Transcript 02/27/2009 - Alan Isenberg (carryover c

[BBTranscriptTeam]

Alan Isenberg
Philadelphia, PA
Graduate student in business

Alan is a newlywed and once rubbed elbows with some powerful politicians. He was a producer for Wolf Blitzer on CNN and got to meet Obama, Hillary and some former presidents, as well as the late Benazir Bhutto. Alan's wife, mother and mother-in-law are in the relationship seats.

Topic Tree:
- Hello, Dolly!
- Down Under
- Check Your Mailbox
- Surreal Paintings
- Use Your Head
- Who Am I?
- Great Heights
- Buzzwords
- TV Trailblazers
- On Broadway
- For Good Measure
- Taylor-Made
- Apples to Apples
- Traffic Signs
- Mice Will Play

Alan has the Ask the Expert lifeline; Jeff Gross, former $500,000 winner, is standing by.

$4K - In the 1970s, what popular sitcom broke ground by featuring the interracial couple Tom and Helen Willis?
A - Benson
B - Soap
C - The Jeffersons
D - Good Times

Alan wastes no time asking for a lifeline - he wants to Ask the Audience, stopping the clock with 22 seconds left.

ATA results:
A - 2%
B - 6%
C - 78%
D - 14%

Spoiler

C - The Jeffersons (19)

$8K - In common business-speak, what food-related phrase refers to a single task or an easily-achieved goal?
A - thick-cut steak
B - twice-baked potato
C - piping-hot coffee
D - low-hanging fruit

Spoiler

D - low-hanging fruit (23)

Meredith says that question was made for Alan.

$16K - What country is home to the Burj Dubai, an under-construction skyscraper that is slated to become the world's tallest building?
A - United Arab Emirates
B - Kuwait
C - Qatar
D - Saudi Arabia

Alan notes that it's also the only country in the world with an indoor ski resort.

Spoiler

A - United Arab Emirates (20)

Meredith asks if Alan has ever been. He hasn't but he's heard it's really cool.

$25K - Who is Liu Xiang?
A - violinist
B - Olympic hurdler
C - wedding gown designer
D - CNN news anchor

Again Alan goes immediately for a lifeline - this time he wants to use the Double Dip. The clock stops with 20 seconds remaining. Alan makes

Spoiler

B

his first final answer. Meredith says there's no need to go further because he's right.

Spoiler

B - Olympic hurdler (20)

commercial break

Meredith says that $25K is a nice chunk of change for a young man of 29. On yesterday's show Alan did an imitation of Borat, so Meredith asks what Borat would do with the money. "I would buy a nice village for myself and maybe a radio tape player," Alan replies in his Borat voice. Alan intends to give some of the winnings to the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation. They take elephants and trainers and provide for them.

$50K - Because of the human emotion it controls, the part of the brain technically called the "amygdala" is informally known as the what?
A - joy center
B - love center
C - fear center
D - sorrow center

Alan can narrow it down to two but he can't be sure. It's a free guess (Meredith reminds him he has two lifelines left). He ponders a little longer and decides to Ask the Expert with 20 seconds remaining. Meredith feeds Jeff the question; Jeff says he can't give a definite answer but he's 60-70% sure it's the fear center. He knows that Alan doesn't have the Double Dip. Jeff would make "love center" his second answer.

Spoiler

Alan goes with Jeff's answer.
C - fear center (20)

$100K - Which of these creatures are prominently featured in Salvador Dali's famous 1933 painting, "The Persistence of Memory"?
A - giraffes
B - snakes
C - tigers
D - ants

Alan says that he can guarantee that all three of the women sitting behind him know the answer, but he doesn't. He uses his Phone a Friend lifeline, stopping the clock with 30 seconds remaining.Alan's lifeline list consists of: his friend Marty, from Chevy Chase, MD; his friend Art from Oakland, CA; and his friend Dave in
Philadelphia, PA. Alan chooses Dave to call. Alan says "Salvador Dali 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory", then asks which animal is featured and reads the choices. He rereads the choices and with 4 seconds left Dave says

Spoiler

"ants, 100% sure"

. The clock runs out. Alan says he likes the percentage.

Spoiler

D - ants (23)

commercial break

Meredith asks how Alan is feeling. Alan replies that it's not a typical Friday afternoon. He was going to play aggressively up to $50,000 then play it conservatively. He says he'd rather win $100,000 and go home than win $25,000 and be homeless because his wife wouldn't let him come home. Meredith says to the women that she imagines they don't want him to guess; Alan's mother nods vigorously. His wife says she loves him no matter what - Meredith jokes that it's code for "don't gamble".

