POLL: Most heartbreaking losses?

[ChuckNet]

Here's a few of my personal choices...

First would be the infamous $20K Pyramid "Famous Losers" heartbreaker w/Didi Conn from 1979.

An eerily similar one occured on the $25K just 3 yrs later, during their 2nd wk on-air...the final WC category is "Things You Clip", and Jay Johnson offers partner Tom the clue "Something out of a newspaper" - a big no-no - as a clue, Tom gets it, and as they're celebrating his $25K win, the buzzer sounds, but they go to commercial before anything can be explained.

Upon returning, Dick says "You've prolly noticed that the mood around here is a bit more sedate than it was a moment ago...", even indirectly referencing the aforementioned Famous Losers incident, before playing a clip of Jay's illegal clue and explaining that it was no good and they had to take back Tom's $25K that he thought he'd won.

A $otC from 1984 where a contestant lost the cash jackpot after being beaten by only *$2*.

Any High Rollers ep where a contestant lost the Big Numbers by default via their leaving "1" as the very last number on the board.

And here's a near-heartbreaker: on Hit Man, champ Leon Reed (who'd previously appeared on Bullseye and TTD, maybe more) was asked the question "Who sang 'As Time Goes By' in Casablanca?" during the Triple Crown...he answered "Sam" (the character), but Peter's card read Dooley Wilson (the actor) and he was called incorrect, which only would've made a difference if he got to the final question in the $10K column...guess what question Peter was in the middle of reading when time ran out? :-(

However, good sense apparently prevailed...after deliberating during the break, Peter explained that Wolpert and crew had decided that Leon's earlier response of Sam on the ATGB question was acceptable, and he'd won the $10K as a result...he was quite delighted by this bit of news, as I recall. :-)

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[adamjk]

How about the Davidson $100k Pyramid $100k loss on "things that stick out". Boy that one was really heartbreaking. Although the woman who lost that, came back and still won the $100k anyway.

anytime a contestant loses on a full count in 3 strikes on Price that is heartbreaking, or when there is a Double Overbid with both contestants just barely over.

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 08:41 PM\'] A $otC from 1984 where a contestant lost the cash jackpot after being beaten by only *$2*.

 [/quote]
 Was this the guy whose main game loss enabled the cash jackpot to reach $100,000 for the first and only time?

[rmfromfla]

Here are a couple of heartbreakers from the early seasons of J! (1984-       )

   1.   Season 2 (or 3?)  -  Contestant has correct response in FJ, but fails to
 phrase in the form of a question  -  she breaks down on her podium and the
 audience is silent as Johnny Gilbert begins the ads....

  2.  Lionel Goldbart forgets his phrasing in a 1986  TOC semifinal game....

  3.  Season 4:  Unheralded housewife Cheryl Van Middlesworth knocks off
 4xer Ron Triguero in her first game,  then wins three more that Alex describes
 as "winning ugly".  She goes into the FJ of her last game $200 short of what
 would have been at least a tie and a trip to the TOC ($5,400 -  2,800), but
 cannot close the deal as Larry Frantz nails FJ, and Cheryl misses with a wager
 of $201 (won $36,900, but way short of an at-large berth).

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'rmfromfla\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 09:01 PM\'] Here are a couple of heartbreakers from the early seasons of J! (1984-       )

   1.   Season 2 (or 3?)  -  Contestant has correct response in FJ, but fails to
 phrase in the form of a question  -  she breaks down on her podium and the
 audience is silent as Johnny Gilbert begins the ads....
 [/quote]
 Add to the J! heartbreaks(though more recent): Brian Weikle's error in wagering that cost him the 2003 TofC.

Those contestants forgetting proper phrasing in FJ! are the reason they now have the players write down "Who" or "What" before the answer is revealed.

Other heartbreaking losses:

Pretty much any 198 or 199 score in Fast Money on FF.

Contestants losing all or almost all on a Big Bet on CS(especially if it's several thousand risked) due to a King-Ace or THree-Two(or a Two or Ace push in the early years).

[Rastaub]

To answer Don's question regarding Sale.  

The champ was Dawn McKellar and she was going for 99K from early 1984. She made a tremendous comeback during the speed round on the previous episode and managed to win, but lost on this one.

I will pose this question to Sale fans out there, we know David Rogers won a 109K jackpot, and after this episode the jackpot stood at 100K, did he win the 109K, 9 shows after this?

