Wednesday, November 25, 2009

A heaping double dose of Oz in Jeopardy!

Not one, but two recent Oz clues on Jeopardy! to share with you today. The first is from last Monday's show (November 16). When Alex revealed that the Final Jeopardy! category was:



...I just had a sneaking suspicion it would be related to The Wizard of Oz, after going through the hype of the seventieth anniversary the past few months. Sure enough, I was right, but not quite what I was expecting. The Final Jeopardy! clue was:



Then the famous "think music" played while the contestants wrote their responses. Thirty seconds later, it was time to check what everybody wrote. First up was Melisa, a proposal writer from Maryland, who wrote down:



She was, of course, correct, and added $5,799 to her $5,800 for a total of $11,599.

Next up was defending champion Chris, a personal banking representative from Massachusetts, who responded with:



He, too, was correct, and wagered $7,399, adding that to his $7,400 and ending the game with $14,799.

It all came down to Scott, a medievalist from California, who wrote:



(I suspect he was trying to write "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" there.) He lost $1,601 and ended in a tie with Melisa at $11,599, making Chris a three-time winner.

Incidentally, before revealing the responses, Alex mentioned that the song was from a movie shot at that very studio, not far from the current Jeopardy! set. Actually, I believe the current Jeopardy! studio is in one of the soundstages used to make The Wizard of Oz.

I also noticed that the lyrics quoted in the clue were not actually used in the movie, but were part of an extended introduction often used in other recordings and stage productions.

As if that weren't enough, there was another Oz clue just last night. In the Double Jeopardy! round, the $1600 clue in the category Lyrics from Musicals was:



Ben, the defending champion (yes, Chris lost between these two games), rang in first and correctly responded with, "What is Wicked?"

And that's where things stand now. Perhaps there will be more Oz clues soon.

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