I love Jeopardy!
Dang, I haven't written in this in a while... I forget how to write essays. Let's think of three parts to this article.
Part 2) Cool memories of Jeopardy! from related media (ie not the TV show itself).
Part 3) At first, I wasn't sure Ken Jennings could fill Alex's grand shoes... but... now, I think he can.
But first, Part 1:
Alex Trebek... You were The Greatest.
When Merv Griffin first made that Jeopardy! and got Art Fleming to host it back in 1964... I bet ol' Merv probably thought it'd last a couple of seasons... but now 59 years later... it's still on and everyone still loves it so much.
But it wasn't Merv Griffin, or Art Fleming, or even Don Pardo who made that show the juggernaut of trusted evening after-dinner TV that an entire society grew to love... it was another man...
... Alex Trebek.
No one could have foretold that this young man from Sudbury, Ontario, Canada would become one of TV's most beloved personas.
The fast-talking jack-of-all-trades broadcaster could tape myriads of Jeopardy!'s in the span of one day... reading answers by the millions! The producers adored his professional work-ethic, attention-to-detail, and his unique on-screen charisma.
This man was literally the GREATEST game show host in History by a large margin. No one even comes close to Alex.
There's some mid-tier guys like your assorted Sajaks, Barkers, Wooleries, and Carrutherses. Oh and Regis... Regis was good too... but there's only ONE Alex. He was simply the greatest at it, bar none... and forever. No one will ever be better than him at hosting game shows... not even in a million years!
Alex Trebek... you were the Greatest.
Cool Memories of Jeopardy! from Related Media
Jeopardy! is so well-known and part of the fabric of TV that it seems to exist in every Universe of TV that has ever been created. Whether its the world of Sitcoms, Cartoons, Sci-Fi, Drama, or what-have-you... Jeopardy! exists in that Universe... with very little if any exceptions. It's that much a part of the culture of our society where it is almost unheard of in any fictional universe for it not to exist.
I'm sure someone/somewhere has documented every mention of Jeopardy! in other media forms... and I'd estimate that list to be insanely long.
A site called Gameshows Fandom seems to have a decent write-up of many occurrences of Jeopardy! existing in fiction and popular culture...
(See: https://gameshows.fandom.com/wiki/Jeopardy!/J!_In_Popular_Culture)
I will use this section to tell you my favorites... and I'll try to narrow it down to three.
My first, which is very short, is from Beavis and Butthead where they are briefly watching Jeopardy! and Alex corrects the contestant who answered "What is Mongolia"... with "I'm sorry, but, the correct response is... what is OUTER Mongolia..."
...to which Beavis and Butthead chastise the mistaken contestant by calling them a "dumbass"...
It's so silly but I love this line. They are such crappy guys... Yeah right, like you two actually knew that. Come on, guys, you can barely read and count let alone know the nuances between Asian regions and where the difference lies between Inner and Outer Mongolia.
Give me a break Beavis and Butthead! You bungholes.
Another personal Jeopardy! memory of mine derives from the NES game where I guess the memory of the game cartridge could handle only so many questions/answers because there was only like a few Final Jeopardy answers... and as a kid... I knew one of the them was Boris Pasternak from playing it a few times.
I had no idea who he was but could type that name as a 7-year old playing Jeopardy! on NES from seeing it appear on the screen a few times and knew I had like a 25% chance of getting Final Jeopardy if I wrote Boris Pasternak... and to this day... if I don't know the FJ (Final Jeopady) while watching...I'll just wing it and say Boris Pasternak.
One time on the real actual show... the FJ was Boris Pasternak and I looked so smart... but... I still don't actually even know who Boris Pasternak actually is.
What else? The Weird Al song, "I Lost on Jeopardy!" is a classic Weird Al song. People will tell you all the time that "Fat" or "Amish Paradise" are the greatest Weird Al songs... but give his Jeopardy! song a chance. It has a very funky rhythm and hits all the things you want in a Weird Al song.
There's some terms in this song that I haven't seen on Jeopardy! in so long. I haven't heard them say "Pot Pourri" on the show in so long. It was a category for miscellaneous questions with no theme. They actually said "Potent Potables" in a recent episode... that was a big term for Jeopardy! for so long.
Pot Pourri and Potent Potables... Yup. Great terms.
My favorite though is Clifford C. Clavin on Jeopardy! on Cheers though. That was so good... I haven't seen this since I was a kid and am remembering it the best I can but barfly know-it-all Clavin gets on Jeopardy! and is killing it getting all the answers and goes into FJ with like a 15K lead over the second place contestant... it was in the bag. Cliff Clavin had the game won.
