6. Walking in L.A.

Lynn's first moments on Jeopardy!

Here—sit beside me and we’ll watch Lynn play Jeopardy!. I know, right? They’re even smaller than the seats in a movie theater. Did you hear the way Johnny said Newark? Lynn hates it when people say “Neurk,” you know—like Neurk, NJ. Shhhh. We’re not supposed to talk, or see that guy in the sunglasses? No, he’s not the hot dog guy! He’s from Standards and Practices. He’ll throw us out . . .

Watching Jeopardy! being filmed live is very much like watching at home on T.V.; you just have to imagine a wider camera angle. It’s a little like watching a dress rehearsal of a play: you can see stagehands in the shadows of the stage lights and a hovering director, things that are unseen during the actual performance of a play. Jeopardy! on T.V. is like watching the actual play; Jeopardy! live is like watching the play’s dress rehearsal.

That’s Lynn in the middle: beige dress, great big glasses. I can’t believe she finally got on! I knew it: they’re making her stand on a box. No, she’s 5’4”. It’s ‘cause Johanna’s so tall. They don’t like the camera bobbing up and down as they pan from player to player. Makes people seasick. Oh, sorry sir. I’ll keep quiet. You don’t have hot dogs, do you? Never mind. Yikes . . .

Still frame, Jeopardy! episode 1864.

Things went fine during the Jeopardy round. At the first commercial break, Lynn had $1,400, Phil had $1,500, and Johanna had $200. Then, Lynn got the Daily Double and bet $1,000 for the lead. The category was “The Body Human:”

Easy, right? But I could see she didn’t know, even through my near- sightedness. That left the score Lynn $800; Johanna $500; Phil $2,000. Not so good, but still lots of time left.

Wow. Do you see that? No, stop looking at The Dress! During the commercial, Alex rereads the clues he wasn’t happy with the first time. They must just plug them in during post- production. I never thought of it until now, but you never see Alex read the clues when you’re watching at home. They only have to redo the audio if he messes up or isn’t happy with how he pronounced something. They can do it without stopping the tape and his voice will sound the same as in the rest of the episode. Cool.

At the end of the first round, Lynn had $2,400, Johanna had $1,300, and Phil had $3,300: a good game.

In the Double Jeopardy round, Phil found the first Daily Double and got it right, boosting his score to $6,500, with Lynn at $2,600. Shortly after that, Lynn missed a $500 clue, which Phil then answered correctly. Now the score was Lynn $1,600, and Phil $8,200. A bit later, Johanna got the other Daily Double right, which brought her to within $100 of Lynn, although Phil was still ahead with $9,800: maybe not such a good game.

I feel bad for Lynn. I know she’s disappointed that she’s not doing better. At least she doesn’t have to worry about any more Daily Doubles. You’re right—she does look like she’s having fun! No, I meant Lynn. Will you stop looking at The Dress!

Towards the end of Double Jeopardy, Lynn was in third place with $4,600, down by $8,800, with just 3 clues left and less than a minute to go. To have any chance of winning, Lynn had to have at least half of Phil’s score going into Final Jeopardy. Then, she could bet everything in Final Jeopardy and hope that Phil got it wrong. That meant that Lynn had to be fast enough to signal in first AND answer all three of the remaining clues correctly in less than a minute, or she’d lose. She answered two of those last clues correctly, giving her a score of $6,500. Phil had $13,400. There was one $500 clue left. It looked hopeless. The category was “Notorious.” With 3 seconds to go, Alex read the last clue:

I could see the other two contestants trying to signal in, but Lynn got in first and gave the right question, making the score before final Jeopardy, Phil: $13,400; Lynn: $7,000; Johanna: $5,100. (While shaking hands after the game, Phil told Alex he knew the answer, but he’d locked himself out by ringing in too early.)

Going into Final Jeopardy, way behind.

I wanted to hug Lynn, tell her she did great, and try to console her. But as I watched her during the break, I could see she was just as confident as when the game started. She didn’t need consoling: she was having fun! She was playing Jeopardy!, and that’s all she really wanted out of all this. Of course, my mind’s eye is apparently near-sighted too, because years later, she told me that once she started to play, she wanted to win, even though she’d insisted that all she ever wanted was just to pass the audition test.

The Final Jeopardy category was “Animals:”

Assuming that Phil bet correctly, three things had to happen for Lynn to win: she had to bet everything, she had to give the correct response, and Phil had to get it wrong. If even one of those things didn’t happen, Lynn would lose. When I saw the clue, I knew Phil would get it right ‘cause even I knew the answer.

