
Righteous.
Amen.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by georgespelvin »

I haven't seen Paul Boymel in awhile (our paths cross in theater circles sometime) but I doubt that he would be disappointed at not being selected. I think that he's moved on.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by harrumph »

Just want to add that Mark did a great job with the Calling All TOCers threads
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by legendneverdies »

Paul Crozier's name is really spelled Croshier. He just responded a clip of him on J! on Youtube(screenname Oldmole51, in case someone wants to invite him to the board). He picked a DD on his original appearance just as time ran out, the time up bell sounded as he was picking the DD. It was found to be against the rules, so he was invited back and of course he won five games. He said he didn't as well in the TofC because of the rule change of having to wait until Alex is done reading the clue to buzz in. He and his sister Margie also won a few games of Bill Cullen's Blockbusters in 1982.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by MarkBarrett »

legendneverdies wrote:Paul Crozier's name is really spelled Croshier. He just responded a clip of him on J! on Youtube(screenname Oldmole51, in case someone wants to invite him to the board). He picked a DD on his original appearance just as time ran out, the time up bell sounded as he was picking the DD. It was found to be against the rules, so he was invited back and of course he won five games. He said he didn't as well in the TofC because of the rule change of having to wait until Alex is done reading the clue to buzz in. He and his sister Margie also won a few games of Bill Cullen's Blockbusters in 1982.
Thank you for the spelling correction and I have updated the archive. It's hard for season one players to find us here when we don't have their names right. I'll edit my post here as well.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by legendneverdies »

MarkBarrett wrote:
legendneverdies wrote:Paul Crozier's name is really spelled Croshier. He just responded a clip of him on J! on Youtube(screenname Oldmole51, in case someone wants to invite him to the board). He picked a DD on his original appearance just as time ran out, the time up bell sounded as he was picking the DD. It was found to be against the rules, so he was invited back and of course he won five games. He said he didn't as well in the TofC because of the rule change of having to wait until Alex is done reading the clue to buzz in. He and his sister Margie also won a few games of Bill Cullen's Blockbusters in 1982.
Thank you for the spelling correction and I have updated the archive. It's hard for season one players to find us here when we don't have their names right. I'll edit my post here as well.
DOn Benn, who appeared on about 10 shows from 1975-1993 or so, but not J!(DIamond Head Game, three times on Dating Game, Mindreaders, $128K Question, 80s Scrabble, Jim Caldwell Tic Tac Dough, $ale, USA Gonzo Games, and COsby You Bet Your Life) just posted on the GSN Message boards(they're being closed on Thursday) a few minutes ago.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by legendneverdies »

I told ssgt. Paul that J! wants to hear from the early season J! players about the likely tournament and that they're bringing 15 players from the first 10 years of Trebek J! for a tourney. His odds of getting in I don't know.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by OldMole51 »

Howdy, all. I had no idea that anyone would pick up a comment to a four year old YouTube post so quickly, but I suppose it is flattering. It is also nice to see my name (Croshier) get spelled right.

For future reference, the screen said SSgt (Staff Sergeant) Paul, rather than SGGT.

Elise and I commiserated after the first day's taping ... her odd-looking wagers were a result of misunderstanding the selection criteria for the semis. I also managed to mistime my arrival for the second day's taping which is why I don't appear in the group shot at the close of the tournament.

The rules change from Season 1 to Season 2 was a very big deal ... the change from a speed game to a timing game completely threw me off, as anyone watching my tooth-gritting performance in the quarters can figure out. I have always been far more interested in going on game shows than watching them, and as a result was nowhere near properly prepared. I can completely understand why they made the change, though ... in the first four games of my re-appearance, I pretty much blew everyone away, which happened all too often the first season, and completely ruined the chance of any suspense in Final Jeopardy.

I have to admit that being in uniform was a great advantage in one respect ... since they tape five shows per day, everyone else had to bring five changes of clothing, but I made do with one set of dress blues (which I regret to say haven't come anywhere close to fitting in twenty years).

Video recorders were nowhere near as ubiquitous in 1984 as they are now, but another one of my sisters was dating an actor at the time and had access to one, so last I heard she still has a copy of all my appearances, They don't seem to be anywhere else ... does anyone know it they have played any first season shows on Game Show Network? If not, who should I talk to about getting those old tapes digitized and uploaded to whichever sites might be interested in having them?

Best Wishes,

Paul Croshier
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by legendneverdies »

OldMole51 wrote:

Video recorders were nowhere near as ubiquitous in 1984 as they are now, but another one of my sisters was dating an actor at the time and had access to one, so last I heard she still has a copy of all my appearances, They don't seem to be anywhere else ... does anyone know it they have played any first season shows on Game Show Network? If not, who should I talk to about getting those old tapes digitized and uploaded to whichever sites might be interested in having them?
They showed the first season of Trebek J! on GSN between 1994-1997 a couple of times, as well as at least part of the second season including your TofC. Your Blockbusters run with your sister Margie showed a few times in the 90s and a few times in the 2000s, as recently as about 2007 or 2008 I guess.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by OldMole51 »

legendneverdies wrote:
They showed the first season of Trebek J! on GSN between 1994-1997 a couple of times, as well as at least part of the second season including your TofC. Your Blockbusters run with your sister Margie showed a few times in the 90s and a few times in the 2000s, as recently as about 2007 or 2008 I guess.
Margie was the one who got me into games shows in the first place ... I loved the old Art Fleming J! but didn't pay too much attention. Margie, on the other hand, had already been on three other shows before BlockBusters (Wheel, Countdown, and BullsEye) and was fed up with having yard sales to dispose of all the "Fabulous Prizes" and determined to find a show that paid cash instead. As a tall, natural blond former cheerleader with a death grip on the perky patent, she had no difficulty getting past contestant selection ... it also helped that she is wicked smart. A regular reading of the "Contestants Wanted" section of the L.A. Times classified alerted her to the J! restart, and she told me about it. The rest is ancient history.

It is also how I found this board, since a friend of mine found one of our BlockBusters appearances on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrrnqxymyMo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-9sZ6cfnvc

and I got curious about any remaining Jeopardy gigs.
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Re: Calling All TOCers Class of 1985

Post by Rex Kramer »

OldMole51 wrote:... in the first four games of my re-appearance, I pretty much blew everyone away, which happened all too often the first season, and completely ruined the chance of any suspense in Final Jeopardy.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Rex
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