[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Oct 7 2003, 01:24 PM\'](snip) ...I would nominate, as a co-valedictorian of sorts, Kelly Grogan, who became the daytime version's top winner the same season. A bit of history on her: She was on some weeks before the show ended, and a call in the Winner's Circle did not go her way which would have brought her back. (I think they disqualified a clue that her partner gave.) They must have reconsidered their decision because they brought her back for the last week of the show. (I think this is right. She may have appeared the Friday before and earned the right to continue on Monday of the final week.) I don't have the tape here with me, but I believe she won over $60,000. I think if they had realized how good she was, they would have timed her return so that her fifth day (and final day under the rules) was the last show.[/quote]
The explanation of Kelly Grogan's reign is pretty much on the money, but here's the whole scoop:
Kelly won $31,100 on her first day -- already a great feat. The next day, when she tried for $10,000, she got all the way to the top, and the $300 category was THINGS YOU ABANDON. After struggling with it for a while, Earl Holliman said, \"A basketed baby,\" and Kelly said the answer. The judges didn't like the clue and buzzed it, but since the audience was celebrating what they thought was a win, Kelly and Earl didn't hear the buzzer. When they returned from the commercial, Dick explained that \"a basketed baby\" was a made-up phrase and couldn't be allowed as a legal clue, so Kelly ended up with $750 rather than $10,000. Her opponent then went to the winner's circle and won $800, beating Kelly's score. Kelly went home with $31,850.
Jump forward about 10 weeks later. Kelly came back on the show. When she got to the winner's circle, Dick asked her how much money she had already won before that day, and she said it was $41,100 -- not $31,850.
My guess is that viewers protested the decision, and the judges reversed themselves. So they \"took back\" the $750 and replaced it with the $10,000 she would have won, and since the $10,000 would have beaten her original opponent's $800, they brought her back on the show. Her final total was $60,050, making her the biggest money winner on the daytime show, beating previous champ Barbara Schnell by $1,100.
I've seen a number of contestants come back on \"Pyramid\" later after a bad call, but I never saw Dick ask them how much money they had won previously, even if was over $10,000. The fact that Kelly's total was so high after they corrected their mistake leads me to think that they wanted people to know that she was close to breaking the all-time record...which she did.
This post could easily tangent into the best \"Pyramid\" contestants of all time. Hmm...
Brendan
