Grand Slam (the game show)

[cognito20]

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I was a little disappointed not to see Bob Harris make the list. He might not be quite in the upper-echelon on Jeopardy champions, but he is certainly more qualified than someone from Tic-Tac-Toe. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img].

Bob was a five time champion (my dad came in second to him in his fourth match, but was leading him for much of the game) and has performed reasonably well in tournaments. I met him and he was a nice guy as well.

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I was a little surprised that Harris didn't get on also. He is one of the best-known Jeopardy! champions (certainly one of the most entertaining), recently released a very well-reviewed book called "Prisoner of Trebekistan" about his experiences on Jeopardy! and his life, and (people sometimes forget this about him) ALSO won $200,000 on Greed (he actually won more on that show than he did on all of his J! appearances combined), and was the grand champion of the short-lived game show "Smush!". He would've been at or near the top of the players in Round 3 (the Word Round) because of that, as well as in Round 1 from his Jeopardy! experience. If he has any ability to do mental mathematics, he would've been among the contenders to win the whole thing in Grand Slam.

If Phyllis Harris can qualify for this show as a multi-game contestant, so too should have Bob Harris. I've conversed with him by e-mail (we're two of the rare Americans who are fanatic fans of cricket, rugby and soccer :P), and he's a really nice guy, you're certainly right about that. Maybe he was asked and had other obligations that precluded him playing. He does travel a lot.

Also, I had no problem with them including Thom McKee from Tic Tac Dough in this tournament. As they said in the intro to his first round match, he IS a game show legend (I thought the description of him by one of the commentators as "the original Ken Jennings" was particularly apt), and winning 47 games and $312,000 in _1980 MONEY_ is very impressive, and he deserved to have at least a shot. If they had NOT included him, I would've probably been one of the people screaming, "Why didn't they give Thom McKee a shot at this?" [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Yes, most of the questions they asked on Tic Tac Dough were ridiculously easy by modern quiz show standards (watch some old episodes and you'll be amazed how softball a lot of them are), and the bonus game was completely luck-based, but McKee played the game that was in front of him, and dominated it. He might have actually beaten Carpenter in the first-round matchup if he had not gone completely on tilt (or gotten slightly easier questions) in the Words round, since he made up enough time in the Final Round where he would've won if he had only had to make up a slight deficit.

--Scott

[GMan42]

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After watching Carpenter's first-round performance against Thom McKee, there's no way he's going to win this tournament. He's far too bad at mental math (which incidentally is also what did in Brad Rutter in his quarterfinal matchup) to win a semifinal or final matchup. After seeing all the matches to date, I've gotta think it's going to be Ogi Ogas v. Ken Jennings in the final (although David Legler could easily beat Ogas in the semis, he's been great so far in the tournament also and seems to have no weak spots), and that'll be a tossup. Ogas is the best player in the tournament at the numbers questions, but Jennings has the slightest advantage over him in general knowledge and the word rounds, as well as not being a slouch at the numbers round like Carpenter and Rutter are. I'd say it's going to be Jennings winning it, in a close one. I certainly hope it is, since Ogas has come off as an arrogant jackass in each of his two appearances thus far and he's -really- hard to root for.

--Scott

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Bump now that the final aired...good call on the above. It would have seemed a little tainted if the current events category was the only thing that carried Jennings (since they just added it for the final), but fortunately he also won the last two rounds pretty soundly to take it.
Also, Ogi was surprisingly weak (by his standards) in the numbers/logic round...a couple of passes and some long pauses to answer simple ones (I hardly ever get a chance to shout the answer at the TV before he comes up with it, but did tonight). Not being able to take more than 3 seconds away from that round was the beginning of the end for him.