For a little over three-and-a-half decades
at 7 p.m. right, Americans would gather in front of their television set either
individual or as a family to watch a game show that was hosted by a Canadian
who would go on to be a big part of their everyday lives. Each night, this host
displayed a heart of gold and an incredible spirit that gained the love and
appreciation for those that competed on the show as well as those who watched
either in person or from home. At the start of this week, the world said
goodbye to this an icon of an incredible television quiz show that he led with
a remarkable sense of humor and a humility that was second to none.
Alex Trebek, the host and overseer of
countless categories of the syndicated game show “Jeopardy! since its revival
in 1984 died on Sunday after a brave and fierce two-year battle with stage four
pancreatic cancer, which he began chemotherapy for after announcing his diagnosis
on March 6, 2019 after being tested by his doctor for pains in his stomach.
“This week, I was diagnosed with Stage IV
pancreatic cancer,” Trebek, who died on Sunday at age 80 years said back on
that March day.
He is survived by his wife of three
decades in Huntington, NY raised Jean Currivan-Trebek, and their two adult
children in Matthew, who owns a Mexican restaurant in New York, NY, and Emily,
who flips houses. Trebek also is survived by his first child Nicky, who was
adopted by Mr. Trebek and his first wife Elaine Callei, who he divorced in 1981
after seven years of marriage. Nicky works on “Jeopardy!”
Mr. Trebek in that same announcement said
that he would “fight” the cancer that developed to the bulge of a small fist he
told to Jane Pauley on CBS News’ “Sunday Morning.”
He decided to share his cancer battle with
the public back in 2019, telling Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that
he wanted to stay ahead of the tabloids and their ability to write
misinformation.
Back in late September, Trebek announced
to viewers he had begun a second round of treatment. He died at his home in
California surrounded by family and friends “Jeopardy!” studio said.
Mr. Trebek shared the ups and downs during
chemotherapy saying in September 2019 at the 46 annual Daytime Emmy Awards that
his health and numbers were “improving” and that he was positive that he would
beat cancer.
Later that September though, Trebek told
ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he lost about 12 pounds in a week and his
numbers went “sky high.” A lot higher than when he was first diagnosed, which
meant he had to undergo chemotherapy again.
The pain gotten so bad that Trebek told
Pauley that one time that he was on the floor in a great deal of pain. The pain
level went from a three to an 11 three to four times on that day of taping
“Jeopardy!”
“I’d tape the show and then I’d made it to
the dressing room on one occasion just barely before I writhed in pain, and
cried in pain,” Trebek said.
There was a 15-minute break before the
taping of the next show that day and Mr. Trebek said to Pauley that he got
himself together, and when he met with the producers they said that if he could
not do that next taping, they would cancel the taping. Mr. Trebek replied, “No.
We’re here. We’re doing the shows.”
Trebek spent his finals days surrounded by
his closet family and friends saying that he wanted to spend his final days of
life on his backyard swing with his wife Jean.
Jeopardy’s executive producer Mike
Richards said that Mr. Trebek got that wish of watching the horizon.
“He was coherent. He wasn’t in pain,”
Richards said on the Monday morning edition of NBC’s “Today.”
Mr. Trebek’s final day at Sony Pictures
Entertainment studio where “Jeopardy!” is filmed, at Sony Pictures
Entertainment was on Oct. 29, according to a report from Jim Moret on Monday
night’s “Inside Edition’s.” New episodes of Jeopardy will continue to air, with
Trebek’s final episode being on Christmas Day of Dec. 25. Moret also reported
that there are no new plans for a replacement host of the iconic game show for
now.
On what would be the last day of taping,
Richards said that he knew that Mr. Trebek was in a great deal of pain, and as
Mr. Trebek was leaving, Richards saw him at the door and said that the last
taping was the most “incredible” thing that he had ever witnessed. Mr. Trebek
looked up at Richards and said, “Well, thank you.”
The entire entertainment community
expressed their sadness about the passing of Mr. Trebek.
On Monday morning edition of “Live with
Kelly and Ryan,” host Ryan Seacrest said that we lost a “legend. Just an icon,”
Mr. Trebek, who appeared on the show right before he was diagnosed with cancer.
Ripa said on the show that over the
weekend she texted with a friend who is devastated over the passing of Mr.
