A Sense of Doubt blog post #2093 - Alex Trebek Dies - RIP
Like millions of people all over the world, though especially in America, I loved Alex Trebek. I am not unique in being from a family of devoted Jeopardy watchers. I loved Trebek's even, smooth delivery, his commitment to knowledge and intellectualism, and his huge heart.
I remember reading a news article years ago (below) about how Trebek bought the inventory of a local hardware store when it was going out of business.
Trebek was one of the most amazing people alive in my lifetime that I have had the pleasure to watch on TV and to learn about. The tributes here are beautiful but are still missing an ineffable elemental quality of what made Trebek so special. If you never saw him speak and run a game of Jeopardy, you have missed one of the few great delights of how TV can be when it is good.
Special shout out to Chris Cuomo, whose tribute below via Twitter touched my heart.
Thanks Alex Trebek. From now on all my answers who will be "Who is Alex Trebek?" phrased on the form of a question... :-)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alex-trebek-his-popularity-not-in-jeopardy/2/
ndeed. Today there are websites analyzing "Jeopardy!" answers, and the show pulls in nearly 10 million viewers a night - safe to say most of them sure they'd do better than those losers on TV.
Susan Spencer admitted that she'd once tried to get on "Jeopardy!" but found the test "terribly hard."
"I barely understood the questions," she told Trebek.
"I believe the 'Jeopardy!' test is more difficult than being a contestant on the program," he replied.
"I was devastated - it took weeks to recover," she laughed.
"You flunked the 'Jeopardy!' test 15 years ago and you still can't live it down. Get over it!" he laughed.
Easy for him to take the winning and losing in stride. When he's not on the "Jeopardy!" set, he lives a quiet life with wife Jean and two kids, and would rather show off, not how smart he is, but how handy.
He's a dedicated putterer. When a local hardware store closed, he bought the inventory. "No matter what happens here that goes wrong, I probably have parts to fix it. I have a mini hardware store!"
There are things in his garage even HE doesn't know what they are - like woodruff keys.
But on the "Jeopardy!" set, Trebek is master of all he surveys.
The show keeps trying new things to stay fresh - like having Watson, an IBM computer, on the panel last year. (Watson won.)
And changing rules so contestants play as long as they win - that meant 74 times for Ken Jennings, who walked away with $2.5 million.
At 71, he's coy about retirement (vaguely saying sooner, not later), but is eager to answer a related question audiences always ask:
"Will I ever be a player on the show? No," he answered, "and I'll tell you why. Because if I were to be a contestant - say in a celebrity tournament - someone else would have to host the show. They might be younger, they might be very good!"
. . . but he won't be Alex Trebek.
Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek dies at 80
By Lynette Rice and Rosy Cordero
Longtime Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, who announced in March of 2019 that he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer, died on Sunday. He was 80.
The show confirmed the news in a statement to EW.
“This is an enormous loss for the Jeopardy! staff, crew, and all of Alex’s millions of fans," said Mike Richards, Jeopardy! Executive Producer. "He was a legend of the industry that we were all lucky to watch night after night for 37 years. Working beside him for the past year and a half as he heroically continued to host Jeopardy! was an incredible honor. His belief in the importance of the show and his willingness to push himself to perform at the highest level was the most inspiring demonstration of courage I have ever seen. His constant desire to learn, his kindness, and his professionalism will be with all of us forever.”
In a taped message for his fans at the time, Trebek said the prognosis was "never very encouraging but I'm gonna fight this." " I’m gonna keep working. And with the love and support of my family and friends, and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival-rate statistics for this disease. Truth be told, I have to. Under the terms of my contract, I have to host Jeopardy! for three more years. So help me! Keep the faith, and we’ll win! We’ll get it done. Thank you.”
