History Trivia / Jeopardy

* ScullyBox: Shorter contestants are placed on boxes so that they can see over the podium.

** Heck, one time Alex got the name of one of his former shows wrong, calling it ''The Wizard of '''Oz''''' rather than ''The Wizard of '''Odds'''''.

** For instance, one clue on April 9, 2004 said that Johnny Gilbert announced on the Bob Barker version of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'', which he did not.

* ActorAllusion: One celebrity episode of ''Rock & Roll Jeopardy!'' consisted entirely of ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' alumni, and was hosted by Jeff Probst as usual. It also contained an obligatory question about the band that recorded "Eye of the Tiger", which no one answered correctly.
** ''Game Show that has been hosted by Hugh Downs, Jack Narz ... And Alex Trebek''. One contestant guessed ''Jeopardy!''.

** Heck, one time Alex got the name of one of his former shows wrong, calling it ''The Wizard of '''Oz''' '' rather than ''The Wizard of '''Odds'''''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The contestant coordinator hosts "rehearsal games", recorded under actual taping conditions and designed to let the contestants "warm up" on clues taken from past episodes. For the first Trebek season (1984-85), the role was filled by former ''{{Starcade}}'' host [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkYzUosREpk Mark Richards]] and the clues were primarily from the 1983 pilot; coincidentally, Richards got the job for ''Starcade'' after Trebek turned it down following a trio of pilots...which means that in another universe Richards is a legend, Trebek is a semi-remembered host whose career began fizzling out after ''High Rollers'', and [[TreasureHuntUS Geoff]] [[Series/{{Jackpot}} Edwards]] never played a single video game.

** The original Fleming era is believed to have been destroyed by NBC, although about 20+ episodes are known to exist and four (plus the first five minutes of another) circulate. [[note]](September 7, 1966 {the five-minute excerpt}; February 21, 1972 {the 2,000th show}; April 24, 1974 {seen in ''TheTwilightZone Movie''}; June 27, 1974 {Kim/Kent/Karen, called "the three K's" by Art}; and the GrandFinale.)[[/note]]

** Actor Dileep Rao, best known as the BollywoodNerd in blockbusters ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' and ''{{Inception}}'' was a contestant in 2002; he won over $34,000 in his sole victory.

** In the January 31, 2014 episode, for example, the final two categories of the Jeopardy! round are "I Have The Wine" and "By Johnny Cash", in reference to an infamous ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNOm9Y_Ve40 incident]].

** Heck, one time Alex got the name of one of his former shows wrong, calling it ''The Wizard of '''Oz''''' rather than ''The Wizard of '''Odds'''''.

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** For instance, one clue on April 9, 2004 said that Johnny Gilbert announced on the Bob Barker version of ''ThePriceIsRight'', which he did not.

** Heck, one time Alex got the name of one of his former shows wrong, calling it "The Wizard of Oz" rather than ''The Wizard of Odds''.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Trebek was fairly well-known as the host of ''HighRollers'', ''{{Battlestars}}'', and ''The Wizard of Odds'' (among others) before taking the helm on ''Jeopardy!''.

** Lin Bolen, who was then NBC's vice president for daytime programming, wanted to oust all of the network's games hosted by middle-aged men on technologically-obsolete sets, as part of an aggressive attempt to bolster ratings among women aged 18-34, so she moved ''Jeopardy!'' on January 7, 1974 from its long-held (and ratings-proven) Noon slot to 10:30 AM — directly against ''[[{{Pyramid}} The $10,000 Pyramid]]'' on Creator/{{CBS}}; Fleming pummeled Clark's new game into a '''very''' unexpected submission at the end of March and ran equal with ''Pyramid''[='s=] replacement at that slot, ''{{Gambit}}''. Needless to say, this was '''not''' what Bolen wanted, and so she moved it on July 1 to 1:30 PM Eastern/12 Noon Pacific — against ''LetsMakeADeal'' and ''AsTheWorldTurns'' in the east (against local programming on CBS affiliates and ''{{Password}}'' on ABC in the west), which pummeled it into submission. In exchange for the final year of the show's contract, Merv Griffin debuted ''WheelOfFortune'' the Monday after ''Jeopardy!'' ended.
** The 1978-79 version began its life on October 2 at 10:30 AM against the first half of ''ThePriceIsRight''. On January 8, the show moved to its old Noon slot — now against ''TheYoungAndTheRestless'' and ''[[TookALevelInBadass The $20,000 Pyramid]]''. ''Jeopardy!'' was canned two months later.

** The 1978-79 version began its life on October 2 at 10:30 AM against the first half of ''ThePriceIsRight''. On January 5, the show moved to its old Noon slot — now against ''TheYoungAndTheRestless'' and a beefed-up ''$10,000 Pyramid'' (now ''The $20,000 Pyramid''). ''Jeopardy!'' was canned two months later.

* {{Blooper}}: With their crack research team, ''Jeopardy!'' rarely has wrong information in a clue, but it has happened very sporadically. For instance, one clue on April 9, 2004 said that Johnny Gilbert announced on the Bob Barker version of ''ThePriceIsRight'', which he did not.
** One in early 2012 was actually acknowledged by Alex in a post-production segment during a commercial break: the clue was supposed to say C Major instead of C Minor. Alex also noted that it ended up not mattering since no one rang in anyway.

