Posted on 11/08/2020 4:05:50 PM PST by Kaslin
Because he made them feel at home, Americans welcomed Alex Trebek into their homes, night after night, for good-natured entertainment.
The audience takes its seats, members murmuring amongst themselves. Some comment on how the soundstage looks smaller in person than on the small screen, an optical illusion caused by wide-angle lenses. Others note the sets cool temperatures, intended to offset the stage lights heat. As the production staff provide information and instructions about what they are about to see, the guests just take it all in.
Preliminaries concludedaudience briefed, crew in positionthe theme music starts, the lights come up, and the cameras roll. The shows voice for nearly two score years intones the introduction, rising with the audiences applause to reach his crescendo:
And now, here is the host of Jeopardy!Alex Trebek!
* * *
In the last episode of his documentary Baseball, filmmaker Ken Burns highlights the inherently nostalgic nature of a national pastime that has as its prime objective going home. Home, of course, means many things to many people. In many cases, it represents a sense of placea feeling or place of beingmore than a physical place itself.
Johnny Gilbert recognizes that. At the start of a Jeopardy! taping, the announcer introduces himself as the person whos been yelling at you for years. (Hes only half-joking; the Hollywood legend in his own rightat a spry 96 years youngstill gets physically animated as he enunciates his script.) He adds that I feel like I know all of youyouve welcomed us into your homes every night.
Gilberts comments hit on the way Trebek feels like an extended member of the family to millions of Americans, someone who has come into their homes every evening, five days a week, for more than 36 years. It seems somehow fitting that Trebek represents merely the public face of a close-knit Jeopardy! crew, a television family with names and faces still in the same roles as when I appeared on the show more than a quarter-century ago.
To me, and some of my fellow contestants, Stage 10 at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Overland Avenue represents a home. But for nearly four decades, Jeopardy! and Trebek have served as a home for millionseven those who have never set foot on the Sony Pictures Studios lot.
* * *
What has made Trebek feel like a member of so many Americans families? Why the outpouring of support and compassion when news of his cancer diagnosis became public? Familiarity helps, of course. Hosting a television show for more than three decades makes one a constant presence in American culture.
But, as evidenced by his behavior at a taping last fall, Trebek has commanded respect precisely by shying away from the limelight. Yes, he hosts a popular quiz show, which has brought him no small amount of fame and fortune. But most regular viewers dont tune in to see Trebekthey tune in to compete against the material, and watch the contestants strut their intellectual stuff.
Unlike other game shows, where hosts can show off their outsize personalities, hosting Jeopardy! requires a light touchgently moving the game along, and deferring to contestants rather than using them as fodder for comedy bits. In fact, one of the few times Trebek seemed out-of-place on stagea Pennsylvania gubernatorial debate he moderated in 2018arose precisely because he inserted himself into the discussion far too often.
In general, Trebek deprecates, both on camera and off. Asked about his health by an audience member, he responds by saying, Im doing fine, and then elaborates only slightly: I have good days and bad days, and todays OK. As might be expected from someone battling a major illness, Trebek doesnt seek to make his condition a major topic of discussionhe has a job to do, and wants to get on with it for as long as he can.
Trebek also employs humor to self-deprecate, responding to audience questions with quick quips, often at his own expense. Asked for his hobbies and outside interests: I drink. If he couldnt host game shows, what would he have done with his life? Pope. Im fine with the celibacy, and I like wearing whiteaccentuated with a few faux pontifical blessings for comical emphasis. And when Gilbert jokes that a gift bag contains boxes of Depends, Trebek shouts out: Ill take em!
In 2007, Britains Labour Party tried to humanize their otherwise-dull prime minister, Gordon Brown, with a marketing campaign: Not Flash, Just Gordon. Trebek holds little of Browns dour Scottish demeanor but, due in large part to his working-class Canadian roots, he eschews flashiness, or a desire for cheap headlines. He has functioned in the background of American life, ever-present, but rarely foremost in prominence.
Now, however, that voice seems conspicuous by its absence.
