Gordon: This is Gordon Pepper, and if this was the baseball playoffs, we'd have the Yankees, Angels, Blue Jays, and.... since there's no baseball team, what's your affiliation, Chico?
Chico: Red Sox, baby!!!
Joe: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Haha!
Ryan: Go Sox!
Gordon: You doing that just to make the Boston populace happy?
Ryan: I might be... seeing as how my lovely expos are no more (enjoy, DC!)
Chico: Damn right. There's the yankees. Someone's gotta balace them out. I'm Chico Alexander, and from somewhere in America, the scariest game show talk show on the web... is on! Once again, the great bambino Joe Van Ginkel and the great white hope from the great white north, Ryan Vickers, kind enough to join us :)
Ryan: Thanks for that :)
Chico: Joe's dressed as the Game Show Man, and Ryan, I have a feeling I know, but who are you?
Ryan: STEWIE!
Gordon: What are you dressed up as, Chico?
Chico: The Iron Chef, of course! You?
Gordon: The biggest bottle of Haterade I know - Simon Cowell
Chico: Coffee, man... Coffee.
Gordon: So besides Boston Red Sox fans, who else is happy? Ken Jennings, as he tips the 2 million dollar mark and is within shouting distance of the most amount of money ever won on a game show, the record held by Kevin Olmstead.
Ryan: You know, Energizer Batteries really has a good marketing tool in him...
Gordon: What would happen if you opened up Ken's head and found nothing but a spinning Energizer battery?
Ryan: I'd say Duracell would be pretty peeved...
Gordon: It's another shiny thing that spins!
Chico: Dude.. Rayovac :)
Ryan: Ah yes, but does he have 1.4 million points of light? Isn't that Wheel's new marketing tool?
Chico: Apparently so, if they have to go on the Jeopardy! set to market it.
Gordon: Could there be anything more annoying than that?
Chico: Lights... AND sound! "I can't think! This background music is driving me crazy!"
Ryan: "Gosh, so I made how much money for every beat?"
Chico: I think it's like a half-step up for every $3000 you win or something.
Ryan: Nice.
Chico: But this hasn't happened yet, so let's just hope that Sony execs aren't reading this... But in any case, anyone notice that Kenny's beginning to stop with the kid games all of a sudden?
Ryan: You'd got to think that mentally he's got to be wearing down a little bit...
Chico: Well from the way he's playing, you'd think otherwise. I mean, he's got some strong talent up against him, and he knows this. Just last Tuesday, he only bet enough to win. Seems like his clockwork brain is becoming sharper than ever.
Gordon: Kenny's getting pushed right now - as November sweeps are coming, he's starting to hit tougher competition.
Joe: Indeed.
Ryan: Yes sir.
Chico: He's thinking "Okay, these guys are getting to be too much. I've got to make a move NOW." It's like a cat playing with a mouse before he eats it.
Gordon: One of the things that I noticed from Ken is that sometimes he plays and thinks to the level of his competition.
Ryan: As in he tries to make a game of it if they are weaker opponents, thus he holds off?
Gordon: Well, if he thinks he has the game won, he won't bet as much and in the words of Jeff Suchard, he'll start making jokes and make mistakes as well.
Ryan: And possibly that's what might do him in?
Joe: Doubtful.
Chico: One day he has a challenger that's simply too good even for him. Someone that plays to his brain and eventually becomes the dog to Ken's cat.
Joe: I really think someone is going to have to step up to wipe him out.
Gordon: I think it's going to be a combo, sort of what Jeff did. I think someone will come out of nowhere in Double Jeopardy and because Ken was too busy having fun and not closing the opponent out, he will be forced to get Final
Jeopardy right, and mess it up.
Chico: "And we have a new champion!"
Ryan: I don't know if this has been entertained, but do you think he would ever just simply retire?
Gordon: I don't think SONY would let him retire - lol.
Joe: ROFL
Gordon: You're making $30,000 a show. If you tape 4-5 shows on any given day, that's over $100,000 a day. Would you retire from that?
Joe: Indeed. Hard to walk away from all that money..
Ryan: Yeah, you make a good point Gordon :)
Chico: "Honey? Honey? Yeah, they want me to play about 16 more months worth of games."
Gordon: We could have a situation where there may be less than 15 champions in this season - then what?
Joe: Then they have problems.
Ryan: "And as a new champion, you've AUTOMATICALLY qualified for next ToC..."
Joe: lol
Ryan: wait... I'm having a thought... they're looking for former champs on jeopardy.com - maybe there will just be another M$M tourney, but no tourney of champs this year?
