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Thread: R.I.P. Alex Trebek

  1. #1
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    R.I.P. Alex Trebek

    From the Jeopardy! twitter:

    Jeopardy! is saddened to share that Alex Trebek passed away peacefully at home early this morning, surrounded by family and friends. Thank you, Alex.


    "Jeopardy!" says Alex hosted episodes will air through December 25th. His last day taping in the studio was October 29.

    The shows executive producer, Mike Richards, says, "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."

    After his initial diagnosis, there were several ups and downs for Alex. In May 2019, he announced his tumors had shrunk more than 50 percent, obviously a great sign of progress, but his numbers declined and he began another round of chemotherapy a few months later. Still, he maintained a positive outlook ... and did a lot of good throughout his ordeal.

    His soothing and reassuring voice was on display when he announced having cancer. Trebek -- who was signed to host the show through 2022 -- joked, "Truth told, I have to! Because under the terms of my contract, I have to host 'Jeopardy!' for three more years!"

  2. #2
    Moderator Poisoned Youth's Avatar
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    What is sadness, Alex?

    RIP to a great icon of television who handled the cancer with grace and dignity. He will be missed.
    WANTED: Sig-worthy quote.

  3. #3
    The Wizard of Odds, Double Dare, High Rollers, Battlestars, Classic Concentration, To Tell the Truth and of course, Jeopardy...what a stellar career!!!

    R.I.P. Alex
    "Frozen flaking fish raw nerve...In a cup of silver liquid fire" - Jethro Tull

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    Man of repute progmatist's Avatar
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    What is a terrible loss?
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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    ^^ The other one you could have gone with is "I'll take 'Sadness' for $500'."

    Pretty sad though, because while I haven't seen Jeopardy in a long time, I know there were a lot of people who enjoyed it, and came together to watch it.

    I remember when I was in college I was really surprised when someone told me he was a person of color. I hadn't known that at all. Still not entirely sure if it was even true. Not that it matters, aside from the achievement of his long, successful career.

    Fuck cancer! I just don't put much faith in any of those "I'm now cancer-free" type reports. The bitch wins so often. Earlier this year a woman who worked closely with for a few when we were still very young (and she was younger than me) died of cancer. So friggin sad, I keep forgetting that she's gone. She was SO funny, interesting, and alive. She was a huge Clapton fan and used to refer to him as "Her next husband."

  6. #6
    Member mnprogger's Avatar
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    yeah he will. One-of-a-kind.

    I do wonder what will happen with Jeopardy now. Will they get a new host like Drew Carey with The Price is Right.

    the TMZ article says

    https://www.tmz.com/2020/11/08/alex-...reatic-cancer/

    naming 2 potential replacements: L.A. Kings announcer Alex Faust and CNN legal analyst Laura Coates.

    Important to note ... "Jeopardy!" producers say they are not announcing a new host right now.

  7. #7
    The eons are closing
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    RIP Mr. Trebek


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  8. #8
    RIP Alex. You will be missed

  9. #9
    Member dropforge's Avatar
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    Aw, damn. I admit I'm one of those guys who still tries to catch Jeopardy a few times a week. This is a real bummer.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    I remember when I was in college I was really surprised when someone told me he was a person of color. I hadn't known that at all. Still not entirely sure if it was even true. Not that it matters, aside from the achievement of his long, successful career.
    Biography.com mentions some Native American background:

    Trebek was born on July 22, 1940, in Sudbury, Canada, a large city in northern Ontario. His mother, Lucille Trebek, was a French-Canadian woman with some First Nations ancestry, and his father, George Trebek, was a Ukrainian immigrant who worked as a chef at a local hotel.

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    Member Vic2012's Avatar
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    RIP.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by progcd54 View Post
    The Wizard of Odds, Double Dare, High Rollers, Battlestars, Classic Concentration, To Tell the Truth and of course, Jeopardy...what a stellar career!!!
    He hosted Battlestars?! Wow, I absolutely do not remember that! I remember the game show, I used to watch it while I was eating lunch when I was in the 3rd and 4th grades (I had to come home from school for lunch, because my mom didn't want to pay so I could eat in the school multi-purpose room, imagine having 1 hour and 15 minutes to walk about a mile home, eat lunch, then walk back to school...that's what I did for 2nd, 3rd and most of 4th grades).

    The only time I've watched Jeopardy recently was when Jackie Fox was on, but we watched it on a nightly basis for many years, I think mainly because it came on the same TV channel that showed the Ohio lottery numbers, so we always had to watch the lottery numbers (because my dad frequently plays) and then we'd watch Jeopardy. We did that probably from the time the current iteration of the show began in 1984, all the way through the rest of the 80's and a good sized chunk of the 90's. I'm not sure exactly when we stopped watching. There was a point where I started spending more time in the basement rec room watching TV down there. And at some point, and I think besides that, we just started watching other stuff (most recently, Law And Order reruns) during the 7:00pm hour, switching over to channel 5 for the lottery drawing and then changing it back (some years back, Wheel Of Fortune and Jeopardy started airing on a different channel).

