Tuesday, September 11, 1984 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

[DavidRosen]

This was a truly terrible FJ question, since there is no generally accepted answer. For every person who says 1901, there's another who stoutly maintains 1900. We had that all over again in the year 2000. Myself, I date the twentieth century from December 17, 1903, when the Wright Brothers changed everything.

[Woppy T]

So in his taped introduction, was AT referring to the three-way tie as something that wouldn’t happen again for 35 years?????

[Bamaman]

Eight games that ended
In a three way tie at zero

9/11/1984
4/8/1985
7/9/1991 (sr tournament)
11/13/1996
3/2/1998 (celebrity)
6/12/1998 (only two players n FJ)
2/7/2013 (teen tournament)
1/18/2016

The second and third games are unarchived.

The fourth game was also celebrities. In that game, all three were below the $10,000 guarantee so it really didn’t matter. In fact, none of them hit the minimum even if they get it right.

The fifth game was a lock for Jane Curtin at $8,500. But this week had a $15,000 guarantee for the winner, so she was risking $5,000 for her charity.

The two player game was tied going into FJ so they made the right bet.

[davey]

This was a truly terrible FJ question, since there is no generally accepted answer. For every person who says 1901, there's another who stoutly maintains 1900. We had that all over again in the year 2000. Myself, I date the twentieth century from December 17, 1903, when the Wright Brothers changed everything.

I agree only in the sense that it's a gotcha clue, no reason to use it except to catch people in the popular wrong response. But in this case the plan (surprisingly) worked, and it is the wrong response...Also weird that the first 2 FJs were calendar clues...
The laughter after the "cells" response was because Alex said "You got 'em" in reply...Not really funny, but they had all those canned reactions to use up...
I was amused/puzzled that Greg thought that "nihilism" is a Buddhist sect...
The writers' this use had yet to be perfected:
This aria from "Pagliacci" gave him the first million-selling record ever
Alex didn't even emphasize him in reading the clue!

[Robert K S]

Anyone who thought last night's "good girl" was sexist probably loved the fact that tonight Alex thought the man couldn't be the nurse and the woman couldn't be the carpenter.

[davey]

Anyone who thought last night's "good girl" was sexist probably loved the fact that tonight Alex thought the man couldn't be the nurse and the woman couldn't be the carpenter.

Let's face it. That was antediluvian even in 1984...

[NoWhammies10]

Did they hit the ignorance tone at all on last night's show? This might have been the first time we heard it.

[trainman]

I'm fairly certain that I did not see this when they originally aired. I would have been up in Great Lakes at the Navy base and several of my classes were at night.

Night classes shouldn't have been an issue -- I believe J! has always been scheduled to air in the afternoon in Chicago. (Obviously, the afternoon time slot can cause other schedule conflicts!)

[Category 13]

So in his taped introduction, was AT referring to the three-way tie as something that wouldn’t happen again for 35 years?????

I tuned in a minute late, but I believe he was referring to the oddity that he neglected to reveal the correct response after all three missed it.
He was going on about how the three contestants would be replaced on tommorrow's show when somebody off camera shouted at him to say what the 'actual date' was supposed to be.

[jlgarfield]

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/battle.html - To quote this tome:

As historians and others involved in measuring time continue to remind us, there was no year 0. In fact, there has never been a system of recording reigns, dynasties, or eras that did not designate its first year as [anything but] the year 1. To complete a century, one must complete 100 years; the first century of our era ran from the beginning of A.D. 1 to the end of A.D. 100; the second century began with the year A.D. 101.

While the period 1900-1999 is of course a century, as is any period of 100 years, it is incorrect to label it the 20th century, which began January 1, 1901, and will end on December 31, 2000. Only then will the third millennium of our era begin.

Even at this, IMO, the debate as to when a century begins (1900/1901) will NEVER be definitely be resolved.

[Robert K S]

The Facebook account either just said something really dumb or broke news about the rules

reallydumb.png (484.48 KiB) Viewed 4100 times

[Category 13]

I wonder if Greg ever thinks about what might have been. The wager was obviously crazy but if he gets it right, he has himself quite an impressive 2-day total. Maybe he wins three more games, gets to the TOC, wins enough to qualify for the UTOC..... alternate universe stuff.

I have to ponder that in the confusion of the brand new show, Greg may have mistakenly believed that he would still be brought back as 'default' champion if all three ended up with zero on a triple stumper. He probably understood that Lynne had to bet nearly everything to have a shot and maybe correctly guessed she'd bet it all.

