I’ve been reading articles about Alex Trebek throughout the day, so I’m reluctant to write something about him for fear I’ll crib (subconsciously or otherwise) from the writing of others.
I’ll start by remembering how fun it was for our family to watch–and compete–in “Jeopardy!” We’re talking my high school years, so I had to hold out hope for categories I held an interest in–cartoons, old TV, broadcasting and such. Mom always scored big on literary and religious categories, and Dad was unbeatable at history and geography. Sometimes cousin Jackie would come over and join the game.
We had an aerial antenna on our TV and one afternoon, before Dad was home or Mom was paying attention, I found an out-of-town station airing “Jeopardy” at 4:00pm. (Our Syracuse, NY station aired it at 7:30pm.) I watched the 4:00pm airing and memorized as much as I could. Later that night I put on a show of junior intellect for the ages! For about 5 minutes…then they figured out something was up.
As I have grown older “Jeopardy!” has proved a good indicator of two things: the breadth of useless knowledge my cranium has soaked up over the years; and the slackening of my recall ability. At least 2 or 3 times a night there’s a clue .I,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,know……………….the………………….answer……………..to. But my brain can’t bring it up fast enough. (Sure, I could pause my DVR but that’s cheating.)
The greatest feeling in the world, which happens maybe 2 or 3 times a year, is when I can correctly solve the Final Jeopardy! clue and none of the contestants are able to do so. There is no experience, purely as an at-home viewer, that matches the joy of that tiny accomplishment.
And now, Alex Trebek is finished hosting “Jeopardy!”. 3,000+ episodes, over 35 years. It is always hard to see this kind of hosting transition. It seems especially melancholy in this case because there was no real “final episode” for Trebek–not that he’d allow the show to fritter away too much time on that sort of thing. But when Johnny retired, he did a wonderfully tasteful final hour. When Bob Barker retired he got a yearlong goodbye celebration.
I think Trebek’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis stimulated the nation to share their affection and devotion to him and the show. It’s nice that he was able to experience that.
I’ve read a few times today that nobody can replace Trebek. This is not true. To be sure, nobody can host these shows like the originators did; but the formats are solid and there will be someone who can host the show in a way that will eventually feel right. Alex Trebek, we should be reminded, was not the first person to host “Jeopardy!” And when he first started with the revival in 1983, there were some pretty snotty reviews.
So who will host “Jeopardy!”? Well, I’d like to see Tom Bergeron do it. He has class, he’s a great wit, and he ought to be hosting something.
But my guess is it’ll be Ken Jennings. They’re going to have him guest host for a few weeks then bring in a batch of other guest hosts throughout the Spring…I’m guessing they’re counting on that long run of guest hosts to give people time to forget the stupid tweets Jennings has made and/or shared. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was some good old fashioned Ned Beatty boardroom talk going on with Jennings about sensible tweeting.
Whoever the new host ends up being, I will give them a try. “Jeopardy!” is a great American tradition, and I think Alex Trebek would want it to continue.