Which celebs played the game better expected?

[whewfan]

Are there any celebs you can think of that played a game better than you expected? I can think of some

Leslie Neilson- I am sure there were viewers that thought that "Frank Drebin" would be a stumblebum on Celebrity Jeopardy!, but it was a surprise to me that Leslie played exceptionally well.

Dave Coulier- I thought Dave would waste time doing impressions instead of asking good questions on TTTT 2k. To my surprise, he played the game straight. It was Paula that was the time waster.

Dick Clark- Not that I thought he'd be a bad Pyramid player, but Dick Clark gets my vote as the Pyramid celeb that looked the most RELIEVED that he was able to win at the Winner's Circle.

[76GMC]

How about a somewhat rarity in game shows.......DONNA MILLS

She did a week of MG76, a good four years before her turn on KNOTS LANDING.  Of the four questions in her first show, she never gave the proverbial "rotten answer".

To those who have an ep:  Was she just as good on $50k Pyramid in 1981?

Rick

[Matt Ottinger]

Cheech Marin probably surprised a lot of people with his strong showing on Celebrity Jeopardy as well.

[Jimmy Owen]

Wouldn't you say that anybody who became a frequent guest would fall into such a category?  Who knew that one of the regulars on "The New Perry Mason" or "Hogan's Heroes" or "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" would be so vitally important to MG.  "Pyramid" kept booking some cast members from "The Associates" and "Three's a Crowd" (John Ritter version) long after those sitcoms were cancelled.

[aggieballer23]

[quote name=\'whewfan\' date=\'Jun 27 2005, 04:50 AM\']Are there any celebs you can think of that played a game better than you expected? I can think of some

Leslie Neilson- I am sure there were viewers that thought that "Frank Drebin" would be a stumblebum on Celebrity Jeopardy!, but it was a surprise to me that Leslie played exceptionally well.

Dave Coulier- I thought Dave would waste time doing impressions instead of asking good questions on TTTT 2k. To my surprise, he played the game straight. It was Paula that was the time waster.

Dick Clark- Not that I thought he'd be a bad Pyramid player, but Dick Clark gets my vote as the Pyramid celeb that looked the most RELIEVED that he was able to win at the Winner's Circle.

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I think that Wink MArtindale did a wonderful job on PASSWORD PLUS when he and Gene Rayburn were the stars of the show (Gene did well also)

[clemon79]

Coolio on Pyramid.

Yeah, he wasn't so good the first time, but you could tell when he came back to play against Dick Clark that he had done his homework and was determined not to embarrass himself. And if the game were scored under 80's Pyramid rules, he would have won, so obviously it did some good. Anytime you take down The Master, I'd say you deserve to appear in this thread.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jun 27 2005, 02:14 PM\']Coolio on Pyramid.

Yeah, he wasn't so good the first time, but you could tell when he came back to play against Dick Clark that he had done his homework and was determined not to embarrass himself. [/quote]
I actually got to see Coolio in person the first time (even spoke to him briefly).  What was clear in the studio was that he was genuinely competitive and obviously disappointed with himself that he didn't do better.  It's so easy for jaded celebs to just be in it for the exposure that it was refreshing to see how much he actually cared.

[Kevin Prather]

Rosa Blasi struck me as a smart lady, but I didn't expect her to do nearly as well as she did on Pyramid. She's sort of the Adrienne Barbeau of Osmond Pyramid, IMO.

[BrandonFG]

Norm McDonald on Celebrity Millionaire. IIRC, didn't he actually see the million dollar question before walking, and actually made the right guess? I seem to remember no one expecting him to do so well.

[Kevin Prather]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Jun 27 2005, 01:55 PM\']Norm McDonald on Celebrity Millionaire. IIRC, didn't he actually see the million dollar question before walking, and actually made the right guess? I seem to remember no one expecting him to do so well.

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Yeah, and he let Regis talk him out of it.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Jun 27 2005, 02:13 PM\']Yeah, and he let Regis talk him out of it.
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The question is, did he do well because he's actually an intelligent guy, or did he do well because he was in full-blown Burt Reynolds-impression mode and didn't really give a damn? Remember, the celebrities really only had to answer five questions, they were effectively spotted the first ten, and it's awfully easy to say "What the hell, B, final answer", when it's not your money and you still go home to a nice house with a swimming pool.

You could put Koko The Sign Language Gorilla in the chair, and assuming she had an interpreter to tell her what the panel was saying for the first ten questions, she'd still have a reasonable chance for a big payday.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jun 27 2005, 05:30 PM\']The question is, did he do well because he's actually an intelligent guy, or did he do well because he was in full-blown Burt Reynolds-impression mode and didn't really give a damn? Remember, the celebrities really only had to answer five questions, they were effectively spotted the first ten, and it's awfully easy to say "What the hell, B, final answer", when it's not your money and you still go home to a nice house with a swimming pool.[/quote]
My uninformed opinion is that he really is a smart guy who was deliberately screwing around in the Fastest Finger rounds to maintain his doofus image, but whose ego wouldn't let him goof off when he was actually in the chair.

[Casey]

I gotta go with Coolio also.  He seemed to turn up on every game show that was on and he seemed to a) really enjoy each one, and b) played the game well.

[Tim L]

Carol Wayne-Celebrity Sweepstakes, because of her "Dumb Blonde" Schitck on shows like Johnny Carson (Art Fern comes to mind).She wouldnt have been thought to do well..But she turned out to be the smartest one of the bunch.

[Jay Temple]

What Carol Wayne was to Celebrity Sweepstakes, Teresa Ganzel was to the 1980's Pyramid.  (She came to mind not only because of her frequent appearances but because she was an Art Fern player as well.)