Final Episode Aired For American Quiz Show Host Alex Trebek (cbsnews.com) 42
"More than two months after Alex Trebek's death, fans of Jeopardy! finally got the chance to say goodbye," reports CBS News:
A video tribute to the host closed Friday's episode of the quiz show, the final one that Trebek taped before pancreatic cancer claimed his life on November 8. The 90-second montage, set to Hugh Jackman singing the Peter Allen song "Once Before I Go," is a lighthearted and laughter-filled remembrance showing Trebek's changing look through his 36 years as host, with moustache and without, with black hair and with grey, with suits from several decades.
It celebrated the wackier moments of the usually strait-laced Trebek, showing him verbally sparring with contestants and arm-wrestling with one. "You really make me feel inadequate," he tells a child contestant. "Sorry about that," she sassily answers. Trebek is shown walking on the set pants-less in one clip, dressed as the Statue of Liberty in another, and wearing the costume of a Trojan solider in another....
The show will continue next week with a series of interim hosts, starting with veteran "Jeopardy!" champion Ken Jennings.
The week's final Trebek episodes began Monday with the host urging viewers to give to others who were suffering during the coronavirus pandemic. "We're trying to build a gentler, kinder society, and if we all pitch in just a little bit, we're going to get there," Trebek said...
It celebrated the wackier moments of the usually strait-laced Trebek, showing him verbally sparring with contestants and arm-wrestling with one. "You really make me feel inadequate," he tells a child contestant. "Sorry about that," she sassily answers. Trebek is shown walking on the set pants-less in one clip, dressed as the Statue of Liberty in another, and wearing the costume of a Trojan solider in another....
The show will continue next week with a series of interim hosts, starting with veteran "Jeopardy!" champion Ken Jennings.
The week's final Trebek episodes began Monday with the host urging viewers to give to others who were suffering during the coronavirus pandemic. "We're trying to build a gentler, kinder society, and if we all pitch in just a little bit, we're going to get there," Trebek said...
American quiz show host? (Score:3)
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Re:American quiz show host? (Score:5, Informative)
(American quiz show) host, not American (quiz show host).
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Because one parsing leads to a correct statement, while the other leads to an incorrect statement. It only makes sense not to read an inaccuracy into the statement.
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(American quiz show) host, not American (quiz show host).
It's a little odd to give the nationality of the show but leave out the nationality of the host when the host is the subject of the article.
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He was a naturalized US citizen.
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Re:What is this? Vanity Fair? (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't most Nerds like Trivia games?
Nope nerd don#t like trivia (Score:2)
I'll take... (Score:5, Insightful)
"A Life Well Lived" for $2000, Alex.
Thanks for entertaining while also educating us. Pursuit of knowledge, in all forms, is a grand goal for all of us. Again, RIP.
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Should have posted this a week ago... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not sure the point of posting this now. I would have liked to know LAST Sunday about the week long final episodes, not after the fact....
Re:Should have posted this a week ago... (Score:4, Funny)
If only there was some source of information, readily available to all, you could have used to find out about this in advance.
Final Jeopardy Answer (Score:3)
Re:Final Jeopardy Answer (Score:5, Interesting)
Alex was a wonder to work with when he knew me as a kid. He explained Classic Concentration to me,
While I was in school, I was an occasional writer sending things like In Other Words puzzles and questions about the AP Entertainment Wire. Jeopardy! has gone a bit downward in educational level since then, but still is informative and interesting.
Classic Concentration was an interesting side of him... with episodes ending early leading to 90 seconds or so with his co-host (Marjorie Goodson wasn't discovered until after the show was on the air...) He really encouraged contestants in the bonus round, which was an attempt to give away a car.
I was a panelist on Battlestars, which was a 6-star version of Hollywood Squares with a random point on the board being selected sometimes leading to a choice in which star played, with all 3 points surrounding a hexagon required to capture a panelist, the first player to get 4 wins. I was a little better a computing game situations there, informing Alex when a spot became game point.
High Rollers was another show he hosted, but he eventually stepped aside to let Wink Martindale host. This was a complicated dice throwing game. Plenty of math in this one, including the odds of getting a number out of two dice. There was even a little bit of physics involved for players trying to get a certain number with the dice weight specs changing often.
On NBC Daytime's To Tell the Truth, he was as the last of a series of hosts which was quite many for a short-lived version of the show. Alex memorably missed a tape day due the birth of a child, leading to Mark Goodson stepping in as a guest host for half a week.
Overall, it was a life well lived.
No one will listen (Score:2)
I'
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Jeopardy! replacements list... (Score:2)
Here's who's in the running to take Alex's job on Jeopardy!
- Ken Jennings... longtime champ who got the nod from the producers to take the first few episodes. We'll see how the ratings treat him.
- Jeff Probst... host of Rock & Roll Jeopardy! on VH1. This was rerun quite a bit proved he could handle the answer reading.
- Dan Patrick... host of Sports Jeopardy! which was basically a recital of the who-won-what-when list.
- Bob Boden... he's a little surprised to be forgiven for Jep! that aired on GSN, and a
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Ken Jennings would be a great host. He is actually funny on Master Minds.
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LeVar Burton!
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Uh, didn't he die a while ago?
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He's 63 and very much alive.
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No, he's still very much alive.
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Remember Jeopardy! came out of the fallout of the Game Show scandals of the 50s, which was a set of laws for game shows that are in effect to today.
This happened because due to flagging game show ratings, one quiz show secretly fed answers to one of the contestants, producing an exciting run that perked up the ratings for game shows across the board. It was then revealed that the contestant and the show producers were in cahoots in the late 50s, and the FTC enacted a few laws stating the show must be clean.
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Actually, Alex was able to interact with pre-studio contestants a little because he didn't know what would be on the board until he got to the podium.
Regis Philbin spent time with his contestants because his readability test involving the question and four possible answers didn't happen until they had won Fastest Finger. The Ask The Host lifeline in the current version is based on this. Jimmy Kimmel warns he isn't given the right answers in advance, but some questions like award shows he hosted are strong m
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Jeopardy! didn't really come out of the fallout of the Game Show scandal. The only real connection it has to those scandals is that from that point until Jeopardy! came about there really weren't any question and answer type games. It was actually Merv Griffin's wife that came up with the concept for Jeopardy! (at least according to Merv). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Another class act from Canada (Score:3)
I remember when Alex Trebek became Jeopardy host after Art Fleming.
Thanks for all the years of wit, competence, compassion and entertainment. Rest in peace, Alex. I'll miss you.
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It's sad that there are no extant copies of almost all the Art Fleming episodes. They reused the video tapes until they wore out, then threw them away. Presumably, it was too expensive to keep copies. There are a couple clips out there, though.
An interesting difference in the rules was that contestants could ring in as soon as a clue was revealed, instead of having to wait until it was read.
In the late 1960s, I lived in a town that had a volunteer fire department, and as was common in those days, sirens all
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Great story! My town had volunteer firemen, too.
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It was probably more a case that no one at the time thought that anyone would be interested in re-watching a game-show than it was the cost of archiving the tapes.
A classy man. (Score:3)
I did not like Alex when I was a contestant. I thought he was arrogant and rude to Johnny Gilbert.
I later found that Alex and Johnny always ribbed each other.
Regardless, I fell like he grew into the role for the Jeopardy host, and became, for lack of a better phrase, America's honorary uncle. And the way he handled himself in the later stages of his illness was nothing other than pure class.
Reading through the comments (Score:1)