Good Job, Brain! - 244: It's a Switcheroo

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

Scintillating swaps, scandalous switches, and sweet substitutions! Play Karen's letter-switching game focused around the best selling video games of all time. Learn about the most outrageous and bumbling horse racing scandal that involves copious amount of henna hair dye. We got a double dose of TV quizzes involving beloved shows that started out as midseason replacements, and shows that famously recasted actors. Find out how to make eggless egg whites, and the time has finally come to test your knowledge on human-animal transformation movies. For advertising inquiries, please contact [e-mail]! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, swash-buttling swifties, swizzling and swimming sweetly in the swamp with swans and sweaters. This is Good Job, Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast. Today's show is episode 244. And of course, I am your humble host, Karen, and we are your far out, far-sighted, far-sighted, faradness, farsoors, foraging on faroe and farcalfouries. I'm Colin. And I'm Chris. Today is our season finale, everybody.

And the big question is, Colin, last episode, we did a live demo of a thing that I'm going to remain mysterious about. My big question is, how did you dispose of that, the thing? Yeah, I would say in a word, poorly. Didn't go well. I took the thing inside. It was in a container. And my first thought was like, oh, well, you know, I'll just hold it over the trash can and just sort of shake it hard enough.

And it'll pop right now. Oh, no. It did not want to come out. It was in there. So then I'm like, all right, well, let me just get something to kind of just jimmy it out of there so I got a I got a chopstick out and just I'm just swirling it around standing over the trash can this thing inverted and most of it came out but it is pretty stubborn I have to say I was like all right I you know it's good enough here I can go just just go wash this out of the

sink and again without giving anything away here let's just say that it was still partially active and so washing it out in the sink ended up creating some additional cleanup problem problems for me that I had to salt fishing out of the drain with my hands. Yeah, my wife might just be learning this for the first time when she hears this episode. But yeah, everything's fine. It's fine now. That's when you tell her, like a couple of weeks later, everything's clean now. So did you touch it with your fingers? I did. And it, you know, it felt exactly like it looks like. It felt, yeah, it felt, it felt exactly like you would think it would. Okay. Okay. That was like the burning question I had. I was like, oh man, he's got a deal with that thing.

I wouldn't do it again the same way. I'll say that. Well, if you're curious and you haven't listened to that episode, just in the previous episode, go check it out and find out what we're talking about. All right. Without further ado, let's jump into our first general trivia segment, pop quiz, hot shot. Here, I have a random trivial pursuit card. You guys have your barnyard buzzers. Here we go. questions. Blue Wedge for geography. Oh, this is cool. Which mid-Atlantic state was the first to put its web address on its license plate in 1999? Oh, my gosh. Chris? Delaware. Incorrect. Oh, what's your reason, though? Uh, Delaware corporations and stuff like that. Oh, okay, good reasoning. Oh, Colin? Uh, New Jersey. It is Pennsylvania.

Why did they, is there any information about that? Maybe because it's hard to spell. Okay. I don't know. Okay. Or maybe, you know what? Maybe it's just one of those things like someone had to be first, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Pink Wedge for pop culture. Which movie took 12 years to film and included the same actors throughout? Oh. Chris. I believe it's called Boyhood. Yeah, Boyhood. Richard Linklater. Yeah.

Director of Days and Confused. All right, Yellow Wedge. Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, was born in Florence, Italy. True or false? Huh. Oh, that's a good one. I'll say true because I really want it to be true.

It is true. I don't know why they did. All right. They seem like a mean thing to make up. No, actually, she was super boring. Interesting. Purple Wedge, which Californication act? actor wrote a book about a talking cow named Elsie Bovary.

Oh my gosh. I mean, I can name precisely one Californi-tation actor, so I hope it's David Dukovny. It is David Dukovny. Oh, okay. Okay, great. Now I remember him writing a children's book about a cow. Amazing. Didn't we get a question about...

This does sound familiar. Gillian Anderson also being an author. So, like, the two X-Files... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're right. couple episodes ago. We're both published authors as well. All right.

Okay, Green Wedge for Science and Nature, who praised a high-tech exhibit at the London Science Museum in her first tweet on October 24, 2014, and signed it Elizabeth R. That is. Colin. Queen Elizabeth Regina, right? Right, right, right. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, the R stands for Regina, which is, oh, Latin for queen.

I see. Here we go. Last question. Orange Wedge. Which yummy Naples specialty was first sold in America by Gennaro Lombardi in 1905 on Manhattan's Spring Street? Yummy maple specialty? Naples. Oh, Naples. Oh, Naples. Oh, Chris. Pizza. Pizza. Pizza. Pizza. Pizza. What maple.

What maple specialty. That's what I thought it was. Good job, everybody. All right, this week, today we're going to be talking about famous swaps and substitutions. So many avenues. So this week, it's a switcheroo. All right, I'll start us off in our previous episode about redacted and deleted. stuff. I debuted a game where I deleted one letter from titles of famous books. Then you had to guess the new book titles based on their new made-up summary. For example, I said, Dan Brown's fishy

puzzle quest thriller. And the answer would be Da Vinci Kod. I was just thinking about that the other day and I was chuckling to myself. I was just like making my coffee in the morning, the DaVinci Cod, where the E is deleted from DaVinci Code. So today for this episode about swapping and substitution, I have a new challenge. I have changed one letter, changed. I've swapped one letter from titles of not famous books, but the best-selling video games of all time. Oh, gosh, okay. So the summaries, the description summaries I'm going to give you, will,

clue into the original video game and clue into maybe, you know, what word got affected from the letter swap. For example, if I said, Sony's adventure game starring Kratos, the mythical golfer, your answer would be, oh, sure, Chris. God of par. The God of Par, God of War. God of War. You can prime yourself. This is the list of video games that have sold the high. highest number of units worldwide. All right. Okay. Okay.

