The Game Show Forum > The Big Board

Jeopardy's real origins

<< < (2/3) > >>

tyshaun1:
[quote name=\'calliaume\' date=\'Dec 4 2003, 05:48 PM\'] I believe Merv had a serious quiz in mind all along.  He was nice enough to drop me a brief note, saying NBC's head of daytime (Jerry Chester?) was dubious about the show's prospects, but Grant Tinker talked him into it.  (Actually, Tinker was jumping up and down, shouting "Buy it!  Buy it!")

I guess that makes up for Tinker axing Just Men! because he thought it was so horrible, despite his late buddy's wife hosting. [/quote]
 Actually in Betty White's autobiography (which name escapes me), she recalled that Grant Tinker stayed home sick one day, and happened to tune in NBC's game lineup. The next day he told the daytime brass to ax "Just Men!" to spare her further humiliation. My guess is that "Hit Man" got its pink slip the same day.

Tyshaun

clemon79:
[quote name=\'tyshaun1\' date=\'Dec 4 2003, 05:01 PM\'] The next day he told the daytime brass to ax "Just Men!" to spare her further humiliation. [/quote]
 That's an interesting way to look at it. I'm not sure how humiliating it is to be an Emmy-winning game show hostess....

GS Warehouse:
[quote name=\'DjohnsonCB\' date=\'Dec 4 2003, 09:38 AM\'] Merv Griffin has said on a couple of occasions that the "answer and question" concept for "Jeopardy!" was conceived with the help of his wife while they were on a plane or somewhere else. ... [/quote]
 Diverging slightly (but staying on the topic of J!), I've always heard that Merv composed the familiar theme, but in the credits of Airplane 2, in which Art Fleming had a cameo as himself, the theme was credited to "J. Griffin" as in Julann.  Typo or credit where due?

chris319:
My recollection is that there were four music cues on NY Jeopardy. The main theme was composed by Mrs. Griffin and you never hear it any more. The Final Jeopardy! think cue, "Time for Tony", was written by Mr. G. and is now the main theme, leaving Mr. G. to collect royalties every time it is played. The other two music cues on NY Jeopardy! were the contestant entrance cue and the fee plug cue: "Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia* is a source authority for the questions and answers used on Jeopardy!".

Ach! How could I forget! There was a fifth cue: the curtain cue! That right there fills up a five-slot Mackenzie.

Mark's comments comport with what I know about Bob Rubin steering them toward a straight Q&A game.

*Compton's is a crappy encyclopedia.

byrd62:
[quote name=\'calliaume\' date=\'Dec 4 2003, 05:48 PM\']I believe Merv had a serious quiz in mind all along.  He was nice enough to drop me a brief note, saying NBC's head of daytime (Jerry Chester?) was dubious about the show's prospects, but Grant Tinker talked him into it.  (Actually, Tinker was jumping up and down, shouting "Buy it!  Buy it!")

I guess that makes up for Tinker axing Just Men! because he thought it was so horrible, despite his late buddy's wife hosting.[/quote]
Ed Vane was head of daytime programming for NBC in 1963, when Merv Griffin pitched J!; Ed's boss, who also witnessed Merv's pitch, was NBC's head of network programming, Mort Werner.

Ed was concerned that "the program needed a few jeopardies", which led to Merv's proposal being renamed J! instead of What's the Question?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page