Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by alietr »

Heh.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by georgespelvin »

zakharov wrote:
LMAO at that interview. I was cringing on my couch. Did they edit anything out of that?
Yes they did, but I was surprised they left in what they did. From his reminiscences on previous games this week, it appears that Mark Barrett either took very good notes or has an excellent memory so he might be more specific when he pops in here after he sees the airing on the West Coast.

The gasp you heard at the end of the game was from the contestant section. I was sitting next to the contestant section (the one perk for not getting in on a friend of the contestant pass--they sat furthest away, probably an S&P thing). I also could have sworn that when they picked the players for this game, someone said, apparently in reference to Larissa, "we who are about to die".

I noticed immediately that Alex gave the wrong instruction on "Self-e" but I think that Larissa wound up benefitting on the technicality because I suspect that she knew that they all had to be "self-e" and not just "self". Obviously, this was not one of Alex's better games given that he messed up on another clue in this same category. Also, with regard to Larissa's comment during the interview, Alex said something to the effect of "another one, remember yesterday?" although Dr. J's play for Alex's hosting job did not occur while cameras were rolling (see her comment about this in yesterday's game thread).

When I was watching this live, I couldn't believe that Tom didn't go for the obvious DD near the end of DJ. Had Tom gotten it, even if he made it a TDD, I think that Larissa still winds up with a lock (I meant to check on this watching it tonight, but forgot and will have to wait for the Archive to see it). I actually wondered at the time if Tom wanted Russ to get the DD to break the lock and give Tom a chance to win on a sole get in FJ. Then I realized who I was talking about and disabused myself of the notion. This is still another example of Arthur's warning about leaving the last DD out there late in the game, although I think that Larissa was looking for it.

I felt horribly for Larissa. I remember reading her posts on the Sony board about her ToC loss and how agonized and crestfallen she was about missing that last FJ even months after it happened. She really seems to take her Jeopardy performances to heart and she looked stricken at the end of this game. Larissa was the only contestant that I did not talk to after the taping because I had never met her and I wasn't sure that she was in the mood to meet someone new, even someone that had encouraging words to say. I met Tom at O'Brien's later (got a picture taken with him to annoy alietr, which worked this morning on Facebook) and he really is as crazy as he seems. Congratulations to Russ for playing a fine game, keeping it close, grabbing the board to get the last DD and wagering wisely. All the best moving forward!
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by georgespelvin »

jjwaymee wrote:I've been pretty sure about the eventual outcome of this game ever since this happened a couple of weeks ago...

Congratulations Russ. Good luck in the quarterfinals.
This seems like a brand new, never thought of before corollary to Slam's Rule. Perhaps we should call it Spam's Rule.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by MDaunt »

DHicton wrote:Somebody actually bought MySpace? With money?
Yeah...but not his money.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Vanya »

I can't believe I got an FJ that stumped these champs. Didn't Larissa lose her TOC with a monarch type clue as well?
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Woof »

Oh, oh, oh, Larissa! How could I not root for someone living in my old home town? And she clearly was the best player in this game. Tough FJ if you don't think about Tatarstan (or if you don't have the Crimean backstory for the Tatars front and center). Courtesy of a friend from Kazan, I knew where the Tatar homeland was, but I still managed to miss with Tamerlane (150 years too early). Lots of Lach trash tonight, including some for my 9 year old son, who nailed Sounder without a moment's hesitation. Great game, as per usual for the BoTD. It's a shame to see any of them go home.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by alegra911 »

I was pretty darn sure they were going to edit the end of Tom's interview out - he clearly didn't mean anything bad by it but it landed wrong. So I chuckled when I saw they left it in.

Larissa played a hell of a game - ailanthus? People I was sitting near were looking at each other thinking, dang, girl. While I was really sorry to see her go, she is one of the many Jeopardy stars who is a really nice person and wins at life.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by This Is Kirk! »

TenPoundHammer wrote:Ivan the Terrible did come to mind briefly, but not enough for me to seriously consider putting him down.
Shocker.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by MarkBarrett »

georgespelvin wrote:
zakharov wrote:
LMAO at that interview. I was cringing on my couch. Did they edit anything out of that?
Yes they did, but I was surprised they left in what they did. From his reminiscences on previous games this week, it appears that Mark Barrett either took very good notes or has an excellent memory so he might be more specific when he pops in here after he sees the airing on the West Coast.
I did not think the interview was funny at all and there was a huge audible gasp from the audience especially from all the former players who could not believe what Tom said. Surprising me, the interview aired as I remember it and I'm not sure that anything was cut. No, I was not taking notes during the chats.

