Final Jeopardy: TV Theme Music (12-16-19)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (12/16/2019) in the category “TV Theme Music” was:

A short piece for 2 guitars called “Strange No. 3” was the first part of the theme music for this drama series that debuted in 1959

8x champ Jennifer Quail, a wine-tasting consultant from Dowagiac, MI, has now won $228,800. In Game 9, her opponents are: Patrick Yurky, a software engineer from Pittsburgh, PA; and Kirby Copelin, a data analyst from Cincinnati, OH.

Round 1 Categories: A European River Tour – The Author’s Characters – Christmas Rapping – Give Me a “V” – Spark Joy – Marie’s Condo

Patrick found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Spark Joy” under the $1,000 clue on the 7th pick of the round. He was in second place with $1,000, $600 less than Jennifer’s lead. He bet it all and he was RIGHT.

One a Buddhist, one a South African Anglican, these 2 religious leaders co-wrote “The Book of Joy” show

WHO ARE THE DALAI LAMA & DESMOND TUTU?

Patrick finished in the lead with $5,800. Jennifer was second with $5,600 and Kirby was last with $3,200.

Round 2 Categories: C’mon, That’s Ancient History! – Early Roles – Great Danes – American Homes – Using Worldly Adjectives – An “A” in Medicine

Kirby found the first Daily Double in “Ancient History” under the $2,000 clue on the 5th pick. She was in third place with $5,200 now, $6,200 less than Patrick’s lead. She bet $4,000 and she was RIGHT.

Gaius Julius Vindex rebelled against this emperor after seeing him “playing pregnant women & slaves” on stage show

WHO IS NERO?

Kirby found the last Daily Double in “Using Worldly Adjectives” under the $1,600 clue on the 13th pick. In second place with $11,600, she had $1,400 less than Patrick’s lead. She bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.

Superstitious theater folks use this term to refer to Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” show

WHAT IS THE SCOTTISH PLAY?

Kirby finished in the lead with $19,000. Jennifer was next with $17,200 and Patrick was in third place with $14,600.

TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHAT IS “THE TWILIGHT ZONE”?

From Marius Constant’s IMDB bio: “Romanian-born, Paris-based avant-garde composer and conductor…. His “Etrange No. 3” and “Milieu No.2” (for electric guitar, bongo, saxophone and French horns) were famously spliced together to create the iconic theme for Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone (1959). The pieces were originally commissioned by CBS orchestrator Lud Gluskin in the late 1950’s. They remained unused until the second season of the “Twilight Zone”, when they were employed as a replacement for Bernard Herrmann’s rather more subtle original theme, a combination of strings, harp, flute and brass (which CBS apparently considered as ‘too downbeat’). Read the rest.

I wanted to show you guys a video of someone actually playing the theme on guitar and I chose John Kiefer’s cool video. Click here if you want to see all the themes used from 1959 to 2002. (The 2nd season begins at about 1:44 in that video).

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Patrick didn’t have a response. He lost his $4,567 bet and finished with $10,033.

Jennifer got it right. She bet $17,000 and finished with $34,200.

Kirby got it right, too. She bet $15,401 and won the game with $34,401. Kirby Copelin is the new Jeopardy! champ.

A triple stumper from each round:

THE AUTHOR’S CHARACTERS ($600) “Fourth Grade Nothing” Peter Hatcher & Sally J. Freedman as herself

AMERICAN HOMES ($800) Hildene, a Georgian Revival mansion in Vermont, was built at the turn of the 20th century by this son of Abraham Lincoln

More clues on Page 2

2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Art”

Perhaps bought from a Sears catalog, a window for an 1880s farmhouse inspired the name of this 1930 painting. show

WHAT IS “AMERICAN GOTHIC”?

Click here to leave well wishes and prayers for Alex Trebek for continuing success in his battle against cancer. There’s also a link to where you can make a donation to pancreatic cancer research in his honor.