The Final Jeopardy question (3/16/2012) in the category “70s Blockbusters” was:

A direction in this film: “Start with the tone…Up a full tone. Down a major third. Now drop an octave. Up a perfect fifth.”

We’ve got ourselves a brand new champ once again and he is John Erler, who knocked the other players out with a correct answer in Final Jeopardy! yesterday. At the rate this is going, one of these new players may pull that same feat off today: Hannah Spector from Van Nuys, CA, and Sharla Zwirek from Medway, MA.

Sharla found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Horsestory.” She had $1,200 and risked $800. We thought it might be a totally unexpected scientific classification question. Just kidding, we didn’t but we did think it might stump her, It didn’t. Sharla got it RIGHT.

All breeds of domestic horse are a single species, scientifically this genus caballus. show

WHAT IS EQUUS?

John finished in the lead with $6,600. Hannah was next with $4,800 and Sharla was last with $2,000.

In Double Jeopardy!, John found the first Daily Double in “It’s a Noun! It’s a Verb!.” He had $8,200 a $2,600 lead over Hannah, in second place. He bet $2,200 and said “chaperone.” That was WRONG.

A medieval rank just below knight; or a verb meaning “to escort.” show

WHAT IS SQUIRE?

John regained ground by the time he found the second Double Jeopardy! in “March-ing.” He now had $10,400, a $4,000 lead over Hannah. He bet $2,200 and LOL, he was RIGHT (he’s from Austin.)

On March 2, 1836, it declared its independence from Mexico. show

WHAT IS TEXAS?

And LOL again, since the answer to the very next question he picked “The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center” (in “State Capitals”) was his hometown, and he made the Hook ’em Horns hand signal both times.

Wow, talk about some craziness going on in the final seconds of Double Jeopardy! Sharla lost all her money and then buzzed in on the last clue, but didn’t know the answer so she ended up in the hole to the tune of minus $2,000, and was out of Final Jeopardy. John took a few bad guesses himself and ended up in second place with $11,400 and the very young-looking Hannah, who played her game slow and steady, was in the lead with $16,000.

But that wasn’t half as crazy as when after the commercial break, John (he said REI) and Sharla (She said North Face) were awarded $3,200 each for their tent answers called wrong to “Instant tents from this outdoor company can be set up or taken down in one minute” (“Gadgets Galore”). The only answer Alex was accepting during the game was “Colman.” So Sharla was back in the game with $1,200 and John now had $14,600. Hannah still held the lead.

TWO of the players got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHAT IS CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND?

“Close Encounters of the Third Kind (sometimes abbreviated CE3K and often referred to as just Close Encounters) is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey. It tells the story of Roy Neary, a lineman in Indiana, whose life changes after he has an encounter with an unidentified flying object (UFO). The United States government and an international team of scientific researchers are also aware of the UFOs.” (wikipedia)

Makes you wonder if CE3K or just Close Encounters would have been acceptable …

Sharla wrote down “Five Easy Pieces” and lost her $200 bet. She ended up with $1,000, better than being in the hole, we guess, and not automatic third place, but she wound up in third place all the same.

John got it right, which was fully expected since he is a movie mocker. One would assume you need to know a bit about movies before you can mock them. He added $12,199 to his score and finished with $26,799.

Hannah also got it right and bet $13,201, enough to win the game with $29,201. Great googlamoogla. That was awesome and also broke the string of games where only one player got Final Jeopardy! right.