Dang this show is so fixed. - Win Ben Stein's Money (1997) Discussion

[–] Moonlighty 19 years ago

Are you just rambling for the sake of rambling? I doubt the show is fixed, but if you any actual proof, by all means share it. And don't use all caps!

Weaseling out of things is good. It's what separates us from the other animals....except weasels

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[–] lasherxl 19 years ago

Tj is just a bloody idiot, if you look at their other posts they are a mixture of nonsensical banter and obscene idiocy.

Win Ben Stiens money was not fake, he's a very smart man.. if you would listen to him speak you would realise this TJ.. but obviously someone has a wee bit of an inferiority complex.

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] nickh-10 18 years ago

Yeah, whats up with that guy? Crazy talk....

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[–] queman628 18 years ago

Thanks to Herbert Stempel and Charles Van Dorn for their testimony in the the "21" scandal in 1958, congress passed legislation that no quiz show could be fixed. Prior to this, there was no such legislation. This has been the way it was for almost 50 years. Any game or quiz show in violation has to face serious concenquences and fines.

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[–] dougmcdill_198 18 years ago

I don't think it's fixed, I think Ben Stein is just a lot smarter than most of the contestants. Look at his biography, someone with average intelligence doesn't usually go to Yale and or work as a presidential speech writer.

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[–] amurphy2 18 years ago

Ben Stein is just naturally smart!

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[–] orangemike-1 18 years ago

If he's so smart, how come I was able to tie him? (And so many other folks have tied or beaten him?) Yale takes all kinds; and God knows working for Nixon might not seem like a very smart move, then or now!

The guy with the "it's all fixed" is just a crank (and not a very literate one, at that).

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[–] Sabinfujin 17 years ago

By "I was able to tie him", do you mean you knew the answers from following along at home, or were you actually in the show?

If you were in the show, do you know which episode number it was? I'm really curious to see that show now :)

I highly doubt WBSM was fixed as Ben Stein is a very intelligent man. But I also doubt every quiz/reality show actually follows the legislation passed in 1958. Ever seen Beat The Geeks? Yeah.....

And I don't mean "fixed" as in they already decided the winner and it's just scripted. No, I mean fixed as in some people are told the answers in advance, or have answer cards, etc, and they make their own choices.

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[–] orangemike-1 17 years ago

I was on the show, season six: episode #6031, originally broadcast 6 May 2002; Sal was co-host by then.

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[–] gerrythree 17 years ago

As I looked over a 1998 tape of a Comedy Central marathon of Win Ben Stein's Money, I saw a slight pattern. There almost always seem to be questions relating to either fairly recent politics or history in the challenge round. There are no questions relating to recent stuff involving music or movies, areas where Ben Stein's knowledge base is apparently lacking.
As to quiz shows not being fixed because there is a law, there are also laws against speeding and passing red lights. But if no one is looking, no one gets caught.

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[–] nancymilholland 15 years ago

As a former contestant, a backup contestant, and friend of a contestant: I can tell you with impunity - the show was in no way 'fixed'. Unless of course by 'fixed' you mean neutered? and that I wouldn't know. As the show was produced in the nineties, it was pre-reality tv. Scripting game shows: having to hire more writers than necessary, would defeat the purpose of game shows as financially lucrative ventures. Everyone knows that people's innate idiocy (mine included) is free, entertaining, and makes for spontaneous outbursts no writer could come up with.
Ben Stein, like him or not, is an erudite, logical thinker and has a broad sense of humor. Though I don't know the actual statistics on how many times someone else won his money, I don't beleive it was all that often.

In general the average person is just not THAT good at acting to pull off 'told answers' or are able to read teleprompers to get their answers from.
Why does someone bleed over sour grapes? It's just entertainment. One solution to this problem might be to try and get on a trivia game show yourself. It's not that easy, and they are straight up about it. But then it's always easier to denigrate that which we fear than to step up to it and say, 'maybe this is just something I can't do' and then move on.

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[–] kb01 11 years ago

I imagine Ben Stein being used to being on camera helped out a lot. He may not be more knowledgeable than the contestants but being comfortable in front of an audience, on camera, would definitely be to his advantage.

I'm pretty good at WBSM and Jeopardy at home but I'm sure I'd be slaughtered if I had to do it on screen.

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[–] burning_midnightoil 17 years ago

If you look at the trivia for Ferris Buler's Day Off, it says that his lesson was completely unscripted. he is an expert in it so they let him plan his own speach because he knew more than the writers

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[–] Madam_Persephone 17 years ago

It wasn't because he knew more than the writers. Everyone on set thought he was funny so they wanted him to adlib a scene.

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[–] bjmarg 17 years ago

I was also a previous contestant. Definitely not fixed; Ben spent most of the second round barely ringing in before me and watching me get frustrated b/c I knew the same answers he did, and he kept asking me, "You knew that one, didn't you?" If it is fixed, it's that he just has the timing down perfectly to ring in and beat his opponents in the second round. The truth is the man STUDIED like a demon, reading everything he could get his hands on, so he could win.

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[–] oakmot 17 years ago

I was on the show too. It's not fixed in the 21 Questions way, but I wouldn't be surprised if they aimed the questions towards Ben's expertise. Watching the show before I went on, I noticed patterns of the questions they asked - for example, they seemed to love Marie Curie, and asked questions about her a lot.

Ben is a really smart guy and this was an interesting take on the traditional game show.

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[–] zhender1 15 years ago

At least 2 geeks from beat the geeks were contestants on it, the fat one for sure, who I also saw on Greed (and other scripted television shows), so I dunno if somethings up with that, they picked him for beat the geeks because of his appearances on previous gameshows, or hes just really lucky at getting picked for gameshows.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] FizzyGillespie 15 years ago

No, he's just from a generation that didn't see being a moron as a positive. Although I hear that he used to write Nixon's speeches using all caps...

Somewhere along the line, it became okay to be an idiot. And society celebrates it. That's why today's game shows have multiple choice questions. Are you kidding me? "Deal or No Deal" you just have to grunt and point. Pretty soon, flinging poo will be a game show. In other words, just because YOU (who confuses "lose" and "loose") don't know the answers doesn't mean he doesn't either.

I was watching a few minutes of 1 vs. 100 today on GSN. The question was:

How many six packs would you need to buy to have the required 99 bottles of beer on the wall?

A. Less than 15.
B. Equal to 15
C. More than 15

And the moron had to "Poll the Mob."

If you can't multiply 6 x 15, you're barely functioning as an individual.

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[–] heavenly_leigh20 10 years ago

Got any proof of this wild accusation? That you are yelling for some reason?

Don't call it a comeback, I been here since 2001 yo!

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