Top 3 Most Dominant Contestants in History

[whewfan]

I think John Hatten was one of the first contestants they brought back once they expanded the maximum number of wins on Blockbusters. They went to where his house was still being built, and someone asked him if he\'d be willing to come back to play, and he quipped something like \"Well, I won\'t burn my house down again, but yes, I would!\"

[Jimmy Owen]

No \'50s era champs in this thread.

[beatlefreak84]

The first three I immediately thought of when I read the question were:

 

1.  Ken Jennings

2.  Thom McKee

3.  Alice Conkwright

 

I think everyone\'s covered the reasons for picking Ken and Thom earlier in the thread, but I went with Alice Conkwright because she did two things no other contestant did on $ale:  She won the lot in only six shows, and she consistently obliterated opponents with scores well over $100.  You could see the dejected looks on their faces as, once it got to the speed round, they knew they were just playing for the \"cash in front of you.\"

 

Anthony

[DoorNumberFour]

I don\'t know if it fits the list seeing as it\'s an Australian contestant on an Australian show, but...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Jones_(Australian_politician)\'>Barry Jones. The winner of 208 episodes of Pick-A-Box spanning a period of eight years.

[Thunder]

Mr. Beverly yelled out \"Ruth Horowitz\" from the attic.

[clemon79]

and he quipped something like \"Well, I won\'t burn my house down again, but yes, I would!\"

 

I would really like to know a source for this, especially with the \"something like\" in there.

[Matt Ottinger]

Mr. Beverly yelled out \"Ruth Horowitz\" from the attic.

 

Actually, that was me. The names you guys have mentioned are all just fine.  It\'s basically Ken Jennings, Thom McKee and whatever personal third you want to mention.  And I pick her. Concentration has so much more luck associated with it than any of the Q&A games that a string of wins on a show like that ought to count for a little extra.

 

And sure, the one thing we\'ll never know is what kind of longevity streak Brad Rutter, Jerome Vered or any number of others could have rung up given the opportunity.

[PYLdude]

No \'50s era champs in this thread.

Because most of their reigns weren\'t legit.

[TLEberle]

If it was so easy to do it, why did nobody come close to his streak afterwards? I mean, takes endurance to keep going as long as he did. Not everybody has that.

I would think McKee being over $100,000 ahead of his closest competitor reinforces his spot in the top 2.

Easy questions or not, you still had to do a fair amount of work to get to six figures. Never mind doing it three times.

For one, the secret category was replaced by the $1,000 question, so it was much harder for the pot to grow to the stratospheric levels that it did in 1980. For two, lots of the red categories allowed both players to contend for the box, and thus it opened up the game considerably.

Just like when you carried on about Jeopardy doubling the money and how it shouldn\'t affect the all-time statistics, the same is true for Tic Tac Dough: the game changed, and that meant that those long winning streaks were much harder to run together.

The guy who won twenty games of Password; does that include tournament play?

[PYLdude]

Just like when you carried on about Jeopardy doubling the money and how it shouldn\'t affect the all-time statistics, the same is true for Tic Tac Dough: the game changed, and that meant that those long winning streaks were much harder to run together.

But doesn\'t that just reinforce my point? A win streak like that is just so hard to put together and keep going regardless of the way the game is set up- which was my primary point all along.


Also, wasn\'t the record setting pot McKee took down later broken by about ten grand during the era in which you cite? I seem to remember that happening toward the end of the 83-84 season.

[TimK2003]

 

No \'50s era champs in this thread.

Because most of their reigns weren\'t legit.

 

 

One person that could possibly qualify was Dr. Joyce Brothers, who legitimately answered boxing questions on the $64,000 Question. 

[Kevin Prather]

One person that could possibly qualify was Dr. Joyce Brothers, who legitimately answered boxing questions on the $64,000 Question. 

I don\'t have a source, and I could be talking ex-rectum here, but I think I heard the producers threw her hardball questions to make her lose, only for her to thwart them by answering correctly. If that\'s true, she absolutely gets the nod for dominant 50s player.


And I\'m gonna throw a new show into this thread and give respect to Keefe Ferrandini for her accomplishments on The $100,000 Pyramid. Winning the WC three times while giving the clues is an unmatched feat as far as I know (at least two other contestants have done it twice), and to win the big money in such dominant fashion against really tough material is quite impressive.

[Matt Ottinger]

 

One person that could possibly qualify was Dr. Joyce Brothers, who legitimately answered boxing questions on the $64,000 Question. 

I don\'t have a source, and I could be talking ex-rectum here, but I think I heard the producers threw her hardball questions to make her lose, only for her to thwart them by answering correctly. If that\'s true, she absolutely gets the nod for dominant 50s player.

 

We\'ve talked about this several times before.  The Brothers story is mired in contradiction and confusion, but there is certainly circumstantial evidence that her run wasn\'t as clean as once believed.  In Joseph Stone\'s Prime Time and Misdemeanors, the author points out that the producers used boxing expert Nat Fleischer to help develop the questions, unaware that Fleischer was a close friend of Joyce\'s father, and that Fleischer had at the very least helped prepare Joyce initially on how to become a boxing expert.


Stone wonders (with some validity) how somebody who wasn\'t a true expert but instead simply memorized data could possibly continue to answer questions that were specifically designed to trip her up, unless she was tipped off in advance.  For his part, Fleischer always managed to be unavailable for questioning.

[SuperMatch93]

Ken Jennings, Thom McKee, and Cary Young (even though he lost a match in the NBC $ale international tournament to Tim Holleran).

[PYLdude]

Cary Young

I would guess we\'re looking for contestants who made bank solely on American shows. Cary Young wouldn\'t count.


/are we?