One of the most enjoyable memories of my parents, who have both
passed on now, is of my dad sitting in his easy chair as the two of
us watched our favorite game show,
”
Jeopardy!
”
He knew all the geography, science and history questions, and I
learned a lot as I tried to fill in with pop culture, art and
literature questions. Every now and then, mom would chime in from
the kitchen with something like,
”
What is fennel?
”
One of the most enjoyable memories of my parents, who have both passed on now, is of my dad sitting in his easy chair as the two of us watched our favorite game show, “Jeopardy!” He knew all the geography, science and history questions, and I learned a lot as I tried to fill in with pop culture, art and literature questions. Every now and then, mom would chime in from the kitchen with something like, “What is fennel?”
So when I heard that Robin Opheim of San Martin had been a contestant on “Jeopardy!” during sweeps week, I just had to hear more. Opheim, who is Senior Program Performance Auditor for the city of San Jose , told me she read about being a contestant online.
“Since I knew I was going to be at a conference in Long Beach, I decided to stay the next day and try out.
“For ‘Jeopardy!’ and ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ you go right to Sony Picture Studios in Burbank for the tryouts. You sit in the audience in the studio – there were 60 people trying out that day. They gave us each a sheet of paper with 50 numbered lines on it and television monitors in front of us flashed the questions – five seconds to write each answer. You had to get 35 right to make the cut. Fourteen of us passed. Then we played a practice game, using the buzzer. They recorded us, took info sheets and said we’d be in the files for a year – thousands are on file, so you might never be called, and if not, we could try again in a year.”
Opheim was called six months after trying out. Was she nervous?
“I was not nervous in the least. My sister and husband were in the taping audience that day – he’s the one whose stomach was a roller coaster when my buzzer light went on to give the answers!”
One of the categories was ‘AU Words,’ and the answer was something along the lines of “a person with the personality trait might feel left out at social functions.” I did not know immediately, the clock was ticking, and it was tense.
“Finally, Alex said ‘Say something!’ to indicate I was down to the wire. At the last second I got the ‘left’ clue in the answer, and came up with the question – ‘”What is gauche?” The audience burst into wild applause!
“I found out later I got 48 of 50 right on the practice test, and all of us in these games tested the highest in the country, so the competition was pretty fierce. The questions you miss are imprinted in your mind forever, and you come up with clever answers AFTER it is all over.”
Opheim’s one regret is not taking more risks and betting it all each time on the daily double questions. “I should have trusted myself more to know the answers. I would have been the new Jeopardy champion and would have gone on to the next game – which I sat in the audience and watched. I knew every single answer AND the answer to that Final Jeopardy question. RATS!”
A co-worker is encouraging her to try out for “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”
” ‘Jeopardy’ WAS a fun experience – I just might consider it.” she says.