[opusthepenguin]

I was again struck by how quickly Alex moved things along; yet again the board was not cleared. 6 clues in SJ, including an entire category, and 5 in DJ. I'm not entirely sure how to account for that. I did notice a small contribution of added time on Alex's part. He announced "Brand-new category" on five different occasions before reading the clue. I think he threw in some other patter as well. But honestly, 1984 Alex can say "brand-new category" faster than 2020 Alex can say "ok", so that can't be the reason for all the uncovered clues. Does this game have far more misses and rebounds than we're used to? Was the time allotted to actual play shorter? Were the contestants just taking a little bit longer to call for clues and/or make responses? The clues themselves didn't seem particularly wordy. They didn't have a category read by celebrity guest Phil Donahue.

[opusthepenguin]

So in his taped introduction, was AT referring to the three-way tie as something that wouldn’t happen again for 35 years?????

I tuned in a minute late, but I believe he was referring to the oddity that he neglected to reveal the correct response after all three missed it.

That makes sense. Any of our boardies able to confirm or falsify that hypothesis? Can anyone identify the game in the past year or so where this happened?

EDIT: Going back and listening to the intro, Alex doesn't sound like he's talking about something he himself did. He says, "There were moments where it seemed like the contestants didn't quite have a handle on all the rules and gameplay dynamics, especially during Final Jeopardy! What happened here in only the second show of the series did not happen again for 35 years."

This really sounds like he's incorrectly referring to the triple-0 outcome. And really, with that outcome, how could he be talking about his own minor gaffe and expect anyone to understand what he was referring to? "What happened here" can only mean one thing, I think.

[Cat Hammarskjold]

So in his taped introduction, was AT referring to the three-way tie as something that wouldn’t happen again for 35 years?????

I'm not sure if he had forgotten about other triple zero games and was a little off on the math from the triple zero game in 2016.

[floridagator]

Alex has more than once referred to the triple zero as something that hasn't happened since our very second show. That tells me he doesn't remember the other seven. Or at least the next six. And that the production company's own records aren't as good as ours.

[Volante]

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/battle.html - To quote this tome:

As historians and others involved in measuring time continue to remind us, there was no year 0. In fact, there has never been a system of recording reigns, dynasties, or eras that did not designate its first year as [anything but] the year 1. To complete a century, one must complete 100 years; the first century of our era ran from the beginning of A.D. 1 to the end of A.D. 100; the second century began with the year A.D. 101.

While the period 1900-1999 is of course a century, as is any period of 100 years, it is incorrect to label it the 20th century, which began January 1, 1901, and will end on December 31, 2000. Only then will the third millennium of our era begin.

Even at this, IMO, the debate as to when a century begins (1900/1901) will NEVER be definitely be resolved.

You can start a generic century whenever you feel like it. But "Nth centuries" by definition have to start on the -01 year.

[TenPoundHammer]

I was again struck by how quickly Alex moved things along; yet again the board was not cleared. 6 clues in SJ, including an entire category, and 5 in DJ. I'm not entirely sure how to account for that. I did notice a small contribution of added time on Alex's part. He announced "Brand-new category" on five different occasions before reading the clue. I think he threw in some other patter as well.

It does seem like there was a lot more chit-chat between clues, as well as the canned audience responses and buzzer glitches (how many times did two podiums light up at the same time?). I think it's been said before that no game in the 1984-85 season managed to play all 61 clues. Anyone who was alive in the Fleming era -- how often were clues left on the board then?

Also, it looks like the "ignorance tone" was originally used when an individual ring-in ran out of time, and there was no sound for triple stumpers. At what point did this change?

The last thing I noticed was that the Daily Double sound was different. When was this changed?

[NoWhammies10]

The last thing I noticed was that the Daily Double sound was different. When was this changed?

My research led me to the Jeopardy! History Wiki (no doubt inspired by another such game show's Wiki with which we are both familiar) which has it changing "by the November 26/84 episode"; apparently more early eps have hit the trading circuit, and this site says the change happens October 8/84.

[jlgarfield]

Jeopardy!s social networking sites says what happened on show #2 would require a tie-breaker clue today. This brings me to this: What do you award the person who wins the tie-breaker clue on a triple-zero game? $5000? $2000? $1000?