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Television

Iconic American Quiz Show Host Alex Trebek Dies at Age 80 (cnn.com) 71

Posted by EditorDavid from the who-is-Alex-Trebek dept.
The iconic host of America's TV quiz show Jeopardy! has died at age 80, after 35 years of reminding contestants to always state their answers in the form of a question. Who was Alex Trebek? CNN calls him "the genial host with all the answers and a reassuring presence in the TV game-show landscape for five decades."

Notable moments include playing host to IBM's Watson computer and a teasingly blunt appraisal of nerdcore hip hop. CNN reports: "Jeopardy! is saddened to share that Alex Trebek passed away peacefully at home early this morning, surrounded by family and friends," said a statement shared on the show's Twitter account Sunday. "Thank you, Alex." The cause of death was not immediately announced. Trebek revealed in March 2019 he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, triggering an outpouring of support and well wishes at the time.

Trebek made history in 2014 by hosting his 6,829th "Jeopardy!" episode — the most by a presenter of any single TV game show... In a 2014 interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Trebek downplayed that honor, saying, "I'm just enjoying what I'm doing, I'm happy to have a job. I like the show, I like the contestants and it pays well."
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Iconic American Quiz Show Host Alex Trebek Dies at Age 80 More

Iconic American Quiz Show Host Alex Trebek Dies at Age 80

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  • Who was Alex Trebec? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Known Nutter ( 988758 ) on Sunday November 08, 2020 @03:35PM (#60700060)
    Sorry, no.

    The correct response is "who was Alex Trebek?"

  • I couldn't be more sad about this... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Sunday November 08, 2020 @03:44PM (#60700082)

    I couldn't be more sad about this...

    Here was a guy that embodied intellectualism and good honest human interactions at the same time. Despite decades in the spotlight there was never any controversy with this man (aside from him cutting off his mustache) because he was just the real deal. A good guy that liked brainy shit.

    Given how polarized the US is losing someone like this seems even more upsetting,

    • Re:I couldn't be more sad about this... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by The New Guy 2.0 ( 3497907 ) on Sunday November 08, 2020 @04:00PM (#60700138)

      I was driving when I heard the news and almost pulled over.

      Trebec was a great personality that was introduced to me when I was just starting to live. While he's now best known for Jeopardy!, his Classic Concentration series is still running on Buzzr (check your local listings for time and station in your area, or find it on PlutoTV.) A few of his series had some production problems, but that was the road that led Jeopardy! and already knowing how to work around CRT TVs of the 80s and 90s, the buzzer system, some unprotected neon lights, and being always next door to Wheel of Fortune.

      I used to write some Jeopardy! questions based on facts available at my schools, and some of my online work got ported over to Jeopardy! and spin-off Click. I had online show In Other Words in 1999, and at the same time wrote a category worth of In Other Words for the Friday board.

      Seems like us game show people need GSN Buzz back... where's the proper forum for this?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by shanen ( 462549 )

        Seems to be a lot of this sadness going around.

        I watched the show quite a bit when I was young, but got too busy for it later on. Probably not even available on local TV, but I could have found something on the Web. Truth is that I didn't even know it was still being produced until the Watson thing. Some of the people I was working with at the time were even involved in the development of Watson, though I never knew much about the details. (The main local guy actually struck me as something of a wet blanket

    • Here was a guy that embodied intellectualism

      That's a bit of a reach. He was great at reading his lines, he was loved for it, and his line-reading will be missed.

      And he had the most ambiguous mustachio on television; a true fashion leader.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        That's a bit of a reach. He was great at reading his lines, he was loved for it, and his line-reading will be missed.

        He doesn't read lines. He doesn't have a teleprompter. At his lectern, he has the answers and accepted question responses (including alternates) but that's it.

        Alex Trebek made it OK to be smart by having one of the highest rated and most viewed game shows on TV - I believe it only trailed The Price is Right. And given the timeslot was prime time (quite rare for game shows back when it started

        • That's a bit of a reach. He was great at reading his lines, he was loved for it, and his line-reading will be missed.

          He doesn't read lines. He doesn't have a teleprompter. At his lectern, he has the answers and accepted question responses (including alternates) but that's it.

          Few actors in the history of acting have had teleprompters. It doesn't mean they were all writing their own lines.

