Who is Robert Redford?

As you know I’m a devotee of JEOPARDY. But what amazes me more is not what these contestants know but what they don’t know. They can rattle off Egyptian mythological figures or obscure rivers in Tunisia or fourteen-letter words, but there are interesting black holes.

I base this not on wrong answers. I base this on no one ringing in. So clearly none of the three contestants were even willing to take a guess.

Now bear in mind these contestants tend to be from their mid-20’s to 40’s (although there are some exceptions). And they’re all remarkably bright.   They're not kids.  They've seemingly been around.

But…

In episodes within the last couple months…

No one knew who Robert Redford was (after being shown a picture of him as the Sundance Kid).

No one knew that the actor playing Mr. Rogers in BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD was Tom Hanks.

No one recognized Jake Tapper after being told he was an anchor on CNN.

No one knew Fred Astaire.

No one knew Billy Wilder.

No one knew Glen Campbell.

No one knew Fred Willard.

No one knew Neil Sedaka.

No one knew MORK & MINDY.

Now you yourself may not know all of these people, but you’re not on JEOPARDY. I just find it fascinating that for all the knowledge that these people have in so many areas, seemingly easy ones are blind spots. I mean, I can understand not knowing Fred Willard, but Robert Redford? Tom Hanks? If you follow the news, shouldn’t one out of three know what Jake Tapper is?

On the other hand, we live in kind of a bubble here in Hollywood. People are famous to us so we assume the rest of the world knows them. Same with shows. We just assume everybody watched MAD MEN. They didn’t. Only a tiny portion. Or FLEABAG or OUTLANDER or anything on ABC. It turns out librarians in Grand Rapids, Michigan, or math teachers in Altoona, Pennsylvania couldn’t pick Jon Hamm out of a lineup.

It’s either a good lesson in humility or the contestants they pick live under rocks.

from By Ken Levine