I was a JEOPARDY! Contestant...

Louis Rice was a college classmate of mine with whom I haven't had contact with since 1973. Recently, I learned that he appeared as a contestant on one of my old time favorite teevee shows, Jeopardy! After begging him to do so, Louis kindly shared some details of his behind the scenes experiences which are brought forth below...This Louis Rice Fansite is not authorized by Louis Rice himself. He in fact, has refused all permission to 'go public' with this site. So we are out here in cyberspace hanging by our naked asses just to bring you this story about Louis Rice and his escapades on Jeopardy! Thanks, Louis and Enjoy!

 Jeff Hartzer (aka:Capn Chaos)

Here's more than you ever wanted to know about my experience on Jeopardy!
(I was a contestant on Game #5042 which aired: Tuesday, July 11, 2006) : 

On January 13, 2005 I received the following e-mail:

"Congratulations! We are happy to confirm your appointment for our Jeopardy! interviews (for our regular shows). To qualify for the show you must take a written 50- question test. If you pass the test you will then participate in a mock version of the game and you will be put in our files to be considered for the upcoming season of Jeopardy! However even though you pass the test, we cannot guarantee that you will be invited to do the show. In fact, even though you are invited to the studio, there is no guarantee that you will appear on the show. There is no charge for taking the test, but you will be responsible for all expenses such as parking and travel to and from the testing center. If you are invited to Los Angeles to do the show you would also be responsible for expenses to come to Los Angeles."

So, on February 13, 2005, I went downtown to the Marriott, took the test and passed it. There were about 125 people who showed up. Six of us passed the test. They told us we would be in the contestant pool for a year, and that they generally kept four times as many people in the pool than they needed.

February 2006 came and went, and I figured that was the end of the matter. But the night of March 20, I got a phone call from Jeopardy. They wanted me to come to Los Angeles and be on the show!

They sent me a big information packet of stuff that I had to sign and return. Non-disclosure forms, consent forms, bio sheets, etc. Here's the e-mail I sent to them after I sent all the papers back:

NAME: Louis Rice
FROM: Decatur, Georgia
OCCUPATION: University Fund Raiser
BOOKING DATE: April 21, 2006

TELL US FIVE INTERESTING THIS ABOUT YOURSELF

1. I attend a guitar camp in southeastern Ohio every year with former Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. It's a beautiful rural setting near the banks of the Ohio River. A session lasts from Friday through Monday, and you get personalized instruction from some of the finest guitarists in the world. In fact, I had to reschedule my trip to guitar camp to be on Jeopardy!

Louis Rice at the Fur Peace Ranch

2. I serve on the advisory board of Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival, held every April in Champaign, Illinois. I got involved when I lived in Champaign, but my wife and I now go back every year for the festival.

3. I've been an avid Atlanta Braves fan ever since they came to Atlanta from Milwaukee in 1966. I was at the game on April 8, 1974 when Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run, eclipsing Babe Ruth's all-time record.

4. I love to cook - especially southwestern dishes. I have an extensive pantry of ingredients we picked up in Santa Fe, NM when we vacationed there. My wife says when we run out of something, we'll have to go back. (No phone orders allowed!)

5. I spent my first 37 years in the South, so when I moved to Illinois in 1988, I wasn't that familiar with bitter cold weather. The first time it got below zero, I figured no one went to work in that kind of weather and stayed home. I quickly learned I was mistaken!

LEADING QUESTIONS

What is your most valued possession? A baseball given to me by my grandfather (whose name was also Louis) when I was about 12. It is autographed "To Louis, Best Wishes, Lou Gehrig." I subsequently had it autographed by Hank Aaron and Joe Torre when the Braves moved to Atlanta.

What is the most romantic thing you've ever done? Last year I took my wife to Paris for her birthday. Her birthday is in April, and I thought April in Paris would be a nice way to celebrate it.

What is the one mistake no one will let you forget? Letting my brown delivery truck roll down a steep hill and crash into an apartment building. (I left the parking brake off) Fortunately, no one was hurt.

What is your funniest travel memory/problem with language misunderstanding? I ended up with two full lunches and a full bottle of wine (instead of one lunch and a glass of wine) at a café in Avignon, France. (I ate both meals and my wife and I finished the bottle of wine)

What is your special talent or quality? How do you use it? I remember useless information. I used it to get on Jeopardy!