All right. Let's start with number one. Number one, popular sandbox building game featuring silent clowns. Chris. Minecraft. Minecraft. Change the M and N Minecraft, Minecraft. Number two on the list.

The streets aren't safe in this action game. where you drive around town to commit copyright infringement. The streets aren't safe in this action game where you drive around to commit copyright infringement. Okay, okay, okay. Brand theft auto. Yes. Oh, brand theft. There we go, got it.

Got it. Got it. Good, good, good, good. Yeah. Number three is Tetris. I couldn't really come up with one. I wrote down wetteress, but... That's an actual game.

Like wet blocks, yeah. So we're going to jump to number four here. A Nintendo favorite where you use the controller to act out putting on cut off pants. A Nintendo favorite where you use the controller to act out putting on cut off pants. Chris, go for it. We shorts. We shorts. Of course.

We sports We shorts All right This is a hard one Number five A Battle Royale game Where a hundred Squished Face little dogs

Parachute onto an island And try to survive Okay Call it Puggee Yes Oh that's what I Puggy

Battlegrounds comes from pub g player unknown uh pug pug g yes good job i want to see now uh an all pug uh patch yeah for if someone hasn't made that mod yet please make a pug g mod number six number six the classic platformer where you try to find the best italian made chess supporting undergarments calling super mario bras change the bros that's great that's great number seven on the list push the gas pedal to race against your friends

and by gas I mean flatulence oh Chris Mario fart we oh is it not bad it is Mario fart It's Mario Fart 8. Oh, really? Oh, yes. Mario Kart 8.

Yeah, Mario Kart 8. Yeah, Mario Fart 8. Number 8 is Overwatch. I could not come up with a letter swap that was funny. But we're moving to number 9. This is an RPG where you try to collect and battle characters like Locktite, Shorebonder, Modgepodge, and Elmers. This is an old Game Boy game. an RPG where you try to collect and battle characters like Loctite, Shorebonder, Modgepodge, and Elmers.

Yeah, glue, sticky, it's got to be glue, right. It's got to be glue, yeah, glue. Oh, oh, yeah, I was going to say, Pokemon glue, okay. Pokemon Blue, Red, from that series, Pokemon Glue. Pokemon Glue. I chose brand names of glues that sounded most like a Pokemon. Locktight. Locktight, for sure.

Number 10 on the list, Cowboys and Outlaws, Adventuring Out West, seeking revenge and drinking honey wine. Chris. Red Mead Redemption 2? Yes! Oh, you got the sequel, yeah. Nice. Yeah.

Red, Mead, Red, Red, Red, Red, Redemption. Red Dead Redemption 2 Okay I skipped a bunch Now we're number 14 An arcade classic An arcade May staple Where you play a gynecologist

Trying to successfully chase And give smear tests to the ladies Chris Is it just Papman? Papman Oh Great Pappan

Hey you know Serpical health is very important I'm glad. I'm glad we decided to have Pap Man come toward the end of the quiz. Right. Yeah, yeah. It started with Pat Man. It would just put it. Yeah. Where you can go from there. All right. Okay. All right. Last one. Thank God. The last one. All right. Number 15 on this list. In this fantasy role-playing game, you play a monster slayer who gets hired to pour water from various vessels for money. I'll even add this

Slavic mythology based of fantasy role-playing game Chris He's mad The Pitcher 3 The Pitcher 3 Originally the Witcher 3 What is a witcher

Not really a You know kind of a new word as well All right Well thank you guys Now you know the top selling video games That's the silver line I guess. Well, we get a lot of TV trivia at Pub Quiz,

and we like to generate a lot of TV trivia on this very show. I have a TV trivia quiz I have assembled for you. Let me start with this. Aside from being two of the most popular shows in American TV history, do you know something that the office, the American version and The Simpsons have in common? He asked.

Winking in the context of today's theme. I will tell you, they are both examples of highly successful shows that were mid-season replacements. Oh, okay. And a mid-season replacement. Yeah, if you're not familiar with the American TV show terminology, a mid-season replacement is a show that traditionally, for one reason or another, in the American TV cycle, comes on in the second half mid-season. of the traditional network season. So in American TV, your big shows historically start in the fall, runs from the fall into the spring.

And so they put, the networks put a lot of the money and the hype behind their big shows that premiere in the fall. Often for various reasons, you need shows that can sort of step up to the plate and fill in for a show that maybe is canceled or a show that goes on hiatus after the first half of the fall season or maybe, of the major actors on the show has to take a break to shoot a movie or is pregnant or something

like that. Or maybe it's a show that the network kind of likes but isn't really sure they want to put too much behind it and, you know, maybe don't have confidence to debut it in the fall. So for whatever reason, there are a lot of midseason replacements over the years that, of course, you know, they come and they flame out and maybe the network was right to put them as a midseason replacement. But there are a great many of our most beloved, most well-known, most groundbreaking shows in American TV history that started as mid-season replacements. It's just something that's either a little too new or too fresh or too out there maybe, or maybe it's a show that just the network acquired late in the process. A lot of these shows maybe started life at one network

and that network kind of passed and then another network is like, oh, we'll take that show and you know, and see what's what we can do. Interesting. Yeah. So I have assembled here. I have eight examples. These are, all of these shows are extremely well known. We're going to cover about 40 years of TV history here.

We're going to go chronologically. We're going to start in the 70s, and we're going to end up in the 2000s. You guys buzz in. I will give you some hints about these shows. And if you think you know it, jump on in and tell me what the show is. All right. Get your barnyard buzzers ready. premiering in January

1971. This show set in Queens, New York, was the first major American show to record on videotape as opposed to film. Oh. Karen. Just because it's New York in 1970s,

I want to guess, taxi? Oh, not a bad guess. Not a bad yes. It is another great New York show, of course, Taxi. No. It's a New York show. This show was number one for five consecutive seasons. Can give us the genre?

