Holy shit, we finally found a clip. Although I would definitely like to see one of her arguing with the judges. And that definitely is the same Barbara from "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". Do you have the clip where she was briefly seen in the winners circle on Pyramid?
There's an article in there detailing the experience of one contestant who happened to play (and lose) against her. She's mentioned briefly, but nothing really interesting.
After hearing some of these stories about her, she sounds like one of those people who has to be right all the time. I've met people like her. When everything goes their way, they're positively giddy like Barbara when she wins. Challenge them and they turn into "I want to see your manager". The author of the Jeopardy thread made what I consider a fair point about her behavior:
In the clip she does get kind of overly excited at her victory. Many contestants get that way, and it is usually sweet and endearing, but it is definitely compatible with the idea that she was obnoxious and forceful. And also an odd reaction for someone who was secretly already an experienced game show champ by that time. I wonder if an obsessive need to win was her primary motivation, even more than the money.
It definitely seems like she was very dramatic on Millionaire just judging by the pictures. Barbara herself claimed that in the middle of her $32,000 question, she took a bathroom break DURING the question. And the executive producer at the time Michael Davies wanted her to answer quickly or leave the show.
She definitely seems more animated than most Jeopardy contestants I've seen and not in a bad way. However, she's winning here, so there's nothing for her to argue about. A user on the Jeopardy message board where this was posted had some info about a few of her other game show appearances. She also used the alias Shari Mason.
The video that used to be on YouTube has since been taken down, but in 1982 a woman called Shari Mason was on The New $25,000 Pyramid. She argued with the judges saying "library" should be accepted for "libra". Evidently Shari was also on Blockbusters in 1981, and argued with the judges saying "Ganges" is pronounced "ganja".
Although the clip of her arguing isn't up anymore, a very brief clip of her in the Winners Circle is here at 1:28. Bet you anything that's Barbara Lowe.
With some confirmation that she did in fact argue rulings on other games shows, I now have little doubt that she acted a complete ass on Jeopardy as well. I think it's interesting that in all cases, her issue seemed to be with pronunciation errors.
She sounds utterly infuriating and I don't really blame viewers for writing in asking where the hell they found this woman. I probably would have been one of them.
There is a guy mentioned on the clip upload's description that says
H/T to Robair Mackey who captured this in his legendary clip tape.
and I did some digging and found one website that mentioned him as a thank you for trading game show clips with him and links Robair Mackey's Website I would check around the game show trading scene and see what people may have. Robair Mackey seems to also be on old usnet google sites for game shows as well.
Barbara's first four appearances have been added to the Jeopardy archive! No video footage, but very interesting nonetheless. Some of the incidents with Barbara are transcribed with her responses, including the infamous Leopold & Loeb debacle on her third show.
Despite the lack of video, it's pretty obvious from the first episode that Barbara had a way about her. There's a definite show-off vibe that comes across even in print. In case no one feels like combing through all the clues in the links to find them, I'll give you the highlights and some of my thoughts.
Day 1 (3/6/86; Lionel Goldbart/Bruce/Barbara)
World Capitals Daily Double where Barbara bets $500: Country whose capital is mentioned in this song:
"Down at the market you can hear /
Ladies cry out while on their heads they bear /
Akey rice, salt fish are nice /
And the rum is fine any time of year"
(Alex: Kingston, Jamaica. "Kingston Farewell", er, "Jamaica Farewell" is the name of the song, but Kingston is mentioned.)
World Capitals for $1000: Sucre is this South American country's official, though not its functioning, capital
(Barbara: What is La Paz, Bolivia? What is Bolivia?)
(Alex: You give us a little more than we wanted, all right.)
...
(Barbara: "NUT"s to you for $200.)
(Alex: Same to you, lady.)
Perhaps it's nerves, but it seems like she's deliberately expanding on the correct response to show off her knowledge.
Astronomical Songs for $500: In the 1st line of the Dean Martin song, "that's amore"
(Barbara: What is "When a moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie".)
(Alex: I love a contestant who has a good time on our show.)
