POLL: Most heartbreaking losses?

[mystery7]

[quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' date=\'Jul 6 2004, 05:07 PM\'] You make it sound like she should have memorized the damn light pattern -- a totally ridiculous notion. [/quote]
 Hey, it worked for Paul Larson.

[sshuffield70]

[quote name=\'GS Warehouse\' date=\'Jul 6 2004, 10:47 AM\'] [quote name=\'gsnstooge\' date=\'Jul 6 2004, 08:15 AM\'] One episode of The $20,000 Pyramid where Jamie Lee Curtis spent over 40 seconds on the last subject in the Winner's Circle. [/quote]
This made me recall another $20kP heartbreaker: Brianne Leary gave an illegal gesture on the first box.  The subject was "Parts of the Statue of Liberty", and she raised her arm as she said "Her torch".  The contestant got the other five and won $500 but was within a brain lapse of $15,000.

While we're at it, we should qualify any $900 SPW round where the tenth word was lost on an illegal clue.  One particular player I recall was Kris Kuba, who was on CS in 1978 and couldn't buy a break in MC either.  She did, however, win $25K her next time at SPW.

Another last second-loss: On Legends of the Hidden Temple, this one player got the treasure and had to pass through the temple gate with it, but he was behind Olmec, just feet from the gate as the clock hit zero.

[quote name=\'Dsmith=Jul 6 2004\' date=\' 11:23 AM\']Who did sing ["I Will Always Love You"]? The Beatles?[/quote]
According to Lawrence Kaplan, Celine Dion.  IMO, he should not have gone for it.  Dolly Parton wrote it, but Whitney Houston recorded it. [/quote]
 <BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ>

I'm sorry.  Dolly Parton did indeed record "I Will Always Love You".  It appears now on some country music compilations.

But thanks for playing our game!

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'Jul 6 2004, 05:21 PM\'] [quote name=\'dzinkin\' date=\'Jul 6 2004, 04:12 PM\'] Of course, in theory, Alex Trebek, Pat Sajak and Bob Barker could die tonight, and be replaced tomorrow by Chris Lemon, Mike Klauss and yours truly respectively. [/quote]
And summarily see ratings for said shows plummet. [/quote]
 But only in theory, of course. :-P

[JMFabiano]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 11:18 PM\'] [quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jul 5 2004, 09:21 PM\'] Pretty much any 198 or 199 score in Fast Money on FF.

 [/quote]
I'll add a Family Feud heartbreaker from Louie Anderson's regime. During the playing of Fast Money as the answers were being revealed, Louie would have the family member touch the screen if "he knew" that answer would take the team to 200 and win them the $10000/$20000. Well, one day he screwed up by telling the person to touch the screen because he knew the #1 answer had been given by the contestant. What he didn't know was the answer wasn't enough to give 'em the bonus money and they had to settle for five bucks a point. [/quote]
 Something like this happened recently on 100 Mexicanos Dijeron...except replace the "touch the screen" thing with the verbal teases Marco uses sometimes ("La encuesta....(jokingly stalls)....la encuesta....(stalls again)...etc, etc")

[sshuffield70]

Assuming "encuesta" means "survey".

The full line would then be:  La encuesta dice!

[GS Warehouse]

[quote name=\'sshuffield70\' date=\'Jul 6 2004, 05:27 PM\'] [quote name=\'Dsmith=Jul 6 2004\' date=\' 11:23 AM\']Who did sing ["I Will Always Love You"]? The Beatles?[/quote]
According to Lawrence Kaplan, Celine Dion.  IMO, he should not have gone for it.  Dolly Parton wrote it, but Whitney Houston recorded it.

<BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ>

I'm sorry.  Dolly Parton did indeed record "I Will Always Love You".  It appears now on some country music compilations. [/quote]
I know Dolly recorded it (commercials for one of those "country music compilations" showed up on GSN!), but did her version chart?  What I meant was that Whitney, not Celine Dion, recorded the version that went to #1.

