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The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: SamPrainito on February 11, 2010, 10:17:55 PM

Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: SamPrainito on February 11, 2010, 10:17:55 PM
http://perfectshowcasebid.com/ (http://\"http://perfectshowcasebid.com/\")

Gotta be a short book.  Isn't the story pretty much "I got the answer from Ted.  The end."
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: TLEberle on February 11, 2010, 10:19:51 PM
Evil geniuses? Really? I've called the price-memorizers many things. Not evil.
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: clemon79 on February 11, 2010, 10:57:52 PM
[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'235740\' date=\'Feb 11 2010, 07:19 PM\']Evil geniuses? Really? I've called the price-memorizers many things. Not evil.[/quote]
What a 'bag. And he had his niece ghost-write it for him? Klassy.
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: Neumms on February 11, 2010, 11:15:41 PM
[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'235743\' date=\'Feb 11 2010, 10:57 PM\']What a 'bag. And he had his niece ghost-write it for him? Klassy.[/quote]

Did you read those excerpts? If your niece was Edna Ferber or Willa Cather or Jacqueline Susann, wouldn't you ask for a little ghostwriting?
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: TLEberle on February 11, 2010, 11:21:48 PM
[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'235743\' date=\'Feb 11 2010, 07:57 PM\']What a 'bag. And he had his niece ghost-write it for him? Klassy.[/quote]I will absolutely call him a 'bag. $17.95 may be the actual retail price, but I wouldn't pay a quarter for it in the remainder bin.
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: Matt Ottinger on February 11, 2010, 11:22:48 PM
Good lord, you should spend some time at his family website.  Lotsa fun there too.  Even his dog is telling us to order the book.

/Slightly annoyed he has twice as many Emmys as I do.
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: TLEberle on February 11, 2010, 11:36:45 PM
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'235750\' date=\'Feb 11 2010, 08:22 PM\']/Slightly annoyed he has twice as many Emmys as I do.[/quote]What other TV stuff do you do besides QB?
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: SamPrainito on February 11, 2010, 11:43:51 PM
It's one thing to cheat and get away with it, but to write a book bragging about it?

He's so far beyond douchebag it's not even funny.  I cast my vote for "douche nozzle"!
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: WilliamPorygon on February 11, 2010, 11:59:57 PM
[quote name=\'SamPrainito\' post=\'235753\' date=\'Feb 11 2010, 11:43 PM\']It's one thing to cheat and get away with it, but to write a book bragging about it?

He's so far beyond douchebag it's not even funny.  I cast my vote for "douche nozzle"![/quote]

He didn't cheat any more than Michael Larson cheated — he (or more accurately, Ted) merely took advantage of the fact that all of the prizes in the showcase were ones that had been on the show before.

That said, yeah, he does seem to be quite an asshat IRL.
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: Matt Ottinger on February 12, 2010, 12:17:14 AM
[quote name=\'WilliamPorygon\' post=\'235755\' date=\'Feb 11 2010, 11:59 PM\']He didn't cheat any more than Michael Larson cheated[/quote]
Exactly.  It surprises me that some people do indeed use the word "cheated" to describe what he did.  Of course, one of the things that makes him so gosh darn annoying is that he takes the occasional "cheated" and turns it into "diabolical scheme perpetrated by a family of evil geniuses."

I've seen all I need to see of his writing style from his website, and I know it's not worth $17.95.  Still, I have to admit being curious now about how he explains what happened that fateful day, and whether, for example, the name "Ted" even appears in his book.

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'235751\' date=\'Feb 11 2010, 11:36 PM\']What other TV stuff do you do besides QB?[/quote]
As far as broadcast goes, these days, that's about it.  Believe me, the thing about the Emmys was said in jest.  My QuizBusters Emmy (actually for the middle school show QB Jr) is a local Emmy, like his are.  Most regional chapters pass those things out like Skittles, and they're worth just about as much even though you pay some ridiculous entry fee to be considered.  I know a guy who won something like seven Emmys all for the same three-minute news feature.  WKAR doesn't even submit entries as a station anymore.  Admittedly, I'm happy to have one, it's a nice conversation piece.  But this is that conversation.  I certainly don't pose with mine.  

/I also don't say my dog wrote my website.
//Don't have a dog, and only a couple of my cats even know HTML.
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: TLEberle on February 12, 2010, 12:37:15 AM
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'235756\' date=\'Feb 11 2010, 09:17 PM\']Believe me, the thing about the Emmys was said in jest.[/quote] I wasn't; I was very interested.

Quote
//Don't have a dog, and only a couple of my cats even know HTML.
This would be the point where you say that the other cats designed a Myspace page, indistinguishable from the litter box...