*********

So, I flew out to LA on April 20 to tape on April 21. I had to pay my own way out there, so I used frequent flyer miles. The show taped at the Sony Studio, which is the old MGM Studio in Culver City. They had a special rate for Jeopardy contestants at the Culver City Radisson of $100 per night. I had to pay for that, too.

Despite my entreaties, my wife wouldn't come with me - she said she be too nervous! But my old high school friend Lorr Kramer, who's been living in LA for 30 years, was out in the audience rooting for me.

The morning of the 21st, I went down to the lobby of the hotel, and there were a bunch of others sitting around waiting for a shuttle bus to take us to the studio. Ten of us altogether, along with two alternates. There was a girl from Asheville, NC who worked as a caterer. An attorney from Richmond, a software guy from New Jersey, a video store clerk from Birmingham, AL, another attorney from Illinois, a gal from Hawaii, a gal from Pasadena, a guy from Vancouver, and others I can't remember.

They tape five shows a day. We showed up at the studio at 8:30 AM. You don't actually begin the taping until about 11:30. The intervening three hours are spent in makeup, being told all the do's and don'ts (lots of those! Can't mention who you work for, can't plug any sort of enterprise, no cutesy notes at the bottom of your screen during "Final Jeopardy," etc.) Then you go into the studio to play a mock game to get used to the signaling button, and to make sure your clothes don't do anything weird on TV (I had to change my tie). You don't know if you're in the first group, or if you have to watch a game or two, and see a couple of people lose before you're up. (When they say, "Louis is our champion and he'll be back with us tomorrow", Louis doesn't come back tomorrow. Louis comes back in about fifteen minutes.) So you're supposed to bring a few changes of shirts, jackets, and ties in case you're on multiple shows.

If I were to win out on April 21, they'd have another taping session on April 25, and that would be the last taping session of the season. So if things went incredibly well, I'd be there until April 25 before I came home.

Third place gets $1,000, second place gets $2,000, regardless of what your final dollar total is. The winner gets what the winner gets, with a chance to come back for the next show. They no longer give fabulous prizes like cruises and the like to the also-rans.

I was in the second group to play that day. I'm here to tell you, it's a hell of a lot easier in your living room than it is in the studio. I can't tell you what happened, and they don't pay you until 120 days after the show airs to make sure you don't tell! I CAN tell you, that during the first round, I got my ass kicked! I think I was $12,000 behind at the end of regular Jeopardy. But at the end of Double Jeopardy, first place had $19,400 and I had $19,000. So I get major face time in Double Jeopardy. Plus there's some high drama! I really think you'll enjoy watching it.

Alex was a very nice guy - I'd heard rumors that he was kind of a prick, but he was just fine. The contestant coordinators were fabulous - treated us like royalty. They were totally unimpressed with my guitar camp story (I think they thought it was too close to being a plug for a commercial enterprise) but loved the story about the Lou Gehrig baseball my grandfather gave me. So during the contestant interview part, that's what Alex and I talked about.

All in all it was a hell of an experience! I had a great time.

Here's a link about the show I was a contestant on. Check out this link:

And this link will give you all the details of the game .

FROM THE SHOW TRANSCRIPT: Game Recap

CONTESTANTS
Louis Rice, a university fund-raiser from Decatur, Georgia
Dena Martin, an underwriter from Pasadena, California
David Nikithser, a project manager from Hightstown, New Jersey (whose 1-day cash winnings total $18,799)

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Thank you, Johnny. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, and welcome to you. Louis, fund-raiser, huh? Here to raise funds for yourself, I take it?

Louis: I'd love to, Alex.

Alex: Okay, good. Dena, nice to have you with us, also.

Dena: Thank you.

Alex: David, good to see you again. Let's go to work. Jeopardy! Round--first round of play. Fun material--easier material, we hope--in these categories...

