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JEOPARDY, Part 10

The third game for the week is the third show filmed that day. I’m sitting in the first row of the audience next to Julie, who will be on the next (Thursday) show. There are questions being asked (or more correctly, answers being given) and for quite a few, no one is getting. I remember whispering to Julie, “Be True to Your School” in response to a $500 question referencing the Beach Boys that nobody even rang in on. I had the distinct feeling that if I had gotten THAT set of boards against THOSE contestants, I would have won. Yelling out the answers in front of the TV has nothing on THAT feeling.

There was a technical glitch during this third show; the lights went out. They had to stop, then restart, which involved the audience applauding as they were at the time of the incident.

After the show, I went downstairs, got my things, and headed for the front door to a more than a few “Good job!” comments. I ran into my friend Karen from NYC, then to Bianca de la Garza from Channel 10 in Albany, for whom I did a 10-second commercial. “This is Roger Green from Albany in front of the Wang Theater in Boston. Watch for me on JEOPARDY! on ABC-10!” This took longer (i.e., more takes) than I thought it would.

I had gotten a ride over to the Wang Theater in the morning, but I had to walk back to the hotel with friend Karen. There was a bunch of people beeping their horns. I thought they were just rude Boston drivers, but as it turned out, they were beeping and waving at ME! These folks had gone to the taping and were giving me kudos. It’d be a cliche to say that I felt like a rock star. It would be true, but a cliche.

Back at the hotel, Max was waiting, but his mother was retrieving the car. Judy and Max had gotten lost in Cambridge, abandoned the vehicle, took public transportation, and barely got to the show on time. Eventually, Karen, Max, and Judy all left, and I lay on the bed happy/sad with the experience.

Later, Karen took me out to dinner, then to a club where we saw Pete Droge and his band. I’d met the group twice when they and Karen were in Albany, and they were among the first people who weren’t at the show to find out how much I’d won; Karen told them, I didn’t. I bought Pete’s then-new album at their gig.

The next morning, I was ravenous. While I couldn’t eat the previous morning, I practically couldn’t stop. Back in my room, I got a message on my phone from Karen: “You gotta see the Glo-o-o-obe!” She said the name of the Boston paper as though it had four syllables. After I pack up to leave, I pick up a paper, and on the first page of the Entertainment sections were two pictures of ME. Well, not just me. Both also pictured Amy Roeder, the “local angle” in the story; one also featured the former champion, Tom. Still, it was a real kick.

I took a train to Hyannis, south of Boston, to visit the brother of my then ex-girlfriend (and now wife) Carol, Mark, and his fiancee, Leanne. On the train, I swear there was a woman staring at me, and I reckon she was a reader of the Glo-o-o-obe . I had decided that I wasn’t going to give out the results to anyone. The contract I signed suggested that I couldn’t exploit the fact that I had won before it aired, and WTEN was under even stricter standards.

Now began seven weeks of “How many changes of clothes did you wear?” Or “How many days shall I set my VCR for?” Or other bald attempts to tell what I was not going to tell. Heck, now it was a matter of principle; I don’t WANT to reveal the information. Besides, I thought of it as a sporting event, where I wouldn’t want to know the score.

I took the bus home from Hyannis and went to work on Monday, where I was also subjected to another form of harassment. When Bianca de la Garza had interviewed me before the show, I noted that just passing the test didn’t guarantee being on the show. So here’s the Bianca voiceover: “He had to have something else.” Roger, talking: “It must be charisma, I don’t know.” (I laugh.)

Charisma. Apparently enough people saw this to make this the running joke in the office, not for a couple of days, or a few months, but for four or five YEARS. Especially from Jinshui.

On October 6, a woman from Albany named Linda Zusman won $12,000 in her one-win appearance. I actually looked for her number to congratulate her (and tell her my news) but never reached her.

Also, in October, a woman who wrote for a quarterly publication for WTEN asked me the Final JEOPARDY! Answer, which seemed to be a reasonable request, except that I didn’t know, exactly. “Had something to do with Donkin or Tonquin. I know the response was ‘What is Hanoi?'” She got a little snippy: “Weren’t you THERE?” I didn’t say this to her, but the answer was yes and no. Physically, of course, but mentally, on some other planet.

I went for a walk to a local preserve called Five Rivers with Carol, and hinted that I had won a travel prize that she might go on with me, an obvious wooing move. But it also had the effect of her thinking that I HADN’T won any money.

