Final Jeopardy: Playwrights (2-15-21)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (2/15/2021) in the category “Playwrights” was:
This late writer has had 10 plays on Broadway, most of them set in Pittsburgh like “Jitney”, which premiered in 2017
New champ Lance St Laurent, a Ph.D student from Madison, WI, won $19,600 last Friday. In Game 2, he is up against: Karen Ellestad, a chaplain orig. from Frankfort, KY; and Phil Hoffman, a graduate student orig. from Mountain Lakes, NJ.
Round 1 Categories: 21st Century News – Anyone for Tennis? – 4-Letter Verbs – Food & Drink Retronyms – Michael Wrote – The Boat, Ashore
Lance found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Michael Wrote” under the $800 clue on the 19th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $5,600, $3,800 more than Karen in second place. He bet $2,500 and he was RIGHT.
“Dragon Teeth”, published after his 2008 death, returned to the world of paleontology. show
Lance finished in the lead with $10,500. Karen was second with $2,400 and Phil was last with $400. No clues went uncovered.
Round 2 Categories: Specific Hospital – Mean Tweeters – Alternate Anthems – 1821 – A Place like River Hill – “Au” Contraire
Phil found the first Daily Double in “Alternate Anthems” under the $1,200 clue on the 17th pick. He was in second place with $6,000 now, $6,100 less than Lance’s lead. He bet $4,500 and tried “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”. That was WRONG.
Music critic Jody Rosen has suggested this Bill Withers hit about taking care of each other. show
Karen got the last Daily Double in “A Place Like River Hill” under the $2,000 clue, with 8 clues left after it. In third place with $2,800, she had $9,300 less than Lance’s lead. She bet $800 and she was RIGHT.
Valley Stream, New York is on Long Island, in this county whose name brings the West Indies to mind. show
Lance finished in the lead with $10,900. Phil was next with $7,100 and Karen was in third place with $4,800. Two clues worth $1,200 in “Specific Hospitals” remained on the board.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
August Wilson (1945-2005), a native of Pittsburgh, was an award-winning African American playwright. His Pittsburgh Cycle is a series of ten plays, each depicting the African American experience in a different decade of the 20th century. “Jitney”, the play referred to in the clue, covers the 1970s. The plays are all set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh except for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which (as you might guess) covers the 1920s. The plays are also collectively known as his “Century Cycle”.
“Fences” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” have both been adapted into motion pictures in 2016 and 2020, respectively. “Fences” stars Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. “Ma Rainey’s” starred Viola Davis in the title role and the late Chadwick Boseman in his final film.
Karen got it right. She bet $3,000, bringing her up to $7,800.
Phil got it, too. His $7,095 bet brought him up to $14,195.
Lance came up with Stephen Sondheim. He lost $4,100, leaving him with $6,800 and making a very surprised Phil the new Jeopardy! champ.
A triple stumper from each round:
ANYONE FOR TENNIS? ($800) At the 2012 French Open, this Russian completed her career slam
1821 ($800) Long known as simply “The Post”, this publication printed its first issue
2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Primetime TV”
“Complications” was a suggested title for this ABC drama that was renewed for a 15th season in 2018 show
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Phil does not seem like a strong player. Phil won’t be a 5 game winner, imo.
That doesn’t matter. He’ll still always be a Jeopardy! champ. Not everyone can be a super champ.
Agreed. 👍
He won again tonight and had a better performance than yesterday
Jeopardy clue writers got on a hamster wheel and didn’t get off. “Au” contraire was last listed category tonight and led directly to fj clue correct response “Au”gust Wilson. Seriously?
nice to have my home town of Valley Stream as one of the clues tonight!
There were a lot of poorly written clues tonight.
– Laurel wasn’t “gaunt”. There’s a connotation of sickness or poor health with that word, not just being thin.
– “Dole” should have been accepted. You can dole out gossip.
– “The Post” certainly isn’t specific to the Saturday Evening Post. If you go to New York and ask for “The Post”, they’ll hand you the New York Post.
I think you have a point on the first two, but the category for the third clue you referenced was ‘1821’, so the correct response had to publish its first issue in 1821.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure about the dates on any other Posts.
As long as you’re objecting to gaunt on the connotation grounds, I think the same could be said for dole. You dole things out sparingly. Gossip is something you either engage in enthusiastically or choose to avoid.
Decent scores today though I am not surprised that Phil didn’t know the Bill Withers DD. Though congrats to Phil on his win. Ma rainey definitely was a great movie to pay tribute to Chad boseman. Also VJ what scene did you find to be memorable in that viola Davis movie?
I didn’t see that movie yet, Lou. Just the trailer. Glynn Turman, the actor who plays Toledo, was Aretha Franklin’s second husband. Did you know that? He was in a 12-part TV adaptation of James Michener’s “Centennial” the year they got married.
I was happy for Phil. He sure looked like he thought any chance he had of winning was over when he missed that DD. So weird that Lance only made $400 in Double Jeopardy!
No I didn’t know that but definitely thanks for the heads up my friend. Still this site has actually made us learn a lot these days. Although some of the clues could have been better written here.
I thought Phil was toast when he blew $4500 on the easy DD. But he had enough time to recoup.