Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy! Read Online Free
Author: Bob Harris
during most of my childhood. Unfortunately, NBC made an ill-advised time-slot change, the ratings wilted, and the show finally departed in January of 1975.
Fans cheered up, however, when Art Fleming returned in a new syndicated edition in 1978. In this version, the competition ended after Double Jeopardy, and instead of Final Jeopardy, the winner was given the chance to play a five-by-five board in a Bingo-like attempt to complete a five-clue line.
Baffling? You bet. But this was the height of the disco era. Lots of things were confusing. Back in Ohio, I was reaching the age when it was time to figure out how to attract girls, precisely as ludicrous dancing in tight polyester became the height of fashion. It was a difficult period for all concerned.
This awkward, eager-to-fit-in version of Jeopardy!, which tried so hard to please everyone but only made people turn away no matter how much it smiled, retreated from the public after only about a year.
Finally, in 1984, Merv Griffin and King World Productions snapped Jeopardy! back to life for one last attempt. Market research was negative (measuring its own uselessness quite accurately yet again), but two recent developments made the show seem worth a shot: (a) Merv’s Wheel of Fortune had become a major syndicated hit, and (b) the board game Trivial Pursuit had turned into a national mania.
The show’s new announcer would be Johnny Gilbert, a courtly Virginian with an easy smile who could charm a coma ward into applauding on cue. (Coincidentally, Johnny had also replaced Don Pardo on The Price Is Right, another popular game show. One wonders if Don Pardo will leave his seat in a movie theater without looking over his shoulder for Johnny.)
And Alex Trebek, a broadcasting veteran born forty-four years earlier in Sudbury, a snowy blue-collar town at exactly the same latitude as Ironwood, was brought on as host, producer, and soon-to-be icon. During the show’s formative years, Alex personally signed off on many key elements, including the writing staff and even the clues themselves.
The format itself was updated—the cash values of the clues were increased dramatically, the winner-takes-all format created more challenging wagering, and the set was glammed out with cutting-edge mid-eighties electronics that went whoosh and p-TING! (actually two F notes an octave apart, the lower one played a split-second before the higher)—and finally, on August 14, 1984, Alex read the very first clue in modern Jeopardy! history, in the category ANIMALS for $100:
THESE RODENTS FIRST GOT TO AMERICA BY STOWING AWAY ON SHIPS
OK, so “What are rats?” was not the most glamorous start. But the show wasn’t getting the glitziest time slots, either. Many local program directors, showing a familiar disdain for their viewers, still thought Jeopardy! was too difficult for a mainstream audience. In New York, the most important syndication market in the country, it was originally broadcast at two in the morning.
Yet twenty-plus years and over 5,000 episodes later, the show has won more than twenty-five daytime Emmy awards, including a record eleven statues for Outstanding Game Show and four more for Alex as Outstanding Host. At this writing, the show has been the highest-rated program in the genre for over 1,000 weeks, a longer-running success than over 99 percent—literally—of the shows that have debuted since.
Meanwhile, not one of the programmers who considered the show too demanding for their viewers has played himself on The X-Files, guest-announced for Wrestlemania, or been impersonated by Will Farrell. So much for market research.
The success of the Jeopardy! mothership has spawned numerous spin-off products, including at least fifty— fifty —various home games. In addition, loyal fans have created online simulations, Jeopardy! -themed websites, and at least one ongoing attempt to chronicle every clue and response in the show’s history. (There have been,
Fans cheered up, however, when Art Fleming returned in a new syndicated edition in 1978. In this version, the competition ended after Double Jeopardy, and instead of Final Jeopardy, the winner was given the chance to play a five-by-five board in a Bingo-like attempt to complete a five-clue line.
Baffling? You bet. But this was the height of the disco era. Lots of things were confusing. Back in Ohio, I was reaching the age when it was time to figure out how to attract girls, precisely as ludicrous dancing in tight polyester became the height of fashion. It was a difficult period for all concerned.
This awkward, eager-to-fit-in version of Jeopardy!, which tried so hard to please everyone but only made people turn away no matter how much it smiled, retreated from the public after only about a year.
Finally, in 1984, Merv Griffin and King World Productions snapped Jeopardy! back to life for one last attempt. Market research was negative (measuring its own uselessness quite accurately yet again), but two recent developments made the show seem worth a shot: (a) Merv’s Wheel of Fortune had become a major syndicated hit, and (b) the board game Trivial Pursuit had turned into a national mania.
The show’s new announcer would be Johnny Gilbert, a courtly Virginian with an easy smile who could charm a coma ward into applauding on cue. (Coincidentally, Johnny had also replaced Don Pardo on The Price Is Right, another popular game show. One wonders if Don Pardo will leave his seat in a movie theater without looking over his shoulder for Johnny.)
And Alex Trebek, a broadcasting veteran born forty-four years earlier in Sudbury, a snowy blue-collar town at exactly the same latitude as Ironwood, was brought on as host, producer, and soon-to-be icon. During the show’s formative years, Alex personally signed off on many key elements, including the writing staff and even the clues themselves.
The format itself was updated—the cash values of the clues were increased dramatically, the winner-takes-all format created more challenging wagering, and the set was glammed out with cutting-edge mid-eighties electronics that went whoosh and p-TING! (actually two F notes an octave apart, the lower one played a split-second before the higher)—and finally, on August 14, 1984, Alex read the very first clue in modern Jeopardy! history, in the category ANIMALS for $100:
THESE RODENTS FIRST GOT TO AMERICA BY STOWING AWAY ON SHIPS
OK, so “What are rats?” was not the most glamorous start. But the show wasn’t getting the glitziest time slots, either. Many local program directors, showing a familiar disdain for their viewers, still thought Jeopardy! was too difficult for a mainstream audience. In New York, the most important syndication market in the country, it was originally broadcast at two in the morning.
Yet twenty-plus years and over 5,000 episodes later, the show has won more than twenty-five daytime Emmy awards, including a record eleven statues for Outstanding Game Show and four more for Alex as Outstanding Host. At this writing, the show has been the highest-rated program in the genre for over 1,000 weeks, a longer-running success than over 99 percent—literally—of the shows that have debuted since.
Meanwhile, not one of the programmers who considered the show too demanding for their viewers has played himself on The X-Files, guest-announced for Wrestlemania, or been impersonated by Will Farrell. So much for market research.
The success of the Jeopardy! mothership has spawned numerous spin-off products, including at least fifty— fifty —various home games. In addition, loyal fans have created online simulations, Jeopardy! -themed websites, and at least one ongoing attempt to chronicle every clue and response in the show’s history. (There have been,
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