Final Jeopardy: 1980s Fads (5-9-24)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (5/9/2024) in the category “1980s Fads” was:
A Nov. 29, 1983, N.Y. Times article about these used “near-riot,” “adoptable,” “waiting for 8 hours” & “my life (is) in danger”
2x champ Allison Gross, a data scientist from Cleveland, OH, has now won $19,598. In Game 3, her opponents are: Jennifer Trofa, a talent manager from Los Angeles, CA; and Isabella Dawis, a writer, actor & musician from Minneapolis, MN.
Round 1 Categories: Let’s Go to the Geopark – Music, Music Everywhere – Downloading Some Apps – What’s That Song? – From Ridiculous to Sublime – More Than 2 Eyes
Isabella found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Let’s Go to the Geopark” under the $1,000 clue with 9 clues left after it. She was in the lead with $8,000, $5,200 more than Allison in second place. Isabella bet all of it and said Andorra. That was WRONG.
A geopark named for these people is located on the north coast of Spain near the French border show
Allison finished in the lead with $4,400. Isabella was second with $600 and Jennifer was last with negative $1,000. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: History’s Mysteries – Shakespeare Before & After – 18th Century Science & Technology – Prisons – Pop Culture License Plates – More Than 2 I’s
Allison found the first Daily Double in “18th Century Science & Technology” under the $1,600 clue on the 7th pick of the round. She was in the lead with $7,600 now, $3,400 more than Isabella in second place. Allison bet $4,000 and she was RIGHT.
While a professor of astronomy at Uppsala University, he came up with his famous temperature scale show
Allison found the last Daily Double in “History’s Mysteries” under the $2,000 clue on the 14th pick of the round. In the lead with $14,000, she had $9,800 more than Isabella in second place. Allison bet $2,000 and she was RIGHT.
Menelik, a son of Soloman, is said to have brought this lost artifact to Aksum in Ethiopia; tradition maintains it’s still there show
Allison finished in the lead with a runaway $19,600. Isabella was second with $4,200 and Jennifer was last with $200. Two clues worth $3,600 were not shown.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT ARE CABBAGE PATCH KIDS?
The New York Times interviewed various people in nearby states to report on the wild lengths some shoppers would go to in attempts to get their hands on a Cabbage Patch Kids doll. The actual life in danger quote is from a Pennsylvania store manager who armed himself with a baseball bat, saying “This is my life that’s in danger.” A psychologist was even consulted to explain the appeal of the homely orphan dolls. As I mentioned earlier this morning, the real appeal of the Cabbage Patch doll to my oldest daughter (then 3 years old) was that the 4-year-old next door had one.
Mercy Insurance posted an article in 2021, listing a bunch of toys (Tamagotchi, Tickle Me Elmo etc) that have sparked shopping frenzies. They credit the Cabbage Patch Kids as the toy that kicked off this phenomenon.
Jennifer thought it was a tamagotchi. She lost $199 and finished with a dollar.
Isabella went with pet rocks. That cost her $3,700 and left her with $500.
Allison got it right. She bet $5,400 and won the game with $25,000. Allison’s 3-day total is $44,598.
A triple stumper from each round:
FROM RIDICULOUS TO SUBLIME ($800) Charles Dickens coined this word for doctors of the Victorian era who cut & amputated legs fast, as there was no anesthesia
POP CULTURE LICENSE PLATES ($2000) The 1991 Emmy for Best Drama went to this legal series whose title, a total of 5 letters, is on a license plate in the show’s opening
2 years ago: Only ONE of the 2 players left in FJ got this one in “20th CENTURY CINEMA”
A black & white newsreel in this film begins: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree” show
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I didn’t get FJ right, but then again, I never thought much about the Cabbage Patch Kids. I mean, what good were they? Well, those dolls sure didn’t appeal to me. Actually, the vintage pull string Chatty Cathy dolls would have been a far better value at the time (after the voice boxes were restored).
We had a talking Pee Wee Herman doll at one point. “I know you are but what am I” 🤣🤣🤣
I still have a Teddy Ruxpin doll and the cassettes that he came with.
That’s cool, Rhonda. Teddy Ruxpin was a bestseller a couple of years after the Cabbage Patch Kids. Ours went to the 🧸 Sematary many moons ago
That’s great fellas.
Everyone’s comments about Isabella are correct. She dominated the 2 music categories in the beginning, but then barely rung in afterwards.
Ken reverse-jinxed Allison in the introduction stating that she had not yet answered a FJ clue correctly.
I loved the Fresh Prince of Bel Air license plate clue. And then Ken cleverly chimed in that it also had dice in the mirror.
I thought Isabella was going to roll over the others like a bulldozer, but, her quizzical miss on the DD was like a pin into her balloon, deflating it right to nothing. She lost all her mojo there. And I say quizzical, because, if she knew Andorra, then Basque should have been hand and glove.
I got FJ. Iirc, Xavier Roberts.
Not a great game, and many stumpers. The mountainous prison was kind of obvious from the photo. The beer barrel dance is pretty well-known, or maybe just to oldsters. Guessed right on the Russian prisoner’s newspaper.
FJ was a cinch, or at least if you were alive at the time. I’ve lived through so many fads, from hula hoops to Pokemon cards. I should compile a list of all the ones I remember.
How about the Garbage Pail Kids cards, Howard? I think I’ve still got a couple of them.
I wondered if Weird Al saw that Beer Barrel, Too Fat TS.
I have 5 kids now in their 30s and 40s. Been through all the fads. There might be some Garbage Pail kids cards around here somewhere. Saw several Pokemon cards the other day in the house. Pogs, Beanie Babies, baseball cards, Tamagotchis, I’ve experienced ’em all. Older ones were yo-yos, frisbees, water guns, mood rings, chia pets, pet rocks. I had an almost complete set of Beatles cards and wish they’d survived. Frankie Yankovic is spinning in his grave tonight.
OH MY GOODNESS!!!!
I had my boy in the 70s, my daughters in the 80s and 90s. So yeah, all the ones you mentioned plus GI Joes, Star Wars, He-Man, Transformers, X-Men … Strawberry Shortcake, the Smurfs, Rainbow Brite and on and on. When Nikki (90s) was a polliwog, I took her to a lot of garage sales. We collected a ton of “little men.” I’d get the biggest kick out of hearing her say “Schwarzenegger” when I showed him to her.
Tough break for Isabella on that daily double in the first round. She was having a strong first round and would have broken the record for the highest end of first round score had she gotten it right. It was the correct choice though.