It was a socially conscious family-based sitcom. Oh. Chris. Is it all in the family? It is all in the family with Archie Bunker and the Bunker family. Yeah. And creator Norman Lear, who created many, many, many hit shows, really wanted to use video.

tape to kind of capture sort of the immediacy and the almost live feel of early television. He was going for kind of a throwback, even in the 1970s. He was sort of going for a throwback feel. Yeah, the only other two shows, by the way, I learned that were number one for five consecutive seasons were the Cosby Show and American Idol. So it's, yeah, it's, what a range. Premiering in April, 1978, this hour-long show boasted the six. signature cliffhanger episode of the 1980s question on everybody's lips oh that was really close

uh chris dallas that is dallas of course who shot jr that's right yeah i mean i had to google who did in fact shoot jr was it a baby or something it was it in very dallas fashion it was his It was J.R.'s sister-in-law slash mistress who shot him. That's fair. Yeah. Premiering in March, 1985, this comedy drama re-launched the career of its female lead and propelled its male lead to Hollywood A-list stardom. Chris Kohler.

Moonlighting. Excellent, yes. It is moonlighting. That's right. All right. The Bull Shepard. And Bruce Willis. And Bruce Willis.

That's right. Yeah. Premiering in April, 1990, this groundbreaking mystery drama takes place, according to a main character, five miles south of the Canadian border and 12 miles west of the state line. Chris again. Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks. That's right.

David Lynch's. Twin Peaks, of course. What a weird prime network show. David Lynch was, you know, more than game to just, yeah, I'll come throw down two seasons of the weirdest show you've ever seen. Yeah. Do you guys remember the show, Savannah? No.

No surprise, because it only ran for less than two seasons in the early years of the WB network. Oh. Yeah, it was, in fact, it was their first one-hour drama. It was one of the many, many, many, many Aaron Spelling produced shows. Oh, okay. You know, it kind of started out of the gate, okay, but really faded rapidly. It was replaced mid-season in March 1997 by what show, which would go on to become the biggest, breakoutiest hit for the WB network at the time, Karen. Dawson's Creek.

That's what I was going to say. Is it not? It was a show based on a movie. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Correct. It was indeed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I needed that hint.

I needed that hint. I was not going to get it without that. Premiering in January 2000. This show featured a Grammy-winning theme song by the band. They Might Be Giants. Oh, no. Karen. This is Malcolm in the middle?

Correct. It is Malcolm in the middle. Yeah. All right, two more. We're now into the, well into the 2000s. Yay. Premiering in April 2009, this sitcom started slowly, but grew to become one of the best love shows of its day,

boasting numerous breakout characters, but perhaps none more beloved than the miniature horse, Lil Sebastian Karen Parks and Recreation You got it Parks and Recreation That's right

Lil Sebastian oh man Last one The creator of this show Which debuted in January 2011 Said he originally conceived of the show's main characters as cannibals

Perhaps luckily for all of us Fox talked him out of that idea Cannibals Okay. So on Fox, on Fox, the main characters were going to be cannibals. And they were, they was talking out. So maybe they're another monster? Regular people, perhaps running a business where you would be very happy to find out that they are not cannibals.

They are not cannibals. Karen. Bob's Burgers. It is Bob's Burgers. Yes, that's right. Yeah. Lauren Bouchard has said, yeah, sort of in one of his original conceptions. You know, who knows how close to the final product it was.

No cannibals, at least not in canon anymore. Good job. All right, good job, guys. Yeah, every single one of those shows, every single one of those shows. For one reason or another, the network chose not to put on in their top of the order lineup, but went on to great success. Speaking of TV shows, I was on one. Maybe it was a mid-season, because I remember my episode was in February. So, yeah, The Chase, which is the trivia game show, I was on.

My team won. And so last year, I actually took a big chunk of my game show winnings and started the Good Job Brain Charity Fund. And the idea is to use this pot of money to donate and give back to nonprofits and orgs that really embody the good job brain spirit, like supporting groups that like promote a real love for learning. So we are coming into the holiday season. And so, of course, it's a great time for us to give.

back. So this year we're going to give to a couple of organizations nominated by our listeners. Clifford Hedden nominated the Spiel Foundation. Spiel, Spiel, S-P-I-E-L, the Spiel Foundation. And Clifford says, it's a foundation that buys and ships games to children's hospitals, boys and girls' clubs, senior centers, and more. They make age-appropriate game bundles and send them to organizations that can get them into the hands of families that need them. I love that. Clifford, what a great suggestion. So we're going to donate some money to the Spiel Foundation. And our special guest this season for our last all-quiz bonanza, Neville Fogarty, crossword master, Neville Fogarty, as a thank you to being our special guest on the show. I asked him to pick an organization that we can donate to as well. He went local and Neville said,

I picked out Horizons Hampton Roads, an organization focused on shrinking the income inequality, a gap for primary and secondary students from underserved families in Norfolk, Portsmouth, and the Virginia Beach areas to realize their full potential. Excellent. Last but not least, the third organization that we're going to donate to is a nomination from Robert Frowley, and he nominated Biobus, Biobus. Robert says, Biobus is a New York City-based science education nonprofit whose mission is to help minority, female, and low income K through 12 and college students in New York City

discover, explore, and pursue science. And they actually do have a bus that drives around and does cool workshops. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that. I think of like Spider-Man School, you know, Miles Morales is like cool science school. Thank you, listeners, and Neville for nominating these great organizations. And in this holiday season, we'll give back. Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit.

Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs, a $10 one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday anywhere along the Go Network. And the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network, starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online go pass ahead of the show at go-transit.com slash. Tickets. Book Club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday. Quiet night in on Friday.

It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes too. Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers, you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit Spexsavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam. Eye exams provided by independent optometrists. All right, well, Colin, you had a TV quiz. I have a TV quiz. Oh.

