HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU, KERRY

Kerry's "special subject" is Film and Television:

Dermot: "In which film did Ingrid Bergman play a character called Ilsa Lund: Intermezzo, Casablanca or Spellbound?"

Kerry: "I don't think she was in Casablanca. I'll try Spellbound."

As quiz shows go, Eggheads goes alright.

Pub trivia teams of five players (Kerry was a member of Hammerheads, a team of West Ham supporters) challenge five members of a pool of seven British quiz champions to win a jackpot which increases by £1000 for every unsuccessful challenge.

Augmenting the format, Are You an Egghead is a spin-off series in which the winner gets to join the Eggheads. Bloody good idea, despite the participation of listers (trivia players who sit at home memorising lists).

Eggheads is on UK TV several times a day. Even if you don't particularly like quiz shows, give it a once-over to marvel at how seriously Poms take their trivia. Or try to decide whether the Eggheads really do get the easier questions. Or just laugh at Daphne when she clenches her hands together in a "champion" gesture, only for her answer to be wrong.

Comments

[boynton]

You mustn't remember this...

[Tony]

... remember this what?

[Melbourne MOD]

"we'll always have Paris ... "
It was set in Paris, wasn't it?
My irk with all 'Trivia' quizzes is that they turn into General Knowledge, and yes I know Shetlands and Clydesdales are both horse breeds.

A true trivia question on 'Casablanca' might be
'Who was Ingrid not married to at the time'
but truly, it is not possible to have a trivia question on anything which is a huge cult in itself,
unless it is
"where did Graham Kennedy always get his IMT suits from?"
The WWW trivialises genuine knowledge and nullifies any quest. If I say that I could not possibly have a relationship with a person who did not know Dwight Gooden from Dwight Yoakam, or indeed, Eisenhower, well they would just Guugle it wouldn't they? Then I'd be at the movies with some turkey who had no interest in reading the credits - oh you can just go to imdb.com for that. Yeah but then you would never have seen the brilliant 10 minutes of James Brown which came after all the credits on Blues Bros 2000.
'Listers'? try Listopia.com for a real fright.

[Big Ramifications]

A true trivia question on 'Casablanca' might be
'Who was Ingrid not married to at the time'

.
"True" trivia vs. general knowledge. Hmmm, I can kinda see where you're coming from, but I'd hate to be the gatekeeper who decides what's trivia or not.

Speaking of true trivia – stumbled over some fantastic trivia two days ago when reading about Happy Days on the 'net. For example:

* Who was the first Al [proprietor of Al's Diner]?
* How many brothers did Richie C. have?

[Melbourne MOD]

the first proprietor wasn't an Al, it was an Arnold.
Arnold's Diner. The show was better then. TV shows always get less interesting the moment they appear to be a success.

[Big Ramifications]

TV shows always get less interesting the moment they appear to be a success.

Interesting you say that. You're aware of the Happy Days inspired term, "jumping the shark"?
.
.
the first proprietor wasn't an Al, it was an Arnold.

How silly of me. Getting my awesome trivia question wrong by adding too much information. If only I had just asked "who was the first proprietor of Al's Diner?"

Harking back to the days of yore when a contestant would answer with a correct surname, only to inexplicably add a first name as an afterthought. Except it would be the guy's brother or something. And Tony Barber's all "stop the clock!" and he gets on the blower to Fran Powell upstairs and he hangs up the phone and gravely announces "Too. Much. Information."

[Adsy]

The episode of the BBC series of The Office shows just how serious the Poms take their trivia.

"He's thrown a kettle over a pub, what have you done?"

[Tony]

Favourite Sale of the Century moment?

About 1985 and this bloke* blitzed his way through to "the lot". You might remember that every Sale champion had to endure at least one tough night. This bloke had the misfortune** of having his tough night coincide with "the lot" night. At the end of the "fast money" the scores were tied so there was a tie-break question: "Which US state am I?" The second clue was: "I am the biggest potato producing state." The champ buzzed in: "Idaho". Tony's face fell: "I'm sorry, the answer is Maine". The champ, now a chump, lost the lot. Cash, car, boat, stereo, jewelery, holiday, assorted gewgaws, all down the toilet. Except, of course, for the Sale of the Century game and the pin.

I'll always remember that.

* Blond, moustache, never a great look.

** To get on Sale you had to pass a general knowledge test. I'm pretty sure - well actually, I'm making it up - that when the producers wanted to put the heat on a contestant they would pick a contestant who had done really well on the GK test.

[Lad Litter]

Tone, they would get you through the early episodes with one challenger and someone in the middle who could only say at the end "They were just too quick for me, Tony..."

The tough nights would be when they had TWO contestants who were capable of getting in before you. So they'd be creeping ahead and you'd be buzzing to no avail so you'd go extra early, get it wrong and widen the margin.

http://ladlitter.blogspot.com/2010/08/brushes-with-fame-iv-sophie-lee.html
http://ladlitter.blogspot.com/2007/07/brushes-with-fame-ii.html

[Tony]

I figured there was some sort of finagling. They should have pulled names out of a hat.

[Big Ramifications]

The answer was "some unknown white dude called Arnold who got about 10 seconds air time." Then the Japanese American fella took over. But people didn't realise he was a new owner so they kept on calling him the same name. And the Japanese American fella didn't bother correcting them coz it kept his signage prices down.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Days

You all suck.

[Tony]

Quite interesting:

CJ's eyebrows for the win #eggheads