May 15, 2006

Chico: Hey-o, this is Chico Alexander, giving a special shoutout to our mothers... and your mothers... and yo momma and the old-school favorite "Mother's Day"...And the cast of "How I Met Your Mother..." And the baddest mother of them all... Shaft.
Gordon: This is Gordon Pepper, and...you are one sly mother...
Chico: SHUT YOUR MOUTH
Jason: I prefer the Roundtree Shaft to the Samuel Jackson Shaft.
Mike: This is WLTI.  Can you dig it?
Jason: Yes, Happy Mother's Day.
Rob: Damn Right!
Chico: He's a complicated man, Jason.
Jason: I hope he wants to help his brother man.
Chico: From somewhere in America, the Mother's Day edition of WLTI... is... on! And with that, the mother of all chat-based radio shows has begun.
Gordon: I Love you mom - and Grandma Pepper, and the other Grandma Pepper who doesn't do the AI Recap (have to cover everyone, you know).
Chico: We start with our esteemed panel of three... Jason, Block, anything you want to say to your mother?
Jason: She knows how I feel about her.
Chico: How about you, Mr. Mike Klauss?
Mike: I love her dearly.  She knows that. And for the 18th year in a row, her Mother's Day gift is on backorder. :-)
Chico: And you, Rob Seidelman?
Rob: Well, since my mom is at the local racetrack this weekend, BOOGITY, BOOGITY, BOOGITY.
Jason: Is she racing? :)
Rob: Nope, she's a crew member.
Jason: For Real?
Rob: Yes.
Mike: That's one tough momma.
Jason: Wow...which racer?
Rob: Her friend Dan. They race sprint cars.
Chico: Nice
Jason: Outstanding. Your mom rocks.
Rob: Thanks Jason.
Chico: We start with the mother of all Jeopardy! tournaments... this year.
The big TOC. Good stuff, no?
Jason: Very good stuff. We have Dave Madden, Maria Wenglinsky and our boy Bill in the semis.
Rob: Good stuff, and I feel sorry for the college reps.
Jason: When you play with da big dogs, you are going to get bit.
Rob: If Maria, Dave and Bill  aren't paired up against each other, we will have one heck of a Finals.
Gordon: Excellent stuff so far. You have, arguably, the Top 9 players of the past 2 seasons playing together
Jason: Minus Ken Jennings.
Rob: Well, KenJen has over $3,000,000 from the show, he probably doesn't need the extra $250,000
Jason: But he was a member of the class of 2004. I still think it was a big mistake to leave him out.
Rob: I wonder if the invitation was sent to him and maybe he declined.
Jason: Can you imagine the ratings for a Ken/Madden/place 3rd person here final.
Chico: I agree, especially given that Alex explained that he would be in the next ToC early last season.
Gordon: It could have also been a decision that since he was in the TOC, already, that it would cheapen it if he showed up for this one as well.
Chico: Explain the appearance of Kermin Fleming, then. He was in the college, TOC, and UTOC.
Gordon: Kermin Fleming didn't win 74 games and 3 million and change.
Rob: I agree with Mr. Pepper here.  Having him not be there evens up the playing field.
Jason: I don't care if the field is even or not. He has a legitimate right to be there. And the fact that he was disinvited was a bad decision by the producers, if that happened.
Gordon: The 'Can You Beat Ken Jennings' Mystique was great for that tournament, but wouldn't you think that it would take a little from that aura if there was more than one tournament?
Rob: But for this tournament, he doesn't have that cushy bye to the finals.
Chico: I have to side with Block here. I mean, it's not even for leveling of the field, because you already have some big competition anyway. Especially with David and Maria and such.
Jason: He has a right to be there. I am not saying this tournament is bad, or the games havent been exciting. What I am saying is that he should have had a spot.
Gordon: I can see that he should have. I can also see that the producers would have had a point for not giving him one.
Rob: Maybe he didn't want to come back.  He was thrashed by Brad Rutter in days 2 and 3 of the UToC finals, and maybe that hurt his ego some.
Chico: Doubtful. After all, he's got a deal in place. Maybe he was rendered ineligible for that.
Jason: That's possible too. But being the competitive freaks that we are...vengeance might have been on his mind :)
Gordon: I personally would have loved to see a Jennings/Madden/Maria match-up, but should Jennings have gotten splattered, that would add another tarnish to his legacy - and I'm not sure that either Jennings or the producers would want that.
