From the CBC Archives:

Alex Trebek auditions for the CBC in 1969

Gordon Lightfoot and Alex Trebek on Music Hop

Strombo segment on Trebek's career

Alex Trebek Loved 'Jeopardy!' Bits on 'SNL', But Contended Another Actor Did Best Impersonation

"Eugene Levy to this day I maintain did the best Alex Trebek ever, better than Will Ferrell," he said then. "He looked more the part, too. He had the dark hair and he had the black mustache."

What is "absolutely right Alex." The SCTV sketches featuring the Trebek takeoffs are amongst the funniest things they ever did. It's nice to see he had a sense of humour about them. 







 

I will miss him, I watch everynight pretty well...and I thought he was good to go this year and new shows had started without a live audience.

Alex was a class act and these long time hosts are passing, I raise a glass to him and to the contribution he made. In times of craziness, he was always calm and professional in his work.


 

Thanks for the notice about the special. I've set my DVR.  

And yes, it was almost certainly "in the can" for some time, likely when his diagnosis was first announced. The bulk of the hour - especially his early years - was pre-written, pre-edited and pre-produced - with what's called a "new top" put on the front and the end, detailing the latest news. 

They also have them for other ailing or older people. You can be sure there's one sitting in every station's library somewhere for the Queen and another for Mayor Hazel McCallion and Mel Lastman, among others. I remember how we had a prepared obit for Pope John Paul II before he passed away. It's macabre, but it's important because it saves hours of production when the sad time finally comes.

Still, sometimes they take you by surprise. I remember being in the newsroom half an hour before the 6 PM show,  when an intern just happened to look up at a muted screen that had CBC News Network on it, with a breaking news graphic that indicated Pierre Trudeau had passed away. It hadn't hit the wire yet and so she casually mentioned to me, "CBC is saying Trudeau died." 

I remember shooting up like an electric current hit me and ran to the producer, and then all hell broke loose. No one had bothered to prepare anything in advance, yet somehow they managed to get a decent package on the air, complete with library tape and reactions seconds before the 6 o'clock show started. How they wrote the script, pulled the tape and got it edited in time, I will never know. But it had to be there and it was.

And that's why, grim as they are, these pre-packaged obits are almost always done in advance.

Thanks. Will reset.

Hi RA,
Speaking of "In the can" obits, we had one sitting on the editing desk at CityPulse clearly marked Sinatra Obit,  ready to go at a moments notice for "old blue eyes" to pass away.    Seems it sat there for a while, and eventually went to air.

You can see the tribute here.

I remember the 1987 Dave Hodge fiasco well. It happened on my birthday. For the record, the Flyers/Habs game ended in a 3-3 tie. No shoot outs back then.

RadioActive wrote:

The danger of pre-producing early obits, of course, is that things like this are bound to happen.

France Radio "Mistakenly" Publishes Obituaries Of Queen, Pele, Apologizes

Along this vein: a number of years ago Frank Magazine got a hold of and published a list compiled from CBC TV's various canned obits and their relative lengths - the angle of the story being essentially the longer the piece, the higher up the totem pole the individual was. IIRC Her Majesty topped the list at the time, as she likely would as well today.
 

Friday night marks the final appearance of Alex Trebek as host of Jeopardy, the last episode he taped before his death. I'm sure there will be some sort of emotional tribute to him on the show. 

I've seen a number of online complaints about this week of Jeopardy being pre-empted by the Donald Trump/Capitol attack coverage. Normally, missing the show wouldn't be a big deal. But this week is the last chance for many loyal viewers to tune in and see Trebek for his final screen appearance and a number of east coast American stations were forced to play it at 2 in the morning to make sure it made it to air. 

I gave up watching Jeopardy many years ago, but I'll be recording this one, just to see what they do. 

Me too. Be interesting to see the ratings for Friday.

Here is an acceptance speech from Alex Trebek for an award that was to run for the Canadian Screen Awards in March.  It never ran since the ceremony was cancelled because of COVID. Nice clip that was released just a few days ago...Alex never forgot his french either!
https://www.everythingzoomer.com/arts-entertainment/2021/01/08/alex-trebek-praises-canada-in-new-acceptance-speech-ahead-of-final-episode/
 

mike marshall wrote:

After the job Jennings did tonight, a good guess might be they've already found their next host.

I thought he was great. But there are more guest hosts coming, including Katie Couric.

Here' s a very old, and badly preserved clip, of original host Art Fleming hosting Jeopardy! in 1966.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnducf

Last edited by Dale Patterson (January 12, 2021 12:25 am)

Apropos of nothing, I wonder how many people remember that years after he hosted Jeopardy!, Art Fleming hosted a Sunday night show on KMOX-AM in St. Louis. It was a decade or so after he did the game show and I used to listen to it just to hear his voice again. He was actually pretty good on the radio and that's where he got his start.

According to Wikipedia, he was the first announcer to ever deliver the tag line "Winston takes good like a cigarette should." 

And here's the ultimate sad irony: Alex Trebek and Art Fleming, until now the only two men to ever host Jeopardy, both died from the same thing - pancreatic cancer. 

Add two more names in the race to replace the late Alex Trebek. Although I suspect these two are more about the publicity than getting a permanent gig, since they already have one. 

Mayim Bialik, Bill Whitaker Added to Game Show's Guest Host Rotation

Bialik is certainly an interesting choice. As many here know, in addition to being an actress, she also holds a Ph.D in neuroscience.