What’s the Question? is the original name of Jeopardy, where the answers are the questions and the questions are the responses.
Here’s what I mean.
Answer: March 30, 1964
Question: What was the official premiere date of Jeopardy?
Answer: America’s Favorite Quiz Show according to a trademark granted by The US Patent & Trademark Office.
Question: What is Jeopardy?
When I was in grade school, I remember hurrying home to watch Jeopardy, which officially turns 50 this week. It was in the days before Alex Trebek, and a host named Art Fleming served as quiz master to three contestants eager to prove their smartness chops.
I was probably eight and had no clue that the show is more about knowledge than a measure of IQ. Tossing my homework aside, I sat cross-legged on the floor waiting for the day I might come up with one correct response. Just one!
My Love Affair with Trivia
And I still remember the day it happened. The contestant selected the Myths and Legends category, and the answer was : “He told his father he could not tell a lie, but it’s a tall tale.” I didn’t know what a myth was, but we had just studied this one in school and I blurted out “George Washington!” Who cares that I would have been disqualified for failing to phrase my response in the form of a question, I got it right!
That began my love affair with Jeopardy.
I’ve lived through poor pairings in the Before & After category: What is Beauty and the Beast of Burden? Who is Ruth Bader Ginsburg? (“The Sultan of Swat makes it to the Supreme Court.” And “portly Yankee slugger who became a more svelte Supreme Court Justice.”) The show’s eight writers really earn their keep with gems like these.
I’m aware of the fascination the game show seems to have with Australia. According to a Jeopardy Archive, “What is Australia” has been the correct response 208 times out of 197,736. (Word to the wise: if you want to be smart and you’re stuck on a question, ask “What is Australia?” There’s a .001 percent chance you might be right.
Potpourri and Potent Potables
I’ve survived decades of “Potpourri” and “Potent Potables,” which has imparted a fair share of knowledge about alcoholic beverages and useless trivia. I’ve endured cumulative hours of “Think,” the 30-second lyric-less ditty that accompanies Final Jeopardy. Jeopardy creator Merv Griffin, composed the theme song, and estimated he earned close to $70 million from that one catchy (and somewhat annoying) little tune. Not a bad hour’s work.
Alex Trebek, Jeopardy’s five-time Emmy-winning host, launched his career in 1984 when the show went into syndication. The same year, he suffered a mild heart attack, but bounced back to entertain viewers with 30 years of mostly good pronunciations, many bad foreign accents, and the loss of his mustache. He shaved it off in 2004 creating such an uproar that fans crashed the Jeopardy web site—or so I’ve heard. I was not one of those fans. I love the show, but not that much.
Who Is Susan DeLay?
I am not necessarily proud of this, but when technology made it possible to record television shows, I faithfully taped Jeopardy and spent more than two hours watching it on weekends. (When you can fast forward through commercials, you save time.)
While I have never aspired to be on the show, I was curious to see if I could qualify as a contestant. So when one of the “Clue Crew” came to Chicago as part of a marketing plan aimed primarily at promoting the show and secondarily at finding contestants, I went. Along with several hundred others—many of whom were wearing white, short-sleeved dress shirts, black Keds lace-ups, and baseball caps, I stood in line for what felt like hours, but never got to take the test. It’s probably just as well. I left with my dignity intact and can continue to live in denial that I am smart enough to be on Jeopardy.
In reality, I know better. Even in the privacy of my home, I have never swept the board. I’ve never done well in popular categories like World Geography, Opera, or Art. And in my heart of hearts, I suspect if I were standing behind one of the contestant screens, I would fumble with the buzzer (which has defeated more than one hopeful champion); I would develop an embarrassing case of flop sweat on national television, and I would suffer from temporary amnesia.
Who is Susan DeLay?
Copyright 2014, Susan DeLay
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