Trebek as is the entire nation.
“Here’s a guy that was working everyday
right up until the end. So, you have to understand that is a level of suffering
that you don’t wish on your worst enemy. You don’t wish on anybody,” Ripa said
of Trebek, who was working 10 days up until his death. “And so, we just have to
pray that there was no suffering as much as there could be, and that it was
peaceful for him in the end.”
Trebek’s good friend, Dr. Mehmet Oz, host
of the syndicated “Dr. Oz Show” said that what he most admired his “focus” on
the viewers. How he wanted to show up each taping for them and be as “big” for
them as he could.
“And if he couldn’t beat the cancer, he
would fight it with the grace and courage that he demonstrated.”
“Inside Edition” host Deborah Norville
said that Trebek was a “good, decent man. He’ll be missed.”
Longtime host of “Wheel of Fortune” Pat
Sajak tweeted @patsajak tweeted, “Alex Trebek’s courage, grace and strength
inspired millions and awed those of us who knew him. A tremendous loss for his
family, friends, co-workers, and countless viewers. I was honored to be a
friend and a part of his professional family for all these years. A very sad
day.”
Sajak’s longtime co-host of “Wheel of
Fortune” Vanna White said in a statement, “I will cherish the many memories I
have shared with Alex Trebek that date back well before either of our careers
took off. I will always be in awe of the way he faced the battle he fought so
valiantly and I’m devastated to lose my longtime friend…There will never be
another Alex Trebek and he will be truly missed.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
tweeted @JustinTrudeau, “We have lost an icon. Almost every night for more than
three decades, Alex Trebek entertained and educated millions around the world,
instilling in so many of us a love for trivia. My deepest condolences to his
family, friends, and all who are mourning this tremendous loss.”
To put the kind of connection that Mr.
Trebek had on our nation into perspective, people saw him the same way they saw
longtime talk show host Oprah Winfrey and the late great journalist and news
anchor for CBS News Walter Cronkite.
These three were famous for their
respective television jobs, but they were so transcended that they became
ambassadors for their roles on the small screen. They were public figures that
people thought they knew from an intimate perspective. The difference between
Mr. Trebek and Mr. Cronkite and Ms. Winfrey is that he gave out clues in which
contestants had to answer in the form of a question while the so-called queen
of Daytime Talk gave out hugs, advice, and cars. Mr. Cronkite, who many
considered during his time in the anchor chair for CBS as the most trusted many
on television reported the who, what, where, when, why, and how to the news of
the day both home and abroad.
Trebek as the host of “Jeopardy!” was seemingly the smartest person on television by the fact that he knew the answers to every single question before all the smartest contestants that appeared on the show did. He frequently pointed out on the show about having the advantage of having the answers on paper that was right in front of you.
Even with that, Mr. Trebek portrayed
himself as a true gentleman where contestants were never shown up for not
knowing the answer to a question, even though there were occasions that they
would earn an occasional wince of disappointment for not knowing a specific
answer to a question. For the most part though, Mr. Trebek, night after night,
show after show, year after year brought a calm demeanor where a contestant
could go from being richer beyond their wildest dreams at the first commercial
break and then dead broke after that, and he would somehow make it seem okay or
bearable at least. “Jeopardy!” with Mr. Trebek as the host was never about the
punishment, but about the reward.
In a world today where we base happiness
and success on winning and losing. Where a great divide exist that has split
our world into ideological camps, especially after this very contentious
election cycle that was filled with talking political heads and political
debates where the candidates shouted at each other as they talked, “Jeopardy!”
provided an escape from the everyday world that has become even more divided,
especially during the Coronavirus [COVID-19] Pandemic over the past eight-plus
months.
Whenever people at home watching or those
in the studio audience heard longtime announcer Johnny Gilbert open each Trebek
edition of the game show, “This is Jeopardy,” for the last 36 years at 7 p.m.
weeknights, for a split second the world seemed to be back on its axis.
“My job is to provide the atmosphere and
assistance to the contestants to get them to perform at their very best,” Mr.
Trebek said years ago when asked how he has been good for so long as host of
“Jeopardy!” “And if I’m successful doing that, I will be perceived as a nice
guy and the audience will think of me as being a bit of a star. But not if I
try to steal the limelight. The stars of ‘Jeopardy!’ are the material and the
contestants.