    • Re:I couldn't be more sad about this... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by thomst ( 1640045 ) on Sunday November 08, 2020 @07:24PM (#60700782) Homepage

      skam240 confessed:

      I couldn't be more sad about this...

      In the early 1990's, I had the privilege and pleasure of being a contestant on Jeopardy! (The shows on which I appeared were taped in December, 1991 and broadcast in March, 1992). Because they tape a week's worth of shows at a time, I was a member of the audience for 4 programs, before I played my first game as a contestant, so I got to experience Alex both on- and off-camera.

      During commercial breaks - where the show typically "runs black," so the tape is rolling in real time - he would joke with the audience, and when the Big Board broke down (which was surprisingly often), he'd do so, as well. Then I got called up to play, and I got to see what he was like from a contestant's point of view.

      I won my first game (yay, me!), so I got an additional opportunity to interact with and observe Alex when I flew back to LA for a second day of taping - and that day sucked big green weenies, because the studio air conditioning was on the fritz the whole time, which made standing under the TV lights a hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable proposition. We did a lot of that, because the conditions inside the studio made the Big Board even more temperamental than usual.

      Through it all, Alex Trebek kept his sense of humor, kept the audience entertained during the slow process of reloading the board and recapitulating the course of the game to get it back to where it was when the latest breakdown happened like the seasoned pro, and clowned around in a way that the home audience never gets to see.

      I didn't even mind that he pranked me at the end of my first Final Jeopardy! by purposefully leading me to think the judges had rejected my answer - a byplay that was edited out of the version that was broadcast - before revealing that they had actually accepted it as a valid alternative for the answer they were looking for. That's what a professional Alex was: good enough to torment me just a little (in front of millions of eventual viewers), and still get me to shake my head and laugh at my own reaction.

      I got to observe him at work for close to 10 hours, in total, and he came across to me as a warm, funny, gentle guy, who was, at the same time, sharp as a ninja's katana, and gunslinger-fast with a quip - and also as someone who didn't take himself especially seriously. I liked him even more after I met him in person than I had when I was just a home viewer.

      Which was a lot.

      I like to tell people that appearing on Jeopardy! was, hands down, the most fun I had in the vertical position that year - and (if you don't count getting to be a 2-time champion) the highlight of that whole experience was getting just a soupçon of one-on-one time with the real, live, Alex Trebek ...

  • RIP (Score:5, Funny)

    by The Creator ( 4611 ) on Sunday November 08, 2020 @03:45PM (#60700088) Homepage Journal

    He only outlived Sean Connery out of spite for all the things he said about Alex's mother on celebrity jeopardy..

  • J! has been airing reruns from even the SD era in recent month before returning with socially distant episodes. When Alex's episodes run out, could they produce one where there's no host, just showing the questions on the big board and letting the contestants read?

  • While it was inevitable itâ(TM)s still sad. Iâ(TM)ll take eternal peace for $1000 Alex and letâ(TM)s make it a Daily Double.

  • Is this "news for nerds", or it it "stuff that matters"?

    • Re:Relevance? (Score:4, Informative)

      by cervesaebraciator ( 2352888 ) on Sunday November 08, 2020 @04:04PM (#60700148)
      Yes.

      • No, game shows aren't part of slashdot culture.

        • The hell it isn't. Quiz shows and competitions are as core to nerd culture as not getting laid!

          • Science and math questions yes, tabloid trash and history not so much.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by cusco ( 717999 )

              Since when is history not nerdy?

              • Not slashdot material, this is science and tech nerdy site.

                A person could be a poker or accounting nerd too.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by cusco ( 717999 )

                  And there have been front page articles on both those topics on SlashDot in the past as well. You were probably whining about them too.

            • Jeopardy was a potpourri. In fact, I think "potpourri" was even a category sometimes. Science and math definitely came up [youtube.com]. While it was never hard problem solving, knowledge of math and science was definitely a component.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

              Science and math questions yes, tabloid trash and history not so much.

              Actually, given the general geekiness of the show, the tabloid and entertainment answers are there because they stump the contestants.

              There was a hilarious segment that was aired where none of the contestants could get a category on American Football. It was hilarious because it was the sort of softball questions you'd expect anyone with general interest knowledge to be able to answer.

        • Wow. You've convinced me. Quiz shows that require a breadth of knowledge have no place in Slashdot (i.e. news for nerds) culture. For clearly the real heart of Slashdot culture is gate-keeping Slashdot culture. Well done.