A career emcee, Trebek began hosting game shows in his native country of Canada. He moved to the United States in the '70s to emcee The Wizard of Odds and High Rollers for NBC, as well as Double Dare and Pillsbury Bake-Off for CBS. He joined Jeopardy! in 1984, but continued holding the mic for shows like The National Geographic Bee from 1989-2013 and To Tell the Truth from 1990-91.
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| National Geographic Bee - 1993 |
In 2011, Trebek earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daytime Emmys. He's also won seven Emmys for Outstanding Game Show host. In 2014, Guinness World Records announced that Trebek had broken the record for the most game show episodes (6,829) hosted by the same person on the same program.
As a tribute to Trebek's cucumber-cool demeanor, Saturday Night Live in 1996 began airing a series of sketches featuring Will Farrell in Trebek's role. The skits featured celebrity impersonators like Darrell Hammond playing Sean Connery and Norm Macdonald as the late Burt Reynolds. Like in real life, Farrell's Trebek acted like the smartest guy in the room. The last Celebrity Jeopardy! aired in 2015 to help celebrate SNL's 40th anniversary.
SNL40: Celebrity Jeopardy - SNL
Saturday Night Live - 11M subscribers
Alex Trebek (Will Ferrell) tries his best to keep contestants Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond), Justin Bieber (Kate McKinnon), Tony Bennett (Alec Baldwin), Burt Reynolds (Norm Macdonald) and Matthew McConaughey (Jim Carrey) in line. [Season 40, 2015]
When asked about the SNL sketches in 2005, Trebek told EW how much he enjoyed watching Ferrell portray him. "Love it," he said of being included in the popular NBC series. "Will Ferrell did a wonderful job. But when he came back to host, for some reason, he still wore the mustache. I shaved mine a year ago."
And even though it had gone out of vogue trying to stump Trebek on the street with trivia, he laughed he was at least still popular at Studio 8H.
"It used to be fashionable," he said about being quizzed by fans. "But since I’ve been around long enough, I guess there’s no joy in nailing Trebek anymore. Except on Saturday Night Live."
Shortly before his diagnosis, Trebek lamented to PEOPLE that he wished he had met his wife, Jean, a lot earlier. The two have been married for 29 years. "I was thinking about President Bush when he died, and all the comments about his life about what a nice guy he is, and how he and his wife had been together 73 years," he told PEOPLE. "I thought, oh my gosh… if I’d just met Jean in my 20s we could have had a longer life together. I guess if I’d met her when I was in my 20s she wouldn’t have been born yet. But hey, 29 years is pretty good!”
Trebek is survived by his wife of 30 years, Jean, and children Matthew, Emily, and Nicky. The family has announced no plans for a service, but gifts in Alex’s memory could go to World Vision.
Related content:
"He held all the answers," says @ChrisCuomo of his late friend Alex Trebek "…A cultural icon, paragon of wisdom, even-keeled, decent"
— CNN (@CNN) November 11, 2020
He wanted me to remind you "we are better than what's around us…disagreement is a waste of time when you can deal with things that can be done" pic.twitter.com/kDoN3XzX56
Alex Trebek, of 'Jeopardy!' fame, dies at 80
Nov-8-2020
Alex Trebek, who was with "Jeopardy!" for more than three decades, announced his Stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis in March 2019. He died on Nov. 8. Read more: https://wapo.st/3kjkr8t.
#CNN #News
'I had chills': 'Jeopardy!' executive producer on taping Trebek's last episode
641,778 views•Nov 8, 2020
"Jeopardy!" Executive Producer Mike Richards reflects on Alex Trebek's life after the longtime game show host passed away at age 80. #CNN #News
#jeopardy #weloveyoualex #alextrebek
'We love you, Alex:' Alex Trebek gets emotional over 'Jeopardy!' contestant's answer
2,630,009 views•Nov 11, 2019
"Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek became emotional after a contestant's answer on Monday night. The touching moment happened during the "Final Jeopardy" round of the show's "Tournament of Champions" episode. Read more: https://7ny.tv/2rvfTpy
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2011.10 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1957 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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