Chico: We could conjecture about so many reasons for his exclusion, but you have to admit... We got good Jeopardy! nonetheless. Especially with the nine people in place.
Jason: We have had great jeopardy. This is why I watch every year.
Rob: I'll concur.  I'm still disappointed in Nico Suave though.
Jason: He ran into our boy Bill. :)
Rob: And didn't even make it to Final Jeopardy.
Chico: Nico started to drop off when Bill came alive.
Jason: That was a mental beatdown as well.
Chico: So the question remains... Who is going into the finals? Nine people, all of them deserve to be there...
Gordon: The great players have the ability to turn their games up in crunch time. Jennings, of course, has this and so does Madden. We saw on Friday that McDonald has this as well.
Jason: What I loved about Bill's performance is he went down to 0 and built his lead back.
Gordon: Bill's M.O. is to be aggressive in Jeopardy early, so it didn't surprise me.
Jason: We have the set ups for the semis. Drum roll...
Chico: Thank you!
Jason: On Monday May 15, We have Aaron, Vik and Bob. On Tuesday, We have Dave, Kevin and Bill. On Wednesday we have Michael Jason and Maria. There you go.
Gordon: Bill and Madden in the same semi-finals bracket. Wow.
Chico: Alright. Let's go here...Time to do some thinking...Monday's matchup... Aaron, Vik, and Bob. Pretty level playing field for 3rd position here.
Gordon: Easy path for Vik to get into the Finals.
Jason: Pretty Much.
Rob: Vik goes in.
Chico: Agreed. Of the three that played this week, Vik is the most consistent player, and he has the higher Coryat score of the three. Thanks to J-archive.com.
Jason: Coryat?
Chico: It's the score when you take wagering out of the picture.
Rob: Oh.
Jason: I see.
Chico: Tuesday's matchup... a bit more entertaining. Three champs, each one with their own case for lead-off position.
Jason: Tuesday will be a true mental war. To beat Dave you have to play a near perfect game.
Rob: And Bill will come close, but I can't argue with someone who's won 18 or 19 games.
Chico: Yeah, but to beat Dave, you have to think like Dave. Bill and Dave both had points where they started on a tear and never looked back. Kevin, on the other hand, is only in the Final by way of good wagering. So if Bill can out-Dave Dave, then he's going into the final. And our other good friend Victoria Groce proved that that is indeed possible.
Gordon: I think Dave needs to be super aggressive - just like Victoria was when she beat him. The good news is that Bill has that mentality. I just hope it's enough.
Jason: I think the person who wins here could be the favorite in the 2 day final.
Rob: Agreed.
Chico: Finally, you have to look at consistency for Wednesday's match. Of the three, Maria is a favorite in that field.
Gordon: I see another rout, actually. I think that Maria is the best in that group by a mile.
Jason: Yes, but she needs to play 2 halves to win. She can't do what she did Monday to win.
Gordon: Actually, I think she can. I don't think she will though. I think it will be all Maria from the get-go.
Chico: So we're seeing Vik, Maria, and whoever wins between David and Bill.
Rob: Yes.
Gordon: Agreed - and I think the Dave/BIll winner will win the Tournament.
Jason: Watch next week...check you local listings. This is going to be good.
Chico: Si. Muy sexy.
Gordon: So we are looking to the Final 3 in one game show. Meanwhile, we already have the final 3 in another game show.
Chico: And it's not the final three anyone was expecting.
Jason: Oh yeah. And the American Public had a collective cow herd over this one.
Gordon: No reason why. It makes perfect sense for a Chaos Theory Disciple like myself.
Jason: Tons of articles, calls of vote fixing, calls for an FCC investigation.
Chico: There's always one major upset getting close to the final.
Gordon: But here's the thing - it wasn't an upset.
Jason: An Open Letter to the American Public: GET OVER IT! Because your person, or the expected person didn't win...you are pitching a fit. It isn't fixed, it isn't rigged and it happened. If you people would be more interested in the REAL issues of this country...then stuff might get done. This is a TALENT show for crying out tears. Go on with your lives.
Chico: We just put our big girl panties on and got over it.
Gordon: Besides, after Tuesday's Performances, I knew Chris was leaving. I even called that he was leaving, and no one believed me.
Chico: Nopers.
Jason: No...and Gordon's theory explains it perfectly.
Gordon: Here's what happened. First of all, Taylor has a fan base the size of Mars, and they will vote for him until the cows come home. That makes him safe.
Jason: And he sang well. The 2nd song anyway.
