Make Mine Mike

MIKE & MERV: Part 4

And now for the exciting conclusion of Make Mine Mike meets "Merv Griffin's Crosswords". Will I end up groovin' and gropin' the green from Griffin or will Merv serve me a curve and make me lose my nerve? To find out, watch the video below.



0:11 Some consolation prize, huh? One step above Turtle Wax. Contestants don’t receive any proceeds ‘til 120 days after the show airs. So I wouldn’t be able to cash in, take trips, get the watch, whatever, for a while. But I bet there’ll be a bunch of Crossword watches selling on eBay next year…

0:37 Now that Ty summed up the situation, lemme add this: During the break, Erin, the remaining spoiler kindly commented on how well I was doing. I told her that before I left this morning, my girlfriend told me she didn’t care if I won any money, just win some trips. And even though we had already been to Palm Springs and Vegas together, it would be great to go back, this time on Merv Griffin’s dime. And at that moment, my only competition was Erin. If she buzzed in and was right, she’d take my podium, and if she was wrong, she’d let the other spoilers get a chance. But as Erin said, I worked so hard at accumulating the money and trips… so why would she want to ruin that…?

0:42: In the final round, all the answers presented during the game were filled in on the puzzle, whether or not contestants got them right. Leaving the final player with about 20 clues to solve. It woulda been nice to see the whole puzzle during the earlier rounds though…

1:10: LEANTO, DANTE -- common crossword clues. But c’mon, you’re impressed, aintcha?

1:26: Totally embarrassed that I knew that. It’s ‘cause AIKEN has lots of vowels and is in puzzles a lot, not that I watched that stupid show. I swear. I’m guessing the weird spelling of “Jordin Sparks” and “Sanjaya” may make them crossword-friendly in the near future. Not that I know who they are.

1:55: I thought Nancy’s and Erin’s answers were perfectly good, better than the right one, in fact. Doesn’t mean I don’t hate Erin for bringing the other spoilers back.

3:05: NANA, RELY – I know my songs, as long as they’re not an ARIA.

3:40: This was ridiculous. Polly wants a CRACKER. Who says Polly wants a SALTINE?! And since this clue isn’t even part of the main puzzle, there’s no intersecting words to govern this obscure answer. Even the spoilers are shocked. And it friggin’ cost me $850.

3:53: Just like the way a hot dog PANTS, the answer came to me a split-second too late. I had to hope that neither of the spoilers thought of the answer, ASH…

4:06: Dammit.

4:15: It’s okay, it’s okay. I can just steal the podium back from Erin.

4:22: Now that I’m a spoiler, even if I ring in first, I don’t get to answer first. Dammit. It’s okay, it’s okay. I’ll steal on the next clue…

4:33: Dammit!

I wuz robbed. Even Erin admitted it. In Segment 4 she fails to complete the puzzle. I think I coulda done better, but I don’t know if I would’ve finished it either, so I wouldn’t have won the measly extra two grand… but that trip to Antigua woulda been nice. I’ve been there before many times, too, but a trip won is better than a trip paid for…



…or earned. I hope Erin’s remembering that when she’s in Vegas and Indian Wells.

But I’m not bitter. I’ve also included Segment 5 -- just all the contestants standing at the end staring at the puzzle and chatting. You can see I’m a lot more relaxed. I couldn’t blame Erin for playing the game and I was just relieved it was all over.



I got an update e-mail from the production company saying that we’d get our swag eventually, that we’d be notified if they re-ran our episode, blah blah blah… Then they mentioned that if the show comes back next season, they might do themed episodes with returning players… including one for people who lost their podium at the last second.

So who knows? Make Mine Mike may be back for more…