Although Tom Walsh's sister works for Nickelodeon and his brother works for New Line Cinema, Walsh himself had no experience with the filming industry. That is, until he was selected as a contestant on the television game show, Jeopardy. He then appeared on television not once, but eight times, winning seven times and earning a total of $186,900 — a Jeopardy record.
An acquaintance of his, Helen Lewis, is a fifth-grade teacher at Stratford Landing, and decided that it would be fun to invite him into her class for a mock Jeopardy tournament. She also called William Tarpeh, a freshman at West Potomac who won $11,200 during Jeopardy Kid's Week last year.
Lewis' students came up with questions in four categories: Walk Like an Egyptian, Useless Kid Knowledge, Brain Busters and Break a Leg.
Before they started the tournament, Walsh and Tarpeh spoke a little about how best to prepare for a tournament. Walsh suggested studying an atlas.
"Geography always comes up, you should know as many state and world capitals as possible. That stuff always comes up," said Walsh.
Tarpeh said he brought some non-fiction books with him to California when he went out for the filming.
Principal Barbara V. Hubbard started off the match with Tarpeh selecting the first question. At first it appeared that Tarpeh would shut down Walsh. Since the questions came from the minds of students not too far separated from Tarpeh, it perhaps gave him an unfair advantage. But that didn't last for long. Walsh started racking up the points soon enough. Students Evan Rajadhyaksha and Nola Seekie served as hosts after Hubbard left for a meeting, while Thomas Fafara kept the score and Chris Szentkiralyi watched the time.
THE QUESTIONS RAN THE GAMUT, from 'Who is Menkaure'? [King Khufu's grandson], to 'What is the Quicksilver'? [the most popular surfing company.]
There were questions about the Super Bowl, company slogans, William Shakespeare and video games.
Some of the questions were so obscure that neither contestant got it. The question, 'Who is Amanda Cain'? [narrator for "Once Upon an Island, Jr."] and 'former bus patrol at Stratford' had both Walsh and Tarpeh stumped.
When it came to quick figuring, Tarpeh had it hands down. He answered the question, 'If one money equals 17 cats, how many cats are there if there are nine monkeys? [153] in the time that most people are still calculating 2+2.
Walsh picked up quickly on cinematic questions, partly due to the family connections. There was a loud murmur of excitement when he told the class that his sister, Valerie Walsh, was one of the creators of "Dora the Explorer." Walsh's brother, John F. Walsh, works for New Line Cinema, the company that produced "Lord of the Rings."
Walsh's career path is somewhat different than his brother and sister, pursuing a career as an attorney. Walsh worked at the U.S. Senate as a congressional staffer, but he is currently unemployed. He plans to use some of his money to live on while he looks for a job; he also plans to contribute to charitable causes.
"I'm planning to give a lot of it away to organizations in third world countries," said Walsh.
In the end, Walsh would be stumped by the Final Jeopardy question, 'What is the youngest age somebody visited all seven continents?' The answer was 12, but since Walsh had bet a sizable chunk, he came in lower than Tarpeh.