One of those contestants Bert Thacker, who
appeared on last Thursday episode chocked up when he gave credit to Trebek for
helping him learn English as an immigrant from India.
Thacker said that he would watch
“Jeopardy!” while sitting on his grandfather’s lap growing up and gave Mr.
Trebek credit for diction.
Trebek gave a humorous responded by saying
that he had a similar experience with his grandfather. But when Trebek sat on
his lap, he was taught how to swear.
“You could tell something wasn’t right,”
Thacker said to “Inside Edition’s” Ann Mercogliano about how Trebek’s
condition. “He was moving slowly. You could tell he was in pain.”
Ken Jennings, who won a “Jeopardy!” record
74 straight games from June 2-November 3, 2004 amassing $2,522,700 tweeted
@KenJennings about the passing of Mr. Trebek, “Alex wasn’t just the best ever
at what he did. He was also a lovely and deeply decent man, and I’m grateful
for every minute I got to spend with him.
George Alexander Trebek
was born on July 22, 1940 in Sudbury, Ontario,
Canada, a small city on Lake Huron to a father, George Edward Trebek, who was a
chef of Ukrainian heritage and a mother, who was of French-Canadian heritage.
Mr. Trebek got his first job at age 13 as
a bellhop at the hotel where his father worked as a chef.
After attending Sudbury High School, which
is now called Sudbury Secondary School, Mr. Trebek attended the University of
Ottawa, where he graduated with a degree in philosophy.
During his years as a collegian, Trebek
worked part-time at the CBC in 1961. Following graduation from college, he got
a full-time job as their announcer, newsman and on-air host of various shows.
“I went to school in the mornings and
worked at nights; I did everything, at one time replacing every announcer in
every possible job,” Trebek once said.
The first hosting gig for Trebek came in
1963 for the Canadian music program called “Music Hop.”
Three years later, Trebek hosted a high
school quiz show called “Reach for the Top.”
The next three years, he was CBC’s host
where he introduced classical music programs that included performances by
two-time Grammy winner (1973 and 1982), Juno Award-winner (1979) and Canadian
Music Hall of Famer Glenn Gould. Trebek hosted a weekly skating program. In the
spring of 1969 was the host of the weekday afternoon game show “Strategy,” and
from 1971 until the end of 1972 hosted CBC Toronto’s local morning drive radio
show “I’m Here Til 9.”
One year later, Mr. Trebek moved to
California and bounced around hosting various game shows during the boom of
game shows on television during the 1970s and 1980s from NBC’s “The Wizard of
Odds,” “The New High Rollers,” “Concentration,” and “To Tell the Truth,” which
was reincarnated a couple of years back by ABC, hosted by “Blackish” star and
longtime actor Anthony Anderson.
In 1984, Trebek landed the job that made
him a household name and a legend on television when the late great media mogul
and leader or Merv Griffin Enterprises Merv Griffin decided to relaunch another
version of “Jeopardy!” that he created for NBC in 1964 that lasted for 15
years, and was syndicated first from 1974-75 by embracing the answers-first
format in reaction to the game show scandals from previous decades where if the
contestants already knew the answer, the show could not accused of giving up
the answers to them beforehand.
Mr. Trebek began hosting Jeopardy as
mentioned in 1984 and the rest is history. A history that has seen him become a
seven-time Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Game Show Host (1989, 1990, 2003,
2006, 2008, and 2019), including in what would be his final one in May 2019,
just two months after he announced he had cancer.
“I’m aware that there must a fair amount
of sympathy that went into the voting for this. But to tell you the truth, I
don’t care,” Trebek said to “Entertainment Tonight” back in May 2019. “I got
the award, and I enjoy having this award.”
Trebek also has a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame near five-time Golden Globe winner and five-time Golden Laurel winner
Ann-Margret and the late great actor Vincent Porter. Trebek also has a star on
Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto. Back on Nov. 4, 2010, he received the Royal
Canadian Geographical Society’s gold medal for his contributions to geographic
education and the popular study of geography. Six years later, Trebek was named
the Honorary President of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. In 2011,
Trebek earned the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmys. That same
year, Trebek received an honorary Doctorate from Fordham University, the alma
mater of his son Matthew.