Peter Iselin used to own the newsweekly Metroland, and was going to be on JEOPARDY! I called Metroland and asked them, “Do you want a story about that?” “Are you one of our regular contributors?” “No.” “Well, no thanks.” And that was that. I don’t know if it would have made any difference to tell them I had just been on the show, but I never got a chance to get that out.

There were two things I did just prior to the show’s airing that made my life a whole lot easier. I made a phone call to someone, and I paid a visit somewhere.

Concluded on Saturday, August 6.

JEOPARDY! Part 9

Continued from Saturday, July 16.

During the commercials between Double JEOPARDY! and the Final, you have to make your bet. They give you a pad to figure it out, then they check the bet to see that it’s legible. They don’t want a $100.00 bet to be confused with a $10,000 bet, so they require the decimals for the cents. They also tell you the first word of the answer, which, in this case, is What. (This is why you’ll sometimes see bad grammar or a lack of a verb such as “What the White House?”)

The Final JEOPARDY! clue in World Capitals was this: “This city was known as Dong Kihn, and to the Europeans as Tonquin.”

Yikes!

For five seconds, I have no idea even what was being asked. Then I think, Hong Kong? No, that’s not a world capital. Then I look at the two primary words in the clue Tonquin and Donkin. If you blend them together, you get Tonkin. Tonkin Gulf. Where’s that? Viet Nam. And what’s the capital of Viet Nam? And all that processing took about 10 seconds.

Tom writes, What is Hanoi? Correct. He bet $1000 and now has $6100, a curious bet, I thought, though if we had ALL gotten it WRONG, he would have won. Amy wrote, “What is Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City?” Wrong, no longer a world capital. Then my response is revealed: “What is Hanoi?” At that moment, it didn’t matter what I bet. I stand, poker-faced. $8000, added to my $9600, for a total of $17,600! When my bet was uncovered, there was an audible gasp in the audience; I just exhaled.

Why the heck did I bet eight grand? For one thing, I felt reasonably comfortable with the topic (although if it has been a capital of one of the former Soviet republics, I’d be in trouble) She had $8400. If she bet it all (and got it right), she’d have $16,800. For me to win, I then needed to bet $16,800 (her score doubled) minus $9600 (my score) +$1 or $7601 (oh, and get the question right.). So, I figure, if I’m going to bet $7601, I might as well make it an even $8000.

I got tremendous applause, more than I could have imagined. There were reasons: 1) I was told by an audience member that WTEN brought a busload of people with them to see the show (how would they do that without announcing it on the air?), 2) both of my friends, Judy and Karen, were telling people sitting around them, “Hey, we know him, go root for Roger.” And they DID.

But there was little time to savor the victory. I had to go downstairs, change my clothes, come up and do it again in 20 minutes. Maggie accompanies me to the bathroom AGAIN. At the very last minute, I got my stuffed monkey Ersie and switched him from podium #2 to podium #1.

My competitors in the second game were Robin Shepherd, a contracts administrator from Pennsylvania, and Jim Zanotti, a law student from Massachusetts.

The categories were Yankee Ingenuity, People and Places, She’s My First Lady, Musical Instruments, and Rhymes with Cod. I liked the idea of all of them. Jim hits the Daily Double on the second clue in Celebrity Relatives and missed it (I knew that answer -Carol Burnett’s grandmother!). I never get a chance in the category, or much else, and at the first break, I have $400 (from one answer), Jim has $100, and Robin has $1500.

At the interview segment, I figure Alex will ask about Rod Serling or mountains, but says instead: “You must read a lot of books,” which threw me a little.

I’m ringing in a lot, but I’m not GETTING in a lot, and on the last clue, which is an audio one, I swear it sounded like a harpsichord, which is how I incorrectly identified it, but on TV, it sounded like a lute, which is what it was, and which Jim correctly identified. I lose $500. The score after the JEOPARDY! round is Roger $600, Jim $2700, Robin $2900.

Again, I start Double Jeopardy. The categories Nathaniel Hawthorne, Animal Name Origins, Films of the 40s, April, Showers, and the Mayflower.

Early on, there was a visual cue of some guy. Somehow, he reminded me of Al Jolson. I hated Al Jolson, and his blackface minstrel show. This guy was not in blackface, but it was indeed Larry Parks playing Jolson. I also get a clue on Gaslight, then the first clue in Hawthorne, which gets me to $2200. I never answer another clue; I simply can’t get in.

At one Daily Double in the Mayflower, Robin loses $1500 (on another question I knew!), so it’s me at $2200, Jim at $3500, and Robin at $5000, so if I COULD have gotten in, I’d have been all right.