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 08:41 PM\'] First would be the infamous $20K Pyramid "Famous Losers" heartbreaker w/Didi Conn from 1979. [/quote]
 Not having your collection, I'm a little in the dark on this one (and I pride myself on knowing a pretty good amount of this minutae).  Can someone elaborate on what happened (and five brownie points if that someone's first name doesn't begin with Z ;-) )?

Doug

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 09:48 PM\'] [quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 08:41 PM\'] First would be the infamous $20K Pyramid "Famous Losers" heartbreaker w/Didi Conn from 1979. [/quote]
Not having your collection, I'm a little in the dark on this one

 [/quote]
 As per a Google search(Chuck D. posted about this on Usenet in 1997 in a thread similar to this one) Didi said "An unhappy Vegas visitor", the contestant says "LOsers". They're all celebrating, Dick hears a buzzer, they go to commercial. They come back from commercial and Dick says the clue can't be accepted because an unhappy Vegas visitor is not "Famous". If the category were "Losers", it'd have been accepted.

[ClockGameJohn]

Once upon a time there was a contestant on TPiR who was the only winner of the day (a magnificent contestant), ended up as Top Winner in the Showcase up against an idiot who bid $3,900 on her Showcase (in 2003) and he bid $19,000 on an $18,273 Showcase and lost.  That was heartbreaking, I thought.

Although, maybe I'm impartial...   ;-)

[SamJ93]

I recall a couple "Wheel" eps. where the first- and second-place finishers were separated by $50.  Ouch!

And of course, any TPiR contestant who plays Dice Game and gets all the numbers right, except for one where the contestant went lower on a 5--and it turns out to be a 6 (or higher on a 2 and it's a 1).

--Sam

[TheInquisitiveOne]

[quote name=\'Rastaub\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 09:34 PM\'] To answer Don's question regarding Sale.  

The champ was Dawn McKellar and she was going for 99K from early 1984. She made a tremendous comeback during the speed round on the previous episode and managed to win, but lost on this one.

I will pose this question to Sale fans out there, we know David Rogers won a 109K jackpot, and after this episode the jackpot stood at 100K, did he win the 109K, 9 shows after this? [/quote]
 I would think so. With the episodes that have been given to me, I can make some sort of conjecture as to what happened:

Unless someone can prove me wrong on this, I believe that this was the only time in which the $ale Jackpot went over the $100,000 mark. David should have won the $109,000 nine shows later. Also, it was not too long from now that Bill Vasser won the $70,000.

It was also not too long from now that the Winner's Board was put into play. There were too many cash jackpot winners between the time David hit the $109,000 and the time the cash jackpot stayed at the static $50,000.

Just a theory of mine

The Inquisitive One

[Frank15]

On The Price is Right, back in September, there was a contestant who just played One Away as well as she possibly could've... and lost.  Lost because of an downright dirty price, one that only 0 out of 100 people would've gotten right.  Good contestant too... just felt like ick after the game was through.

She won her showcase at the end of the show, at least.  Guess that's a consolation.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Frank15\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 10:16 PM\'] On The Price is Right, back in September, there was a contestant who just played One Away as well as she possibly could've... and lost.  Lost because of an downright dirty price, one that only 0 out of 100 people would've gotten right.  Good contestant too... just felt like ick after the game was through.

She won her showcase at the end of the show, at least.  Guess that's a consolation. [/quote]
 The One Away price in that case was probably a "forced loss" due to being over budget.

Two heartbreaking Showcase losses: THe contestant who missed their showcase by $30, only to lose as her opponent missed her SC by $29, and the contestant who bid $1, thinking the other player went over, only to have the other player win both SCs.

[brianhenke]

The $62,400 loss on WOF when the contestant missed a letter on "THE THRILL OF VICTORY AND THE AGONY OF DEFEAT"?  That should be considered a loss...

   Brian

   100 plus 100 equals 600?
 
   We want some more pro wrestling (STILL) and NASCAR questions!

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'brianhenke\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 11:28 PM\'] The $62,400 loss on WOF when the contestant missed a letter on "THE THRILL OF VICTORY AND THE AGONY OF DEFEAT"?  That should be considered a loss...
 [/quote]
 I was thinking of that before, but couldn't remember the puzzle. That took place in the mid 80's with quite the run on the $5,000 space if I remember right..