Apparently, after abandoning his earlier ambitions of ruling Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, BIYF's own Rollerballer (Dave O.) set his sights on a new target.

A legendary target.

Unbeknownst to the rest of us, Dave and his amazing knowledge of things both trivial and profound made it all the way to Jeopardy. The official word went out in early August:

Cue up the Greg Kihn Band, 'cause Dave O's on Jeopardy. Baby. Got the call yesterday. Fly out the 24th of August for taping.  Probably won't air until October, at which time I'll give you a reminder (if I don't get my ass handed to me, that is.) Answer to the number one question:  Yes, Ken Jennings is back for this season.  He may be there to crush poor Dave O, but they'll tape about 25 shows before mine, so there's a chance he could lose beforehand. Here's hoping!  Won't know until I get there. Wish me luck, Dave O

Naturally, everyone was excited and thrilled for him. If anyone among us had a good chance in such a situation, it would be Dave O. I must admit, I was somewhat disappointed to no longer have an opportunity to be his Star Trek or Music History phone-a-friend lifeline, but I got over that pretty quickly.

Time passed and Dave's August Jeopardy trip came and went. He came back a winner (at least in our book), but not a Jeopardy Champion. The evil Ken Jennings proved too powerful to overcome, at least when confronted with two challengers whose intellects helped cancel each other out. Evidently, Dave had been close enough to taste it, but not close enough to win it. Ah, bitter dregs... The rest of us would just have to wait to see what had actually transpired.

The blow was somewhat softened for our Rollerballer, however, by his dinner with Pheoberella's uncle following the taping of the show. Pheoberella's uncle, for those that don't already know, is the one and only Dr. Demento. That's his professional name, by the way, not a BIYF name. If he'd like it to be his BIYF name, just let me know. I'd be delighted to hook him up with a BIYF login and a DrDemento@biyf.com email forwarder.

My understanding is that at one point during the evening meal, Dave mentioned that he felt like going home and putting on that Weird Al parody song, I Lost On Jeopardy. The good Doctor looked at him and replied, "I wasn't going to bring it up, but I do have it out in the car if you'd like to hear it."

So. Cool.

Dave O.'s syndicated nation-wide debut occured on November 9, 2004, not in October as originally thought. Upon checking their local listings for a time and channel in their area most people found, unsurprisingly, that Jeopardy aired during the middle of the day. Thanks to TiVo and/or sacrificed vacation time, delayed viewings were scheduled in both the Twin Cities and Cedar Rapids. Dusty's hosted the Twin Cities group while Clan Trogdor hosted the CR contingent. A Special Theater Bootleg Edition of the show was created at the Cedar Rapids event. A link to both that and the real show might be found somewhere on this page. Or not, you'll just have to click around and see. Quicktime would be required if they are, however.

"A graduate student from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dave Oosterhuis..."

The show started off well. Dave was the first contestant introduced and got off to an early lead. For a while it was just Dave and Ken Jennings while the third player tried in vain for a chance to respond. He eventually caught on, much to our dismay.

Observing the three contestants lined up at their stations, NotOfThisEarth neatly summed up the one area where Dave was the undisputed Champion. "Look at them; Dork, Dork, and a Man With Style." This was echoed by the rest of the CR group who felt the third contestant was applying to play Mini-Me to Ken Jennings' Doctor Evil. Just check out the end credits of the show for a side-by-side style comparison. No Contest.

Rollerballer takes charge.

As you can tell from watching the bootleg edition, the highlight of the show for many of the Cedar Rapids contingent occurred following the first break while Dave was still in the lead. At this point, we not only got to hear Alex Trebek say Beer Is Your Friend, but he and Dave briefly gave the Collective's annual festival a little airtime. Go Dave! Click on the image below to see this snippet of the show. Quicktime required.

"Beer is your friend?"

By the end of the first round, Dave had slipped to second place due to a well-timed Daily Double by Jeff Hoppes, the third contestant. Ken Jennings had slipped to a surprising (and encouraging) third place.

Jennings turned up the heat in Double Jeopardy, however, and started his climb toward the top. Dave, by his own admission, had a lag at this point where he became entranced by the experience and had to shake off the desire to passively sit there and watch the show go by just as he might at home. Fighting through this, he aquitted himself well and reached a point where he trailed the leader, Jennings, by $9,800. The end was near, though no one knew it yet.

Dave found a Daily Double.
We trace the fall below:

Confident, serene: "I'll wager 10,000."


"Oh my. Do I know any regions of Spain?"


"But what about the pain, Leonard?"

While Dave did go on to recover better than one might expect, that $10,000 blow was nearly impossible to survive. He doubled his remaining $3,400 in Final Jeopardy, but had to compete with two contestants that had deeper pockets at the end and who also knew the correct answer.

It was a glorious battle. Worthy of song. Evil Bastard Jennings.

Below, we can see what Dave did take away from his Jeopardy experience: A Commemorative Photo with Alex Trebek.

"Of course you realize, Dave, that if you had worn tan pants and a blue blazer,
I would have given you the Granada Daily Double question about the song."

Dave also made it on to the Jeopardy site, albeit indirectly, with his final correct response:

"all 3 contestants"

BIYF.com salutes Rollerballer for his impressive showing. If The Seasons teaches us anything, it is that some will prepare for migration, while others fail to migrate. It was so very, very close.

Shatner would be proud.