Transcript 04/02/09 - Ben Franklin (carryover)

[BBTranscriptTeam]

Ben Franklin
Brooklyn, NY
Actor

Ben says it's not easy having a famous name. One time he tried using his credit card and the store clerk gave him a hard time, "You better stop playing!" Ben finally convinced her that was his real name.

Ben is actually Ben Franklin IV. His dad, Ben Franklin III, and his mom are in the audience.

Question Topics:
* Pet Projects
* It's Automatic
* Papa
* The Name Game
* Big Words
* Did Juneau?
* Rabbit
* Sports Moms
* Prequels
* Honest About Abe
* (Bowled Over)
* (At the Gym)
* (Let's Play)
* (Moving Along)
* (Wolf Man)

Today's expert is Time magazine columnist, Joel Stein.

$2,000 * Honest About Abe
Which of the following is a true statement about Abraham Lincoln?

A: He was the shortest president B: He was the tallest president
C: He was the oldest president D: He was the youngest president

Answer

B: He was the tallest president (15)

$4,000 * Prequels
"Ariel's Beginning" is the subtitle of a 2008 straight-to-DVD prequel of what animated Disney movie?
A: The Lion King B: Pocahontas
C: Alladin D: The Little Mermaid

Answer

D: The Little Mermaid (23)

$8,000 * Sports Moms
Which of these pro sports star's moms is the president of the Professional Football Players Mothers' Association?

A: Ann Iverson B: Dorothy Jeter
C: Wilma McNabb D: Blanche Roddick

With 11 seconds left, Ben decides to Ask The Audience

ATA: A: 10 % B: 7% C: 79% D: 4%

Answer

C: Wilma McNabb (eight)

$16,000 * Rabbit
Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is the protagonist of four novels by what author?
A: John Irving B: Philip Roth
C: John Updike D: Saul Bellow

With 21 seconds left, Ben decides to Ask The Expert.

ATE

Joel: Oh, I got this Ben Franklin's gonna be very happy ... It's John Updike, C. He wrote all the Rabbit novels...

Answer

C: John Updike (19)

-- Commercial Break --

Ben's parents have supported him in all his efforts as an actor, so he'd live to give back
to them. He also has college loans to pay and he'd like to take a trip to Disney World.

$25,000 * Did Juneau?
The state flag of Alaska includes images of several stars, including the North Star and what constellation?
A: Orion B: Pegasus
C: Aquarius D: The Big Dipper

Before the answers are revealed, Ben says he'd like to Phone A Friend. He waits for Meredith the read the choices, then repeats that he'll Phone A Friend, with 22 seconds left.

Ben's PAF team are his best friend Jennifer and his buddy Michael, both New York, NY. Ben decides to call Michael.

PAF

Ben reads the question

Michael: What are the answers... The Big Dipper!

Ben: The Big Dipper?

Michael: Final answer.

Answer

D: The Big Dipper ( 19 )

$50,000 * Big Words
What is pandiculation?
A: Sneezing B: Stretching
C: Fainting D: Vomiting

With 25 seconds left, Ben decides to Double Dip.

Answer

Ben's first answer is A: Sneezing.
Ben's second answer is what he feels like doing now, D: Vomiting

B: Stretching (6)

Ben leaves with $25,000.

-- Commercial Break --

[Estonut]

$25,000 * Did Juneau?
The state flag of Alaska includes images of several stars, including the North Star and what constellation?
A: Orion B: Pegasus
C: Aquarius D: The Big Dipper

Before the answers are revealed, Ben says he'd like to Phone A Friend. He waits for Meredith the read the choices, then repeats that he'll Phone A Friend, with 22 seconds left.

WTF? I thought the rules said you could interrupt MV. If so, they should have stopped the clock immediately when he first asked for the PAF.

[NellyLunatic1980]

Nihil obstat®

[gsabc]

$8K: didn't know there was such an organization. With all those soup commercials, McNabb was the only one that made sense here. From the hotseat, though, I probably would have used the ATA as well, then maybe kicked myself for doing that later on. That wouldn't have been necessary, given the questions, but still ...

