Where were they then?: Alex Trebek in the ’90s (beyond Jeopardy!)
In a word, he went everywhere to build on his show’s newly established universal appeal.
The ’90s were Alex Trebek’s first full calendar decade hosting Jeopardy! As such, that was when his celebrity skyrocketed and cemented its place.
His breadth and magnitude of Internet Movie Database acting credits say most, if not quite all. Memorable endorsements from the era supplement the story.
Before 1990, the Canadian-born personality had one IMDB listing under anything besides the “self” heading. Six years before starting Jeopardy! he had guest-starred in an episode of Vega$. In his hosting tenure’s fledgling days, he garnered a flattering parody by SCTV from his home and native land.
By 2000, he had added 15 shows — ranging from children’s cartoons to sci-fi dramas — to his IMDB “actor” section. He also saw a sketch show in his adopted country capitalize on his phenomenon.
Trebek, who died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at age 80, appeared on 25 scripted shows in the ’90s. For whatever reason, 10 of those gigs are classified as “self” appearances, opposite talk-show chats and hosting positions.
Regardless, it is plain that six years after catalyzing Jeopardy!’s renaissance in 1984, Trebek began spearheading its transcendence into alternate realities. Before their five-year mark together, he and the quiz show fetched one fictitious portrayal on a 1988 episode of Mama’s Family. (IMDB files that among his “self” credits.)
But then longer-lived, more decorated and better remembered programs began coveting a piece. The first example punctuated its gratification two-and-a-half weeks into the new decade. The January 18, 1990, Cheers episode “What is…Cliff Clavin?” has Trebek and batterymate Johnny Gilbert coming cross-country for an all-Boston contest.
Hilarity ensues when the teleplay’s title postal worker makes an unthinkable decision for a Jeopardy! competitor. Trebek speaks for the audience when he asks, “Why would you do something like that?”
Sharing that comical climax in a Sunday tweet, sportswriter Jeff Pearlman declared it the “Greatest ‘Cheers’ moment ever.”
All but four of Trebek’s subsequent “actor” credits for the balance of the century had him playing himself opposite fictional contestants. In multiple cases — such as a 1992 episode of Golden Girls and a 1995 installment of Beverly Hills, 90210 — had a protagonist fantasizing or dreaming of a turn in Trebek’s domain.
Before 1990, Trebek had one IMDB listing under anything besides the “self” heading. By 2000, he had added 15 shows — ranging from children’s cartoons to sci-fi dramas — to his IMDB “actor” section.
That sub-trend, and the range of genres it touched, further underscored Jeopardy!’s all-round arrival. Anybody could and would foster fantasies of testing their knowledge in Hollywood before 1994 or Culver City thereafter. But even living in an actual fantasy world did not guarantee getting on, just like few real-life applicants can pass the test.
The other major testament to the show’s grip was when, in his (initial) absence, someone else appeared as Trebek. In their sophomore season, two centerpieces from Saturday Night Live’s rookie class of 1995 helped launch the celebrated Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch in December 1996.
Conceived by veteran performer Norm Macdonald, the bit grew its legs via Will Ferrell’s Trebek and Darrell Hammond’s Sean Connery. It returned six times in the ’90s, and another five leading up to Ferrell’s final episode as a cast member. Trebek himself stepped onscreen to close that valedictory installment, reaffirming his approval of the parody.
Staying on the subject of satire, fictional hopefuls turned to Jeopardy! as a bailout. One of several IMDB items filed under “self” was Trebek’s 1997 stint on The Simpsons, wherein Marge finishes in the red and outruns the game show’s goons to avoid paying a deepening debt.
Thinking of that moment, one Twitter user mixed fond, funny memories with poignancy Sunday. Replying to an unofficial Simpsons account’s Trebek tribute, Coolsome Ragnarök (He/Him) Final Fantasy XVI shared a blended image of the host — he having joined the Springfieldites in raiding the family’s house as payback at the end of his episode — in a heavenly view while Homer looks up as he did at the end of “Mother Simpson.”
Jeopardy! being the can’t-help-it family program that it is, Trebek was not above voicing alternate versions of himself elsewhere in animation. His first foray into that was as “Mister Alan Quebec” on Rugrats April 11, 1993. The most memorable inside joke from Didi Pickles’ historic comeback on “Super Stumpers” is when she phrases her first response as a question, only to hear Quebec assure her that is not necessary.
Millennials were the first generation to grow up on Jeopardy! as we know it — and therefore capable of appreciating its face’s myriad subtle or overt crossovers around pop culture.
Montreal-based writer Alanna Moore of mtlblog.com focused on that spoof in a Sunday post. After citing a series of social media tributes to the man behind Alan Quebec, Moore concluded by observing an interesting twist. “Although it’s unclear why his character was given the last name ‘Quebec’ since Trebek was actually born in Ontario, it’s nice to know la belle province has some form of ties with this iconic Canadian.”
Three years after his Nickelodeon cameo, Trebek went to PBS Kids to play an unnamed emcee on The Magic School Bus. That was part of his most prolific guest-star year yet, packing spots on Seinfeld, Spy Hard, and The X-Files. The latter two were his other ’90s acting roles as any character other than himself.
Demand hardly dwindled for him after 1996. Besides his aforementioned Simpsons spot, he showed up on The Weird Al Show and Ned and Stacey in 1997. The next year saw him surface on Mafia! and Baywatch.
In between those, you could turn back to Nickelodeon, maybe catch a rerun of his Rugrats alter ego, and certainly see him plugging The Phonics Game. Meanwhile audiences of a certain age started paying attention when they heard him hawk Colonial Penn Life Insurance.
Those, along with a radio ad for Alaska Airlines, were his earliest commercial credits on IMDB. Half of the roughly dozen advertisers to enlist him did so in 1998 or 1999.
Colonial Penn and other commercial callings hardly slowed down with the change in decade, then century and millennium. Neither did the full range of scripted series tapping into Trebek’s stardom. The Simpsons even invited him to another episode in the 2010s.
But the sensation unequivocally burgeoned in the ’90s. That made millennials the first generation to grow up on Jeopardy! as we know it — and therefore capable of appreciating its face’s myriad subtle or overt crossovers around pop culture.
Sadly not all ’90s kids will be able to say their own children saw Trebek on the tube during his time. But he left a wealth of evidence of his timeless TV abode’s universal appeal, sticking it on almost anything a millennial can be nostalgic about.