* * *
At that November taping, one of the contestants in particular struggled mightily. Early in the episode, she couldnt master the signaling button to ring in. But once she learned how to use the buzzer, she rang inand froze. She rang in for the wrong clues, and forgot responses under the glare of the stage lights. On this particular day, everything that could go wrong for her did.
Having over-compensated when behind in a match myself, I couldnt help but feel compassion for the contestant, who seemed shell-shocked by the experience. With a negative score heading into Final Jeopardy!, the producers escorted her off the stage, while the two remaining contestants played out the last clue.
At the end of the match, the producers brought the contestant back on stage while the shows closing credits rolled. While the two other contestants chatted with Alex, this third contestant stood there awkwardly, likely wishing she was standing anywhere else in the world than on that soundstage.
Trebek noticed her discomfort, and pulled her aside for a quiet conversation as the cameras switched off. I know not what words he spoke to her, or whether his words helped to put the episode in proper perspective. But I couldnt help but recognize the fact that a man fighting for his life took time to comfort this distraught contestant. That heartfelt gesture had an impact on me, an observer watching from a distance; I can only imagine it had a similar impact it had on her.
* * *
Towards the end of the day, I had a surprising feeling. I had flown out to Los Angeles solely to attend a Jeopardy! taping. Given Trebeks ill health, and the impact Jeopardy! had on my lifeI met my sister through the showI wanted to go back to Stage 10 while I still could. I got on a plane, went straight from the airport to the studio, and after several patient hours of waiting, got escorted onto the set.
Yet despite all the effort and all the drama, an hour or so into the taping, that emotion had all subsided. The show felt like just another Jeopardy! taping, one of the many I have seen in Washington and Los Angeles. I even thought to myself that I could come back for another taping in the coming months.
I soon stopped myself, realizing that day would never arrive. Trebeks illness had numbered his days, and the coronavirusnot on anyones radar that day last Novemberclosed the Jeopardy! set to audience members.
But as usual, Trebezs pitch-perfect professionalism and quick wit had calmed my emotions, and made me feel at home, just as he has made millions of people feel at home for decades. And because he made them feel at home, Americans welcomed him, and his show, into their homes, night after night, for good-natured entertainment in the form of answers and questions.
Alex Trebek has himself gone home now, having left us with many fond memories and a powerful legacy. Requiescat in pace.
I think most of us have changed since the 70s.
Ken Jennings one of the contestants on Mastermind. I was always wondering where they got him from, because they got the other 2 contestants from the game show The Chase
Yes
He kicked Weird Al Yankovic off Jeopardy
Hmmm. Dumbed down you say? I was not a regular watcher but wondered why in the past few years I could answer almost all the questions. I thought I got smarter. Apparently not :)
The best thing about Jeopardy is how it immediately gets down to business, and then do the greetings in the show.
Well you got a lot of faggots on Cash Cab too, but that’s because NYC is full of them. Not much you can do about that.
Tsk, tsk, tsk
I have to agree with you.
Well said & I agree. When I visit with my mom every summer we would have a G & T or a glass of wine & watch JEOPARDY. Nice memory now.....
Yes I do. He was the original Host of Jeopardy
I’m betting on Ken Jennings...James is nice, very impressive, guy. However, I find a little too ‘’off’’ to be a host.
If you watch Master Minds, Jennings is much more ‘’polished’’.
I think Ken is probably next up.
Jeopardy! will never be the same. Thank you Alex for helping to bring my family together from 7:30pm ET to 8:00pm ET each night. Rest in Peace!
They’d give anything for Ken Jennings to be just A BIT more charismatic. I’d have liked Stephen Fry to do it, but I suspect he’s a little too long in the tooth to want to bother. I think “The Beast” from The Chase would make an excellent choice. In any event, sad day for television.
As Jeopardy is one of the few things not poisoned by politics, picking Jennings as a replacement would be a bad call. Jennings is a leftist with a history of nasty tweets.
So I fully expect Jennings or someone like him to get the job.
Such a lovely man. So sad for his family. I read somewhere that he had become a person of faithI hope so.
Or Steve Harvey
From my couch Im pretty good at it, though certain categories leave me cold.
"So we meet again, Trebek!"
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