So we're just going to roll right into this one. No overlaps? No overlaps. No overlaps. Oh, you can continue to stretch your television knowledge muscles. This is about when one actor or character is substituted for another on a television show. So these broadly fall into two buckets, which, is one, a character is recast with a different actor, same character, different actor on a TV show,

or two, when a character leaves and they replace that character in the mix with a totally different character, that's essentially filling the same slot, but it's not supposed to be the same role or the same person. I understand. Sorry, I don't understand. Sometimes on a show someone's husband, a character leaves and it's somebody's husband. husband and that person that immediately like episode one after that person leaves they get remarried like to a new person. Oh, I see to a new character. And that person takes that slot in the show

essentially. That that whole. Yeah, exactly. But not the same role, not the same person. Got it. Yeah. Oh, man. So that's the quiz. That's the quiz. So, uh, 10 questions. You know what? It might need. It might be, this might be more stuff that Colin knows, but we'll see how this goes. We'll see how this goes. Okay. So question one. Sarah Chalk famously took over the role of Becky Connor on the sitcom Roseanne when this actress went away to Vassar College. Oh, man. See, I know Sarah Chalk. Yeah. Oh, man. What's

her name? I was, I kind of did this and I was like, is everybody going to know the name? Everybody knows Sarah Chalk because of scrubs and stuff like that, and also was, oh, yeah, you know, new Becky, that was Sarah Chuck. Yeah, well, who was old Becky? Ah, ah, all right. This is going to kill me. Looks like a nothing. It's Lisey Gorinson.

Oh, was her name. Okay. Yeah, Lisey Gorinson. Yeah, original Becky. All right, question two. A dispute over pay led the characters of Luke and Boe to be replaced with their cousin's Koi and Vance for a single season of this show. Colin.

The Dukes of Hazard. It is the Dukes of Hazard. Yep, the characters playing Bo and Luke wanted more money, and they were like, nope, we'll replace them with your previously unheard-of cousins who look and act exactly like you. What are their names again? C-O-Y and Vance. Last name.

Hazard. Hazard. Well, they were cousins. Duke, not Hazard, Duke. Right, right, they were cousins. Question three. Bill Murray famously apologized for not being funny after he replaced this actor on Saturday Night Live. Huh.

Who did he replace? Who did he replace? All right, now does he say it thought it would be. Colin. Well, so I know that Chevy Chase left rather early. Did he replace Chevy Chase? He did, yes. Oh.

So that was Chevy Chase left after one season, and they put Bill Murray in. And it was an awkward transition, but he eventually kind of found his niche, as it were. Yes. All right, question four. I sort of teased this a little bit in the explanation. After actor David Garrison exited the role of Steve Rhodes, actor Ted McGinley came in to replace him as the character Jefferson Darcy on this sitcom. Colin again. This, yeah, this was married with children.

This was married with children. What happened? He played the husband of the neighbor, Marcy Rhodes. It was played in a band-de-bears. And then she got remarried. David Garrison actually left the show because he wanted to return to doing a live theater in New York City. And another fun fact, I actually saw David Garrison in an off-Broadway production. Oh, really?

Yes. Of what? Of silence the music. musical, that was the unofficial musical version of Silence of the Lambs, in which he played Hannibal Lecter. It was, like, I really want to stress, it was incredible. It was absolutely pitch perfect. It's like as ridiculous as you would imagine.

For people who don't know, Chris is like a big lamby. Big Silence of the Lamb, like, you know, a universe fan. Yeah, that's true. Yes, the universe. Yes, the S-LU. The Lambaverse. Yes. I didn't even know.

We were in the area where it was around St. Mark's Place where that theater was. I only found out because they saw the poster outside the theater. And I'm just like, I was with my wife and, you know, I was dating, right? My girlfriend at the time, you know, and my brother. And it was just like, guys, we have to see this. Like, I am buying you tickets to this matinee. We are going to see this play right now. We were canceling other plays.

lands. Lammy power. Lambie power. Question five. Which of these Game of Thrones characters was never recast? Okay. A, the mountain. B, the hound.

C. Barak D. D. Tom and Barthian. That is Colin again. Gotta be the hound, right? It was him the whole way through, right? It is the hound. It is the hound. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, you scared me for a second there.

Well, some of these characters, where you think, like, oh, Barric Dundarian was the same guy all the way through. No, he made an early appearance in an early episode played by a different actor. And, of course, Tom and Baratheon grew up from a small boy to a young adult. And the Mountain, the Mountain was played by three different people. Oh, really? And then, but of course, the Hound played start to finish by Rory McCann in a memorable. They had so many recast.

Marcella Baranthian got recasted. What's Dario. Dario Naharis, most recognizably. Went from like a Fabio looking guy with pulling long blonde hair to guy with like short brown hair and a beard. Yeah. Question six. Janet Hubert was replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reed in the role of Vivian in this television program. Karen.

The Fresh Prince of Bell Air. The Fresh Prince of Bell Air. Aunt Vivian. I didn't say Aunt Vivian because that would be given away too much. Yeah, exactly. Yes. Question seven. Which evil clown in the World Wrestling Federation has been played by multiple performers sometimes simultaneously.

Oh, man. Fundamentally a WWF era character, but like Karen? Is it like dink or something? You're very close. Really? Very close. Yes. Yeah.

Dirt is. I'm going to tell you, it's, it's doink the clown. Doink the clown. Very close with dink. That's more comical. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

They, so there's this whole thing where there was this, there was this thing they did when they did WrestleMania Caesar's Palace and it was like outside. There was this thing towards the end of the show where doyct was wrestling. and the crucial point in the match when Doink was sure to lose, a second performer in identical Doink makeup crawled out from under the ring and swapped places, ostensibly being a completely fresh wrestler in the ring,

who then defeated with the opponent. It all took place at Caesar's Palace outside. He was under the ring. The whole event. Like during Yoko Zuna's match, matches. All of it was under the ring. They set him up. They set him up a little TV to watch on closed circuit and they had snacks and water for him and stuff like that. But like he just had to be under there. The worst part apparently was like after he came out and did a spot at the end,

then he had to go back under and then wait there again until every audience member had left the Cesar's little bit of Arena's Palace. That's funny. Like that is that is so far for a But I watched it live. And when that happened, it was so, it was such a crazy moment. Question 8. In which sitcom was Chrissy replaced by Cindy and then Terry? Ha ha. Colin.

