The Dog Days of Wednesday Night Trivia!

Wednesday night’s first session of 2018 welcomed 104 teams across across 12 venues:

ROUND 1:

Wednesday’s opening round began with questions on the events of the Olympic decathlon, celebrities with Biblical names, and the origin of the film term trailer.  Coming attractions used to be shown AFTER the feature, but theater owners soon found that to be an ineffective marketing ploy.  We finished the first round with its most difficult wagering and bonus question:

–> The PBS series “American Masters” produced a biography of this creator of a TV show that premiered in 1959. The biography is subtitled “Submitted for Your Approval”.  For your wager, name this celebrity.

2-POINT BONUS: This man co-wrote which 1968 feature film that spawned an entire series?

The catchphrase “Submitted for your approval” was often heard on “The Twilight Zone”, created (and hosted) by Rod Serling:

Just under half of our teams earned points here, with only 14% of our teams tacking on the two bonus points by knowing that Serling co-wrote the sci-fi classic “Planet of the Apes”.  The perfect rounds hinged on that final question, as seven teams began their night with 36 points.

ROUND 2:

After two weeks of Christmas-themed audio questions, we returned to the standard fare this week, asking our teams to identify music groups with alliterative names.  The field had no trouble with Culture Club and Foo Fighters, but Passion Pit (and their song “Sleepyhead”) was far more obscure, leading to just 12 teams earning a two-point bonus.  Most of our teams were on cruise control over the remainder of the second round, answering questions on the Mojave Desert, Cleopatra, and the numerous uses of the term phone booth.  We closed with this query on James Bond films:

–> Because of legal disputes, the longest gap between the releases of two consecutive James Bond films was nearly six and a half years.  Name either one of the two actors who portrayed Bond on either end of this gap.

These two films were released respectively in 1989 and 1995:

Exactly one-quarter of our teams picked up bonus points here with both correct answers: Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.  Once again, seven teams swept the second round with a perfect score.

HALFTIME:

Wednesday’s halftime page offered up photos of Funko Dolls juxtaposed with a matching section on international landmarks.  We saw an overall average score of 17.3 points, with 16% of our teams recording a perfect 20 points.  Here are Wednesday’s top scores after the first half:

• It’s Mueller Time (Quinn’s):  90
• Give Us Your Beer Money (Applebee’s):  89
• Scargo (Quinn’s):  89
• Teachers (Bennigan’s – Frederick):  89
• Unfrozen Caveman Lawyers (Clover Theater):  89
• Flight Level Awesome (Belles’):  89

ROUND 3:

As usual, our third round was by far the most difficult, with none of the five questions registering more than a 65% correct answer rate.  We quizzed our teams on the Alien and Sedition Acts, a controversial piece of legislation signed by John Adams.  Later, we asked about these two former teammates that will soon find themselves enshired in Cooperstown:

We followed with the most difficult wagering question of the night, in the category of Comedy Troupes:

–> Featuring original members Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, and Amy Poehler, which comedy troupe created two TV shows: one airing on Comedy Central in the late 1990’s, the other airing on Seeso beginning in 2015?

Only 13% of our teams earned points here with this correct response:

Two teams recorded a perfect third round score: Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s) and Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg).

ROUND 4:

Our final round began with an intriguing question on the topic of box office figures:

–> Because the official title of “E.T.” includes the words “The Extra Terrestrial”, which other two films are tied for having the shortest title among the 100 highest-grossing films of all-time at the domestic box office?

About half of our teams earned wagering points with either one of the two correct answers, while we doled out bonus points to just 12% of the field, after they arrived at the two correct answers of “Up” and “It”.  Later, we asked about the Billy Joel song which is named for Pennsylvania’s third-largest city.  While many teams easily came up with the correct answer of “Allentown”, only seven teams earned bonus points by knowing the album on which this song originally appeared:

Three teams finished their night with a perfect final round score of 36 points: Fat Kids Are Hard to Kidnap (Valley Grill), Roaming Gnomes (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg), and Three Fingers Worth (Furnace).  Here are Wednesday’s top overall scores heading into the final question:

• Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  162
• Flight Level Awesome (Belles’):  161
• Fat Kids Are Hard to Kidnap (Valley Grill):  159
• Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s):  159
• Shakeweight (Valley Grill):  159

FINAL QUESTION (50.0% success rate):

–> Though he is also associated with a certain animal, which 10^th century Catholic saint is the patron saint of skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and mountaineering?

Exactly half of our teams turned in the correct response of Saint Bernard!  Congratulations to Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg), Flight Level Awesome (Belles’), Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s), and Shakeweight (Valley Grill), as the only teams to earn the Perfect 21 on Wednesday by answering all wagering questions correctly.  These were your top overall scores from Wednesday:

• Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s):  171
• It’s Mueller Time (Quinn’s):  170
• Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  168
• Flight Level Awesome (Belles’):  166
• Gangnam Style (Quinn’s):  163
• Plugging the A Gap (Barefoot Bernie’s):  162
• Lone Pine Mall Rates (Barefoot Bernie’s):  162
• Stephen Hawking’s Karaoke Machine (Memories):  162
• Sexual Chocolate (Memories):  162
• Fat Kids Are Hard to Kidnap (Valley Grill):  161

TONIGHT’S WINNERS:

Valley Grill in Middletown, MD:  Fat Kids Are Hard to Kidnap  (Next week’s first category: “Skyrim”)