Alex handled it as well as he could. I'm sure the producers and the contestant coordinators were not amused. They got exactly what they deserved with Tom as of the 45 players selected he had one of the iffier credentials for inclusion.

At the pub trivia there were several times when Tom got control of the microphone and various things came out of his mouth that were loud, crude and not representative of other J! champs I have met.

In contrast to that none of the behavior on public display at the studio or at O'Briens was present in the car ride over when Rex Kramer gave Tom and me a ride to the pub. Tom was calm, friendly and appropriately funny. He also earned points with me for being familiar with a classic episode of The Honeymooners. For whatever reason there was something about a group setting that made Tom a different man.

*************
Someone else asked when the game was taped. It was Wednesday, January 22nd.

When the three players were in place to start the game I was not alone in thinking Larissa would run away and hide. She gave it a great effort, but Russ hung in there and picked the right places to make good moves. After this game was the lunch break.

One thing up for discussion was six players left: Michael Falk, Ken Jennings, Vinita Kailasanath, Dan Pawson, Maria Wenglinsky, and Keith Whitener. Who would be in each game? Ken & Dan separated as well as Maria & Vinita separated seemed very likely. Thinking that Ken would play last like Brad in the 1990s (and Jerome in the 1980s) turned out not to be true. That was a little surprising. The three for each game kind of seemed inevitable at that point with the combinations narrowed.

*************
Back to tonight's game I'm not sure which clue it was although it may have been the Devo one. Rex Kramer gave me a polite and emphatic double hands down gesture to calm down. My imaginary buzzer on that and Kate Smith as well as some others had me a little too animated for the relaxed audience member role I should have been playing.

I was hammered on the FJ! clue with no good guess coming to me as the key parts of the clue were not going to help me. Not on Jan. 22 and no better if April 2 had been my first viewing of the clue.

Later when I met Russ at the reception he was friendly and did not do something I might have deserved like a, "Bronze that, Barrett."
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by southsidehitman »

georgespelvin wrote:
zakharov wrote:
I met Tom at O'Brien's later (got a picture taken with him to annoy alietr, which worked this morning on Facebook) and he really is as crazy as he seems. Congratulations to Russ for playing a fine game, keeping it close, grabbing the board to get the last DD and wagering wisely. All the best moving forward!
Is that the O'Brien's in Westwood? That's one of my favorites places to watch sports when I venture down to the west side from the Valley! :)
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by OrangeSAM »

esrever wrote:Picked up Lach trash: "whippoorwill", "Linda Blair", "Devo", "Kate Smith"

Didn't get FJ.
Yeah, those (plus a couple more) were in my Lach Trash Bin, too.

And I too missed FJ! I picked a czar, just not the right one (Peter). I had Ivan earlier than that.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by This Is Kirk! »

I didn't think Tom's interview was that cringe-worthy. Yeah, the bit about Alex's suit was in poor taste. You don't end a story about sweat shops and child labor with an attempt at a joke. Lesson learned.

To be honest the interviews that really make me cringe are the ones where the player doesn't seem to realize that brevity is the soul of wit. You know, those ones that seem to go on and on...
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by lieph82 »

Mark, why do you think Tom was chosen? I can understand someone with iffy credentials being chosen because of demographics, but Tom? David Madden would've been pretty much an automatic choice if he were eligible, so I presume contestant #14 was his replacement. This seemed the perfect opportunity to put in a Terry Linwood or a Joon Pahk or a Liz Murphy. Instead they replaced Madden either--presumably--with Kavanaugh or Whitener, two white males, one of whom had a long run like Madden and one of whom plays aggressively like Madden. Just seems strange to me.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by georgespelvin »

