Galileo's Cannonball

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Galileo's Cannonball was the first episode of Legends of the Hidden Temple, a game show hosted by the actor/singer/director Kirk Fogg. It was also the first victory, the first time the Silver Snakes went to Olmec's Temple, and the first time the Silver Snakes won.

1 Plot
2 Quotes
3 Trivia
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

First, teams had to cross a moat while sitting on a raft and holding a Staff of King Tut. Above them was a rope; each member of the team crossed the water by bracing the staff against the rope and sliding across. Then they would throw the raft and staff to the next team member. Next, the second person would run with the staff and ring their team's gong. The first four teams to hit their gongs would go on to the Steps of Knowledge. The Blue Barracudas, Green Monkeys, Orange Iguanas, and Silver Snakes went on to the next round.

At the Steps of Knowledge, the four remaining teams would stand at the top of a staircase while Olmec told them a legend. The legend was about how Galileo climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and dropped a big cannonball and a small cannonball from the top, to see if they would land at the same time; they did. When Olmec said Galileo invented pizza, Kirk began laughing on-screen. Then Olmec would ask them a question about the legend. The teams would get a chance to answer by being the first team to stomp down on the ancient marking in front of them. If a team correctly answers a question, they would move down one step. The Steps of Knowledge round would end when two teams reached the bottom step.

The Green Monkeys and the Silver Snakes went to the Temple Games. "At the Temple Games, teams are competing to win Pendants of Life. They will need these pendants to protect 'em from the dreaded Temple Guards as they make their way through the Temple. There are three Temple Games." The Temple Guards were violent savages who attempted to kill intruders in Olmec's Temple — unless, of course, the invaders had a full Pendant of Life on them to appease the Temple Guards. In the first Temple Game, Drop the Ball, the male cotestants were trapped in a box with some cannonballs, which they had to throw out of the box. "Jammin' Jon" (Jennifer's nickname for her partner) won, earning the Silver Snakes a Half-Pendant of Life. The second game had the female contestants putting "moons" on "Jupiter". Beth, the Green Monkey, won. The third Temple Game would decide who would go to Olmec's Temple. The teammates were fastened to the same tall pole so that when one player jumped off the floor, the other player would drop down. The teams had to build a pair of telescopes, one piece at a time. The Silver Snakes, Jennifer and Jammin' Jon, valued teamwork, so they won.

Olmec then told the Silver Snakes the objective of every room, and the different paths to take in order to reach the Mine Shaft and grab Galileo's Cannonball: "You could start by running to the Room of the Three Gargoyles. Push in the right tongue, and a door might lead you down a staircase into the Wall Climb. Here you must choose your next path. You could race up to the Observatory, spin the sundial, and pass into the Room of the Golden Idols. Once there, push down on their bases to release the doors. That may take you below or lead you into the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. Assemble the Statue there, and you may be headed for the Torch Room. If the elevator is up, you could jump in the elevator and descend into the Mine Shaft. Next, you could climb up the ladder or plow through the stone wall. Find the key, and it may unlock the Tombs of the Ancient Kings, allowing you to enter the Swamp. If you escape, you might have a chance to sit upon the Throne of the Pretender. If the correct door is unlocked, you could crawl through the Pit of Despair and, finally, make your way through the Cave of Size/Sighs and back to the Temple Gates. The choices are yours and yours alone. GOOD LUCK."

The team had won 1½ Pendants in the Temple Games, but they could find an extra half somewhere in the Temple to protect themselves from the third Temple Guard. Jennifer went first, crawling through the Cave of Size/Sighs and the Wall Climb before heading into the Throne Room, where she met her first Temple Guard. She then climbed up into the Heart Room ("the center of everything," as Jon called it), then passed into the Room of Golden Idols and then the Shrine of the Silver Monkey, where she got taken out of the Temple.

Jammin' Jon went in next and blazed through the Temple until he got to the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. After assembling the statue, he passed into the Torch Room and hopped into the elevator to descend into the Mine Shaft. He grabbed the Cannonball with 44 seconds of their three minutes left— instantly unlocking all other doors of the Temple— and climbed up the ladder to go right back into the Shrine. He made it out with one second left on the clock, earning him and Jennifer a fantastic vacation to the Bahamas!

[edit] Quotes

Kirk: Olmec are you ready?

Olmec: Let's rock and roll!

Olmec: Legend has it that the cannonballs landed right smack dab in the middle of two cheese and pepperoni sandwiches, thus proving his theory and inventing pizza!

Kirk: Who's your partner back there?

Jennifer: Jammin' Jon!

Jon (explaining the team's strategy to Kirk): Well what we're going to do is… try to go like straight from the bottom or if there's locked doors just… we're just going to try to bust through there as fast as we can. And if she gets out I'm the anchor, try to run in as quick as I can and following her path, so the guards're out of my way.

Kirk: She heading to the Hugging Idols, where she'll have to hug an idol to open the door. (Kirk is actually referring to the Room of Golden Idols.)

Kirk: Which door opens? The Room of the Three-Four Torches, the Torch Room…

Kirk: They've won the Bahamas!

[edit] Trivia

The Treasure of Anne Bonny was visible in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey, along with a genie's lamp. It can be assumed that both were ideas for artifacts later in the season, but the genie lamp never became an artifact. These can also be seen in several other first-season episodes.
On the album Beethoven's Wig: Symphonies With Lyrics, there is a song called Tchaikovsky's Cannonball.
Galileo's Cannonball was located in the Mine Shaft— the leftmost room on the lower floor. Jon rode the slow elevator down from the Torch Room and grabbed the Cannonball with almost 50 seconds left.
According to the interview at the external link below, "Galileo's Cannonball" took a total 12 hours to tape. (This does include the waiting time between rounds, however, for two other episodes were filmed that day.)
The interview also says that the elevator got stuck as Jon was riding in it down to the Mine Shaft, forcing the production crew to stop the timer to get the elevator moving again.
Unlike in most Temple Runs, Jennifer did not reappear in front of the Temple next to Kirk after the second Temple Guard grabbed her. Instead, she crawled out of the Cave of Size after Jon returned through the Temple Gates.
Jon dropped the Cannonball as he made his way through the Cave of Size. (It also bounced away when the kids were celebrating their victory with Kirk.)
Jon and Jennifer only won 1½ Pendants in the Temple Games. Jon did not find the other half Pendant in the Temple, but the team only encountered two Temple Guards in the run anyway.