Jim got the second Daily Double correctly, and I started having a new strategy: root for Jim to keep it close. Alas, on the last clue answered, he lost $1000, so at the end of Double JEOPARDY!, it was me STILL at $2200, Jim at $5500, and Robin at $9200

The Final JEOPARDY! answer was in part a visual one. The category was famous “New Englanders”: “Native New Englander, seen here modeling for his company’s catalog sometime before WWI.”

Almost no chance for me to win, Alex notes, which irritates me; it was true, but I didn’t need the reminder. I said Bean, as in L.L. Bean, judged to be correct. I bet $1800 for no reason other than it had an 8 in it, like my first bet, and ended at $4000.

At this point I really didn’t care what happened, though I knew I didn’t win.

Both Jim and Robin said Sears, but I knew she had enough (with $6700) to win.

I walk off stage after the fade out. (I have NO idea what the contestants talked with Alex about after EITHER of the shows I was on.) Susanne Thurber tried to make me feel better. “You did well. You won a lot of money. You were the only one to get the Final, and that put you in second place.” It did? I had no clue. Jim had finished at $3500.

So, what is worse than being able to say I lost on JEOPARDY?

Continued on Saturday, July 30.

JEOPARDY! Part 8

Continued from Saturday, July 9.

Given that mental and emotional breakdown in the JEOPARDY! round, I’m not that far off the lead, only $800. While they set up the Double JEOPARDY! board, more water, more powder for the forehead.

The categories are Brahmins, The Untouchables, Television, Put ‘Em In Order, This Is Your Life: Woodrow Wilson, and Literary Crosswords M. Well, television should be OK, and maybe Wilson, but this is not looking great.

I start with Television for $200, get Frasier.

Television for $400- the first of the two Daily Doubles! And it’s a Video.

Score Tom $2100, Roger $2200, Amy $2800.

OK, if I bet enough, and get it right, I can take the lead for the first time! I can say, “I held the lead once!” I bet $1200. (If I get it WRONG, I’ll still have the value of the highest clue on the board.)

Jason Alexander (from Seinfeld) says on screen: “This actor co-starred with me on a sitcom called “E/R” before starring in the medical series “E.R.”

So what do YOU think?

I actually watched the earlier show, which starred Elliot Gould, and I also read about it in People magazine after the latter show began.

“Who was George Clooney?”
“You guessed right,” Alex said. It wasn’t a guess.

Then Amy started taking off, getting several responses. I managed to get a couple in Crosswords (including Mohicans), and three under Wilson: his wife Edith ($200), his general John Pershing ($400), and his socialist nemesis Eugene Debs ($800) – that answer somehow came right out of high school social studies.

I put some Popes in order for $400.
Then I pick the $600 clue in that category. It’s the OTHER Daily Double!
With the furious back and forth, I was genuinely surprised to find that I was leading: Tom $4100, Roger $7400, Amy $7000. Put ‘Em in Order: the category made me nervous. It could be ANYTHING. If it were Chinese dynasties, I’m sunk. I bet a conservative $1000.

“Oklahoma statehood, California statehood, Nebraska statehood.”

What’s your guess?

There was this map in my Social Studies class in 5th or 7th grade. It showed the country sometime before the Civil War. All the states were in green, the territories in brown. Incongruously, past this vast expanse of territories starting in the Midwest, California was also in green.

So one thing I knew: California became a state in 1850, the year after the Gold Rush. Oklahoma became a state in the 20th Century; if you’ve seen or heard the musical, you probably know that- actually 1907.
When did Nebraska become a state? Suddenly the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 flashed in my mind; I had no idea what it meant. In any case, I said, “California statehood, Nebraska statehood, Oklahoma statehood.” That was correct. Nebraska didn’t become a state until 1867, but no matter.

I only get a couple more right, but one was pivotal to the game.

Brahmins for $800 was asking for the first prime minister of India. Amy said Gandhi, which was incorrect. I rang in, and suddenly thought, “Oh, no, I’m wrong.” My first idea was that it was Nehru, but then I recalled, no, no, he was in the 1960s. Remember the Nehru jacket? But, having nothing better to say, I replied: “Who was Nehru?” and it was correct. ( Nehru was a long-time leader. )

That was a $1600 swing late in the game. If she had gotten it right, I would have had $8800 and Amy, $9200. But instead, at the end of Double JEOPARDY!, it’s Tom $5100, Roger $9600, Amy $8400. The Final JEOPARDY! category is World Capitals. What should I bet and what will they ask?

Continued on Saturday, July 23

JEOPARDY! Part 7

Continued from Saturday, July 2

I’m standing at the middle lectern between Tom, the one-day champion with $10,500, and Amy, wishing I could be back in my red sneakers rather than these suddenly uncomfortable shoes. The lights come up on my face.