That is Three's Company. Three's company. Oh, yeah. Okay, Chrissy. I didn't know the third switch. There was. So it was originally, it was Suzanne Summer's character, Chrissy. and then she left and then oh this is her cousin Cindy and that did not last very long it just did not go over well because it was again it was like playing like the same type of character it was like the duke's hazard situation where it was like it's the same character's different person and they replaced it with a different character called Terry who was more who was more of her own character basically question nine Lisa Robin Kelly and Christina Moore both played the role of Lori Foreman on this piece

period sitcom. Oh, uh, uh, Colin. That is that 70s show. That is that 70s show. Oh, the sister. Yeah. It has been longer between now and that 70s show than it was between when that 70s show aired and the period in the 70s that it, uh, depicted. I don't need to know that. You don't need to tell me that. I don't need to be thinking about that. Yeah. Yep, that's cool. Good night, everybody. Yeah, and we're done. The question, I told you about my back starting to her, right? Question number 10.

Final question. Maybe this is more in Karen's Wheelhouse. I don't know, let's find out. When Shannon Doherty left Beverly Hills 90210, her character was replaced with a new character played by this 90s teen idol. Holland? It was, oh, I was a big fan of a 902.0.

I'm not above it meeting this. I, I, it was Tiffany Amber Thesson, right? Oh, late of saved by the bell. Yep, exactly. Kelly Kapowski. All right, well, good job, brains. That was fun, I think. Woo.

As you all know, I am a big, big, big, big, big, big, great British bakeoff super fan. If Chris is a lambie, I am a bakehead, soggy bottom. For those who are not familiar, Great British Bakeoff or in the States, the bake show, because as we learned, Bakeoff is trademarked by the Pillsbury Company. You can't call it that here. It's a reality competition about like baking and it's very chill. And back in 2018, Bakeoff did something pretty cool. They debuted their first ever vegan week where competitors had to bake without using dairy, without using eggs, honey, jelly. any animal products and I was like oh that's that's pretty cool so my jaw dropped as I was watching when I learned that for their technical challenge they had to bake marangs with no eggs

meringue is made up of two things sugar and egg whites and their challenge was to bake it with no eggs and I was like how is that possible and in come something I've never heard of before uh they used an egg white substitute called aqua faba. Aquafaba. And they quickly explain that aqua faba is liquid from canned garbonzo beans or chickpea. So when you get like a can of, or actually technically it can be not just chickpeas, bean liquid. So basically you get like beans in a can. You always have like that water you drain off.

Keep the water. because when you put in in a mixer, it foams up and it acts like egg white and you can bake it. So aqua faba, so water and then faba bean, right? Right, bean water. Yeah, bean water, water bean. It's a relatively recent discovery. So back in the 2000s, people have been experimenting with making egg substitute, right? Some people use flax.

They mix it with water. It has a kind of gelatinous quality. And other mucus, not mucus, the word mucilage, mucilage producing ingredients like brand or like husks and stuff, right? In the other corner of the internet, someone discovered you can actually improve the texture of bread when you use bean water. Just these kind of separate thoughts kind of started growing and overlapping. So in 2014, not that long ago, 2014, Joel Russell, he's. He's a French singer, a tenor. He blogged about experimenting with different ingredients to make foam.

He used a liquid from cooked kidney beans. And he's like, oh, you know, if you mix it up, it like foams up. In 2015, the discovery was made. Goose Folt, after hearing about the previous mentions of chickpea or bean liquid, he had the idea. He's like, oh, let's make a meringue. Let's test it out. So he whipped the liquid and sure enough, just the chickpea liquid started foaming up, put sugar in it, baked it.

And holy crap, it tasted like baked egg whites or moraines. When I first heard about aquifab, I was like, oh, something that like the ancient Romans did or it sounds like, oh, it does. It does. Right, right? But it's a recent discovery. It's interesting because this is recent. So we have these documented instances to look at. their forum posts, their blog posts.

So we can actually track now where the kind of the point of explosion came from. I know what you mean. It seems so elemental. Like, I mean, humankind has had beans and water like as long as we've. Yeah, it doesn't, yeah, it hardly gets more elemental. Yeah, but only now is somebody trying to make a vegan meringue. Like for most of human history, nobody's been really thinking like, how do we do this? Yeah.

That is really interesting. Like, I remember reading, you know, I'm sure you guys have seen this too. There's like, you know, the competing myths about like the first monk who discovered tea, you know, like when some leaves fell into his boiling water. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, you know, or the first person to make pasta, you know, I just lost to the mists of time. On August 1st, may I speak freely? I prefer English. The naked gun is the most fun you can have in theaters.

Yeah, let's go. without getting arrested. Is he serious? Is he serious? No. The naked gun. Only in theaters. August 1st.

Okay. I want to get right into my next segment here for you guys. This story is called Fine Cotton except no substitutes. I reckon this story will be a new one for you. It comes from the world of Australian horse racing in the 1980s. So really banking on you guys. is not having any past exposure here. On August 18th, 1984, at the Eagle Farm race course in Brisbane, Australia, there was a

lower mid-ish tier horse race. This race was mostly made up of up-and-coming horses, maybe horses sort of on the tail end of their racing life. It was not, these were not all-stars, all right? And on that day, the first horse across the line was a horse built. as Fine Cotton. Fine Cotton in his racing career was very unremarkable. He had had 70 starts in his racing career, had won two times, so was not lighting the track on fire. I wouldn't be bitten the kids' college fund on Fine Cotton is all I have to say.

