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J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:57 pm
by gsabc
Very impressive, both for strategy and play. Wait till you see the betting on FJ!
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:29 pm
by Bob Juch
J! and BAM are opposite each other at 7:30 here.
The millionairetv.com site said BAM is at 6:30 here. It's been wrong on five different cities I was in on my trip.

Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:42 pm
by Jeemie
gsabc wrote:Very impressive, both for strategy and play. Wait till you see the betting on FJ!
Those two must have been really confident with that category. I got the FJ! One of the few things I knew all night.
I liked the $22 Daily Double.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:47 pm
by ToLiveIsToFly
Jeemie wrote:gsabc wrote:Very impressive, both for strategy and play. Wait till you see the betting on FJ!
Those two must have been really confident with that category. I got the FJ! One of the few things I knew all night.
I liked the $22 Daily Double.
At that level, I think that when the FJ category is U.S. Presidents you have to be confident enough to go all-in. It was a weird board for me - they weren't categories I thought I would do well in, but I got a lot of clues that they didn't.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 5:04 am
by earendel
gsabc wrote:Very impressive, both for strategy and play. Wait till you see the betting on FJ!
It was an exciting game - for Dan to make a TDD in order to catch up to Larissa was a gutsy move - I hoped he would do it again when he hit the other one, but in retrospect it's a good thing he didn't. Given the closeness of the scores I figured the three would bet small amouints or nothing at all in order not to dig themselves too deep a hole to get out of the second day and was surprised when Larissa and Dan went all-in. I guess on a category like US Presidents it would be hard not to wager big.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 5:08 am
by NellyLunatic1980
Pretty easy FJ if you knew that it was only possible to be without a Vice President if one assumed the Presidency after the death of a President. With the additional clue that you had to go back more than a century, that narrowed it down to five possibilities. In chronological order: Tyler, Fillmore, A. Johnson, Arthur, and T. Roosevelt. Since TR eventually got himself a VP by the time he ran for re-election, the answer had to be Arthur.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:02 am
by Jeemie
NellyLunatic1980 wrote:Pretty easy FJ if you knew that it was only possible to be without a Vice President if one assumed the Presidency after the death of a President. With the additional clue that you had to go back more than a century, that narrowed it down to five possibilities. In chronological order: Tyler, Fillmore, A. Johnson, Arthur, and T. Roosevelt. Since TR eventually got himself a VP by the time he ran for re-election, the answer had to be Arthur.
You also had to realize that it wasn't until late in the 1900s that the Constitution was amended to mandate that any VP vacancy had to be filled (Nixon was the first to have to do this when he appointed Ford to the VP slot after Agnew resigned). But again, the additional clue of it being more than a century helped with that.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:08 am
by mom2five
I'm really hoping Larissa wins the whole thing! I guess it's partly due to her being a woman, but she seems so quiet and sweet and then, BAM!, she wagers huge amounts on her DD's! (at least she did during her initial run on the show!) It's been a very exciting TOC!
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:47 am
by trevor_macfee
I don't think this is a spoiler since it doesn't give anything away about who wins or how or any of the clues/responses, but I'll spoilerize it anyway since it refers to tonight's show that hasn't aired:
Don't miss tonight's (Tuesday's) final day of the TOC Final - it is perhaps one of the most exciting finishes ever.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:51 am
by christie1111
trevor_macfee wrote:I don't think this is a spoiler since it doesn't give anything away about who wins or how or any of the clues/responses, but I'll spoilerize it anyway since it refers to tonight's show that hasn't aired:
Don't miss tonight's (Tuesday's) final day of the TOC Final - it is perhaps one of the most exciting finishes ever.
Were you in the audience?
It is on earlier here on one of the other channels, so I will try to remeber to watch it then. I usually wait until 7 but I have a conference call then.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:53 am
by MarleysGh0st
Spoilerizing a promo to watch a show is somewhat counterproductive, if people wait to read the spoiler until after the show airs.
How about a generic recommendation: "Watch today's TOC finale!"

Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:58 am
by trevor_macfee
christie1111 wrote:
Were you in the audience?
Yes - all us semi-final losers were in the audience, as were I believe 3 of the six eliminated in the quarterfinals. (The quarterfinals had been taped Thursday night into Friday morning).
The finals were taped at the 10:00 taping on Saturday evening - the semis had been taped starting at 7. After the semis, the losers were fed with the crew in a big tent set up in the LV Convention Center parking lot and then we returned to watch the finals.
I was actually (and meaninglessly) the alternate for the finals because I had the highest final score in the semis of the non-finalists.
It's a good thing they kept me far away from Larissa, Dan and Aaron.
You can read more about it at my Jeopardy! Blog -
pdonjeopardy@blogspot.com. It hasn't been totally updated yet, though.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:53 pm
by Jeemie
trevor_macfee wrote:It's a good thing they kept me far away from Larissa, Dan and Aaron.
Great minds think alike!
"Hey Larissa- try some of these eggs- they're delicious!"
"I don't recall seeing those on the buffet, Dave...and they look rather brown!"
But a pastor would never do that!
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:54 pm
by mom2five
I have to admit to my "crime":
Since Jeopardy! doesn't air here until 7:30 pm, I checked out the J! boards to see the final scores around 3:30pm for yesterday's round 1 game!
I know it's awful!