$16K: Got only forty pages into the first book, hated it, never read the rest, still knew this one. If you go by the opinions of the literati, I'm subliterate. There are very few critically acclaimed authors that I find readable.

[gsabc]

Oops, forgot the others. No problem for the state flag Q.

$50K: Nice question. Knew it wasn't sneezing or vomiting. Fainting didn't sound right. Might have used the DD myself, or taken the chance of leaving lifelines on the table. Hard to say.

I might have broken into that old camp cheer afterwards:
Regurgitate!
Regurgitate!
Give up all that food you ate!
Vomit!
Vomit!
BLECCH!

[earendel]

Ben Franklin
Brooklyn, NY
Actor

$8,000 * Sports Moms
Which of these pro sports star's moms is the president of the Professional Football Players Mothers' Association?

A: Ann Iverson B: Dorothy Jeter
C: Wilma McNabb D: Blanche Roddick

With 11 seconds left, Ben decides to Ask The Audience

ATA: A: 10 % B: 7% C: 79% D: 4%

Answer

C: Wilma McNabb (eight)

Only one of the four is a football mom, so it's easier than I thought it might be.

$16,000 * Rabbit
Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is the protagonist of four novels by what author?
A: John Irving B: Philip Roth
C: John Updike D: Saul Bellow

With 21 seconds left, Ben decides to Ask The Expert.

ATE

Joel: Oh, I got this Ben Franklin's gonna be very happy ... It's John Updike, C. He wrote all the Rabbit novels...

Answer

C: John Updike (19)

Well, well, Joel is certainly proving to be a better expert this time around.

$25,000 * Did Juneau?
The state flag of Alaska includes images of several stars, including the North Star and what constellation?
A: Orion B: Pegasus
C: Aquarius D: The Big Dipper

Before the answers are revealed, Ben says he'd like to Phone A Friend. He waits for Meredith the read the choices, then repeats that he'll Phone A Friend, with 22 seconds left.

Ben's PAF team are his best friend Jennifer and his buddy Michael, both New York, NY. Ben decides to call Michael.

PAF

Ben reads the question

Michael: What are the answers... The Big Dipper!

Ben: The Big Dipper?

Michael: Final answer.

Answer

D: The Big Dipper ( 19 )

$50,000 * Big Words
What is pandiculation?
A: Sneezing B: Stretching
C: Fainting D: Vomiting

With 25 seconds left, Ben decides to Double Dip.

Answer

Ben's first answer is A: Sneezing.
Ben's second answer is what he feels like doing now, D: Vomiting

B: Stretching (6)

Ben leaves with $25,000.

OK, I know it's not A or D, so either DD or PAF. Let's go with DD and make those my final answers.

[MarleysGh0st]

$25,000 * Did Juneau?
The state flag of Alaska includes images of several stars, including the North Star and what constellation?
A: Orion B: Pegasus
C: Aquarius D: The Big Dipper

Before the answers are revealed, Ben says he'd like to Phone A Friend. He waits for Meredith the read the choices, then repeats that he'll Phone A Friend, with 22 seconds left.

Ben's PAF team are his best friend Jennifer and his buddy Michael, both New York, NY. Ben decides to call Michael.

PAF

Ben reads the question

Michael: What are the answers... The Big Dipper!

Ben: The Big Dipper?

Michael: Final answer.

Answer

D: The Big Dipper ( 19 )

Does your Mr. Green means that the question is wrong, in that the Big Dipper is not a constellation, it's an asterism?

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

$16,000 * Rabbit
Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is the protagonist of four novels by what author?
A: John Irving B: Philip Roth
C: John Updike D: Saul Bellow

Harry Angstrom made a appearance in the questions at my Savannah audition test so long ago.