Right. Now, I will pause here, thank you for the segue, Chris, to emphasize that the lifeblood of horse racing is not just a love of horses. It is gambling. There would be there would be no on horse races. Yeah. It is it is all architected around this central fact that there is money to be made betting on the horses. Wherever you have gambling, you will always, always have people trying to find an edge, all right? And more to the point, you will always, always, always have cheaters. all right now i will pause further in my pausing here to to get into just a little bit of the mechanics of how betting and wagering on sports events works so betting on horse racing like most sports wagering involves odds-based payout you know racetracks and casinos and bookmakers use

use odds to essentially balance out the amount of money coming in on both sides of an event odds or what you might see referred to as the line in a in a sporting event uh will be very often change from the time the odds are posted or released all the way up to the time of the event, whether it's horse race or the Super Bowl or baseball game or whatever it is. The odds makers, they do want to try and set an accurate line, accurate prediction. They want to at least start there. But as money comes in, as events change on the ground, maybe a key player on a sports team gets injured, you know, three days before the big game or right, you have to normalize it.

That's right. And so they'll shift the odds. they'll move the line in a horse race. A horse, if a lot of people start betting on it, the odds are going to change just to balance out the money coming in or against that horse. In fact, Fine Cotton started at 33 to 1.

33 to 1. By the time the race started, Fine Cotton was the 7 to 2 favorite. Wow. Still, you know, decent payout. But the amount of money and the amount of interest

in fine cotton had moved the line so far that the bookmakers had to reduce, essentially, their exposure. So when you place your bet and it's 33 to 1 and then the odds change as it gets closer to the race, you are used to, did you still get in at those odds? You absolutely do. You are locked in at those odds. For like basketball season, let's say you can place a bet on a team doing the championship before the season even starts. Oh, I see. And months and months, who knows what's going to happen, right? So, yeah, a lot of people have great stories of making a very wise investment on a team that, you know, people counted out maybe at the beginning of the season.

Or a horse that people counted out when the odds were first posted. So people watching the odds on fine cotton in the lead up to this race were maybe a little suspicious. Because of such a dramatic shift on what was objectively a middling horse, all right? Something was up. And sure enough, immediately after the race ended, all right? it was a photo finish exciting fine cotton won fine cotton was at least the horse that was billed as fine cotton came across the line first oh gosh oh no right after the race ended there were shouts ring in ring in ring in now a ring in is when unscrupulous individuals will substitute a good horse for a not so good horse pretend it's the not so good horse and when the secretly good horse, the ringer, wins, you sweep up your winnings. Very quickly, a plot unraveled that I can only describe as a little bit of tragedy, a little bit of

comedy, a little bit of just farcical, Cohen Brothers' true crimeness unfolded. The story involving Sydney, gangsters, big money, charlatans, a month's long, elaborate plan, hatched in prison. Wow. So the fine cotton saga, let's back up here, many, many months, rewind, began really kind of all goes back to a man named John Gillespie. John Gillespie was a known figure in the horse racing scene, and he was also kind of a known con man in the scene.

He was, in fact, sentenced to time in prison for his various crimes. And while he was in jail, he met a man named Pat Highton. John Gillespie and Pat Hightana in very short order grouped up with some other jail buddies who were accomplices of a semi-notorious figure in the organized crime scene named Mick Sayers, some of his accomplices. It's the last name I'll throw at you, maybe one more. And they hatched a plan using John Gillespie's sort of connections and knowledge of the horse racing scene. and Pat Haitana's brother, who was a trainer, they hatched a plan to do an elaborate ring-in, which you buy a good horse.

You try and sneak it in for a not-so-good horse and hope that nobody is the wiser as you bet and clean up. Now, this was not the first ring-in in horse racing history, not the first ring-in in Australian horse racing history. In fact, John Gillespie had been involved in a previous attempt at a ring-in some years earlier. So this was not a new idea. him. So once they got out of jail,

John Gillespie, the Haitana brothers, their various accomplices, with funding from Mick Sayers, this gangster figure, they bought a horse named Fine Cotton, the star of our story here, for $1,000.

And as I say, very middling horse toward the end of his career, but, you know, still able to be raised. They also bought a second horse named Dashay. Solitaire. And dashing Solitaire, in addition to having a much suave or her name, also cost $10,000. So 10 times the price that they paid for fine cotton. Dashing Solitaire was a substantially better horse than fine cotton. At racing. Yes, at racing. Yeah. I mean, he could have been a jerk.

Yeah, not at math. Yeah. Most importantly, I need to stress this, most importantly, dashing Solitaire looked almost identical to fine cotton. All right? I mean, it seems, it seems, It seems maybe a little too obvious, but I should state this here. Yeah, it was great. Coloring, the marking, I mean, just sort of the general size, everything. Like they felt they had a really good plan here. So here's the plan, all right? So they've got dashing solitaire who they're grooming and sort of trading to really win this big race.

And then they've got fine cotton. And their goal now is twofold is one to tire out poor fine cotton over the course of a month by running him in as many races as they could enter, keeping him tired. And at the same time, building up a negative reputation because he is now being seen losing all these races. That's so sad. Toward the back of the pack. I mean, who's being exploited? It is fair to say, fine cotton was being exploited.

I will jump ahead and say that he did end up living a happy life when this whole story is over. Oh, yay. Yes, he died at the very ripe old age, I believe, of 32 for a horse. Oh, my. Wow. So far, the plan's working great, all right? I mean, they've got their two horses. They've got the one they're really confident in.

