[DevdogAZ]

Just watched the first episode from this season. It's just as good as I remembered. Unfortunately, both of the teams that I wanted to win in the first episode went down in flames, but it's still fun to watch and play along.

In the first game, the tiebreaker question was the names of the recurring characters listed in the opening credits of the pilot episode of "LOST." They listed all the possible names after the tiebreaker was over, and there was one that I didn't recognize. I'll spoilerize it just in case someone doesn't want to know, but I'd like someone to remind me of who this character is.

Spoiler

Edward Mars

 

[HiddenSky]

Wasn't he...

Spoiler

The Marshal who had Kate under arrest?

 

[DevdogAZ]

I think you're right. I had totally forgotten about that.

 

[itstrue]

I enjoy the format of the game, but I wish they would ditch the silly team names and costumes. And some of these trivia "experts' are pretty lame. "I wasn't born then"? Please.

 

[FilmCritic3000]

And some of these trivia "experts' are pretty lame. "I wasn't born then"? Please.

Thank you! I was born in 1981 and I knew those lyrics were from a Prince song. During that round, I kept wondering, "How the hell did she make it this far?"

 

[Swirl_Junkie]

I love this show, but I hate how the tie breaker has nothing to do with the category they are playing. It annoyed me last year, and it's annoying me again.

 

[MitchO]

I like the silly team names. I now have a reason to root for "Team Motherboy" because their reference is from Arrested Development.

I missed one question the entire hour. I need to find me two partners~

 

[gschrock]

Bah, I knew there was something I meant to set up to record.

 

[scooterboy]

When and where is this on?

 

[Marc]

I didn't realize this show was coming on. I'm glad I saw this thread.

And to think that I was one out fifty people who could have been on Almost Perfect Strangers 2.0.

This show is airing on VH1 over the next week as they play through the tournament.

 

[johnperkins21]

My wife and I really enjoy playing along with this show. I have a really hard time with the music ones. Either I can't recall the actual name of the song, or I can't get the tune right to sing it in my head properly.

Saying that, I still can't believe how dumb that girl was who said "I was only 2." That's really no excuse for not knowing 80's music on a pop culture quiz. And if that was going to be her excuse, why did they send her up?

In any case, great show. I'm really glad that I never deleted my SP after last season, otherwise I might have missed this.

 

[MitchO]

For those who missed it, there are 17 or 18 replays over the course of the week, including a 6 hour block of the week's episodes somewhere on the weekend.

 

[That Don Guy]

I enjoy the format of the game, but I wish they would ditch the silly team names and costumes. And some of these trivia "experts' are pretty lame. "I wasn't born then"? Please.

Unfortunately, there is a point where "the silly names and costumes" help determine who gets on the show and who gets sent home after the first day of each regional. (On the first day of qualifying, everybody takes a written test, and the teams that score a certain amount - it's not clear if it's combined score of the three players, lowest of the three, or something else - are then interviewed on the spot by the producers; the interviews have nothing to do with how much pop culture you know (that's why they had the test) and pretty much everything to do with determining how much "stage presence" a team has. Also, only the five regional winners, plus the defending champions and the team made up of three people who took the online test, automatically advance to the TV rounds; the other nine teams are chosen by the producers, and they do not have to choose the nine who know the most answers.)

Speaking of pop culture, did anyone else notice last season that there seems to be a narrow definition of the term? (For example, music questions seem to be limited to rock, pop, and rap/hip-hop; the one time they asked a country music question, the audience reacted as if the question was out of place.)

-- Don

 

[johnperkins21]

Speaking of pop culture, did anyone else notice last season that there seems to be a narrow definition of the term? (For example, music questions seem to be limited to rock, pop, and rap/hip-hop; the one time they asked a country music question, the audience reacted as if the question was out of place.)

-- Don

Country music is not "pop" music save for a few exceptions. It's only fairly recently that Country music has really broken into popular culture. If you look at the list of top album sales for the past 30 years, you'll see a very small percentage of Country albums breaking the top 20. Rap/hip-hop and R&B started their ascent to the top a little earlier which would explain why it is more prevalent in the questions. Although 90% of the music questions are indeed "pop music" related. And I haven't seen a single one regarding rock music.

 

[DevdogAZ]

For those who missed it, there are 17 or 18 replays over the course of the week, including a 6 hour block of the week's episodes somewhere on the weekend.

There are 8 total episodes - Mon-Thur this week, and Mon-Thur next week. There are tons of replays throughout that time, and then I noticed that all 8 episodes will be aired in a marathon on Saturday, Jul. 21st.

 

[smak]

I liked it. I got almost everything right, except for those 2 rap questions.

-smak-

 

[DevdogAZ]

Episode 2: Man, there were some complete morons on this episode. How do you get into a pop culture trivia tournament if you get the "deer-in-the-headlights" look when you hear that your question involves Star Wars? And how do you not know what lost item Jimmy Buffet is searching for in "Margaritaville?"

 

[FilmCritic3000]

Episode 2: Man, there were some complete morons on this episode. How do you get into a pop culture trivia tournament if you get the "deer-in-the-headlights" look when you hear that your question involves Star Wars? And how do you not know what lost item Jimmy Buffet is searching for in "Margaritaville?"

Thank you. So far this round of play has been horrible, contestant-wise. Aside from the questions you mentioned...the guy didn't know the song was "Mr. Jones"? No one remembers Ferris hacking into Mr. Rooney's office to shave several absences off of his permanent record in Ferris Bueller's Day Off? So far, I have to say the contestants last year were much more knowledgeable, IMHO. I hope the teams we'll soon be seeing over the rest of the competition are more skilled.

 

[DevdogAZ]

Thank you. So far this round of play has been horrible, contestant-wise. Aside from the questions you mentioned...the guy didn't know the song was "Mr. Jones"? No one remembers Ferris hacking into Mr. Rooney's office to shave several absences off of his permanent record in Ferris Bueller's Day Off? So far, I have to say the contestants last year were much more knowledgeable, IMHO. I hope the teams we'll soon be seeing over the rest of the competition are more skilled.

No kidding about the Ferris Bueller thing. The second Pat announced the category was about FBDO, the first thing out of my mouth was "Nine times." Then it actually was an answer to a question, and neither of them knew it! Totally lame.

 

[MitchO]

Well, to be fair, I didn't remember nine times either. I think the Death Star thing was more of a pressure issue than a knowledge one.

I have found that pop knowledge is as subjective a topic as you can find. What you assume to be common knowledge (or good pop knowledge) may not necessarily be the same to another person. For example, I always assumed that everyone could name the Beatles. I mean, I was born in 1970, my parents didn't even play music in my house growing up, but as far back as I can remember "JohnPaulGeorgeAndRingo" may as well be a word in the dictionary. Yet I find lots of people, people who of the appropriate age, people who are fans of music that directly owe lineage to the Beatles, people who are otherwise reasonably intelligent and seem to know basic world facts, who can't name the Beatles.

On Monday's show, I missed one question (Jacob's Ladder, for the record). On Tuesday's, I only knew two of the AI questions, forgot the number of absences, couldn't tell you Bonnie and Clyde from Bob and Carol and froze on Kathy Bates' name (I'd like to think I would have remembered it in time, though). Knowledge is relative, pop knowledge doubly so.