Alex comes out. I’ve noticed that some of the contestants in the past have applauded him, but none of us did. Too “Wheel of Fortune,” maybe. The host, still with his trademark moustache, announces that this is the LARGEST studio audience ever to see JEOPARDY! (Gee, thanks a lot.) Then he notes that the longer he talks, the less time there is for us to win money. (Well, thank you for THAT.)

The categories were Mountains; Songs by the Numbers; Old Testament Women; The Brady Bunch; Beans; and Body Talk. I’m thinking that I’ll be strongest at Songs, OT Women and Mountains, in that order.

Songs for $100 -“ I know that! But so did Tom- 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
Songs for $200- the song that spent 16 weeks at #1. First thought, One Fine Day, no, wait that’s not it. I OWN this song. It’s by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. What’s the title? No one got One Sweet Day.
Sidebar: a variation on this question came up a couple of years later during the Regismania version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – The song longest at #1. It was a $250,000 clue. The contestant picked I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston (which was correct at the time, in 1993), and lost all but $32,000. Talk about screaming at one’s TV set!

Songs for $300-Amy beats me to Knock Three Times.
A couple more questions go by that I know but don’t get the opportunity to answer.
Then Brady Bunch for $200- Like lots of JEOPARDY! categories, this one is a bit misleading. It has NOTHING to do with the 1969-1974 TV show, which is good, because I NEVER saw it in the first run, and only rarely in syndication. The category was about people named Brady.
“Unlike his horse, his sidekick, Pat Brady isn’t mounted for display.” I ring in first: “What is Roy Rogers?” Alex replies, “WHO is Roy Rogers?” and I nod, but the answer is CORRECT. This means that I will not go on JEOPARDY! then answer no questions. Of course, the only reason that the others didn’t get it, I figure, is that they’re both too young to REMEMBER Roy Rogers. Ah an advantage of age.
I get a couple more, as does Tom, but Amy seems to be in control.

At the first commercial, it’s Tom $800, Roger $1100, Amy $1900. However long the commercials are at home is how long there are in the studio. I got some water, but again, couldn’t keep it. Jennifer had to re-powder my forehead because I was “shiny.”

While one sees the scores in front of the players when watching on TV, the players here don’t have such luxury. If the scoreboard is at 12 o’clock, and Alex at 1, then the scoreboard is at 10:30. I never saw it except at the daily doubles and the first commercials, and at the end of the rounds.

The interview segment: Alex asks about my music collection. I note that I had 1200 LPs, 1000 CDs and a couple of hundred cassettes. He asked if I had any specialties, and I replied, “I have an extensive Beatles collection.” Wasn’t a riveting piece, but it was OK.

During the practice session, we were told they would be using a lot of video clues. There was a $200 clue in the Beans category. The monitor seemed about a light-year away. I squinted and said Orson Bean, which was correct. (Later, one of the contestants who had not yet played said that he didn’t want to play me because of THAT answer.)

So we get to Old Testament Women, one of the categories I expect to do well in.
$100- Delilah which Amy got.
$200- for reasons unclear, I said Delilah! I KNEW it was Bathsheba but the brain just picked up Amy’s response.
She asked for OT Women for $300 and I’m still literally shaking my head, beating myself up for this gaffe. “Roger!” I intoned to myself. “Come back to the game!” I never even heard that clue, and I KNEW the answer was Jezebel. But no one else got it, either. The mortification finally passed and I did get the $500 clue, which was Sarah.

Tom hits the Daily Double in Mountains, bets $900, but misses it. However, he comes back. The score after the JEOPARDY! round, Tom $2100, Roger $2000, Amy $2800.

Alex says, “Roger, you’ll go first in Double JEOPARDY!”

Continued on Saturday, July 16

JEOPARDY! Part 6

Continued from Saturday, June 25.

There was a cameraman from WTEN wishing me “good luck.” Oh, this guy from Albany! Channel 10, who carries JEOPARDY!, must be here because Boston’s so close to Albany. That made sense to me. They probably would have gone to New York City as well.
This is only partially the story. They were also there because a GUY from Albany (i.e., ME) was here. Somehow my brain wasn’t making the connection until we all went back downstairs.