They've got the one who's out there, you know, building up a bad reputation. But one week before the big race here, dashing Solitaire was cut by some barbed wire, okay? And not super seriously. It was on his leg. And, you know, I mean, they treated him and stitched him up. And he would recover just fine. but one week out from the race there was no way and they knew this

a horse with a cut that fresh they wouldn't let race it was just it's they they really care about the horse's safety I mean at least nominally at this point you or I if we were running this ring in might say ah it's too bad well we'll just wait for this horse to heal or we'll just give it up

and try again so John Gillespie calls Mick Sayers who was bankrolling this operation and gives him the sort of the bad news and Mick Sayers says in no uncertain terms, there is no way we are canceling this plan. We are racing a horse. You find a way to make it work. And otherwise

I've always felt that you can just sort of call up a mob boss and say, hey, yeah, this just isn't going well. We're going to go ahead and back out. And the mob boss is usually like, yeah, that's fine. Yeah, they're really, yeah, very understanding is probably the number one personality trait of mob bosses.

He had sunk a lot of money into this and he needed to see a return on his investment. I mean, not just the two horses, but the training and, you know, paying the crew and all that. So their first idea, their first idea was, okay, let's drug the horse. Let's drug fine cotton. And maybe miraculously he can somehow turn into a world beating horse here. And I mean, luckily for fine cotton. Like performance enhancement. Right, exactly. This, I think, is how you realize that things are going to go off the rails because it's like they have the plan. The plan is not bad. But it's like as soon as something goes wrong, it's like a wildly elaborate, you know, worse and worse ideas building on top of each other.

So, John Gillespie said, you know what? I think I know another horse we can get. And we're going to get a substitute for our substitute horse. Yeah, we're going to get a second tier ring in horse. So he thought back to. another horse that he had seen, you know, while sort of on the scene and sort of scoping out horses. Right, yeah, casting, if you will.

Horse named Bold Personality. There were just two problems here for our crew. One, they didn't have $10,000. And two, perhaps most importantly, bold personality looked nothing like fine cotton. Yes. Which is kind of the point of this whole, Yeah, this is, yeah, the wheels are really falling off at this point.

Yeah. So different size horse, different, different coat color, different markings on the ears, the tail. But they're like, we've got to find a way to make this work, man. We don't want to end up dead. So John Gillespie wrote a bad check that he knew would not clear, sent one of the crew down to go pick up this horse, basically, like it sounds like with his Toyota Carolla. Just a flatbed trailer on the back. Go pick up this horse.

Pay this bad check and just get the heck out of there and come back. So they bring back the horse. At this point, you would see this horse, and you or I might say, this is ridiculous. I'm going to take my chances in just flee, flee town. But our guys, they did the next best thing. Oh, my God. Which is they made the rounds of the city clearing out all the local drugstores and beauty shops they could get hair dye as much as much dye as they

could get henna rinse they they would go get henna rinse two here three here two here like a horse sized amount of henna rinse all right and their goal was we're going to make this horse change color now now so fine cotton was a dark brown okay and bold personality was light brown and so Like, well, we'll just darken, we'll just darken them up and put some hannah on there. So they get all the hannah, they cover the horse, they go to sleep. They're like, all right, you know, maybe this will work. I don't know. So they wake up in the morning.

And apparently, horse hair does not always dye the same way human hair has. So instead of a dark brown horse that maybe resembles fine cotton, they now have a red horse, like tomato. tomato red horse and they're like this is not going to work you guys this horse is red um so they're like all right all right i know a guy in your by they take him take the horse over to their guy's house they're hosing him down trying to get as much of the hannah back off as they can they decide the color is close enough i mean we're days away from the race now we're approaching the day before the race i should also note uh that fine cotton uh had what they call white socks kind of like, you know, white ends of his eyes.

Yeah. Bold personality didn't have those, didn't have white markings either. So not only do you have to get the coat one color, their plan is to like peroxide bleach, you know, his legs. It's race day. The plan, hey, the plan is moving forward race day. So they roll into the racetrack. They show up with two horses because they've got bold personality and they've also got fine cotton with them because they're like, hey, you know. You never know.

Why do they take to be evidence? They're like, we might. need to we might need to do like a close inspection kind of thing like they're not confident that that bold personality is going to pass the the up close test um that they realized they didn't actually uh die his legs so they're like well we'll just get some high gloss white paint we'll just paint his legs yes oh my god paint is running off it's not sticking it's you know i mean it's not approved for horse use i'm sure so they decided all right we'll just bandage up we'll just you know put you know sometimes you see the horse with the bandages on the legs right like we'll just i'll just cover

up. Okay, okay, okay. Somehow, some way they get this doppelganger, this poor doppelganger horse. They get them through. They get them through. And there were a couple close calls, Kara, there were a couple so close calls. Like when they first, they show up there and, you know, Hayden Haithana, I mentioned the trainer.

You know, they show up and there's a call over the loudspeaker like, Hayden Haitana, please report to the race stewards. And, you know, it's like being called to the principal's office, right? right so like he kind of just goes in there it's like what's up and they're like oh you're being fined uh two dollars because your jockey was late registration so they're like all right

it's got back out there at this point they notice another wrinkle which is the name owner of fine cotton as far as the books go who is not in on the plan okay shows up at the race

to come see how his horse is doing and they're like just sitcom style like oh what if he sees this horse he's going to know and then jig is up so Gillespie like frantically distracts the guy hey let's go into the racetrack bar just knock back a couple beers here we'll watch the race on TV and then like you know tries to like block his view of the TV so he can't see that it's his fake horse the jockey for his part apparently had no idea what was going on was not in on the scheme at all was just you know just a just an innocent a fairly new jockey to the scene,

maybe best for him. There is a giant crowd of people here at this race, all right, compared to your average race run of this tier. It is very clear that there are people who have never been to the track before here holding tickets for fine cotton. There are policemen here holding tickets for fine cotton. It is clear that word has gotten out

through McSayers, maybe through Mick Sayers, connections in the underworld, but somehow it is no longer this sort of inside secret. So race is on. The now third string fine cotton, bold personality filling in for dashing solitaire, filling in for fine cotton, does win the race. And at least just for a few seconds, they were millionaires. They're like, oh, we put so much money down.

