Final Jeopardy: British Pop Music (10-27-16)
The Final Jeopardy question (10/27/2016) in the category “British Pop Music” was:
This song released on July 11, 1969 to coincide with the Apollo 11 mission was used in the BBC’s coverage of the moon landing.
New champ George Stuart won $24,801 yesterday. In his second match, he takes on these two players: P.J. Molski, from Brooklyn, NY; and Ken Hirsh, from Milford, OH.
Round 1 Categories: Letter Perfect – Marine Life – TV Guides – Women of Note – Peace – Of Cake
Ken found the first Daily Double in “Marine Life” under the $1,200 clue on the first pick after the chat. He was in the lead with $2,800, $1,600 more than George in second place. He bet $1,500 and he was RIGHT.
Natl. Geographic says without this small shrimplike crustacean, most “life forms in the Antarctic would disappear.” show
Ken finished in the lead with $4,500. George was second with $3,800 and P.J. was last with $2,400.
Round 2 Categories: 1866 – Renewable Energy – The Playwright Writes – French Connections – The “Blind” Spot – Apocalypse Now
George found the first Daily Double in “1866” under the $1,200 clue on the 5th pick. He had the lead with $5,800 at this point, $100 more than Ken in second place. He bet $800 and he was RIGHT.
Garnier & Doudart de Lagree, sort of the French Lewis & Clark of Asia, left Saigon in 1866 & journeyed up this river. show
George found the last Daily Double in “The Playwright Writes” under the $1,200 clue, his very next pick. In the lead with $6,600 now, he had $900 more than Ken. He bet $1,000 and he was RIGHT.
“Time just outran me, Big Daddy– got there first” show
George finished in the lead with $10,400. Ken was next with $8,500 and P.J. was in third place with $8,000.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS “SPACE ODDITY”?
On its “Space Oddity” page, Songfacts has an entry where David Bowie talks about the BBC’s use of the song in a 2003 interview with “Performing Songwriter” magazine. “It was picked up by the British television, and used as the background music for the landing itself. I’m sure they really weren’t listening to the lyric at all,” he laughed. “It wasn’t a pleasant thing to juxtapose against a moon landing. Of course, I was overjoyed that they did. Obviously, some BBC official said, ‘Oh, right then, that space song, Major Tom, blah blah blah, that’ll be great.’ ‘Um, but he gets stranded in space, sir.’ Nobody had the heart to tell the producer that.”
Listen to David Bowie sing “Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza, Sola,” Mogol’s Italian lyrics to Space Oddity’s tune.
P.J. got it right. He bet it all and finished with $16,000.
Ken also got it. He bet $7,501, bringing him up to $16,001.
George started out with “Space” but crossed it off and went with “All You Need is Love” (Beatles: 1967). He lost his $6,601 bet, leaving him with $3,799. That made Ken today’s winner and gave us a new Jeopardy! champ once again.
A triple stumper from each round:
WOMEN OF NOTE ($1000) In 1865 Maria Mitchell, the USA’s first female professional astronomer, was made a professor at this N.Y. college
THE PLAYWRIGHT WRITES ($2000) “A big nose is indicative of a soul affable, and kind”
2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Monarchs of England”
The fifth king & the eighth king of this name share the distinction of both having been proclaimed king but never crowned. show
We may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made from Amazon.com links at no cost to our visitors. Learn more: Affiliate Disclosure.
Congrats to Ken as the winner. And Here I thought George would be brave enough to win the game with the Space Oddity. I thought he would have had a few more runs in order to remain champion. I wonder what made him change his answer though? I thought he had a chance to you know become the next Arthur Chu or something when he answered those daily doubles correctly as well?
AChu would have put the game away with the DDs. He knew, like all of the great players know, that it is better and easier to put the game away when only you have the chance to give the correct response (unless, lol, you hate the category).
VJ, you were correct. This was a good game. I thought the returning champ would have won after the first two responses were revealed as correct. Not to be.
Did you catch Alex almost saying “space odyssey?” He caught himself in time though.
Yes, I did. It was particularly ironic when Eric thought that one of the players might make that mixup. No, it was Alex. lol.
These were the scores when P.J. picked the 20th clue: George $10,400 Ken $5,700, P.J. $2,000. It was the $2K clue in “‘Blind’ Spot” and cost George that much, then he lost another $800 on the firing squad clue in the same category. His big lead was shrinking fast. P.J. and Ken were catching up but George still managed to finish in the lead with $10,400, the same amount he had before that 20th clue.
Too bad he was so timid on his DD’s bets. He hunted ’em down and then he made those teeny weeny bets.
And my other thing on this game was that Albanian money clue. I know the Albanian money unit is the lek but I was so confused by the silent L before F thing. Was that out of left field or what? I finally decided they were referring to words like calf and half that had nothing to do with money, the only two words I could even think of.
Ha ha ha. Alex had to look bad to help me look good. Give that man an assist.
ha ha ha. When you wrote that earlier today, I could just hear Alex saying “No, Odyssey is the film, Oddity, Space Oddity is the song.” You know how he sometimes like to give the right info at least twice. lol. Too funny.
That silent letter thing totally threw me off, too, VJ.
I enjoyed the Playwright Writes category. Another good game tonight.
Yes, I liked it too, only they should have used “It was the Cotton Bowl, Sister Woman” for that DD clue. lol
Note that Space Oddity was not a hit in the US until four years later in 1973. It hit the Bubbling UNder the Hot 100 Billboard charts in the US in 1969, and #15 when re-released in 1973. The Bubbling Under charts ranks a certain number of songs below the Hot 100 from 1-25 nowadays, 1-10 in the 70s and early 80s, and I think it was 1-30 back in the 60s.
VJ, congrats on your 2/3 prediction. I bet you didn’t think the returning champ would be the one to get fj wrong.
Seems like an interesting game. I have to wait until 7 pm my time to watch though.
Thanks, Jacob. You’re so right. I thought George would hang in a few days and, of course, no one thought that a Beatles song would turn up on there! I wondered if he changed because he just blanked out on the second word of the title. It was a very interesting game. You’ll see that in the last half of Round 2.
I have got 10 clues from this game online now, including the “Of Cake” category with links to recipes in case anyone is in the mood to bake 🙂
Actually, Across the Universe was already recorded and released later that year. Of course, that would be the Long and Winding Road to the moon.