Chico: Could be a possibility.
Joe: If they ARE looking for ex-champs, hopefully they're looking for GOOD champs instead of just memorable ones.
Ryan: This is true.
Chico: I betcha Ken's an unlockable in the next edition of Jeopardy!, which reminds me, you remember home games, right? Remember what a blast those used to be?
Joe: Many of them still are.
Ryan: Indeed! Just the other day I saw "I'm Telling" at the bargain shop for $2, lol.
Joe: WHOO! I remember that game. I used to play it with the neighbors all the time.
Ryan: If anyone wants it, let me know...
Joe: ME! ME! ME!
Chico: Well, thinking about the great home games that ever were, one can't help but wonder which ones should be brought back. Going into *fanfare* today's Big Board. The subject: The Big Board... Games. With the reissue of Trump the game and the release of the Family Feud DVD game, one can't help but wonder which box game they'd like to see next.
Joe: Sale of the Century? ;P
Gordon: You have to bring back Sale of the Century, if nothing else buy the Quizzard gadget.
Chico: You know, those buzzer systems are pretty cheap nowadays aren't they?
Ryan: Depends on what buzzer system you want to get... the one we got for school was $300 US, but I've seen cheaper ones called "Eggheads" (or similar) for $60 Canadian...
Chico: That's only $45 here. The price of a reasonably dependable jacket.
Gordon: Where can you get a buzzer system?
Chico: Your best bet is to just look on the web.
Ryan: I've got a few links here and there... we found ours on the web... Jeopardy style system, kids love it.
Joe: There's actually a device called Classroom Jeopardy (and its home version, Host Your Own Jeopardy!) that can turn your TV into a Jeopardy home game.
Ryan: It's HORRIDLY expensive though.
Joe: But it's probably worth it. It even includes buzzer remotes patterned after the handgrip buzzers used on the show.
Gordon: What other buzzer games are worth to see again?
Chico: I know the 25th ann'y of one of my favorite quizzers is coming (that, of course, being Blockbusters). Endless, are you listening?
Joe: WHOOOO Blockbusters! Cullen or Rafferty?
Gordon: Let's have the Cullen version of Blockbusters, simply so we can have the funky music back.
Ryan: Simple to make as well...
Joe: Actually, Gordon, both themes were really cool, IMHO.
Gordon: They were, but the Cullen one was better.
Ryan: I would love a blockbusters game!
Joe: A Blockbusters game would be supremely cool.
Gordon: Going back to Board Games, Bring back Concentration - and the cool puzzles and board
Chico: That could work as a DVD game.
Ryan: The roll-o-matic.
Ryan: puzzle board, that is.
Joe: Endless has done TWO Concentration home games. It would be nice to see them add the Car Game from Classic Concentration, since they ARE using the CC rules. Heck, I've even got a cheap way for them to do it.
Ryan: That'd be hard to moderate though?
Joe: Not really.
Ryan: Explain, please :)
Ryan: I'm curious!
Joe: Simple deck of cards and a stop watch.
Joe: Dirt simple.
Ryan: Ah, yes, well done :)
Gordon: What about the Family Feud game, with the funky stand that you have to set up all by yourself?
Joe: The Milton Bradley and Pressman versions, which are basically identical, beat the Endless versions hands down.
Chico: I just eliminate the card board backing altogether. OR you could just get the DVD game that they air on the show, bringing us to Monday's episode... Now THAT's a segue-way!
Ryan: No, no, Segway WASN'T the sponsor, lol :)
Chico: Points to Ryan!
Ryan:  Tthank you! (bows)
Joe: *plays the FF bank win bells*
Ryan: (jumps up and down)
Chico: Monday's show featured Pizza Hut as the corporate sponsor, which wouldn't be really that bad, EXCEPT, there's an except here... That pizza figured heavily into the Fast Money round.
Joe: Ain't that illegal?
Chico: No, but it's just annoying.
Ryan: I'll agree for the square.
Chico: Brings up the question: when does product placement become a problem?
Gordon: I like the theme, but I agree with Chico in that the questions skewered the bonus round.
Ryan: I'm still waiting for J! to sponsor the daily doubles...
Chico: What would happen if Burger King sponsored a reward challenge and one of the castaways happened to be a vegetarian?
Joe: Definitely. When the products become part of the game, then you've got an infomercial.
Chico: Wouldn't that skew the outcome just a tad?
Gordon: Remember Survivor 2? Reward - Chickens. Vegetarian - Kimmi. She could be scarred by KFC for life.