It was on this night that Mr. Trebek, who
had a horse voiced expressed his gratitude for all the prayers he received
during his battle with cancer.
“Prayer has a lot of power. And if there
is one thing that I have discovered in the past year it is that power of
prayer,” Trebek said. “If you have compassion in your heart, everything is
possible.”
As for the show that he has hosted that
brought this great deal of success, on June 13, 2014, Trebek set the Guinness
World Record holder for “most gameshow episodes hosted by the same presenter”
at 6,829 without a sick day. He overtook the previous record holder in former
longtime game show host Bob Barker of CBS’s “The Price is Right.”
To put into context this incredible
milestone that a 73-year-old Trebek set six years ago, the only time he missed
a taping of “Jeopardy!” was on April Fool’s Day 1997 when he and Sajak switched
roles, where Sajak hosted “Jeopardy!” and Trebek hosted “Wheel of Fortune” with
Sajak’s wife, Lesly co-hosted. Sajak’s co-host in the aforementioned Vanna
White was a contestant on that episode of “Wheel of Fortune” where the winnings
all went towards charities.
Throughout all his high moments and the
low moments, especially during his battle with cancer, Mr. Trebek has had by
his side his aforementioned wife of three decades Jean, who he met at a party
in New York and his children that gave him the strength to keep fighting. That
if he did not fight, he said that it would have been a “massive betrayal” to
his wife, who was the first he told about his cancer diagnosis, who he said has
given her all to help him survive.
Mr. Trebek’s wife, who he married in 1990
at the age of 49 and she was 26 did say to “Good Morning America’s” Michael
Strahan back in 2019 that it was tough watching her husband suffer.
“I think it’s when I see him in pain and I
can’t help him,” she said. “And when he doesn’t eat right. When he doesn’t eat
right. When he has too much diet soda.”
George Alexander Trebek made it cool to be
smart. He made it cool to compassionate. He made it cool to respect others. He
made it cool treat everyone from the contestants that were on “Jeopardy!” to
the producers, crew members and staff that worked on the show, and made every
viewer that tuned to watch “Jeopardy!” for 36 years enjoy their experience,
looking forward to watching the next show the following evening.
Mr. Trebek showed that same grace in his
brave two year battle against Stage IV pancreatic cancer with that same grace,
dignity and fortitude that made him one of the best to ever grace the small
screen, and an incredible spouse and parent off of it.
Pancreatic cancer might have taken him
from this earth. But his spirit and grace that he displayed on it for 80 years
of his life will never be forgotten.
“I want the viewers to like me, and over
the years, they’ve demonstrated that they do, and I’m very proud of that,” Mr.
Trebek said.
“Game shows are feel-good television. You
know, it’s the American dream. I can be a success. I can be a winner.”
“The advice I give to young people all the
time is pay your dues. And after you put in the time, then you’ll feel not only
more confident when you get the big job, but you’ll feel, ‘Hey, I earned it. It
didn’t just happen by accident.”
Information and quotations are courtesy of
6/17/14 www.abc7ny.com
Arts & Entertainment story, “Alex Trebek Breaks Record For Hosting Most
Game Show Episodes;” 11/9/2020 4:30 a.m. edition of WABC 7 “Eyewitness News
This Morning” with Ken Rosato, Shirleen Allicot, Sam Champion with Weather and
Heather O’Rourke with Traffic; 11/9/2020
6 a.m. edition of CNN Headline News’ “Morning Express With Robin Meade,” with
report coming from Melissa Knowles; 11/9/2020 9 a.m. edition of “Live with
Kelly and Ryan” on WABC 7 with Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest; 11/9/2020 7 p.m.
edition of “Inside Edition” on WCBS 2 with Deborah Norville, with reports from
Ann Mercogliano and Jim Moret; 11/9/2020 7:30 p.m. edition of “Entertainment
Tonight” on WCBS 2 with Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner; 11/19/2020 Newsday
story, “Beloved ‘Jeopardy!’ Host Alex Trebek 1940-2020,” by Verne Gay and The
Associated Press; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy!#Returning_champions;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy!;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann-Margret#Awards_and_nominations;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Price;
and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Trebek.
No comments:
Post a Comment