Chico: Also rides him to the final.
Gordon: Secondly - Elliott, who has been impressing week after week after week, had the best performance of any of the four people. Not only did he make his contingency happy, he had to have picked up votes from the people who just tuned in. So that makes him very safe.
Rob: I say your winner here.
Chico: Doubt it. Barring any major slip, Taylor has it in the bag.
Gordon: Ahem - Professor Pepper is still lecturing.
Chico: Then tell Rob to stop passing notes.. :)
Rob: Sorry.
Gordon: Katharine - In Trouble. Everyone and her mom knew that she was in trouble. Everyone and her mom knew to vote until their fingers fell off to make sure that she stayed in the competition. That leaves Chris. He sang mediocre. He did not put on such a wonderful performance that would command people to vote for him. He also didn't put on such a lousy effort that people would be concerned that he left. So his voters automatically assumed he was in the Top 3, and with no reason to vote, they didn't. And so, reminiscent of the Simpsons episode where Martin won the presidency by 2 vote over Bart, no one voted for Chris, and that's why he's gone. no FCC investigation needed. I will guarantee you that most of the people who are complaining didn't vote for Chris - or maybe voted only once.
Chico: Which leads to the Ryan preface.. "You're all complaining... DID YOU VOTE?" Quoth Tim Connolly: "You can't complain if you don't vote."
Jason: everyone said...the numbers were busy....blah blah blah...I voted 175 times. Bull(^_^). You lie.
Chico: You voted once and it wasn't even on a Cingular phone.
Jason: I don't vote, because I don't particularly care who wins or loses. I am covering this from an unbiased perspective. But the people who care, should vote. End of story.
Chico: Correct. And hey, this is the best final three in ages, I'm going to be happy whoever wins.
Gordon: It's definitely the best Final Three.
Chico: Well, it's better than last year.
Jason: It is the best final three. But I will be happy if one person and one person wins.
Gordon: And who would that be, Jason?
Chico: Kat, prolly :)
Jason: Mr. Taylor Hicks
Gordon: I'll say this - he has earned it. He has been by far the most versatile singer in the competition. He hasn't had a 'lousy' performance (maybe weird, but not lousy), and he has the charisma thing going on as well. He is the total package this year.
Jason: We have his judges choice song from a news article. Riley, the governor of Alabama, received a fax from "Idol" judge Randy Jackson, who announced his choice of Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful" for Hicks to sing on next week's show.
Chico: Alright! Wheel of Death round!
Rob: Say What?
Chico: It's our colloquial for "Judge's Choice".
Jason: Three songs this week...Contestant's Choice, Judges Choice...Clive's Choice.
Chico: Clive Davis is back. That's gonna be sweet.
Rob: Nice.
Jason: I have to also say the celebrities have been the best so far. They made sense.
Chico: Oh yeah. Gonna be a week to watch. Okay.
Rob: Okay.
Chico: Alrighty... moving on to a topic that had the boards blown up this past week... Last week, we had the premiere of the UK's new edition of "The Price is Right." I trust that you all did your homework, watched the vid over at Mike's page..
Gordon: Yep
Rob: I did.
Mike: I did.  Multiple times.
Chico: Basic premise: 1995-2001 PIR with Joe Pasquale hosting. For those who don't know how the UK plays TPIR, it's basically three one-bids, three pricing games, and the wheel. Winner plays the Showcase in which they have to come within a certain range without going over. It's a formula that worked with Bruce Forsyth at the helm...
Mike: In essence, it's very similar to Doug Davidson's PiR from 12 years ago.
Gordon: And if you want to be real archaic, they had the same bonus set up in the TV Show 'The Video Game', where you randomly stopped a time that you needed to complete a task at.
Rob: Except much better.
Jason: I did
Mike: Much better?
Gordon: I think he meant to say much worse
Mike: I hope so, Gordon.
Chico: Good to see someone like it.. because I thought it was a wreck.
Jason: It was a wreck...one reason....Joe Pasquale. He is hideous as a host.
Rob: Ditto.
Chico: What... the... bloody... daffodil,... (^_^)?
Mike: If Bruce Forsyth and the Chipmunks had offspring, it would be Joe Pasquale.
Jason: He just seems out of place.
Mike: The story behind Joe P. is that he won a version of the UK's I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! ITV was looking for a vehicle for him for some time. TPiR was apparently that vehicle.
Jason: Oh....my...goodness...
Chico: And this is the best they could come up with?