** The original Fleming era is believed to have been destroyed by NBC, although about 20+ episodes are known to exist and four (plus the first five minutes of another) circulate. [[note]](September 7, 1966 {the five-minute excerpt}; February 21, 1972 {the 2,000th show}; April 24, 1974 {seen in ''TheTwilightZone Movie''}; June 27, 1974 {"the three K's"}; and the GrandFinale.)[[/note]]
*** In January 2010, five consecutive episodes from August 1968 and a Tournament Of Champions show from late 1969 surfaced on audio tape featuring Burt Sherman's run to become the 48th undefeated champion. The person who presented the tapes, Steve Sherman (Burt's son), also had a pair of four-minute "home movies" consisting entirely of footage from these games; a slideshow of Game 5, plus nine clips from it matching up the audio and video, can be viewed [[http://www.youtube.com/user/livefeedvideo here.]]
** The 1974-75 syndicated run and 1978-79 revival are intact; no episodes circulate of the former, while five episodes circulate of the latter. [[note]](October 2-3, November 13 {an episode which surfaced following the above events}, a Tournament Of Champions final, and the GrandFinale.)[[/note]]

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** ''Rock & Roll Jeopardy!'' was hosted by a pre-''{{Survivor}}'' Jeff Probst.

** The original Fleming era is believed to have been destroyed by NBC, although about 20+ episodes are known to exist and four (plus the first five minutes of another) circulate. [[hottip:*:(September 7, 1966 {the five-minute excerpt}; February 21, 1972 {the 2,000th show}; April 24, 1974 {seen in ''TheTwilightZone Movie''}; June 27, 1974 {"the three K's"}; and the GrandFinale.)]]

** The 1974-75 syndicated run and 1978-79 revival are intact; no episodes circulate of the former, while five episodes circulate of the latter. [[hottip:*:(October 2-3, November 13 {an episode which surfaced following the above events}, a Tournament Of Champions final, and the GrandFinale.)]]

** Lin Bolen, who was then NBC's vice president for daytime programming, wanted to oust all of the network's games hosted by middle-aged men on technologically-obsolete sets, as part of an aggressive attempt to bolster ratings among women aged 18-34, so she moved ''Jeopardy!'' on January 7, 1974 from its long-held (and ratings-proven) Noon slot to 10:30 AM — directly against ''[[{{Pyramid}} The $10,000 Pyramid]]'' on {{CBS}}; Fleming pummeled Clark's new game into a '''very''' unexpected submission at the end of March and ran equal with ''Pyramid''[='s=] replacement at that slot, ''{{Gambit}}''. Needless to say, this was '''not''' what Bolen wanted, and so she moved it on July 1 to 1:30 PM Eastern/12 Noon Pacific — against ''LetsMakeADeal'' and ''AsTheWorldTurns'' in the east (against local programming on CBS affiliates and ''{{Password}}'' on ABC in the west), which pummeled it into submission. In exchange for the final year of the show's contract, Merv Griffin debuted ''WheelOfFortune'' the Monday after ''Jeopardy!'' ended.

** 1997: After Johnny finished reading the copy for the car that the runner up would receive, Alex accidentally called him "Johnner", causing Johnny to laugh. Alex then lampshaded his slip-up by intentionally misreading the Final Jeopardy! category of Famous Pairs as "Famous Pores".

** Late 1990s: Johnny Gilbert mistakenly said "Glenn Trebek". While this may seem a totally arbitrary name-switch, Glenn was the name of one of the contestant coordinators, who at the time hosted the "practice" games that contestants-to-be played.

** Lin Bolen, who was then NBC's vice president for daytime programming, wanted to oust all of the network's games hosted by middle-aged men on technologically-obsolete sets, so she moved ''Jeopardy!'' on January 7, 1974 from its long-held (and ratings-proven) Noon slot to 10:30 AM — directly against ''[[{{Pyramid}} The $10,000 Pyramid]]'' on {{CBS}}; Fleming pummeled Clark's new game into a '''very''' unexpected submission at the end of March and ran equal with ''Pyramid''[='s=] replacement at that slot, ''{{Gambit}}''. Needless to say, this was '''not''' what Bolen wanted, and so she moved it on July 1 to 1:30 PM Eastern/12 Noon Pacific — against ''LetsMakeADeal'' and ''AsTheWorldTurns'' in the east (against local programming on CBS affiliates and ''{{Password}}'' on ABC in the west), which pummeled it into submission. In exchange for the final year of the show's contract, Merv Griffin debuted ''WheelOfFortune'' the Monday after ''Jeopardy!'' ended.

* {{Blooper}}: With their crack research team, ''Jeopardy!'' rarely has wrong information in a clue, but it has happened very sporadically. For instance, one clue on April 9, 2004 said that Johnny Gilbert announced on the Bob Barker verison of ''ThePriceIsRight'', which he did not.