We get a few more instructions from the staff. Then Glenn Kagan from JEOPARDY! was going over my response card, and he asked about some of the specifics of the incidents mentioned. When he read about the LPs and CDs I had, he asked about my favorite group, to which I replied, “The Beatles.” This led to a conversation about the American Beatles albums and the two of us doing the instrumental, James Bondian, introduction to Help! Then I said, “I’m not familiar that. How does it go?” We both laughed heartily. (On videotape, this looks VERY goofy.) He also went over my Rod Serling and mountain pieces. (The Serling piece I’m saving for a particular time. The mountain story is that I tore out my knee in 1994 on one mountain and almost got blown off another in 1997. “I like sea level.”)

I met with many of the other contestants. Iâ€™m not sure if Tom Schellhammer, a lawyer from Arlington, VA, the defending champion, was present, but I barely saw him during this period. I AM sure that the WTEN cameraman was following me around the room, and that he particularly concentrated on my feet because he was fascinated by my red Chuck Taylor sneakers. (I REALLY know this, because, a few months later he gave me his raw footage of my feet and other things he filmed.)

Next, we went to makeup. Dave, one of the contestants, said to Jennifer, the makeup artist, “Don’t make me look too trampy!” Jennifer spent extra time with me because I had the most forehead of the bunch.

It was time for us to go back upstairs and onto stage. At some point, there were pictures taken of Alex Trebek and the contestants. For some obscure reason, when I had my picture taken, Alex did the rabbit thing; you know, two fingers behind my head! I know this only because I saw him do this on a monitor; as a result, I have a JEOPARDY! pic sans host.

We did promo pieces. My eyes are darting left and right, and I’m one of the few (or perhaps the only one) who has to do it over.

Glenn explains the buzzer and the board. There are these little white lights around the board that indicate when Alex is finished asking the question, which is when we should ring in. I see the lights as they are specifically pointed out to me, but from then on, I never see them again.

When we do the practice game, there is a host and announcer and almost everything else you’d expect for a regular game, such as the music and sound effects. The host’s name was Glenn Tate, one of those guys with those game-show-host good looks. I played against Julie and Dave. He even asks us a question for the interview segment. My question: what would I do with the money? I said that I’d buy a music box set. (Not my most inspired response.) It wasn’t a whole round, and we all had inherited scores from the previous group. I got some right, missed at least two (including one we all missed: the 5 W’s of journalism!), and we each gained $1000 in our time up there.

There are lots of media, as I’ve said, and there was a period when only a few were on stage that the rest of us were in the front row of the auditorium watching Alex getting interviewed. The media also got to play a practice game, so that they can say on their respective local broadcasts, or write in their stories, “It’s not as easy as it looks.”

Then, the interview with Bianca de la Garza from Channel 10 takes place.
She asked if I was relaxed
“I’m going to be on national television and you talk about relaxed.”
She asked about money.
I said if I concentrate on money, and don’t win any, then the joy of the experience might be lost, so I’m going to try to have fun.
I told her about many of the things I’ve already written here (Aunt Deana, trip to Detroit & DC, toothache, etc.)
She asked some other things (which you’ll read about later) in a 10-minute interview.

Others were being interviewed by local stations as well. When I finished with Bianca, I figured I was done. But no, Sharman Saccetti of Channel 18 in Elmira was there to interview me. Why? Because the station that carries JEOPARDY! in the Binghamton market, my hometown, is located 60 miles away in Elmira. (Elmira’s near Corning where my friend Judy, who gave me the ride, lived; eventually she got me a video clip). I told her the experience was “exciting, terrifying, invigorating.”
(Incidentally, Bianca, Sharman and a guy named Matt and were involved in a media practice game against each other. Sharman, who “won”, eventually moved from Channel 18 to Channel 10 in Albany, and she’s moved on from there.)
Then Channel 2 Plattsburgh wanted to talk with me. Why? I don’t know. I must have been the contestant geographically closest to them.

Finally, with talent coordinator Susanne Thurber practically dragging me off the stage to end interview #3, we return downstairs. By some method unknown to me, it was determined who the contestants who would face defending champion Tom: Amy Roeder, an actress from Merrimack, NH, and me!

So, we three go to makeup AGAIN. Maggie, a member of the staff, accompanies me to the bathroom (so that nobody could slip me answers, presumably; she DID wait outside the door.) Then back to the dressing room, where I FINALLY take off my red sneakers and put on shoes.

In those days, JEOPARDY! used to do “the walk”; the contestants would walk to the podium. (They’ve since abolished it.) But in Boston, they didn’t use it because there were wires all over the place.

I got a glass of water, but I couldn’t keep it at the podium.

I am still feeling very relaxed. Then Johnny Gilbert says, “A business librarian from Albany, NY, Roger Green.”

And my mouth goes dry.

Continued on Saturday, July 9