The over-confidence of Clavin would be his downfall, however, as he bets IT ALL on Final Jeopardy and doesn't know the answer... so he says some really vague thing like..."Who are Three People who have never been in my Kitchen?"... Alex refuses to accept that vague question/answer and Clavin loses all his money and loses on Jeopardy!, baby...
...Ooooooooowoooooooo-oooooooh.
I've probably seen that episode once in my life like decades ago but remember it like it was yesterday. It's such a good episode of TV that Cheers n' Jeopardy! cross-over. It's A+ TeeVee, is what it is.
One of the all-time best Jerky Boys prank calls was the Jeopardy! one where he puts an ad in the paper for people to call in to test for Jeopardy! and then Frank Rizzo answers and tests people for the show... it's very great. I wonder if you could do Jerky Boys stuff now-a-days... I'm sure it's on the net somewhere. If you search for this be warned to the Jerky Boys laymen that there was a LOT of foul language on those Jerky Boys tapes from back in the day. A LOT of foul language.
"Are you well versed there? Are you a very smart man? EVERYONE KNOWS THERE'S MORE THAN TWO DAMN PITS IN A PEAR!!" -Rizzo, F.
I haven't even scratched the surface... I mean, everything mentions Jeopardy! at some point. It's like a weird glue that connects the fiction of our modern times all together. Dorothy the leader of the Golden Girls was on Jeopardy! in a bizarre dream episode where she loses to dopey ol' Rose.
Man, it's almost better to think of what Jeopardy! hasn't been mentioned on or parodied on instead what it has.
Norm MacDonald for most non-Norm-fans is really only remembered for portraying an impression of the co-star of Riverboat, Burt Reynolds, on Saturday Night Live's parody of Celebrity Jeopardy! You will still find people saying "Turd Ferguson" to this day. I'm pretty sure he didn't like to be only remembered for this bit but you can't deny it was remarkably popular.
Bill Murray is good in Groundhog Day... where he lives the same day in a monotonous loop. He sees the same episode of Jeopardy! hundreds of times and knows all the answers.. greatly impressing everyone.
Anyways, let's move on now, you guys...
At first, I wasn't sure Ken Jennings could fill Alex's grand shoes...
Succeeding Alex Trebek is a big deal and no one can fill his shoes. He was literally the greatest game show host in Society's Entire History... it simply can't be done.
When the young up-and-coming go-getter Ken Jennings first came on the scene... I thought he was a cocksure sure-of-himself punk with no respect for anything but his undying love for trivia. A young trivia anarchist out to buck conventions and destroy tradition.
I admit he was very good at Jeopardy! but he was also a snidely arrogant contestant who thought very highly of himself. Hosting Jeopardy! is a selfless endeavor that requires filming many shows in a short span... sometimes multiple episodes in one day... it requires a person of great endurance, wit, and fortitude to Host it.
Being a contestant is one thing... but hosting Jeopardy! is a horse of a different color all together.
I knew something was up with this talented trivia fellow from day one. I watched his interview on Howard Stern and I was further skeptical of him after that... for... he said he wore magic underwear under his suit in that Howard interview and after that... I didn't know if I could trust an arrogant, cocksure, trivia fanatic who seemed hell-bent on optimizing the formula of questioning the answers to questions so efficiently as to break the system... just because he could... and now on top of it all... we learned that he wears magic underwears.
The needle that broke the camel's back for me, personally, was during the final days of Alex hosting the show where they had this Team competition between old Champions... and Alex was not shown in any promos for the show but the snidely sneer of Jennings was ALL OVER the promos... I knew something was up... I knew Alex's days were numbered.
When Alex Trebek told the world he was suffering from cancer we all were in a state of shock that we could barely handle... the Nation was deeply saddened.
They had a Successor to the Jeopardy! throne arc after that... and I didn't know who to root for... but deep down... something inside of my heart changed... during the Jeopardy! Successor Arc. The scramble for the Jeopardy! throne.
The man whom I thought saw Jeopardy! as nothing but an obstacle to overcome on his bombastic hellbent fanatic trivia obsession to become the greatest Trivia man on earth... showed more respect for the show, nay the culture... nay The Nation of Jeopardy!... The glue that holds our culture together... than any man I had ever seen. I started to realize that Ken Jennings COULD host Jeopardy!
No one can fill Alex's shoes... but something I saw in Ken Jennings those fateful days of the Successor Arc... lead me to look more brightly at the future of Jeopardy! for the person I thought could never host... slowly became the Host of Jeopardy! right in front of the Nation's eyes... eyes that were tired from the pandemic and in need of good TV Shows.
One hundred years from now? Oh, there will still be Jeopardy!
Two hundred years from now? Let me tell you... there will still be Jeopardy!
Five hundred years from now? I believe inside of my heart that there will still be Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! Forever!