** 1997: Alex accidentally called Johnny "Johnner", then lampshaded his slip-up by intentionally misreading the Final Jeopardy! category of Famous Pairs as "Famous Pores".

* HeyItsThatGuy: Trebek was fairly well-known as the host of ''HighRollers'', ''{{Battlestars}}'', and ''The Wizard of Odds'' (among others) before taking the helm on ''Jeopardy!''.
** ''Rock & Roll Jeopardy!'' was hosted by a pre-''{{Survivor}}'' Jeff Probst.
** Senator John [=McCain=] was a contestant in August 1965. The NBC microfilm archive on his games (as well as ''many'' other Fleming episodes) managed to remain intact; [[http://boards.sonypictures.com/boards/showthread.php?t=37250 info here.]] Note that NBC kept the microfilm ''record'' of most of the Fleming games, but wiped most of the actual ''episodes'' decades ago.
** Noted game show buff [[http://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=5363 Matt Ottinger]] appeared on [[http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2675 June 21, 2004]] during Ken Jennings' streak. Matt actually held an early lead (over $2,000 more than Ken) during Round 1 but, although still holding a formidable second place in Final Jeopardy!, lost.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
** The original Fleming era is believed to have been destroyed by NBC, although about 20+ episodes are known to exist and four (plus the first five minutes of another) circulate. [[hottip:*:(September 7, 1966 {the five-minute excerpt}; February 21, 1972 {the 2,000th show}; April 24, 1974 {seen in ''TheTwilightZone Movie''}; June 27, 1974 {"the three K's"}; and the GrandFinale.)]]
*** In January 2010, five consecutive episodes from August 1968 and a Tournament Of Champions show from late 1969 surfaced on audio tape featuring Burt Sherman's run to be the 48th undefeated champion. The person who presented the tapes, Steve Sherman (Burt's son), also had a pair of four-minute "home movies" consisting entirely of footage from these games; a slideshow of Game 5, plus nine clips from it matching up the audio and video, can be viewed [[http://www.youtube.com/user/livefeedvideo here.]]
** The 1974-75 syndicated run and 1978-79 revival are intact; no episodes circulate of the former, while five episodes circulate of the latter. [[hottip:*:(October 2-3, November 13 {an episode which surfaced following the above events}, a Tournament Of Champions final, and the GrandFinale.)]]
** Certain Trebek seasons have rarely been seen on GSN.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Oy.
** Lin Bolen, who was then NBC's vice president for daytime programming, wanted to oust all of the network's games hosted by middle-aged men on technologically-obsolete sets, so she moved ''Jeopardy!'' on January 7, 1974 from its long-held (and ratings-proven) Noon slot to 10:30 AM — directly against ''[[{{Pyramid}} The $10,000 Pyramid]]'' on {{CBS}}; Fleming pummeled Clark's new game into a '''very''' unexpected submission at the end of March and ran equal with ''Pyramid''[='s=] replacement at that slot, ''{{Gambit}}''. Needless to say, this was '''not''' what Bolen wanted, and so she moved it on July 1 to 1:30 PM Eastern/12 Noon Pacific — against ''LetsMakeADeal'' and ''AsTheWorldTurns'' in the east (against local programming on CBS affiliates and ''{{Password}}'' on ABC in the west), which pummeled it into submission. In exchange for the final year of the show's contract, Merv Griffin debuted ''WheelOfFortune'' the Monday after ''Jeopardy!'' ended.
** The 1978-79 version began its life on October 2 at 10:30 AM against the first half of ''ThePriceIsRight''. On January 5, the show moved to its old Noon slot — now against ''TheYoungAndTheRestless'' and a beefed-up ''$10,000 Pyramid'' (now ''The $20,000 Pyramid''). ''Jeopardy!'' was canned two months later.
* ThrowItIn: More than once, Alex has misread a clue and insisted that his slip-up be left in. One example is when he misread "sewers" (i.e., people who sew) as "sewers" (i.e., sanitary sewer).
** On a late-1990s episode, Johnny Gilbert mistakenly said "Glenn Trebek". While this may seem a totally arbitrary name-switch, Glenn was the name of one of the contestant coordinators, who at the time hosted the "practice" games that contestants-to-be played.
** This went the other way, too — in a 1997 episode, Alex accidentally called Johnny "Johnner". He then lampshaded his slip-up by intentionally misreading the Final Jeopardy! category of "Famous Pairs" as "Famous Pores".
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The contestant coordinator hosts "rehearsal games", recorded under actual taping conditions and designed to let the contestants "warm up" on clues taken from past episodes. For the first Trebek season (1984-85), the role was filled by former ''{{Starcade}}'' host [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkYzUosREpk Mark Richards]] and the clues were primarily from the 1983 pilot; coincidentally, Richards got the job for ''Starcade'' after Trebek turned it down following a trio of pilots. Thanks to infinite possibilities, in another universe Richards is a legend, Trebek is a virtual unknown whose career began fizzling out after ''High Rollers'', and [[TreasureHuntUS Geoff]] [[Series/{{Jackpot}} Edwards]] never played a single video game.