    I know we, or at least I stopped watching when Alex still had his mustache. I know at some point, we turned it on, and was surprised to find out he'd shaved his mustache off, that was probably like 15 years ago when I noticed that.

    Was it Eugene Levy who played game show "Alex Trebell" on SCTV, doing a perfect impression of Trebek's voice?

  13. #13
    Member since March 2004 mozo-pg's Avatar
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    A fellow Canadian who made a big impact outside our country. RIP
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    All Things Must Pass spellbound's Avatar
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    I can think of no other television host that had a bigger affect on me than Alex Trebek, or any that I spent as much time watching. Some TV seasons produce nothing worth watching, but even in those seasons, there was always Jeopardy. Rest in peace, Alex.

    I have been told I should go on the show as a contestant, and now I regret that I never tried out when I was younger. In the early '90s a friend would videotape the show each night, and several of us would gather at his house on Friday night to run through the week's shows, pausing the tape to give us all a chance to answer. It was interesting to see what areas each of us had high knowledge of, but above all, it was fun to make a group activity out of a trivia show most people watch at home alone. Like a sort of nerd party.

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    Outraged bystander markwoll's Avatar
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    RIP. Great show.
    I thought I saw Ken Jennings as a potential host, although it might have been a joke.
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    Member Jerjo's Avatar
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    RIP to a class act who always treated every contestant with grace even though he knew all the answers.
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  17. #17
    A Class Act for sure. I still watch 3-5 episodes a week. RIP.

  18. #18
    I remember way back when he took over the reigns, people scoffed that Art Fleming's shoes would be difficult to fill.

    Alex did pretty well.

    RIP.
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    Quote Originally Posted by markwoll View Post
    RIP. Great show.
    I thought I saw Ken Jennings as a potential host, although it might have been a joke.
    Jennings has said he feels disqualified because so many contestants come from the same trivia-competition community he does, so he would know them and be subject to bias. I don't know; he'd be good.

    There will never be another Trebek. I watch the show religiously, and my admiration for his skill, good humor, erudition, and reassuring presence has never waned. The show will need to go on hiatus, and be revamped sufficiently to preserve Alex's legacy. He can't simply be replaced.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    I remember way back when he took over the reigns, people scoffed that Art Fleming's shoes would be difficult to fill.

    .
    Fleming himself said he thought it was a decent show, but he had three complaints:

    1. The pace was too slow. On the original Jeopardy, you cuold buzz as soon as Art started reading the clue, so it moved a lot of faster. He said a lot of people would buzz in immediately because they reckoned they knew a lot about the subject, so they'd take a chance they'd know the correct response.

    2. The clues were too easy. He said one time, they had a topic, something like "Starts with Q" or whatever. One of the clues was for the city of Quebec. So Art said he later met one of the producers at a trade show or wherever and he said something like, "Name any city that starts with the letter Q, besides Quebec!".

    3. He didn't like that the losers didn't get to take their winnings home. He was being interviewed by Bob Costas, and Bob said that if someone finished with just 20 dollars or whatever, Art would invariably say "So sorry, but at least you have plane fare home". Art said "Yeah, at least you get to go home 20 dollars richer!".

  21. #21
    Member Camelogue's Avatar
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    RIP Alex, you can join Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds for a game.

  22. #22
    Subterranean Tapir Hobo Chang Ba's Avatar
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    Not a surprise, given his cancer, but still damn sad to actually see happen. I still watch Jeopardy pretty regularly and will miss him.

    RIP
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  23. #23
    Subterranean Tapir Hobo Chang Ba's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rdclark View Post
    Jennings has said he feels disqualified because so many contestants come from the same trivia-competition community he does, so he would know them and be subject to bias. I don't know; he'd be good.
    Unless he is purposely choosing questions that he knows certain people are good/bad at, I'm not sure how he can be biased as the host. (And I would imagine the clue team or whatever they are called does that process.)

    For me, this makes the most sense. They did recently hire him to be a producer or something akin to that, which I figured was just to get him comfortable to eventually move him to host. But if Ken doesn't want to do it, then I'm sure they will find someone else.
    Please don't ask questions, just use google.

    Never let good music get in the way of making a profit.

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  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Camelogue View Post
    RIP Alex, you can join Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds for a game.
    Funny you mention Connery and Reynolds. There was a Saturday Night Live "Celebrity Jeopardy" skit featuring Will Ferrell as Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. Darrell Hammond portraying Sean Connery and Norm Macdonald appeared as Burt Reynolds.

    How ironic.

    R.I.P. all three
    "Frozen flaking fish raw nerve...In a cup of silver liquid fire" - Jethro Tull

  25. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by progcd54 View Post
    Funny you mention Connery and Reynolds. There was a Saturday Night Live "Celebrity Jeopardy" skit featuring Will Ferrell as Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. Darrell Hammond portraying Sean Connery and Norm Macdonald appeared as Burt Reynolds.

    How ironic.

    R.I.P. all three
    I think that was what Camelogue was referring to. Living in the UK, I've never seen Jeopardy, but I enjoy the SNL skits. The real Trebek turns up on one of them.

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