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
POPE-POURRI (4/5)
THE ROLES OF TOM CRUISE (4/5) (Alex: You ID the film.)
MARTIAL ARTS (4/5)
COVERINGS (4/5)
FEMALE FIRSTS (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
A VISIT TO THE "E.R." (4/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
David: 17 R (including 2 rebounds and 1 DD), 2 W
Louis: 6 R, 2 W
Dena: 2 R (including 1 rebound), 1 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 5
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $4,200

David gobbled up clues left and right, more than quintupling his closest opponent's score by the end of the round.

SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
David: $3,800
Dena: $400
Louis: $400

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS

THAT WOULD RAISE SOME FUNDS

Alex: Louis Rice is from Decatur, Georgia, and when he was 12 years old, his grandfather gave him a special gift. What was it?

Louis: My grandfather's name was also Louis, and he gave me a baseball that had been given to him. It's autographed "To Louis, best wishes, Lou Gehrig."

Alex: Whoa, hello.

Louis: When I was then 13, when the Atlanta Braves first came to town to Milwaukee, I had it autographed by Hank Aaron and Joe Torre, and they both wrote, "To louis, best wishes," and so--

Alex: On that same baseball?

Louis: --I've got a Gehrig, Torre, Aaron ball.

Alex: And you still have it?

Louis: Oh, you bet.

Alex: Okay. You gonna pass it on to other members of your family, I hope.

Louis: Sure.

Alex: All right.

TAKE THAT HOME IN A DOGGIE BAG

Alex: Dena Martin... from L.A.

Dena: Yes.

Alex: She has an adopted dog. So many of us do, but your dog is special, because your dog did what?

Dena: She adopted another dog.

Alex: Of course. Did she go to the pound?

Dena: No, she, uh, she likes to pay social calls on the dogs in the neighborhood. And one day, she found one she liked, so she brought him back home, taught him how to get in the backyard. And you can imagine the surprise when you go home and there's an extra dog in your backyard.

Alex: What else did she teach him?

Dena: Um, that was about it. She was--

Alex: Good.

Dena: She was pretty good otherwise.

Alex: All right.

LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION

Alex: David Nikithser is our champion--has a piece of paper with coworkers' signatures on it.

David: They all wanted to come with me. So the day before I left, I got a big cake--it said, "What is good luck, David?"--and a card that said "Good luck" and a small piece of paper with all of their signatures on it so I could have them all with me.

Alex: This is sort of like carrying your wife through Italy, right?

David: Absolutely.

Alex: The Epcot Center.

JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
David found the Daily Double on the 26th clue. David had $6,800, Dena was in the red with -$200, and Louis was at $800. David wagered $1,200.

FEMALE FIRSTS $800: In 1995 Roberta Cooper Ramo, an Albuquerque attorney, became the first woman president of this organization

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
COVERINGS $800: They're the main machines covered by the domes seen here; the nude beach is farther down shore
(Alex: The main machines in those domes, [*].)

MARTIAL ARTS $1000: This Japanese art translated as "way of harmony of the spirit" uses opponents' energy against them

THE ROLES OF TOM CRUISE $400: Young lawyer Mitch McDeere
(Louis: What is The Client?)

A VISIT TO THE "E.R." $1000: (Kelly of the Clue Crew waxes poetic.) Because it only looks like it works, the verse here...
Oh, Montague, I long to PROVE
How strong and stalwart is my LOVE
...has what's called this two-word term
(David: What is an effeminate rhyme?)
...
(Alex: Because it looks as if it rhymes, it's called [*].)

POPE-POURRI $1000: In 1376 St. Catherine of Siena helped convince Pope Gregory XI to end this "captivity" & return to Rome

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
David: $9,400
Louis: $1,800
Dena: -$200

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
OLD AMERICAN HISTORY (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
THE GRAMMYS (4/5)
LITERARY E-MAIL ADDRESSES (4/5) (Alex: Then you have to name the character you would e-mail at...)
THE HENRY WHO... (4/5)
A ROUND OF GULF (4/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
"PAR" FOR THE COURSE (4/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Louis: 12 R (including 1 DD), 0 W
David: 9 R, 0 W
Dena: 4 R, 1 W (including 1 DD)

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 4
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $6,400

Louis made a big comeback this round that was undone by a big Daily Double, but the undoing was in turn undone by a judges' ruling.

FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Louis snagged the next Daily Double on the 28th clue. David had $19,400, Dena had $2,600, and Louis was at $13,000. Louis wagered $6,000.

