INTRODUCTION
The vast majority of Americans who have spent any amount of time watching Jeopardy!—even occasionally—would be forgiven for thinking that Alex Trebek has been around forever. He seems frozen in time, albeit in a calm, soothing manner, even when he frowns at a nervous contestant for missing an easy answer.
Because after hosting the iconic game show for more than thirty-five years, Alex has been part of the fabric of American culture for longer than many viewers have been alive.
“He just seems sort of immortal,” the CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin has said.
“I’ve been on the air for fifty years, so I’m like a member of the family,” Alex said. “‘Oh, there’s Alex, we’d better get him a drink and get him some French fries or something.’”
That omnipresence remains true whether you’re comfortably ensconced at home or cheering on tournament champions at your favorite watering hole. And if you’re on the road in an unfamiliar city, his presence can be even more of a balm.
“When you arrive in a hotel room where you have no real sense of where you are, turning Jeopardy! on is always kind of a grounding experience,” said Jonah Engel Bromwich, a domestic correspondent with The New York Times.
This grounding is true regardless of age. Indeed, YouTube videos abound, showing small children and babies crawling toward the TV and laughing as soon as the first notes of the Jeopardy! theme song start playing. Back in the mid-1980s, before she could walk, my niece Sara would giggle and bounce up and down in place whenever those iconic notes rang through the tinny TV speaker.
And while lesser-known celebrities might be offended by being tagged as “the world’s greatest robot,” Alex has always celebrated the moniker. “I’m the Energizer Bunny,” he said. “I just keep on going.”
However, few fans are aware that his penchant for predictability and longevity are largely the result of a childhood fraught with insecurity, which came in the form of his parents’ separation and eventual divorce as well as getting packed off to a boarding school where he didn’t know a soul. Scraping through college penniless, his basic expenses just barely covered by menial, boring jobs, didn’t foster a strong sense of security, either.
So it’s no wonder that when he got his first real job as an announcer with the CBC—the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation—he stayed for twelve years, which is an eternity in the entertainment world. For many, a long stint like that could have been horribly stifling, but for Alex it was anything but, since he hosted a stunningly diverse variety of shows—from curling to popular music—on both radio and TV. It helped that he had a voracious appetite for learning new things.
“I’m curious about everything,” he said, “even things that don’t interest me.”
So when Jeopardy! came along, it seemed to be a match made in heaven. “I love acquiring knowledge, even useless knowledge,” he admitted.
Given his need for both security and variety, it’s no wonder that Jeopardy! has suited him so well: it’s been a long-term gig with a dizzying array of new facts and things to learn in every single show.
But it was a long, hard-fought road to get there.
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Since Jeopardy! first went on the air in 1984, approximately four hundred other game shows have come and gone. “I’ve been lucky throughout my life,” said Alex. “So many of the good things that have happened to me have happened by accident.”
His curiosity has also led to a strong work ethic. “I don’t ever turn down work,” he said. “I learned a long time ago if someone offers you something, you accept it.”
But this practice has had a definite downside over the years, as this self-described workaholic has regularly slid into a life of perfectionism and imbalance. “I am highly competitive, but more with myself than others, since I’m always trying to better myself,” he said.
“I wish I could stop and smell the roses,” he lamented.
* * *
Alex has never been your typical Hollywood icon, spilling out onto the red carpet at Hollywood premieres to see and be seen, or making the rounds of the morning talk shows to provide his ego with an easy boost. In fact, he’s the antithesis of that, driving a half-ton Dodge Ram 1500 pickup to the studio most days, and loving nothing more than digging up a patch of lawn to pinpoint a busted water pipe and then rummaging around in his garage—which contains only tools; there’s no room for a vehicle—for the exact two-and-a-quarter-inch pipe for the job.
During his entire tenure on Jeopardy! he’s never once apologized for being a game-show host, though occasionally he’s pointed out that the long-running program is a quiz show, not a game show. In fact, he’s considered his field to be a particular point of pride. “I think game shows were the beginning and best of reality television,” he said.
He’s been particularly proud of the influence that the show has had on families. “We are the kind of program that you can watch with every member of your family,” he said. “There’s something for kids and grandparents—everyone can play. You can all spend a half hour together without feeling you have to flee the room to go watch your own show.”
How many shows can you say that about? And while many celebrities look to their jobs to feed their self-esteem, Alex clearly has taken a different tack.
“My job has provided me with opportunities to explore the world geographically, socially, and philanthropically, and doing that has allowed me to develop as a human,” he said.
But while he’s been busy working on his intellect, Alex has readily admitted that his natural tendency to always be on guard against being hurt or abandoned again—accounting for his characteristic remoteness on the show—has meant that he’s held back a little too much when it comes to his personal interactions with people. “It seems as if I have led my entire life as if I were considering a career in politics,” he acknowledged. “I didn’t want to make any mistakes.”
However, that remoteness is in part what many viewers have latched onto for years, decades even, and is clearly something they crave. “Like many fathers, he has defined himself largely through emotional distance,” said Sam Anderson, a staff writer with The New York Times Magazine. “This is part of his charm.”
But happily, well into midlife, Alex finally learned to relax—when he met Jean Currivan, the woman who would become his wife, and when he became a father for the first time, at the age of fifty.
Copyright © 2020 by Lisa Rogak
