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by Sue Kropp
•UC Berkeley,
B.A.
• UCLA, M.A.
(Hall is currently a Ph.D. candidate at UCLA)
JUNE 12, 2002--While in graduate school, Timothy Hall decided to earn some of his tuition fees by appearing on Comedy Central's Win Ben Stein's Money. The game show, which pits individuals against a deadpan host, is a long-running series that measures a contestant's knowledge of traditional subjects and familiarity with more esoteric fields like pop culture.
"Contrary to common belief, the best predictor of success on Ben Stein is not knowledge, but the ability to push the buzzer more quickly than one’s opponents," says Hall, an instructor in philosophy. "Happily, I saw in rehearsal that I had precisely this advantage. I was quite confident from there on out."
The game finished with a tie, however, ending Hall's brush with fame.
"I thought the show was little watched. For a couple of years afterward, though, I constantly had students recognize me from my appearance," says Hall. "At least I answered the philosophy questions correctly."
Finishing graduate school and leaving his budding television career behind, Hall has moved on to the challenges of the classroom.
"I like to push my students to think more rigorously about current issues such as affirmative action or the moral status of war," Hall says. "It encourages them to replace dogmatism with more reasoned thinking."
A Q&A with Timothy Hall
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