Johanna had written down “What is a Maryland Spaniel,” to which Alex said, “No, that’s incorrect.” Then, turning to Johnny, he said, “I don’t think there is a Maryland Spaniel,” but then quickly added, “But there is now because you saw it on Jeopardy!” Johanna had bet everything, so she was left with $0.

Lynn answered correctly, and she’d bet everything as well, leaving her with $14,000. There was only one thing left.

I saw Phil glance up at the studio audience before his answer was revealed, but I was too far away and too nearsighted to read his expression. Phil answered, “What is a beagle?” The audience gasped. It didn’t matter what he’d bet (it turns out he had bet correctly: $601, meaning he would have won by $1 had he given the correct answer); Lynn was the new Jeopardy champion! Lynn said when they were chatting with Alex on stage after the game, Phil explained, “I’m from Encino—what do I know about Maryland?! All I could think of was the HMS Beagle, Darwin’s ship.”

I don’t care what the hotdog man says; I’m standing up and clapping! $1,400, that’s pretty good, right? At least that pays for the trip out here. What? It’s $14,000? $14,000!

The crowd was applauding, the music came up, and as Johnny was telling everyone what they’d won—something they don’t do anymore, so no more year’s supply of Dentu-Grip for you!—the contestants came down to talk with Alex. I was on my feet wildly waving my arms to try and get Lynn to see me. Alex turned to Lynn and asked, “Is that your husband spazzing out up there?” Alex and the contestants all looked up at me as Lynn laughed.

Staring at "The Spazz."

Then, the music suddenly stopped, the house lights came up, Alex went backstage the way he’d entered at the start of the show, and the contestants disappeared the way they came in with the contestant coordinators. Fifteen minutes later, it all started again. Except this time, Lynn was the returning Jeopardy! champion. Lynn was a Jeopardy! champion!

The contestants in the second game were Lynn, Diana, and Bill. Lynn led almost all the way through the game, finishing with $12,200 going into Final Jeopardy. Bill was in second place with $7,200; Diana had $1,500. Lynn still had to get Final Jeopardy right to win if Bill answered correctly. The category was “U.S. Geography:”

Diana answered, “What is Ochefenochee [sic],” and had bet $1,400, leaving her with $100. She told Lynn after the show that she was so nervous, she just froze up during the game. She was so disappointed in herself. Diana said she knew the answer to Final Jeopardy but just got the spelling all mixed up. Lynn gave her a hug and said, “But you’re just like me — we were both on Jeopardy! How many people can say that?”

Diana was such a nice lady. I met her after she came out of the studio with Lynn after filming. She and Lynn had sat together and chatted while waiting to go on. They both brought needlepoint. By contrast, Bill—twenty-something, short blond hair, with a very rigid, business-like demeanor—sat by himself reading an almanac. Lynn called him “Kleiner Mensch.” Diana smiled at that and said to Lynn out of the corner of her mouth, “If he doesn’t know it by now...” and they both gave a quiet little laugh.

Ein Kleiner Mensch Bill got it right and had bet $7,150, giving him the lead with $14,350. Lynn had to get it right to win. I was sitting just behind his brother and a friend in the audience. Throughout the game, they were saying, “What’s wrong with him? He’s not like this. He’s always so cool, relaxed, and funny. He looks like a little Nazi, for chrissake!” They were on the edge of their seats as they watched for Lynn’s answer.

I wasn’t. I knew Lynn had gotten it, ‘cause she started writing right away and finished before the other two. She had this. She won, with $15,200, bringing her two- day total to $29,200!

But believe it or not, there was a problem. We were excited and too naive when we planned our trip out to Hollywood to film Jeopardy!. For some reason, we thought that Lynn would be on the first episode they filmed on Tuesday and, if she kept winning, would be done filming that same day even if she won all five games. It never occurred to us that she wouldn’t start filming until the fourth episode on Tuesday. That’s why we’d booked the flight home for Tuesday night, so we could leave right from the studio.

Now it was 7:00 PM on Tuesday and filming was over. The next show wouldn’t be filmed until the following Monday: 6 days away. We’d checked out of our motel, so we had nowhere to stay, and our flight back home left in less than two hours. Even though Lynn had just won over $29,000, we wouldn’t get the check until the middle of December. We couldn’t afford to stay until Monday, but we couldn’t afford to go back home and then fly back out either. So what you would have seen right then was Tom and Lynn standing dazed in a Hollywood parking lot, broke and homeless, with a flight home booked and paid for leaving at 10:00 PM, and driving a stolen Mustang if it wasn’t returned that night.

Walking in L.A.

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