Quote
Still, I have to admit being curious now about how he explains what happened that fateful day, and whether, for example, the name "Ted" even appears in his book.
If what I've heard is correct, he happened to be in the right part of the line at the right time, and listened to the guy that knew the answers. Having just worked on several teams that were writing business proposals, I can see how Terry could expand on a single paragraph into a book.
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: chad1m on February 12, 2010, 12:49:18 AM
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'235756\' date=\'Feb 12 2010, 12:17 AM\']Most regional chapters pass those things out like Skittles, and they're worth just about as much even though you pay some ridiculous entry fee to be considered.[/quote]Are you allowed to request a bag of Skittles in lieu of an award?
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: clemon79 on February 12, 2010, 12:54:46 AM
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'235756\' date=\'Feb 11 2010, 09:17 PM\']"diabolical scheme perpetrated by a family of evil geniuses."[/quote]
Especially when one of those "evil geniuses" was the reason he pulled it off in the first place.
Quote
Still, I have to admit being curious now about how he explains what happened that fateful day, and whether, for example, the name "Ted" even appears in his book.
Fortunately, one of the "Barker is my Daddy!" types we have around here will buy it and answer those questions for us, so I can spend my eighteen bones on hookers and blow like I always do. :)
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: BrandonFG on February 12, 2010, 07:39:42 AM
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'235756\' date=\'Feb 12 2010, 12:17 AM\']Most regional chapters pass those things out like Skittles, and they're worth just about as much even though you pay some ridiculous entry fee to be considered.[/quote]
Reminds me of a joke I heard from a recent episode of American Dad. Stan has become addicted to crack (it's a Seth MacFarlane show, were you expecting Frasier*?), and tries to pawn the local Emmy of his neighbors, a local news team.

NEIGHBORS: Don't take that! It's...
(simultaneously)
NEIGHBOR 1: Priceless!
NEIGHBOR 2: Worthless!

*Not to say MacFarlane and Company haven't pulled off some witty good one-liners themselves...

/Funnier if you watch it instead of deal with my half-a$$ed write-up.

Oh, and back to the book...it reads like bad fan-fiction. The two pages did nothing to really compel me, or maybe it's just I don't find a story of a perfect showcase bidder* to be that compelling.

*Asterisk the same way Barry Bonds's * record-breaking home run ball was marked with one.
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: colonial on February 12, 2010, 09:31:25 AM
At least SEVENTEEN chapters on this?!?  Telling the story of the perfect showcase would be worth the size of that "Famous Jewish Sports Legends" leaflet in the movie "Airplane!"

JD
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: davidbod on February 12, 2010, 09:53:02 AM
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'235756\' date=\'Feb 12 2010, 05:17 AM\']//Don't have a dog, and only a couple of my cats even know HTML.[/quote]

Do they know purrl?

*runs*
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: Matt Ottinger on February 12, 2010, 10:30:05 AM
[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'235760\' date=\'Feb 12 2010, 12:37 AM\']
Quote
Still, I have to admit being curious now about how he explains what happened that fateful day, and whether, for example, the name "Ted" even appears in his book.
If what I've heard is correct, he happened to be in the right part of the line at the right time, and listened to the guy that knew the answers. [/quote]
Yes, that's what happened.  I'd still be interested in what this tool says happened.
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: BrandonFG on February 12, 2010, 02:11:54 PM
One more person (http://\"http://redlightnaps.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/barneyontpir1.jpg\") not buying the book...
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: clemon79 on February 12, 2010, 02:18:29 PM
Missed this the first time...
[quote name=\'Neumms\' post=\'235748\' date=\'Feb 11 2010, 08:15 PM\']or Jacqueline Susann[/quote]
The first reference I see in there to "turgid manmeat," and I'm outta there.

/reading the second excerpt, I'm THRILLED that the 'bag lost sleep over it
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: Mike Tennant on February 12, 2010, 04:21:41 PM
Also available (http://\"http://www.amazon.com/Cause-Effects-Surrounding-Showcase-Televisions/dp/1934938998/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266009464&sr=1-1\") at Amazon.  134 pages.  Due out May 3.  (Can you stand the wait?)
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: Mr. Armadillo on February 12, 2010, 04:33:12 PM
Darn.  I was hoping to get one for a birthday present, but my birthday's on May 1.

Oh well; I guess I'll survive.
Title: Perfect Showcase Winner book
Post by: TLEberle on February 14, 2010, 05:00:57 PM
I can't believe I just thought of this, but I did. If you own either Brainiac or Prisoner of Trebekistan, pick them up and read for a while. Ken's book is entertaining because he weaves trivia in and out of so many tales, plus his story of being on Jeopardy for that long. The story of how Ken nearly lost on his first day because he stayed too close to quiz bowl convention was an interesting one. Bob Harris's tale is more interesting because he's probably lost more games of Jeopardy! than anyone in Western Civilization.

Terry's story may be interesting to some people, but it was something that happened on a single day. If we got to read about what happened during the stopdown, it might be worth a little bit. But the situation belongs in a Malcolm Gladwell book more than an entire book.