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'GS Warehouse\' date=\'Jul 6 2004, 05:01 PM\'] I know Dolly recorded it (commercials for one of those "country music compilations" showed up on GSN!), but did her version chart?  What I meant was that Whitney, not Celine Dion, recorded the version that went to #1. [/quote]
 My Billboard book only covers Top 40 charts, but allmusic.com noted it as hitting #53 in 1982.

[Frank15]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jul 6 2004, 02:19 PM\']

Oh! I always thought it was One Sweet Day. That's not as easy as I thought.

It was "One Sweet Day", but what made it heartbreaking is that the guy guessed without even knowing who sang each of the songs.  After thinking about it for a couple of minutes, he guessed "I Will Always Love You", thinking it was sung by Celine Dion. [/quote]
 I remember being quite surprised by that answer, considering I don't ever remember "One Sweet Day" being a very popular song, unless there's a second, non-Mariah version I'm unaware of.  As opposed to two versions of "I Will Always Love You."

I remember a painful main game loss in Family Feud back in February... what made it painful was that the family that won should not have, in my opinion.  On the triple round question, something like "Tell me what you'd do if you saw someone stealing your car," not exact wording, there was one answer left, and the stealing family was trying to take the steal.  They said "take down a description," or something to that effect.  The actual answer was "do nothing."  The judges counted their steal attempt as correct though, and as such, they won the game.  Some of the worst judging I've ever seen in a gameshow....  So that was painful.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Jul 6 2004, 03:10 PM\']
This sounds like something that was described in "Come On Down." Jefferson Graham noted that a woman wagered a $60,000 pot (didn't think it was likely in the mid-80s), but didn't win because she didn't phrase in a question. Can anyone confirm?
 [/quote]
 A few players did indeed lose the game because of not phrasing properly in the early Trebek years, but I certainly don't recall anyone having $60K after DJ! or FJ!(even with the double dollars format). Jeff is wrong on the amount wagered.

[JMFabiano]

[quote name=\'sshuffield70\' date=\'Jul 6 2004, 04:57 PM\'] Assuming "encuesta" means "survey".

The full line would then be:  La encuesta dice! [/quote]
 Si, senor!  (As Marco would say often when someone gets a right answer or a Dinero Rapido win)

[J.R.]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Jul 6 2004, 03:10 PM\']This sounds like something that was described in "Come On Down." Jefferson Graham noted that a woman wagered a $60,000 pot[/quote]
Geez. I didn't know pot was so expensive !

-Joe R.

[Ian Wallis]

My Billboard book only covers Top 40 charts, but allmusic.com noted it as hitting #53 in 1982.

The song also hit No. 1 on the country charts during its original release (I think 1974), and recharted when Dolly recorded a new version of it in 1982.  I don't listen to country, but remember reading those statistics in Billboard when Whitney's version became so popular.

I remember being quite surprised by that answer, considering I don't ever remember "One Sweet Day" being a very popular song, unless there's a second, non-Mariah version I'm unaware of.

No, it was Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men.  No. 1 on the Hot 100 for 16 weeks in 1996.

[sshuffield70]

I remember the hullabaloo at the time about Whitney's version, and various media were trying to say it was really Dolly's song.  But I remember on the last Idol that the song was introduced as Whitney's.  Of course, I knew better.

[ChuckNet]

A few players did indeed lose the game because of not phrasing properly in the early Trebek years, but I certainly don't recall anyone having $60K after DJ! or FJ!(even with the double dollars format). Jeff is wrong on the amount wagered.

There's quite a few errors in Jeff Graham's book...if you don't believe me, just ask Chuck Wollery. :-D

But I digress...former Double Dare champ (ironic, huh?) Alan Lusher also wound up losing on his ep by failing to phrase his FJ! response properly, although he still would've lost anyway, since his wager wasn't enough to take him out of 3rd place.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[Frank15]

What exactly is the system for accepting answers not in question form, anyway?  It seems sometimes they count such answers as correct, and other times not.  Is it just decided on a whim, or what, exactly?

Also, when a contestant gives too general of an answer, Alex usually asks them to be more specific, but occasionally, he won't ask that of the contestant, and just count it as wrong.  Again, is it just random, or some actual system behind this?