Cliff Clavin wasn't supposed to be a regular either.

Actually, John Ratzenburger (sp?) auditioned for Norm, but realized very quickly that he was blowing the audition. So, when he was done with the reading, he was frantically thinking and then turned around right before he got to the door and asked the creators if they had written a Bar Know-It-All. They asked what he meant, and he said, "You have to have a Bar Know-It-All! Every bar has one guy who knows everything, and is eager to share it with everyone there." He then did an improved riff of what became Cliff, and they liked it so much that they wrote him into the pilot, and kept asking him to come back in all but one or two eps of S1. He finally got regular cast member status in S2.

TAR: Well, I was relieved it wasn't Uchenna and Joyce (I figured it wasn't by the sky's color as they approached the pitstop). Definitely hope that they win it all next week--if Ron and Kelly manage to pull it together, I'll be shocked, and Romber have already won enough money and had their 15 minutes plus some .

I'm going to have to second anybody's "Holy Shit" on Veronica Mars.

Although I strongly suspect that the video system will turn out to be Harry Hamlin's and not Logan's.

And, seriously, poor Duncan - even if you find out later that Veronica isn't really your sister, that's gotta mess with your head, especially if you're already having problems in that department.

Preview looks wicked deceptive. I smell a fake-out.

Also, anybody else get this horrible feeling for the first few minutes of the Keith-in-Vegas scene that they were going to make him out to be the killer or something ?

I so very much want Uchenna and Joyce to win. But Rob and Amber seem pretty unstoppable.

I would like to remind Mr Losing-is-not-an-option that he has already lost not one but two rounds of Survivor.

In the TAR preview: Did it look like Amber hurt her ankle and that was why Rob was carrying her?

TAR: I kept swithching to Veronica whenever Romber were on. I'mrelieved but a little sad that Gretchen and Meredith are out. I would have loved to see Ron & Kelly go, but alas.

TAR: I'll be cool as long as Ron and Kelly don't win. I can see why Joyce and Uchenna took the brawn challenge - they didn't know (like we did) how easy the riddle one was going to be. I'm sure Meredith and Gretchen made the same calculation. In their case especially, fatigue (and a certain native dimness) could have made that one excruciating, and endless. But they had to know there was no way they'd make up any ground on the brawn, so hard one either way.

Re: TAR preview, that was the impression I got. Those editors can be sneaky, though.

VM: Frank, I agree about the video system. It's probably Aaron's. Also, I'm wondering if there's a tape of him and Lilly in there.

I couldn't tell if she got hurt, or was just being too slow.

The editing was amazing this week. I could see that the sky was noticeably lighter in the Uchenna/Joyce cuts, and yet, they still had me clenching the couch towards the end.

I agree with quester about Meredith and Gretchen. I liked them, but I got nervous every time they had a physical challenge.