More to the point--they made Tom Nissley beg for votes and picked Tom as an automatic qualifier? :o
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by lieph82 »

georgespelvin wrote:More to the point--they made Tom Nissley beg for votes and picked Tom as an automatic qualifier? :o
Yeah, if they were going to pick a white guy, I would have thought they'd pick Nissley over Whitener or Kavanaugh.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by georgespelvin »

southsidehitman wrote:
georgespelvin wrote:
zakharov wrote:
I met Tom at O'Brien's later (got a picture taken with him to annoy alietr, which worked this morning on Facebook) and he really is as crazy as he seems. Congratulations to Russ for playing a fine game, keeping it close, grabbing the board to get the last DD and wagering wisely. All the best moving forward!
Is that the O'Brien's in Westwood? That's one of my favorites places to watch sports when I venture down to the west side from the Valley! :)
No. It's the one in Santa Monica.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by ElendilPickle »

Bamaman wrote:
ElendilPickle wrote:Wow. I was doing great until FJ. I said Richard the Lionhearted just to write something down, but I would never have come up with Ivan the Terrible.

That was a fun game! Apparently Russ was smart not to give Alex a bad time. :)
Richard was way before the time frame. I tried to figure out who was in England at that time but it was Elizabeth I. I didn't know if Gehngis was a monarch but he was the best I could do.
I knew he was, but that was all I had.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by This Is Kirk! »

georgespelvin wrote:More to the point--they made Tom Nissley beg for votes and picked Tom as an automatic qualifier? :o
Helluva good question. I think there were far more dubious picks than Tom Kavanuagh, though. But no question Nissley deserved to be an automatic qualifier.
Last edited by This Is Kirk! on Wed Apr 02, 2014 11:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by georgespelvin »

Continuing on Mark's theme about the lunch break, at least one person wasn't certain that Ken and Dan Pawson would be in separate games. I ran into Dan's wife just as the morning session was breaking up and she was very worried that Dan and Ken might face each other in this round. I told her that I doubted they would put a nine time winner against Ken. Good to see her back posting on the boards here. 8-)
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Re: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by MarkBarrett »

lieph82 wrote:Mark, why do you think Tom was chosen? I can understand someone with iffy credentials being chosen because of demographics, but Tom? David Madden would've been pretty much an automatic choice if he were eligible, so I presume contestant #14 was his replacement. This seemed the perfect opportunity to put in a Terry Linwood or a Joon Pahk or a Liz Murphy. Instead they replaced Madden either--presumably--with Kavanaugh or Whitener, two white males, one of whom had a long run like Madden and one of whom plays aggressively like Madden. Just seems strange to me.
Jason Keller won 9 games and made the semis of his TOC. To me this completely negates Tom being picked because he won 8 games. Tom was the first to win exactly 8 games. So what? Who cares?

Picking a sub for Madden from the same TOC field seems to make the most sense. If TOC results are ignored then Tom sits squarely at #2 for class of 2006 with wins and money. Fine. I guess there could be worse reasons.

Did the ladies love Tom during his original run? Oh, my. The Sony board back then had a bunch of swooners as a small sample. Across the millions of viewers who knows how many enjoyed looking at Tom night after night. Perhaps Maggie was granted an eye candy pick and Tom won out over (I'm not the best to guess) guys like Kermin Fleming or Mark Runsvold?

For Tom Nissley to be sent to the fan vote and Tom Kavanaught outright in was not right to me even though Nissley had a great video.

With Colby, Vijay, and Vinita the powers may have felt they had the diversity angle covered so Joon and Terry may have had no shot to be picked. I would have had no objection to either those guys or Liz Murphy being selected, but the power was not in my hands.

Yes, for all we know Tom was in all along and it was Keith Whitener that moved up to make the field. We won't know how many points Keith scored for his "I love you, Rachel" FJ! response in his semifinal game. Since Stephanie was a lock with her 7 wins the powers may have felt Keith should be there too since he also won 7 and a tad more loot.

All I can say is of the 45 players when they were revealed it was Tom K. for my biggest objection. Tonight's game did nothing to change my opinion.

Thanks for asking. I'm sure I'll have some more opinions about things once everyone is on the same page for knowing the final 15 after Friday.
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