Ryan: Yikes - we do chicken wrong?
Chico: Or Boston Market!!! Wooo!
Joe: Or if you like here in California, El Pollo Loco.
Ryan: As an aside, I'm proud to say that I was on the last episode of Wheel where the jackpot was UNSPONSORED...
Chico: Kimmi was just a victim of circumstance.
Ryan: Remember that game where they had to eat things off of the spinning wheel in that series? One person was yelling "Big Bucks, No Whammies!" - best quote of the series IMHO.
Chico: That was classic.
Ryan: Kimmi didn't really blend with the others though...
Joe: Shouldn't that have been "Big Fish - No Sharks?" ;P
Gordon: big eggs - no chickens!
Joe: Vegans give me gas.
Ryan: ROTFLMAO!!! Literally.
Gordon: Ironically, Tina, who blew the challenge for her team, won the game.
Ryan: I think something like the NetZero clock on Dog Eat Dog is okay, but that's about it... remember the sponsored clock on American Glads?
Joe: Indeed. Armitron.
Chico: Only by Armitron, the official time keepers of the show.
Joe: BTW, American Gladiators > Extreme Dodgeball.
Chico: But that's like Timex or Omega on the Olympics.
Ryan: I want a pool table for Dan!!!
Joe: I want some Amy Jo Johnson for Christmas.
Chico: I'd like a DS :)
Joe: WHOO! All they need for that is a version of Punch-Out, and they're set.
Ryan: A $ale revival for me!

(Music - "For the Love of Money" by the O'Jays)

Gordon: That's a show that has corporate sponsors play prominently on each episode. This week, it was the Donny Deutsch Agency to get the spotlight - and it was Elizabeth to be shown the door. Was she that bad that the Donald didn't even need to get a mini-board room meeting?
Chico:  Yes yes yes, a thousand times, yes.
Ryan:   Hard to argue with that :)
Chico:  It's all about the love. If you don't have that, what do you have?
Gordon: Ironically, she was very good in the first episode, but once she failed as the PM, she lost all confidence in herself.
Ryan:   It's hard to keep your spirits up after that...
Gordon: yep - and her second guessing herself - and everyone else - cost her.
Joe:    Bad news, man.
Chico:  Should've just stuck to your guns. Amazing thing, though. It seems like everyone who's gotten fired has been playing this as a game. Don't get me wrong, it is, essentially, but it's a game in which the rules only cater to singulars. Play as a team, and that's when you start having troubles.
Ryan:   Yeah, but if your team doesn't win, you're screwed, aren't you?
Gordon: The Apprentice is not an alliance making game, which separates it from Survivor.
Chico:  Depends on what you did.
Gordon: If you bring in people to the Board Room based on alliances, and the Donald knows it, you're going to be eliminated rather quickly. As for Survivor, John Kenney attempts an early coup - and ironically gets stuffed by the two
people he could have gotten the coup with. What happened?
Chico:  Pulled a BB5 Mike basically. Found himself out in the cold and started to make a rally to save his behind.  Didn't work.
Joe:    Ouch.
Gordon: Was he better trying to get back in with the guys instead of going against them?
Chico:  Probably. Speaking of increasingly hostile. Is it me or is Ami becoming just a tad bit annoying?
Gordon: She's becoming warrior-like. She is playing to be a leader, which is good - but that might cost her down the line if she is seen as a threat.
Chico:  You mean she's not seen as a threat now?
Joe:    She easily could be.  I certainly might.
Gordon: She was a sideshow attraction before - she's turning into the main event now.
Chico:  Yeah, but you know, she can't go all the way playing that card all the time. It didn't work before.
Gordon: It could - but not in Survivor, where the meek usually win the game
Ryan:   Example: Sandra, Pearl Islands.
Chico:  She was playing radar, basically, though.
Gordon: Only two people who were 'leaders' have won this game - Rich in S1 and Brian in S5. Everyone else was either a subsectional person or completely played under the radar and just made sure that they weren't the person voted off.
Chico:  So there you go. There's a one in four chance of the warrior within playing to win. Heh. I made a funnie. And now... I will make commercials! Haha!
Gordon: We'll be taking a break now - but coming up, 20 questions with Chico and I reprise my role as the good doctor.
Ryan:   Doctor, doctor... please help us!
Chico:  Gordon? Good doctor? I don't believe I've heard those two in the same sentence before!
Joe:    Shows how much faith Chico has in Gordon.
Gordon: He shouldn't. I am wearing my Simon Cowell, outfit, remember? BWA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA!!!

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