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A NEW Twist
On TRIVIA

A new game show on Cedy Central _provides a 'jeopardy" challenge.

MICHAEL ELKIN
Special To The Jewish Times

Stein had ambitions for the White
House. Whereas his father played a
key economic role in the Nixon years,
the son — well, let's not put words in
his mouth; that was Ben Stein's job.
"I was a very, very low-level person
there," he says of his speech writing
days for Nixon. "I was only 27 when I
started."
He went on to write for the Wall
Street Journal, serving as a TV critic,
when Norman Lear, "whose shows I
used to pan," met him and thought "I
was hilarious."
Soon, the TV critic found himself
on the other side of the camera. "I was
teaching at Pepperdine [Law School]
at the time," where
"Win Ben
he still instructs in
Stein's Money" securities regulation,
is hosted by
law and economics.
political insid-
Prominent director
er, actor and
John
Hughes "asked
all-around
me
to
just ad-lib a
"smart guy"
section
of a class" for
Ben Stein, who
Stein's
role
as a "bor-
tries to best the
ing economics
show's contes-
teacher in Ferris
tants.

B

en Stein doesn't need Donna
Summer to remind him that
he works hard for the
money.
Just try and take it away from him.
Which is exactly what contestants
are doing nightly on cable's Comedy
Central.
The central idea to "Win Ben
Stein's Money" is that the glum-faced
host gloms onto his money like it's fly
paper. When a game guest answers a
question correctly, it comes out of
Stein's "personal" pot of $5,000.
But Stein is not at a total loss; he
becomes a contestant halfway through
the show to personally protect his
treasure.
His deadpan delivery is a dead give-
away for fans of Ferris Bueller's Day
Off or any number of TV comedies —
"Seinfeld," "Murphy Brown,"
"Married With Children" — which
featured his sour puss on a sitcom.
Deadpan? You talkin' to me? "The
deadpan style is the style of all the
Steins," he says without smiling.
"I have a very famous father
(Herbert), who's an extremely famous
economist and public policy expert.
And he doesn't think it's deadpan.
"He thinks it's quite lively and
amusing."
The Stein way stressed the funny
aspects of life. "There was a Jewish
sensibility in my home, one in which
humor was important."
Of course, smiles were just frowns
turned upside down. "We learned to
always expect the very worse to hap-
pen," says Stein, tongue stuck some-
where in his cheek.
Stein was never stuck as to what to
do with his life. Like his father, Ben

Bueller's Day Of
"I taught what I
thought was an interesting class, and
when people applauded at the end, I
thought it was because they really had
learned something about supply-side
economics."
Now he is profiting by supplying
the humor as the host — and, hope-
fully, the answers as a contestant — in
his roles on "Ben Stein's Money."
The $64,000 question goes to Ben
with the monotonous — but funny
— monotone: Are you as tranquil at
home?
"In my family," he says without
cracking a smile, "I'm known as a wild
man."

Michael Elkin is the entertainment
editor of the Philadelphia Exponent.

9/12
1997

98

"Ben Stein's Money" airs 7:30 p.m.
weeknights on Comedy Central.

Photo courtesy

or Come