QUARANTINE BLOG # 60

May 29, 2020

Twenty-One was the quiz show that toppled The $64,000 Question, and almost erased quiz shows from television.  Two contestants entered isolation booths and donned pairs of headphones.  They could not see or hear each other or the audience, and in the isolation booth they did not know what their competitor had scored.  The game was played in rounds, with each challenger selecting a question worth from 1 to 11 points.  Higher-value questions were more difficult, and questions often had several parts.  The goal was to earn a total of 21 points.

The initial broadcast of Twenty-One was played honestly, with no manipulation of the game by the producers.  That broadcast was, in the words of producer Dan Enright, “a dismal failure.”  The first two contestants ended with a score of 0-0.   When the show’s sponsor threatened to pull out, Twenty-One became rigged, contestants were given the answers and told when to lose.

Charles Van Doren, a college professor, was introduced on Twenty-One on November 28, 1956, as a challenger to then-champion Herbert Stempel.  Van Doren and Stempel  played to a series of four 21–21 games, with audience interest building with each passing week and each new game, until finally the clean-cut, “All American Boy” newcomer was able to outlast his opponent (Stempel was told to dress in rumpled suits and the air conditioning was turned off in his booth so he would sweat, appearing to struggle for the answers.

Van Doren’s victory began one of the longest and most storied runs of any champion in the history of television game shows.  His popularity soared as a result of his success on Twenty-One, earning him a place on the cover of Time magazine.  He was finally beaten on March 11, 1957 – a run of almost 4 months.  Longer than Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings, but then Ken didn’t cheat.

Grumbling contestants and awakened consciences led to a federal investigation which almost eliminated game shows from television.  The disappearance of the quiz shows gave rise to television’s next big phenomenon – Westerns.

None of the people directly involved in rigging any of the quiz shows faced any penalty more severe than suspended sentences, but many hosts and producers found themselves frozen out of television for many years.  Van Doren, who died last April,  was not required to return the $128,000 he won, but he was fired from his $50,000 a year job with NBC the day after he testified, and from his position as professor at Columbia University the day of his testimony.  There is a great article in The New Yorker written by Charles Van Doren – he tells his own story: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/07/28/all-the-answers

In 1999, an attempt was made to revive The $64,000 Question as The $640,000 Question, but that project was abandoned in favor of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?  That show became popular featuring Regis Philbin’s monochrome shirts and ties and the three lifelines.

👉 A patient was treated at Augusta’s Doctor’s Hospital in the emergency room who showed no signs or symptoms of COVID-19.  While being treated, the patient began to show symptoms consistent with the virus.  The patient was then isolated, tested and found to be positive for coronavirus.  At that point, the hospital began testing anyone who had contact with the patient.  Nine team members tested positive, and are under home quarantine for 14 days.

👉  Walt Disney World has announced plans to reopen July 11.  Disney World visitors will undergo a temperature check and be required to wear face masks.  The parks will provide masks to people who do not bring their own.  Social distancing markers will be visible throughout the theme parks.  Disney’s cast members will enforce the rules, including the mask requirement, as part of a “social distancing squad.”  Park capacity will also be limited, and not all attractions will reopen immediately.  I did not learn if park fees will be lower because of reduced attractions.

👉  The tort lawyers are out in force again.  This time the target is Zantac (ranitidine), a once popular treatment for heartburn, acid indigestion, sour stomach, and Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease.  In April the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requested manufacturers to  withdraw all prescription and over-the-counter ranitidine drugs from the market because of a contaminant in the manufacturing process that has been linked to cancer.   Zantaclawsuitanswers.com says just fill out an online form and see if you qualify for enormous financial compensation.

I am not making light of the potential impact the drug may have on the health of any individual – I took Zantac daily for 3 years.  I do get very upset at the ambulance chasers who tell you how much money they are making for you – one call, that’s all – and no where in the fine print of their TV ads do they tell viewers that they take between 33% and 50% of whatever award you may receive.

Regular blog readers may remember my earlier account of being put in a class-action suit because of an eBay purchase, and receiving an award of 3 cents.  Actually, it was 47 cents, but at the time it cost 44 cents to mail a letter, and they subtracted the price of the stamp from my bounteous compensation.  I’m glad that wasn’t today – I’d owe them 8 cents.  I guess I am being naive to think companies would confess their mistakes and justly compensate sufferers, but there has to be a better way than class action law suits!

👉  On this day in 1953, at 11:30 a.m. Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest.  The first recorded attempt to climb Everest was made in 1921 by a British expedition.  A storm forced them to abort that ascent, but one the mountaineers, George Leigh Mallory, gave us a classic reason for doing something.  When later asked by a journalist why he wanted to climb Everest, he said, “Because it’s there.”

Setting up a series of camps at stops along the ascent to become acclimated, Hillary’s expedition moved up the mountain in April and May 1953.  On May 29, Tenzing and Hillary, after a freezing, sleepless night, reached the South Summit by 9 a.m.  Wedging himself in a crack in the face, Hillary inched himself up, threw down a rope, and Tenzing followed.  At about 11:30 a.m., the two climbers arrived at the top of the world.


👉  These are dark times.

In Minneapolis, rioters are burning and looting over the death of George Floyd who tragically and senselessly and needlessly died while in police custody with one officer’s knee on Floyd’s neck.

In Iran, 14-year-old Romina Ashrafi Romina Ashraf was beheaded by her father in an “honor killing” because she eloped with an older man.

In the United States the number of reported coronavirus cases is approaching 2 million and more than 100,000 of us have died because of it.  No matter what the violence, not matter how people are dying, the dark times seem only to continue, never to abate.  I love the words of Daniel 2:22: “God knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him.”

If you are experiencing dark times, God is there in the darkness with you, and it isn’t dark to Him.  He holds both you, your mysteries, your questions in His gracious hands.  Because He does, you can find rest even when darkness has entered your door.

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