OLD AMERICAN HISTORY $2000: Daniel Shays in 1787, like John Brown in 1859, tried to capture one of these storage places

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Dena who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 30th clue. David had $19,400, Dena had $4,200, and Louis was at $19,000. Dena wagered $1,000.

A ROUND OF GULF $2000: Prince Edward Island is in the Gulf of this saint
(Dena: Who is... St. Edward?)

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
"PAR" FOR THE COURSE $2000: This 16th century Swiss alchemist opined that "medicine is not only a science; it is also an art"

THE GRAMMYS $800: A hit for Judy Collins, this tune from Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" was 1975's Song of the Year
(Alex: Isn't it rich? [*].)

THE HENRY WHO... $1600: ...presumably made his greatest discovery November 10, 1871 at the town of Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika
(Alex: Dr. Livingston, I presume?)

LITERARY E-MAIL ADDRESSES $2000: tomstarksdad@allthekingsmen.gov

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
David: $19,400
Louis: $19,000
Dena: $3,200

PREFINAL REMARKS
(Before the first break, Jon Cannon of the Clue Crew delivers a Footnote about drunken style.) In one story, the drunken style originated when new techniques came to a monk who had to fight while inebriated. Some drunken masters have taken the style to its next logical step--they fall down and find ways to pull down and pin their opponents. [Grunts]

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
BUSINESS FIRSTS

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
On July 20, 1903 this company delivered its first product, purchased by a respected Detroiter

FINAL SCORES
Dena: $3,200 + $2,700 = $5,900 (What is Ford?) (3rd place: $1,000)
Louis: $19,000 + $500 = $19,500 (What is Ford Motor Co?) (2nd place: $2,000)
David: $19,400 + $6,600 = $26,000 (What is Ford?) (2-day champion: $44,799)
(Alex: What do we associate
with Detroit? The Red Wings, the Pistons. And, Dena Martin, we start with you.)
...
(Alex: $26,000, and somebody in the audience has let out a scream.)
(David: That's the wife.)
(Alex: Probably--your wife?)

FROM The Straight Dope Message Board, MY RECAP:

Okay. Needless to say, I've replayed this game in my head a thousand times since I taped it on April 21. I imagine I'll be kicking myself for the rest of my life!

Why didn't I bet enough on the daily double to put me in the lead? How did I choke on that Tom Cruise question, getting" The Client" mixed up with "The Firm?" (just a brain cramp)

One thing you can't prepare yourself for is how incredibly stressful playing the game for real is! Those who are able to think clearly, and make those wagering calculations in their head, etc. have my eternal admiration.

One thing you didn't see on TV was that they stopped the taping of the show while they researched my Double Jeopardy answer. As soon as Deana hit the second Daily Double, they just yelled "STOP TAPE! CONTESTANTS TURN AROUND WITH YOUR BACK TO THE BOARD!" No one told us why.

It seemed like an eternity, but according to my friend in the audience, it was only seven or eight minutes, but it was the longest seven or eight minutes of my life! At one point, the champion said, "I wonder what they're doing?" and I said, "I don't know. Maybe they're looking up "depot" to see if maybe it was the right answer after all." Then the suits from the compliance department came out and explained to us about the judges' decision, and that they would be putting $12,000 back on the board for me.

By then, I was a basket case mentally. You really don't have that much time to come up with your Final Jeopardy bet. Maybe 30 seconds. I was not at all confident with that category, "Business Firsts," and was thinking, let me bet enough to get ahead of David, and hope it bets more, so that in case we get it both wrong, I'll be in the lead. Did you notice there were an unusually high number of triple stumpers during the game? Who knew the Final Jeopardy question was going to be of the "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?" variety? As soon as the answer was revealed, I knew my low ball strategy had failed. It didn't surprise me at all that all three of us got it right.

Oh, well - woulda, shoulda, coulda! No guts, no blue chips, etc.!

Still, it was a hell of a ride. I had a great time, the Jeopardy people treated us like royalty, and after the taping session was over and we went back to hotel bar for drinks, David bought rounds for everyone and was a very gracious winner.

Click for Full STRAIGHT DOPE 'thread' of this story .

Jeff Hartzer copyright 2006