[frogman042]

$25,000 * Did Juneau?
The state flag of Alaska includes images of several stars, including the North Star and what constellation?
A: Orion B: Pegasus
C: Aquarius D: The Big Dipper

Before the answers are revealed, Ben says he'd like to Phone A Friend. He waits for Meredith the read the choices, then repeats that he'll Phone A Friend, with 22 seconds left.

WTF? I thought the rules said you could interrupt MV. If so, they should have stopped the clock immediately when he first asked for the PAF.

He asked for the PAF while Meredith was still reading the question - the clock had not yet started at that point - it starts when the last choice is reveled. The rules state you can only ask for a life-line when the clock is running - so his request was ignored since it hadn't started running at that point. If he waited until she started reading the answers or repeated his request after they started the clock, then I think they would have had to stop the clock at that point - but that is not what happened.

Also,

Spoiler

it is correct that the Big Dipper is not a constellation - nor would have been Ursa Major been exactly correct as well, since Ursa Major is composed of more than just the stars in the Big Dipper.

[ulysses5019]

$25,000 * Did Juneau?
The state flag of Alaska includes images of several stars, including the North Star and what constellation?
A: Orion B: Pegasus
C: Aquarius D: The Big Dipper

Before the answers are revealed, Ben says he'd like to Phone A Friend. He waits for Meredith the read the choices, then repeats that he'll Phone A Friend, with 22 seconds left.

WTF? I thought the rules said you could interrupt MV. If so, they should have stopped the clock immediately when he first asked for the PAF.

He asked for the PAF while Meredith was still reading the question - the clock had not yet started at that point - it starts when the last choice is reveled. The rules state you can only ask for a life-line when the clock is running - so his request was ignored since it hadn't started running at that point. If he waited until she started reading the answers or repeated his request after they started the clock, then I think they would have had to stop the clock at that point - but that is not what happened.

Also,

Spoiler

it is correct that the Big Dipper is not a constellation - nor would have been Ursa Major been exactly correct as well, since Ursa Major is composed of more than just the stars in the Big Dipper.

Whew. I thought there was going to be a BPOTD buried under there.

[gsabc]

Also,

Spoiler

it is correct that the Big Dipper is not a constellation - nor would have been Ursa Major been exactly correct as well, since Ursa Major is composed of more than just the stars in the Big Dipper.

Spoiler

All constellations have more than just the stars in their popularly known configuration. The flag makers would go nuts putting on every single star within some of them. I have no problem using either the simple configuration on a flag or the popular name for a constellation as a trivia game answer.

[MarleysGh0st]

I have no problem using either the simple configuration on a flag or the popular name for a constellation as a trivia game answer.

What kind of trivia nerd are you, then?

And the entire transcript thread is implicitly a spoiler about that particular episode. There's really no need to spoil a discussion about the particular questions. (Someone playing along with the transcript has presumably answered and looked at the answer spoilers before proceeding to the rest of the thread.)

[megaaddict]

$25,000 * Did Juneau?
The state flag of Alaska includes images of several stars, including the North Star and what constellation?
A: Orion B: Pegasus
C: Aquarius D: The Big Dipper

Before the answers are revealed, Ben says he'd like to Phone A Friend. He waits for Meredith the read the choices, then repeats that he'll Phone A Friend, with 22 seconds left.

WTF? I thought the rules said you could interrupt MV. If so, they should have stopped the clock immediately when he first asked for the PAF.

I think Esto is right about this. The official rules do not say the clock has to be running to use a lifeline, only to answer:

There are four (4) lifelines that Contestants can use for assistance during Game play. Contestants can use multiple lifelines to answer any single question; however, each lifeline can only be used once. A lifeline can only be selected if there is one (1) second or more of time remaining on the clock. The game clock is stopped when the Contestant states the specific lifeline he/she wants to use.

It would be funny to see the expression on the contestant's face when the PAF asks "What are the choices?" when there weren't any available. Even better would be using the ATA with no answers revealed. The ironic part is that for top tier questions, the ATA would be equally helpful -- with choices or without.