$250K - According to the U.S. Postal Service, which of the following is not one of the eleven methods by which it currently delivers mail?
A - by subway
B - by submarine
C - by mule
D - by hovercraft

Alan says that he's had a wonderful time and it's been fun. He has no idea, although he thinks it would be cool if they delivered mail by either hovercraft or submarine. He decides to walk away.

Spoiler

B - submarine (19)

[Estonut]

$100K - Which of these creatures are prominently featured in Salvador Dali's famous 1933 painting, "The Persistence of Memory"?
A - giraffes
B - snakes
C - tigers
D - ants

Alan says that he can guarantee that all three of the women sitting behind him know the answer, but he doesn't. He uses his Phone a Friend lifeline, stopping the clock with 30 seconds remaining.Alan's lifeline list consists of: his friend Marty, from Chevy Chase, MD; his friend Art from Oakland, CA; and his friend Dave in Philadelphia, PA. Alan chooses Dave to call. Alan says "Salvador Dali 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory", then asks which animal is featured and reads the choices. He rereads the choices and with 4 seconds left Dave says

Spoiler

"ants, 100% sure"

. The clock runs out. Alan says he likes the percentage.

Spoiler

D - ants (23)

Was this a typo in the transcription, or did he feed his friend the wrong year to Google? If it was the latter, it could have been disastrous. I would have left out the year anyway. Just the title and "Dali" should have been plenty.

$250K - According to the U.S. Postal Service, which of the following is not one of the eleven methods by which it currently delivers mail?
A - by subway
B - by submarine
C - by mule
D - by hovercraft

Alan says that he's had a wonderful time and it's been fun. He has no idea, although he thinks it would be cool if they delivered mail by either hovercraft or submarine. He decides to walk away.

Spoiler

B - submarine (19)

Spoiler

Not sure what my confidence level would be under pressure, but this is the only one of the four that I couldn't imagine would be necessary. I've never heard of anyone receiving mail underwater, so a boat or ship should be sufficient.

[NellyLunatic1980]

Alan Isenberg
Philadelphia, PA
Graduate student in business

Alan is a newlywed and once rubbed elbows with some powerful politicians. He was a producer for Wolf Blitzer on CNN and got to meet Obama, Hillary and some former presidents, as well as the late Benazir Bhutto.

A TV news producer... looks like this makes him a What Else®.

$50K: No clue on this one. I would also ask Jeff and go along with his first answer.

$100K: As many times as I've seen this painting, you'd think that I could remember what creatures were in it. I couldn't. This is a perfect PAF question.

$250K: Double Dip on hovercraft and submarine. I couldn't imagine a postal worker driving a hovercraft... and I think that mail by submarine may be the responsibility of the U.S. Navy, not the USPS.

I'd be going for $500,000 with ATA left.

[MarleysGh0st]

Alan Isenberg
Philadelphia, PA
Graduate student in business

Alan is a newlywed and once rubbed elbows with some powerful politicians. He was a producer for Wolf Blitzer on CNN and got to meet Obama, Hillary and some former presidents, as well as the late Benazir Bhutto.

A TV news producer... looks like this makes him a What Else®.

And a What Else with big celebrity encounter anecdotes, too!

It's rare that we get to see $250K questions and rarer still when there's one I'd be willing to go for on a "that's gotta be it" hunch. I could see NYC mail carriers riding the subway, postal carriers taking a mule down to that settlement at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and mail carriers using hovercraft instead of an ordinary boat. But a submarine? No way that would be necessary.

[earendel]

Alan Isenberg
Philadelphia, PA
Graduate student in business

Alan is a newlywed and once rubbed elbows with some powerful politicians. He was a producer for Wolf Blitzer on CNN and got to meet Obama, Hillary and some former presidents, as well as the late Benazir Bhutto. Alan's wife, mother and mother-in-law are in the relationship seats.

So his real hook is his celebrity connections.

$4K - In the 1970s, what popular sitcom broke ground by featuring the interracial couple Tom and Helen Willis?
A - Benson
B - Soap
C - The Jeffersons
D - Good Times

Alan wastes no time asking for a lifeline - he wants to Ask the Audience, stopping the clock with 22 seconds left.

ATA results:
A - 2%
B - 6%
C - 78%
D - 14%

Spoiler

C - The Jeffersons (19)

Alan is too young to remember this show in first-run, but hasn't he run across it in syndication?

$16K - What country is home to the Burj Dubai, an under-construction skyscraper that is slated to become the world's tallest building?
A - United Arab Emirates
B - Kuwait
C - Qatar
D - Saudi Arabia

Alan notes that it's also the only country in the world with an indoor ski resort.