          • Problems with all sorts of shows have been brought up here.

            -Beat the Geeks told us plasma screens are bad
            -inaproptate light levels had to be solved at ESPN SportsCenter
            -/. thought there was too much torture of a certain girl at Univision's Trato Hecho, but turns out that was a burn off of a stunt that was already done for NBC's one-and-done rigged presentation of Let's Make a Deal.
            -Hot Set was a chase of a production that kept burning people and ruining areas with smell
            -./ had to reach the girls of the smal

          • this is Jeopardy we're talking about, if this were history and society forum then sure relevant.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by t14m4t ( 205907 )

        I wish I had moderator points to give you "+1 insightful." The passing of someone with a degree of importance to millions, is absolutely "stuff that matters."
        weylin

    • 1000X yes. Jeopardy is the intellectual counterpart to the more "working class" Wheel of Fortune during the hour in which they air. While it had to be commercial to be successful, and included a lot of general trivia, any given show would take you through college level material as well, and would almost always educate you.

      That makes it for nerds, and Trebek was a part of our popular culture who touched a lot of us through his show so that makes it matter.

      Anybody who doesn't live under a rock knew what was

  • Best Cheers Line Evah (Score:3, Funny)

    by perry64 ( 1324755 ) on Sunday November 08, 2020 @04:05PM (#60700152)

    When Cliff was on Jeopardy, Alex delivered the best line in the show's entire run:

    "And finally... celibacy!!"

  • American quiz show host? (Score:3)

    by Bradmont ( 513167 ) on Sunday November 08, 2020 @06:00PM (#60700558) Homepage

    Trebek was Canadian.

    • He had to become an American Citizen to host enough episodes of Jeopardy!... immigrants who aren't going for citizenship can only spend 6 out of every 12 months here.

      • One can stay in the US as a permanent resident essentially forever, without having to become a USA citizen.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by N1EY ( 817702 )
          It's a common refrain about retaining Canadian citizenship. It isn't a story about American law.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        He had to become an American Citizen to host enough episodes of Jeopardy!... immigrants who aren't going for citizenship can only spend 6 out of every 12 months here.

        Not necessary.

        Canadian citizens can get a TN visa (Trade NAFTA, at least until Trump blew it up and I don't know what it's called now). It just requires you to cross the border once a year because you renew the visa at the border and it's good for a year.

        And Jeopardy is filmed 5 episodes a day from around 9AM to 5PM with a break for lunch. Typi

    • Parse error at line 1.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
      It's an American game show and he's the host.

    • Trebek was Canadian.

      So were Wayne Gretzky and Michael J. Fox, but we managed to steal them too. Suck it, Canucks!

      Actually it was great when Trebek would occasionally tell stories from Canada, such as when he hit a moose and totalled his car... and the moose walked away uninjured.

  • Try "Alex Trebek"... K not a C...

  • Behind the Trivia (Score:3)

    by DrLudicrous ( 607375 ) on Monday November 09, 2020 @01:10AM (#60701774) Homepage
    Truths about Jeopardy (from a contestant) 1) Trebek was super engaging and personable. In the commercial breaks he would take questions, and proved himself quite the raconteur. He does take some time with the contestants at the end. 2) Contestants have to fly themselves (and their friends/families) out to LA on their own dime. Third place only gets 1000 bucks, which doesn't really cover the airfare if you've got more than 2 or 3 coming with you. I think they covered a night in the hotel (a DoubleTree and maybe a Hyatt? in Culver City). 3) You get a free lunch, as long as you haven't lost. If you've already played out, you're welcome to join, but on your own dime. Take it as you will. I hope they continue with Jennings, but maybe slightly more generous with contestants, given the show's budget (they likely could afford the extra 4-6k to pay airfare for contestant+1 and include a meal).

  • Sux. (Score:1)

    by DeanOh ( 61485 )

    As a kid, I watched the original daytime Jeopardy (in black and white) with my folks when Art Fleming was the host. After some fits and starts in syndication, it disappeared about the time I graduated from high school and returned in 1984 when I was in the navy and stationed in Hawaii.

    Except for when I was deployed or working nights (in pre VCR/Tivo/DVR times), the current version of Jeopardy --and therefore, Alex-- has been part of my weekday routine since then.
    Alex...the sometimes awkward contestant inter

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