Kidding aside, why don't more contestants interrupt Meredith's answer reading? Wouldn't they want as much time on the clock as possible if they see the million dollar question??

[earendel]

$25,000 * Did Juneau?
The state flag of Alaska includes images of several stars, including the North Star and what constellation?
A: Orion B: Pegasus
C: Aquarius D: The Big Dipper

Before the answers are revealed, Ben says he'd like to Phone A Friend. He waits for Meredith the read the choices, then repeats that he'll Phone A Friend, with 22 seconds left.

WTF? I thought the rules said you could interrupt MV. If so, they should have stopped the clock immediately when he first asked for the PAF.

I think Esto is right about this. The official rules do not say the clock has to be running to use a lifeline, only to answer:

There are four (4) lifelines that Contestants can use for assistance during Game play. Contestants can use multiple lifelines to answer any single question; however, each lifeline can only be used once. A lifeline can only be selected if there is one (1) second or more of time remaining on the clock. The game clock is stopped when the Contestant states the specific lifeline he/she wants to use.

It would be funny to see the expression on the contestant's face when the PAF asks "What are the choices?" when there weren't any available. Even better would be using the ATA with no answers revealed. The ironic part is that for top tier questions, the ATA would be equally helpful -- with choices or without.

Kidding aside, why don't more contestants interrupt Meredith's answer reading? Wouldn't they want as much time on the clock as possible if they see the million dollar question??

Honestly, I don't think most people think in terms of getting to the $1M. I believe they are hopeful of getting to six figures, but are willing to settle for $50K, or even $25K.

[frogman042]

$25,000 * Did Juneau?
The state flag of Alaska includes images of several stars, including the North Star and what constellation?
A: Orion B: Pegasus
C: Aquarius D: The Big Dipper

Before the answers are revealed, Ben says he'd like to Phone A Friend. He waits for Meredith the read the choices, then repeats that he'll Phone A Friend, with 22 seconds left.

WTF? I thought the rules said you could interrupt MV. If so, they should have stopped the clock immediately when he first asked for the PAF.

I think Esto is right about this. The official rules do not say the clock has to be running to use a lifeline, only to answer:

There are four (4) lifelines that Contestants can use for assistance during Game play. Contestants can use multiple lifelines to answer any single question; however, each lifeline can only be used once. A lifeline can only be selected if there is one (1) second or more of time remaining on the clock. The game clock is stopped when the Contestant states the specific lifeline he/she wants to use.

It would be funny to see the expression on the contestant's face when the PAF asks "What are the choices?" when there weren't any available. Even better would be using the ATA with no answers revealed. The ironic part is that for top tier questions, the ATA would be equally helpful -- with choices or without.

Kidding aside, why don't more contestants interrupt Meredith's answer reading? Wouldn't they want as much time on the clock as possible if they see the million dollar question??

I'm pretty sure that not only can you not answer until the clock starts running you can't use a lifeline unless the clock is running as well - in essence any choice points - final answers (either with a choice or a walk) and use of lifelines can only be done by the contestant when the clock is running. For example, with ATA, PAF or ATE - after they have provided the contestant with a answer the contestant can't use that answer until the clock starts up again. Likewise if the contestant uses a ATA, for example, they can't use ATE or PAF until the clock restarts and then they can opt to use another lifeline. The only time they can answer with the clock stopped is when they are giving the first (and only the first) response to a DD.

In this case, the clock hadn't started when they asked to use a lifeline - so the request was ignored.

Regarding interrupting Meredith on the choices - I had thought going in that I might do that - but I didn't because it really is a bad idea, IMO. I had a longer response to this idea in a thread not that long ago, but in a nutshell it is better to burn those few seconds when Meredith is talking rather than risk screwing up - in the chair you are using that time to make sure that you are right - double checking, etc. Other games - especially competitive ones - where the first one in wins the right to answer - then it makes sense to interrupt the host - but in this situation I just don't see it ever happening, just from my personal experience.