Final Jeopardy: Movie Inspirations (12-19-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (12/19/2025) in the category “Movie Inspirations” was:
A store’s mingling of displays of 2 different holidays inspired a poem and years later, a 1990s film with this name
It’s the last match in the finals of the 2025 Second Chance Tournament (Week 1). One of these players will win $35K and advance to Champions Wildcard: Pete Johnston, filmmaker & educator orig. from Alma, MI; Dave Widmayer, a trivia host from Portland, OR; and Eugene Huang, a teacher from Paramus, NJ. Their scores so far: Pete $0 Dave $0 Eugene $6,000
Round 1 Categories: The 12 Days of Christmas, in Cash – Historic Americans – Job-breviations – Broadway – That’s (a Word From the) Italian! – Landform Ho!
Dave found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Historic Americans” under the $800 clue on the 2nd pick of the round. He had $1,000 and was the only one with any money. Dave bet it all and thought it was Truman. That was WRONG.
Mad that this Pres. didn’t recognize the new USSR, diplomat William Bullitt Jr. teamed with Freud on a savage psycho-biography of him show
Dave finished in the lead with $6,600. Eugene was second with $3,200 and Pete was last with $1,400. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: 19th Century Women Writers – Vocabulary – In London’s National Portrait Gallery – Cop Rock – Ye Olde Science – Pulling Your Wait
Dave found the first Daily Double in “Ye Olde Science” under the $1,600 clue on the 8th pick. He was in the lead with $9,000 now, $2,800 more than Pete in second place. Dave bet $5,000 and he was RIGHT.
The ancient Romans used this 2-word farming concept with a revolving “food, feed & fallow” planting method show
8 clues later, Pete landed on the last Daily Double in “19th Century Women Writers” under the $1,600 clue. In second place with $11,000, he had $6,200 less than Dave’s lead. Pete bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
An older sister wrote about this youngest ones “Tenant of Wildfell Hall”, “The choice of subject was an entire mistake” show
Dave finished in the lead with $20,000. Pete was next with $13,400 and Eugene was in third place with $11,200. (Eugene couldn’t bet any of yesterday’s $6,000.). All clues were shown.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS “THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS”?
Tim Burton’s inspiration for his original 1982 poem, “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, was the result of seeing a Halloween store window display being replaced with Christmas decor. Seeing skeletons and Santa led him to create the Pumpkin King Jack Skellington in a parody of Clement Moore’s famous “not a creature was stirring” poem.
Burton called it “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, and although Disney execs initially refused to turn the poem into a movie, they changed their minds a decade later. Learn more.
Eugene got it right. He bet $8,600 bringing him up to $19,800. Yesterday’s $6,000 was added in for a total of $25,800.
Pete also got it right. He bet it all and doubled his score to $26,800.
Dave responded with “The Nightmare Before Halloween” and that cost him $8,401. He dropped to third place with $11,599, making Pete Johnston the winner. Dave and Eugene each won $15,000. Pete won $35,000 and we’ll see him again in Champions Wildcard.
A triple stumper from each round:
BROADWAY ($400) Nominated for 9 Tonys, this musical imagines what would have happened if one half of the star-crossed lovers survived & thrived
PULLING YOUR WAIT ($2000) A functionary tries to hold it together on the edge of an empire in J.M. Coetzee’s novel “Waiting for” them
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “THE 20th CENTURY”
On July 19, 1940 Hitler called this man a warmonger & wrongly predicted he would flee to Canada show
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Oops, show came on late after that exciting football game, and I spaced out and forgot to watch. I said “The Night Before Christmas” knowing that wasn’t the right title. Got only the middle DD. Didn’t know which Bronte would be the answer to the 3rd so said Emily. Appears my fellow Portlander was in the mix till the very end.
Knew the 9-Tony musical; my sister raved about it. Patter clue very easy. Liked the Italian category but didn’t get the $1000 one.
I was 1/3 on DD and missed FJ. For the third, I knew it was a Brontë, but, not which one. As to final, I was bereft of an answer.
This show was more reminiscent of why they were Second Chancers. The, frankly, dumb responses in the first round were below the level of first round ToC players, and, possibly, even regular season players.
In any case, big gratz to Pete! And, he won the chance – to be in another tournament! I mean, at least, the Toronto psychiatrist (whose name escapes me this exact moment) made it look like she deserved her seat at the “big table”, even if she didn’t get there (again, IIRC).
Monday’s game, the one Dave won, was the best of the lot.
P.S. I’m watching Daniel Boone with William Smith (Falconetti) playing Catoga. Weird!
Thank goodness bad history in FJ has been averted.
Seemed like Eugene could’ve bet more to at least cover his all in bet. But easy for me to say
Man, I didn’t know whether to scream or cry at the final results. A nightmare indeed! I was fully expecting Dave to get it right and kicking myself for not predicting a triple solve.
I feel for Dave, even though I was rooting for Eugene. Dave was so determined and gave it his all. I feel for Eugene, too, for the wrong bet.
All the same, congratulations to Pete for being the only one to Go Big. That’s why he’s not going home.
The matchups for Champions Wildcard on the Jeopardy website has been updated. You can go up on that website to see who is competing and that event will begin on 1/5.