Spoiler

A - United Arab Emirates (20)

A no-brainer if you know that Dubai is one of the emirates that comprise the UAE.

$25K - Who is Liu Xiang?
A - violinist
B - Olympic hurdler
C - wedding gown designer
D - CNN news anchor

Again Alan goes immediately for a lifeline - this time he wants to use the Double Dip. The clock stops with 20 seconds remaining. Alan makes

Spoiler

B

his first final answer. Meredith says there's no need to go further because he's right.

Spoiler

B - Olympic hurdler (20)

I'd have had to think about this one and might even have done what Alan did and use the Double Dip. My other choice would have been C.

Time to start considering lifelines. This doesn't strike me as an easily Googlable question nor one that the audience would know, so might as well ask the expert. If I still had the DD I'd use B and D as my choices.

All in all a good run for Alan on a pretty tough stack.

[earendel]

$100K - Which of these creatures are prominently featured in Salvador Dali's famous 1933 painting, "The Persistence of Memory"?
A - giraffes
B - snakes
C - tigers
D - ants

Alan says that he can guarantee that all three of the women sitting behind him know the answer, but he doesn't. He uses his Phone a Friend lifeline, stopping the clock with 30 seconds remaining.Alan's lifeline list consists of: his friend Marty, from Chevy Chase, MD; his friend Art from Oakland, CA; and his friend Dave in Philadelphia, PA. Alan chooses Dave to call. Alan says "Salvador Dali 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory", then asks which animal is featured and reads the choices. He rereads the choices and with 4 seconds left Dave says

Spoiler

"ants, 100% sure"

. The clock runs out. Alan says he likes the percentage.

Spoiler

D - ants (23)

Was this a typo in the transcription, or did he feed his friend the wrong year to Google? If it was the latter, it could have been disastrous. I would have left out the year anyway. Just the title and "Dali" should have been plenty.

It's an error in the transcript. The question had 1931 and that's what Alan read. The transcriptionist erroneously typed "1933" as the year in the question.

[MarleysGh0st]

Here's an article about Alan's appearance.

http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com ... 6370.shtml

However, it took two tries before Isenberg managed to get to the hot seat.

The process to become a contestant on the show can be lengthy. An applicant must go to New York City in the spring or summer to take an in-person, 30-multiple-choice-question test of trivia on a variety of topics.

"You must pass the written test to make it to the next round," said Trisha Miller, the show's publicist.

Next the applicant must pass an interview.

Assuming the applicant passes, anywhere from a week to a year can go by before he or she actually makes it to the hot seat.

"Ten years ago, I tried out for a phone audition but did not make it," Isenberg said. After auditioning again at the end of the last school year and being selected, he finally taped the show that aired last week on Sept. 26, 2008.

Gosh! He played the Phone Game in 1999 (which had NOTHING to do with an audition) then he auditions (once) all these years later and gets picked for the Hot Seat. A grueling process, indeed!

<grumble>®

[KillerTomato]

Marley, I hate to ruin a perfectly good <grumble(R thingie that I can't do on my iPhone)>, but look on the bright side: Alan at least has been a fan of the show for as long as WE have.

I'd rather see a dozen like him -- smart and good at the game -- than a single "my boyfriend told me about the show and I just decided to give it a shot between auditions for One Life To Live and I have no idea what the lifelines are but I'd like to Ask the Audience what the capital of New Jersey is just to be sure even though I live in Edison" contestant.

[MarleysGh0st]

Marley, I hate to ruin a perfectly good <grumble(R thingie that I can't do on my iPhone)>, but look on the bright side: Alan at least has been a fan of the show for as long as WE have.

If he's such a fan of the show, what's he been doing for the last nine years?

And he was a decent contestant, but the rest of us potentially decent contestants who haven't been producing TV shows, hobnobbing with celebrities and practicing our Borat impressions want a shot, too.

Request to ruin a perfectly good <grumble>® denied!



And to be fair, the original grumble took the article at face value. It (the article) may be mistaken.

[KillerTomato]

Maybe he was concerned about his eligibility or his ability to get to NYC on short notice.

I don't disagree with the <grumble> per se, but one must appreciate and celebrate the good as well as <grumbling> about the bad.

[tanstaafl2]

I'd rather see a dozen like him -- smart and good at the game -- than a single "my boyfriend told me about the show and I just decided to give it a shot between auditions for One Life To Live and I have no idea what the lifelines are but I'd like to Ask the Audience what the capital of New Jersey is just to be sure even though I live in Edison" contestant.

I am not entirely certain that living in Edison, NJ would necessarily insure that some of the cast member/geo nitwits this show has produced wouldn't still need some help on determining the capital of New Jersey...