After a public battle with pancreatic cancer, Jeopardy host Alex Trebek has passed away.
The beloved on-air personality was a television fixture since 1984, and delighted game show
fans around the world for more than 30 years. Let's look back on his accomplishments, and
break down the life story of Alex Trebek.
By the end of his television career, Trebek had earned six Daytime Emmy Awards, with his
work on Jeopardy contributing to the show's receiving the esteemed Peabody Award. But
before all of that, he started out as just a humble aspiring broadcaster from Canada.
Following his graduation from the University of Ottawa, where he received his degree in
Philosophy, Alex Trebek kicked off his career in 1961 working as a newscaster for the Canadian
Broadcasting Company.
But it wasn't long before he dropped that dream for something a little more entertaining.
Just five years later, he got his first job as a game show host, working on the Canadian
high school quiz show competition Reach for the Top.
"Now here's your host, Alex Trebek."
"Thank you George Rich, good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome again to Reach
for the Top."
While he would find a regular gig in his new vocation with Jeopardy in 1984, Trebek worked
up to it as the host of several other short-lived game shows.
From 1973 to 1974, he hosted The Wizard of Odds, an American show which involved contestants
answering esoteric questions about mathematical averages. He also led Double Dare from 1976
to 1977. Different from the later Nickelodeon yuck fest of the same name, the Trebek-led
Double Dare locked contestants in soundproof booths and made them guess the names of famous
people and locations.
"Now that they can't hear us we can boo them if we want."
From 1981 to 1982, Trebek helped players on Pitfall determine the most popular answers
to certain questions, with the game being a variation of the Family Feud formula. The
game show Battlestars, which he also hosted during this time, felt more like a take on
Hollywood Squares, with contestants answering questions from a panel of celebrities with
Alex as the "man in command." No relation to the sci-fi series here, at least, not an
official one.
"James."
"What is Battlestar Galactica?"
"You got it."
In 1983, Trebek hosted the unsold pilot episode of Malcolm, truly one of the weirdest game
shows ever conceived. It forced Trebek to enthusiastically interact with his "friend"
Malcolm, a cartoon character who helped contestants answer trivia questions.
"Have you ever done a television game show before?"
"Frankly, I haven't, Alex, but I'll tell you something: I've always wanted to."
With his larger-than-life personality and comedic charm, it's hard to imagine that Alex
Trebek ever had trouble fitting in. But entering American show business left him feeling a
little out of sorts following his move to the US in the '70s. He told Vulture in 2018,
"I was a shy, small-town Canadian kid...I never felt like I belonged."
Friends in the industry helped Trebek come out of his shell at social events and parties.
Soon enough, he realized he was becoming something of a celebrity himself. He told Vulture,
"Once I’d achieved a certain degree of popularity, I would play in celebrity golf tournaments
and meet stars. Frank Sinatra told me he was a fan of the show. Jimmy Stewart, too. I thought,
Oh my gosh. These major stars watch me on occasion. I felt good about that."
As charming as Trebek was on Jeopardy, real fans knew that he could come off as kind of
stern, and perhaps even snobby, to those who struggled to come up with answers. And they
loved him for it anyway.
"Uh, do you think we should go to commercial?"
While some people might suspect that this is a natural reaction and totally unintentional,
Trebek seemed to reveal otherwise in an interview with Vulture. He said of his sometimes snarky
tone,
"Yes, it's conscious. Not that it's preplanned, it's a reaction, but I know that 'You've disappointed
daddy' is a tone I'm striking. It's also, 'How can you not get this? This is not rocket
science.'"
"You get the feeling that our current champion is a little weird?"
"Yeah."
Despite Trebek's claims of having no filter, he told The New York Post that he still tried
to limit things he says on the show that could be harmful to others. He explained,
"What I won't do is read clues that are put-downs of people. I don't like taking cheap shots."
So that's at least something.
"Our writers were getting cute."
While Trebek clearly loved hosting real-life episodes of Jeopardy!, he also seemed to enjoy
lampooning he famous gig.
Trebek played himself on a 1990 episode of Cheers, in which know-it-all Cliff Clavin
somehow blew an insurmountable lead on Jeopardy.
In 1997 he made a cameo appearance on The Simpsons, voicing himself when Marge appeared
on his game show. When she finishes the game with a negative score, he tries to shake her
down for the money and sends hired muscle after her.
"Aren't we forgetting something, Marge? You were down $5,200."
If a 1996 episode of The X-Files is to believed, Trebek may also be part of a secret alien
conspiracy.
"Alex Trebek? The game show host?"
"Mulder didn't say that it was Alex Trebek."
For years, Trebek was also famously lampooned on Saturday Night Live's "Celebrity Jeopardy"
sketches, in which Will Ferrell portrayed Trebek as being constantly exasperated over
the contestants' stupid answers and contestant Sean Connery's many threats.
"You back off, Trebek. You wouldn't have known that if you didn't have that card in front of you."
Trebek cameoed in one such sketch in 2002, proof that he was a fan of Ferrell's portrayal.
He later told The Hollywood Reporter,
"I love it. I wish he was back on the show so he would do more."
In 2014, Alex Trebek was given the Guinness World Record for "most game show episodes
hosted by the same presenter." At the time, the TV host had covered 6,829 episodes since
joining the show in the '80s following the departure of the original host Art Fleming,
who ran the series from 1964 to 1979.
"As long as I keep hosting the program, I stay ahead of whoever's in second place, and
that makes me feel good."
Considering Jeopardy has aired well over 7,000 episodes, breaking the record won't be an
easy feat.
In March 2019, Trebek received the grave news that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic
cancer. Despite the grim diagnosis, the TV host pledged to fight the disease, and keep
working.
"With the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for
this disease."
True to his word, Trebek was back on the job just a few months later to start taping the
first episodes of the 36th season of Jeopardy.
"I've gone through a lot of chemotherapy, and thankfully that is now over...I'm on the
mend and that's all I can hope for right now."
However, a few weeks later, Trebek told Good Morning America that after some positive momentum,
the cancer surged, and Trebek restarted chemotherapy treatments.
He seemed to take the developments with a remarkably measured outlook, calmly declaring
that he was not afraid to die, just sad for the many people in his life he would be leaving
behind.
"The effect it will have on my loved ones? Yes, that bothers me and makes me sad. But
the thought of myself moving on? Hey folks, comes with the territory."
Trebek faced his diagnosis with remarkable poise. But he still told ABC that he was conflicted
over how public his diagnosis became, and the pressures he felt in suddenly becoming
a spokesperson for pancreatic cancer.
"It's tough sometimes, trying to be as optimistic as you can."
Despite this, Trebek told People in 2019 that he would only change one thing about his life.
If he had the option, he would have loved to have met his wife Jean, with whom he shares
two children, just a little bit sooner.
The game show guru explained to the publication,
"I'm pretty satisfied with my life. But my wife Jean and I have been together almost
29 years, and I was thinking about President Bush when he died...and how he and his wife
had been together 73 years. I thought, 'Oh my gosh. If I'd just met Jean in my 20s we
could have had a longer life together.'"
But even facing the end of his life, Trebek was always ready to lighten the mood with
a joke.
"It does bother me that I might pass on before I get to have a grandchild. Hint, hint!"
Thanks for the decades of entertainment, Alex. You will be missed.
"What a way to finish. We'll see you all next time out on Jeopardy!"