Congrats Jelisa Castrodale - "Jeopardy!" winner

The thing not many understand, because most of us were born after the late 1950s, is how strictly the game shows are monitored by Standards. Shows like 64000 Question and Twenty One were dramatic to watch by fifties standards, but they were also fixed as hell. I remember a story about the original Concentration and how the show's producer (the only one who knew what each puzzle would be besides the host) had to secure the answers in a box with tape and so many locks.

 

The host of that version? Jeff Probst.

I've been on a game show and the way they do it is usually tape a week's worth of shows every day. Yes, the host (and defending champs) change clothes between tapings and they do a mock round before rolling tape - they might also do some mock rounds while contestants are in the green room.

 

I was really surprised on how strict the rules were for my Wheel of Fortune appearance. I would presume Birdscribe underwent the same thing at Jeopardy!

There was no mock games in the green room. In fact, you weren't allowed to bring the little handheld devices in there, no cell phones, almost nothing but you, a change of shirts just in case the camera didn't like the one you had on or you got something on it and that was it.

In fact, a girl that appeared in the show before mine started to play hangman (which the show is based on) on the white board in the green room and she was almost kicked off the show.

We spent 3 hours before taping going over the regulations and rules of the game. I had to disclose that I was an employee of Delta at the time just in case one of the trip's air carriers was them. They weren't, but they wanted to know.

The whole thing is called puzzola, a play on playola and it stems from the scandels of game shows way back when. We couldn't even make eye contact with the audience, especially our guest (my mom and my wife were there) to avoid any chance of fixing. We couldn't tell them what taping we were going to be in or anything.

There was a point during our taping when Pat read the wrong category for the puzzle. There was about 10 minutes of producers huddling, trying to figure out what to do. Like I said, there are so many standards they have to uphold to make sure that there wasn't any fixing involved, so there's no way they would have changed the FJ question to avoid giving her an advantage in that round. The backlash from standards would have been fierce.

Wheel did 6 shows on the day I was there and 6 the day after. Two of the 12 were for fillers for other weeks where they had a technical glitch or something along those lines. We started taping around 11. I was in the 3rd show for the Wednesday slot and started about 1. Finished by 1:45, signed the paperwork at 2 for the money and was on my way to LAX to catch the 5 p.m. flight to ATL. They knock those bitches out quick.

And yes, Pat and Vanna both change between shows.

 

Liking Jelisa's blog.

http://jelisacastrodale.com/

 

Yep, Trebek goes and changes in between shows. So does the champion; I had to head to the green room for a change (I brought a week's worth of shirt/tie/jacket combinations), a piss and a make-up touchup.

It's 10 minutes and bam, you're out there again. They tell you if Alex can change in 10 minutes, so can you. And they're right.

Yes, the rhythm does help, but as I've said before, it's an elusive mistress. I started off gangbusters in Game 2, only to have the MIT geek capture it from me. On a sports category, of all things.

 

Jelisa finished third on night two. She started slow and rallied in Double Jeopardy.

Still, a great accomplishment.

She looked like she was going to hyperventilate during the introductions. I imagine she was nervous as heck. Birdscribe - how bad were the nerves? I imagine it's quite a pressure cooker.

 

You presume correctly, my friend.

On Jeopardy, they sequester you in a corner of the studio audience until you get the call and when you come out, the audience is already there.

The first day I was there, when I was an alternate, my then-12-year-old son was there with five of my co-workers. When we walked out there, the six of them went nuts and started chanting my name like they were at Staples and I just walked onto the court with Kobe for Game 7.

Before I could even acknowledge the cheers, one of the pages was up the stairs in a flash and up their asses with a microscope, telling them that unless they wanted to get me DQed, they'd best STFU. After that, I was afraid to turn around.

In the green room -- during a similar 2 1/2-hour review beforehand -- we were insructed not even to make eye contact with anyone we knew.

Actually, Wolv, the nerves were fine. You play a practice game beforehand, to get used to the buzzer, the board, the stage, etc. And I'm the type that tends to be calm in such situations because I do a good job of staying in the moment -- which you HAVE to do on that show.

The only nerves I felt came during FJ on my first day, when I was 25 seconds in and had no idea what to answer. THEN, I panicked and put down the wrong answer just to have something on the screen.

 

Ah, the Latin teacher from Massachusetts. She's probably my least favorite Jeopardy! contestant of all time. After giving that absurd answer and being told it was wrong, she said (paraphrase), "You know, I just really don't care."

Thought that was rude and classless.

My favorite recent contestants were all three finalists from last season (Jason Zollinger, Stefan Goodreau and Vijay Balse) because they were all really sharp and nice, and Barbara Gayle just because she was cute and I like the idea of a Guamanian Olympian being on Jeopardy. She wasn't very good at the show, though.

 

AHEM.....

 

Jealous much, birdie?

 

I'm sure you were one of my favorites too and I just didn't know it, Birdscribe. I have a lot of respect for anybody who makes it on the show. Someday I want to try out but I need to learn more opera, Shakespeare, etc., before I would have a chance. How many times did you try out before you made it on? I guess Vijay Balse tried out six times before they picked him, so that was pretty intimidating when I heard that.