Transcript 05/06/2008 Robert Ryan (carryover contestant)

[BBTranscriptTeam]

Robert Ryan
Shark River Hills, NJ
Police Sergeant

Robert tried out for the show under orders from his wife. Meredith says he knows how to give orders and how to take them.


Has all lifelines remaining


$25,000
The Middle Eastern region of Qumran is best known as the site of what famous archaeological find?
A. Epic of Gilgamesh tablets B. City of Ur
C. Tomb of Tutankhamen D. Dead Sea Scrolls


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PAF, wife's cousin Steve says "Dead Sea Scrolls" and is confident

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$50,000
Which of the following years will be a leap year?
A. 2100 B. 2200
C. 2300 D. 2400


A-22% B-25%
C-12% D-41%


"41% is better than 40%"
Says even though the audience may probably be right, he would like to STQ

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.
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STQ $50K
In 1879, just three years after it was patented, the first telephone was installed in the White House for what U.S. president?
A. Andrew Johnson B. Rutherford B. Hayes
C. Chester A. Arthur D. Benjamin Harrison



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.
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50/50 left B & D




He chose D because it sounded like the name of his elementary school. He finished with $25,000.


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Answers:
$25K- D. Dead Sea Scrolls
$50K- D. 2400
STQ $50K- B. Rutherford B. Hayes



Commercial break

[silverscreenselect]

Two very easy 50K questions. If you know your presidents, or that Hayes won the controversial 1876 election, this one is very easy (without the clue about the year, it would have been a nasty question).

The leap year question is one of those bits of trivia that appeal to most trivia buffs but was also in the news a bit before Y2K. The Gregorian calendar reforms involved years that end in "00." Because a solar year is not quite 365 1/4 days, a strict one in four leap year causes the calendar to get out of line with the seasons over a period of years. So, now most years that end in "00" are not leap years, unless the year is divisible by 400. So 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, but 2000 was and 2400 will be (there's other adjustments as well, the year 4000 will not be a leap year).

[NellyLunatic1980]

Nihil obstat®

[earendel]

Robert Ryan
Shark River Hills, NJ
Police Sergeant

Has all lifelines remaining

I had to use my ATA on his first show.

$25,000
The Middle Eastern region of Qumran is best known as the site of what famous archaeological find?
A. Epic of Gilgamesh tablets B. City of Ur
C. Tomb of Tutankhamen D. Dead Sea Scrolls

PAF, wife's cousin Steve says "Dead Sea Scrolls" and is confident

I would have been confident also - 4 years of religious college and 7 years of seminary had better count for something.

$50,000
Which of the following years will be a leap year?
A. 2100 B. 2200
C. 2300 D. 2400

A-22% B-25%
C-12% D-41%

"41% is better than 40%"
Says even though the audience may probably be right, he would like to STQ

No problem here - only century years divisible by 400 are leap years.

STQ $50K
In 1879, just three years after it was patented, the first telephone was installed in the White House for what U.S. president?
A. Andrew Johnson B. Rutherford B. Hayes
C. Chester A. Arthur D. Benjamin Harrison

50/50 left B & D

He chose D because it sounded like the name of his elementary school. He finished with $25,000.

I wouldn't have seen this question, but had I done so, I'd have said "Harrison" without hesitation and fallen back to $25K.

Robert said at one point that his career as a police officer helped prepare him for the Hot Seat - he watches the show and sees contestants second-guess themselves and burn lifelines unnecessarily. For a police officer it's "black or white". Certainly he didn't burn lifelines unnecessarily (for him). It's a shame he had to use them when he did, however.

[MarleysGh0st]

$50,000
Which of the following years will be a leap year?
A. 2100 B. 2200
C. 2300 D. 2400

A-22% B-25%
C-12% D-41%


"41% is better than 40%"

Robert and Meredith weren't impressed with those numbers, but they were pretty good for a upper tier question. Those who didn't know were fairly evenly split, with the small percentage who did remember the rules for leap years providing a decent plurality for the right answer.

And I could almost read the minds of the audience as they gave 2300 a lower random vote than the other choices. Subconsciously, they must have remembered that leap years occur on even-numbered years and that "3" must have looked "odd" to them (even though it's not, of course).

Or else some of them remembered the "every four years" rule and thought that 2400 was evenly divisible by four while thinking the others weren't (even though they are, of course).

[Thousandaire]

Two very easy 50K questions. If you know your presidents, or that Hayes won the controversial 1876 election, this one is very easy (without the clue about the year, it would have been a nasty question).

The leap year question is one of those bits of trivia that appeal to most trivia buffs but was also in the news a bit before Y2K. The Gregorian calendar reforms involved years that end in "00." Because a solar year is not quite 365 1/4 days, a strict one in four leap year causes the calendar to get out of line with the seasons over a period of years. So, now most years that end in "00" are not leap years, unless the year is divisible by 400. So 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, but 2000 was and 2400 will be (there's other adjustments as well, the year 4000 will not be a leap year).

Let's party like it's 3999.

I knew this one and guessed textile. After the "we're not playing who wants to win $8000," I expected him to continue.

[MarleysGh0st]

Here's an article about Robert's appearance. Although he lives down by the shore, apparently he works in Bayonne. (That explains the strong accent.)

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.s ... xml&coll=3

[MarleysGh0st]

And this article goes into more personal details.


http://www.hudsonreporter.com/site/news ... 2622&rfi=6

Robert is a sergeant in the Bayonne Police Department, where he works the late shift. His grandfather (the late Charles Ryan) and brother (Jack Ryan) formerly worked within the Bayonne Police Department, and his cousin (Charles Ryan) currently serves as a captain with the department.

Robert and Nora are both proud Irish-Americans and even got married on St. Patrick's Day. So it makes sense that he brought the show's host, Vieira, a "Bayonne Police Emerald Society" shirt to present it to her on the "Millionaire" set.

I wonder why that was deleted from the tape?