A lot of people made a lot of money in a very complicated twist. There was a double cross and a better and mobster higher up in the chain than Mick Sayers had put money on the number two horse and then got a bunch of people to start shouting, ringing, ringing, ring in, making sure that the race doers would notice and, yeah, get caught. So, yeah, fine cotton, you know, the fake fan cotton was disqualified. So the number two horse then became the official winner. That was the master plan. That was the master's true. Oh, my God. This is not a movie.

I don't know why this is not a movie. You know, I am shocked it's not a movie yet. Yeah, there is, in fact, a book written about it, but no movie yet that I know of. All right. So at this point, Hayden Haitana, sitting in the parking lot, here's over the loudspeakers. Again, Hayden Hightonah, please report to the Ray stewards. And at this point, he's like, all right, I'm not, I'm not getting lucky again. And he bolts. He leaves. He just, he just jets out of the parking lot with fine cotton.

He's in the car with the trailer with the actual fine cotton. So, so it's, this is a huge deal. It's a huge scandal. There is a, I'm not exaggerating. There is a nationwide manhunt and horse hunt on looking for the escaped trainer and the horse. weeks later, fine cotton was found perfectly safe. It appears that Mr. Haitana had snuck him basically back into a stable, sort of, you know, hoping that he would get taken care of. And he was. They did find Hayden Haidtana with a disguise. He was arrested.

Several people went to jail. It turns out there were some prominent bookmakers who were in on the scheme or at least knew about it. Yeah, John Gillespie went to jail. Hayden Hightano went to jail. Several people were banned from horse racing and racetracks for life. A local Catholic priest got in trouble for a multi-million dollar winning bed. Apparently, somehow he got in on the secret was out. Yeah.

Luckily, thankfully, Fine Cotton himself went on to a happy life with a happy owner, was able to retire gracefully. probably had no idea what drama yeah he was involved in the double switcheroo the failed wow a henna'd painted undersized horse being roped in are most horse racing horses male horses there are different there's like there's like fillies that race there are male horses that race yeah yeah so yeah not not not exclusively male or female yeah yeah Because I thought at some point of the story and be like, well, this replacement horse

is a girl. Just three problems. Wild. Wild. Wild. All right. I have one last segment. And of course, we love a bonus surprise clip.

So I want you guys to listen to this mysterious clip. Play the clip. I turn my brother into a pork chop, kidnapped my neighbor's child, stole my mother's car. And now I'm driving to Mexico to see if my nanny's, as-tag grandmother, might be able to turn my brother back into the monster he wants to us. Now, Home Alone 3's Alex D. Lynn Stars with the Horse Whisperer Scarlett Johansson, training days Eva Mendez, and Judge Reinhold of Beethoven's 4th in a madcap adventure the whole family will love. Yes!

My brother, the pig. I do not remember that one. Oh, God, Scarlett Johansson was so young. Yes, that is just a shortened trailer from the film, My Brother, A Pig. The funniest thing about this trailer is Family Fun Movie, starring all these people, and then Training Days, Ava Mendez. Beethoven, Four, Horse Whisper, and then Training Days. Yeah, so I have a quick quiz. here about movies where people turn into animals.

Hmm. Okay. Wow. So I have a quickfire challenge. I'm going to name a film. Most of them are animated for good reason. And you have to buzz in and tell me what animal someone from that movie got famously turned into.

Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. I'm going to set the guard rails here. Any movie where the animal is and the title is out, so like shaggy dog, brother bear. All right, okay. Cool. This is our last quiz of the season.

What a great way to end it. Here we go. Pinocchio. Chris. Oh, crud. Donkey. Donkey. Oh, yes, of course.

Nightmare fuel. Yes. Very scary. All right. Emperor's New Groove Colin Frog No

Chris for the steel Lama Lama Cusco voiced by David Spade Okay Pixar's Brave Chris

Bear Bear Bear Yes Mera's mother Turns into a bear Next one also Pixar Turning Red

Colin The uh is a red panda Yes May and her family Turned into red pandas All right A favorite of mine Spirited away

Spirited away Colin Pigs I believe Yes pigs The human adults turn into Pigs that keep eating food Next one Rule doll

Rule dolls The Witches Chris Mouse Yes The children eat the chocolate And they turn into mice All right

Pixar's soul There's a brief body switching Oh geez It was his pet Uh huh Very common pet animal Chris Cat

Cat yes cat Jamie Fox is in the cat's body For a part of that movie And last one this is a hard one but this is one of our more recent entries spies in disguise starring will smith i probably saw that poster yeah a holiday season a couple years ago did not see the movie but i i remember the the ads i it is pigeon oh i was going to say bird i self-censored He's like a super spy.

He gets turned into a pigeon. Okay. Good job, everybody. That's great. All right. Well, that's the end of our season. Thank you guys for joining me. And also thank you guys listeners.

It's a weird season. We lost Dana earlier in the season. It was the three of us. And, you know, we tried out a bunch of different things. We even played with that mysterious substance in that last episode in case if you haven't listened to it. Keep being active in the Good Job Brain Lodrotters Facebook group. Also thanks to Neville Fogarty for being our special guest this season.

And that's our show. Hope you learn stuff about mid-season replacements, about TV replacements, about aquafaba, and about Mario Fart 8. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, and on all podcast apps. And on our website, good job, braring.com. This podcast is part of Airwave Media Podcast Network. Visit airwavemedia.com to listen and subscribe to other shows like Who Did What Now? All Creatures and Food with Mark Bittman.

And we'll see you next season. Bye. If you like this podcast, can we recommend another one? It's called Big Picture Science. You can hear it wherever you get your podcast, and its name tells part of the story. The big picture questions and the most interesting research in science. Seth and I are the host. Seth is a scientist.

I am Molly, and I'm a science journalist. And we talk to people smarter than us, and we have fun along the way. The show is called Big Picture Science. And as Seth said, you can hear it wherever you get your podcast.