Rob: They should have put him on a comedy showcase thing, not PIR.
Mike: (Personally, anything with padded walls and a straitjacket would've been most appropriate for Joe P.)
Jason: This is a case where the game is bigger than the host. The game is fine. The host blows.
Mike: The game needs improvement.  The host needs tons of improvement.
Jason: But I wouldn't mind seeing more episodes...because I like the UK version of it.
Mike: I've seen a second episode.  Joe is better on this one.
Chico: I don't know. It kinda looked like the whole package was produced on the cheap.
Mike: The second episode is actually tolerable. (The 2nd ep. I saw, that is)
Gordon: I remember when we had the discussion months ago about how a gerbil could replace Bob Barker and the show would still work. Well...we found a gerbil.
Jason: Pretty much.
Mike: But this gerbil couldn't host the game over here.
Gordon: Still think the show works?
Rob: Game works, just that he's horribly miscast.
Chico: Well, different gerbil... different cage. Put him in 33, and you'd hear random calls of blasphemy.
Mike: The show works, albeit barely.  Offering multiple prizes and having the contestant pick one to win doesn't sit well here.
Gordon: What about the set design...starting with Pachinko Plinko?
Jason: The oriental plinko disturbed me a lil'.
Mike: It disturbed me a lot.  There is no way that would fly here for one second.
Chico: Yeah. I mean, what was the point of that motif, huh? Was there a point?
Rob: I doubt there was a point.
Mike: The board itself irked me, as the girl dropped a chip almost straight down into a slot.
Jason: It was a slot.
Mike: The point was comedy.  Apparently the Brits enjoy the cultural insensitivity.
Chico: Uhh.. yeah...
Mike: There wasn't much plink going on, but a lot of oooh.  More like eww.
Chico: Someone needs to go back to physics class on how to design plinko chips.
Gordon: I think if Mark Goodson saw this version, he'd be going after people with a Plinko Stick
Jason: They looked like mouse pads. And the "golden Disc of Desire?" Yuck.
Chico: Frisbees + wooden dowels = metal discs and nails. Even Tony Danza figured that one out.
Mike: This catastrophe gets me off the hook for Malcolm, right?
Chico: Yes. Yes it does.
Mike: Superb. :-)
Jason: Yes. Thank you Mike.
Mike: Thank you for lifting almost 4 1/2 years of Malcolm-induced stress off my shoulders.
Chico: No problem. Next, Screech as game show contestant. Monday's Deal or No Deal...Which featured Gary Riotto in probably the most manic game of Deal ever played.
Mike: All he saw were numbers and breasts.
Chico: We all were thinking it. He just ... said it. He did some pacing... walked the gallery... flirted with models...  threw it to break. And in the end, $344,000.
Jason: Works for him.
Rob: Nice Haul.
Chico: In his case... $300,000. That's what we call a wash. Especially given that he could've had $477,000. And just as things couldn't get any more like a circus, Wednesday's and Friday's show... had the Ohio University Marching Bobcats. I'm surprised that they had an arrangement of the DoND theme ready so quickly.
Jason: Wait till Monday, with Regis Philbin and Jay Leno.
Mike: I wonder if our good friend Travis Schario has any connections at Ohio U. who might have the sheet music...

Chico: I'll have to ask him..And Monday... Jay Leno and Regis... and a love letter from Iraq. All in two hours. Other goings-on this week: The Final of Jeopardy! and Family Feud Twins Week.
Jason: AND TWINS!
Chico: Not to mention the finale of Amazing Race 9.
Mike: Hopefully CBS learns from this.  The show should be at 9 PM Eastern on Tuesdays, not 10 PM, not 8 PM on Wednesdays versus Idol and Deal.  9 PM.  Tuesdays.
Chico: End of story.
Mike: I love Race, but Deal will win 99 out of 100 times.
Chico: You messed with a proven performer... and you got hosed in the process. Especially by numbers and brea.... uh... LET'S DO THE NEWS!
Mike: 26 and 36D.  God Bless America.
Chico: *blushes uncontrollably*
Jason: Jackets and Mice...quickly!
Gordon: Sigh. Must I always cover for this child? Places, People!
Chico: Now I have numbers and breasts on my mind.. Gordon, get me out of this..
Gordon: Roll That Beautiful Breast Footage
Chico: Frontal love... =p
Gordon: Er...uhhh.....I mean...
Jason: My cups runneth over....
Gordon: Roll That Beautiful Brain Footage, Dammit. And make it snappy.

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