"NUT"s to You for $1000: Humphrey Bogart won Oscar for portrayal of this "African Queen" character. (Barbara correctly responds with "Who is Charlie Allnut?"
(Barbara jumps up and down excitedly after responding.)
(Alex: Boy, are you doing well today!)
I don't know what she's doing the first one, but she's clearly showing some excitement not typically seen on Jeopardy.
Episode two is pretty uneventful and the clip of Barbara winning Final Jeopardy by a dollar has been posted. Then we come to the third episode that we've all heard about where Barbara challenges Alex on camera. Day 3 (3/10/86; Barbara/Mark/Ed)
The 1920s for $600: Sons of millionaires who killed Bobby Franks as a "scientific experiment"
(Barbara: Who is Leopold & Leeb?)
(Ed: Who are Leopold and Loeb?)
(Alex: Loeb, yes.)
(Ed: All right. Let's try--)
(Alex: --Barbara wishes to challenge that?)
(Barbara: I thought that was the pronunciation of that, L-O-E-B.)
(Alex: All right, we're going to give it to Barbara, then. And Barbara gets to select again.)
(Barbara: Okay, thank you.)
[Ed's score did not change back for a few clues, whereas Barbara's $600 for this clue was given to her before Final but not announced.]
This was not cute at all. I always got the impression from people's recollections that she responded incorrectly and then without missing a beat challenged it before anyone could say anything. This is even worse, IMO. She literally interrupted the turn of her opponent who actually got it right, whined, and the show validated her crap by ruling in her favor! I'm guessing the show was so caught off-guard that they just gave in to keep the peace, but this is ridiculous. I'd love to see the video of this because it sounds very awkward. I wonder if anyone gave Barbara a talking-to about this once the cameras were off...
Day 4 (3/11/86; Barbara/Lynne/David)
Pre-Columbian America for $200: For religious reasons, this Central Mexican tribe would sometimes eat sacrificial victims
(David: Who are the Incas?)
(Lynne: Who are the Mayas?)
(Barbara: [Cackling with laughter before and after her response] Who are The Aztecs?)
Totally unsportsmanlike.
There is a small portion of Barbara's final appearance on the archive, but nothing of note as it's only a handful of round one clues.
Having read these, I have a feeling that a bulk of the negative viewer mail probably stemmed from the show giving into Barbara's Karen-like complaint when she was clearly wrong, closely followed by the condescending laughter incident on her fourth show. The show was definitely out of line and I feel bad for her opponent Ed. And that's not even getting into the fact that once they discovered that she had fraudulently gotten on the show, THEY LET HER KEEP HER FIVE-DAY WINNINGS!
I also found a clip of a news story about the Jeopardy audition process from 1987 featuring Barbara. She's not named, but it's absolutely her. She definitely seems a little...unhinged.
I was thinking, in addition to her Jeopardy episodes that it would be a good idea to track down and document all Babara’s known appearances and aliases on other game shows as well. That way we could have a full archive of her infamy.
I was thinking, in addition to her Jeopardy episodes that it would be a good idea to track down and document all Babara’s known appearances and aliases on other game shows as well. That way we could have a full archive of her infamy.
Definitely a good idea. In the link I quoted a while back, people have also said that she was confrontational on other shows as well, also involving pronunciation of certain answers. I'd love to see if this is true.
I can only imagine how Barbara's behavior on the show and/or her fraud would have gone viral had social media existed in the 80s.
I was thinking, in addition to her Jeopardy episodes that it would be a good idea to track down and document all Babara’s known appearances and aliases on other game shows as well. That way we could have a full archive of her infamy.
Definitely a good idea. In the link I quoted a while back, people have also said that she was confrontational on other shows as well, also involving pronunciation of certain answers. I'd love to see if this is true.
I can only imagine how Barbara's behavior on the show and/or her fraud would have gone viral had social media existed in the 80s.
Barbara’s fifth episode resurfaced in February, which I ironically just found out about today on March 12th, the day of its airing youtu.be/v4PgXsuuZGk?si=-piTCbE7o-JQ3cyG
Last Edit: Mar 12, 2024 13:39:18 GMT by nostalgiaguy