I'm looking forward to watching tonight's final but I don't think I can refrain from repeating my "crime".
Thanks for taunting me, Trevor! BTW, you had a great run and congrats! for making it so far!
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 1:02 pm
by earendel
During the interview Larissa mentioned that she had written and sold a science fiction story. On the J! board someone mentioned that the story could be found on the Strange Horizons Web site. To save the effort of having to look for it, here's a link that should take you right to the story, if you're interested.
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2008/200 ... es-f.shtml
I liked it.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 1:37 pm
by Jeemie
earendel wrote:During the interview Larissa mentioned that she had written and sold a science fiction story. On the J! board someone mentioned that the story could be found on the Strange Horizons Web site. To save the effort of having to look for it, here's a link that should take you right to the story, if you're interested.
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2008/200 ... es-f.shtml
I liked it.
I have to say I didn't.
To me, it read like somebody trying to copy what they'd seen other authors write.
Maybe I expected more.
Re: J! TOC final, day 2
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 4:03 pm
by TheConfessor
Okay, I just watched day 2 of the J! TOC. Entertaining game, but...
I was left scratching my head. Huh? What was she thinking on the FJ question? It seemed pretty straightforward to me. Was she overcomplicating it, thinking that the answer couldn't be that obvious, so she was looking for something deeper? I'd be curious to hear what went through her mind. She seems to be one of the smartest people they've ever had on the show, so if this was just a rare brain fart, she picked a really unfortunate time for it to happen.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:16 pm
by TheConfessor
Is Obama's press conference preempting the final of the J! TOC for some people? That would be an unforgivable blunder for a lot of viewers.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:03 pm
by gsabc
Aw man! I got busy doing stuff around the house and completely forgot to turn on J! tonight!! I'm gonna have to live through their bored's commentary and recap. Nuts. Wanted to watch it realtime.
Re: J! TOC final, day 2
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:28 pm
by Jeemie
TheConfessor wrote:Okay, I just watched day 2 of the J! TOC. Entertaining game, but...
I was left scratching my head. Huh? What was she thinking on the FJ question? It seemed pretty straightforward to me. Was she overcomplicating it, thinking that the answer couldn't be that obvious, so she was looking for something deeper? I'd be curious to hear what went through her mind. She seems to be one of the smartest people they've ever had on the show, so if this was just a rare brain fart, she picked a really unfortunate time for it to happen.
I was stunned by that too.
Worse, I knew she didn't know it. You could tell by her expression.
Maybe it looked "more exciting" in the audience, but on TV, I knew she was screwed, so there was no excitement, for me, in FJ.
I couldn't believe she didn't know it- the birthdate made it a lock as to who it was.
And there wasn't even a King Phillip, so her answer was even worse.
Oh well!
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:43 pm
by MarleysGh0st
There are always two unhappy contestants on each episode, who have to stand there pleasantly with Alex and the champion while the credits roll. Today, you could tell that Larissa was completely devastated. A well-fought battle with a tough ending.
I was wondering about what was accepted as the FJ answer. Normally, one would have to be specific about individuals, so any question about monarchs would require an answer of "George II." But because the clue asked for the "the second of this name," simply answering "George" was sufficient? Would that have made "George II" incorrect, since he wasn't the second George II?
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:50 pm
by Jeemie
MarleysGh0st wrote:There are always two unhappy contestants on each episode, who have to stand there pleasantly with Alex and the champion while the credits roll. Today, you could tell that Larissa was completely devastated. A well-fought battle with a tough ending.
I was wondering about what was accepted as the FJ answer. Normally, one would have to be specific about individuals, so any question about monarchs would require an answer of "George II." But because the clue asked for the "the second of this name," simply answering "George" was sufficient? Would that have made "George II" incorrect, since he wasn't the second George II?
Yes, George II was the second George.
Unless this website is incorrect.
http://www.britannia.com/history/h6f.html
What am I missing?
Wait- never mind- I understand what you were saying now. Hmm...I can't believe they would get that technical.
Yes, Larissa was devastated...she wears her emotions on her sleeve. Early in the game, when Dan was consistently beating her to the buzzer, my son commented that she looked ready to cry.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:57 pm
by silvercamaro
Thanks for that link, Jeemie. I have been looking for a website exactly like that -- lots of information, without so much detail that it becomes overwhelming.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:19 pm
by ontellen
I was very happy that Larissa didn't win. She never connected with me at all. It could have been her unmoving lips that got me - not sure. She was just too competetive. I agree with Ed that she must have had a total brain fart. My first thought was Charles and then I thought of the Georges who didn't speak any English when they took over the throne. There never was a King Philip of England - that was just weird.
Re: J! TOC final, day 1
Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 6:22 am
by earendel
ontellen wrote:I was very happy that Larissa didn't win. She never connected with me at all. It could have been her unmoving lips that got me - not sure. She was just too competetive. I agree with Ed that she must have had a total brain fart. My first thought was Charles and then I thought of the Georges who didn't speak any English when they took over the throne. There never was a King Philip of England - that was just weird.
My first thought was "George", but in the 30 seconds before the end of the think music my mind wandered to "Charles", thinking that he might have been born while his dad was in exile. And the time was close (the Protectorate was 1653-1659). So under the pressure of FJ! I might well have changed my answer from the right one to the wrong one.