World of Weird Al Yankovic

Another clarification:

First worldwide compilation released that includes both "Eat It" and "The Saga Begins"

Compilation what? DVD? Album?

the dingo wrote:The VH1 Big in 06 Awards was taped. Are you asking for the actual date of taping or the airdate?

Al wrote that he was "going to be performing live tonight" which I took to mean it was being broadcast live...but I realize now that that's not necessarily so. I'm looking for the day it first aired on VH1.

RyanHippFTW wrote:Do we need to include dates when we submit the lists? Are they chronological order or reverse chronological? If the answers happen to be in your original post about the game, whatever I'm a retard. Put me down. Like in the dog way.

You want to arrange them chronologically by day and month, but not by year. So hypothetically, if there's an event from January 1, 1999 it would automatically be #1 on the list. An event from December 31, 1984 would automatically be #50. (There are no repeated dates.)

You do not need to include dates on your submission, although I would suggest keeping track of them for the bonus tasks.

the dingo wrote:First worldwide compilation released that includes both "Eat It" and "The Saga Begins"

Compilation what? DVD? Album?

Good catch--let me amend this one to say: First worldwide compilation released that includes the studio versions of both "Eat It" and "The Saga Begins"

That should (indirectly) answer the question.

About airdates of "The Weird Al Show", are you looking for rerun dates or just original airings?

The one about "Al Plays Hooky" specifies that it's the original airing. The other one does not.

Working on this, it looks like two answers may have the same date. I could just be messing up with my research, but what should I do if this happens?

Never mind! After some serious digging, I was able to find the correct answer.

If that happens, you should do a little more research. As far as I can tell, no entries share a date but if I can verify otherwise, you can put those two events in either order and I'll credit them both as correct.

First bonus task will be posted in about 45 minutes!

BONUS TASK #1: Calculate the range between the earliest entry on the list and the most recent. So for example, if the earliest entry took place on May 5, 1942 (it did not) and the most recent took place on March 20, 2012 (ditto), the range would 25,522 days. This is worth two additional points if you get it correct.

All bonus tasks must be submitted along with your answers to the main challenge--if you already submitted answers, you cannot receive bonus points.

Just wanted to post a quick note about one of the events on the list:

47. The Simpsons episode which the prank call from "Phony Calls" is taken from first airs

It appears that there's a discrepancy between sources on this one. Wikipedia and the official Simpsons episode guide list one date, while IMDB and the booklet that came with the DVD set for this season list another. Obviously the dates themselves aren't relevant in this challenge, but it does shift the order of the list a little bit--fortunately not too much, but enough that it could cost you a few points. So I'll accept lists that include it in either of the two slots where it would fit in based on those sources.

The next bonus task will be posted in about 2 hours!

BONUS TASK #2: Calculate the sum of all the days for each event in each month. So for example, if there were four events that took place in January, on the 3rd, 5th, 10th, and 22nd, the answer for that month would be 40. Each month you get correct is worth half a point, so this is potentially worth six extra points.