For more than 36 years, Johnny Gilbert has said the same 10 words, with the same mixture of razzle-dazzle and high cadence as an experienced showman: “And now, here is the host of ‘Jeopardy!’… Alex Trebek!” Trebek appeared with a wave and a smile, and the game was on.
He gave some version of that family warm-up more than 8,000 times since the first episode of Trebek, which aired on September 10, 1984, when the newly created host came on stage with a thick, dark mustache and a light pink pocket square. But on Friday, television audiences will see Gilbert’s final performance by a longtime colleague who became a friend, while the last episode filmed before Trebek’s death in November is broadcast.
“As much as he suffered, I never thought he was really dying,” said Gilbert. “The day I heard that, part of me left this world.”
Next week, “Jeopardy!” will return with Gilbert presenting a new name: Ken Jennings, a former record-breaking competitor who will be the first in a series of new provisional hosts.
“It was a very bizarre feeling,” said Gilbert, 92, in an interview on Wednesday. “I never thought of anyone as a show host, except Alex.”
After Trebek’s death, Gilbert, who was about 70 years old entertainment career, said he wondered if it was the right time to leave. At that time, because of the pandemic, he was not working at the studio in Culver City, California, but he was recording his ads for a room at his home in Venice Beach.
“I thought, ‘Wow, can I keep doing this? Can I still do what the program needs? ‘”, He said. “And I decided, yes, I would continue. I would continue because Alex wanted the show to continue. “
When Trebek died at the age of 80 in November, after battling Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, the show’s producers made it clear that there would be no rush to fill the role of a man who was the face and voice of “Jeopardy!” for so long. Just 10 days before his death, Trebek was in the studio filming, and the show had enough episodes to end the year. Instead of ending in the last week of 2020, a chaotic week for television and viewers, the show decided to push the final five episodes of Trebek into this week.
The program also acknowledged that Gilbert was among many who were uncomfortable with a new host delivering “Jeopardy!” clues. Instead of choosing a permanent successor immediately, they opted for a series of interim hosts. Jennings, the only officially invited guest host, has already recorded 30 episodes, a spokeswoman for the show said. (In recent days, Jennings has received criticism on social media for posting insensitive tweets in the past, for which he apologized, raising questions about whether he would be on the role permanently.) The Los Angeles Times reported this week that Katie Couric had been hired as another guest host, but the program did not confirm that.
Gilbert and Trebek, who worked on television in the early 1980s, met at a party in Hollywood a few years before Merv Griffin decided to set up a new production of “Jeopardy!” Gilbert was already a well-known entity on daytime TV, having worked as a golden voice announcer for “The Price Is Right” and Dinah Shore’s daily talk show.
In his memoir, published last summer, Trebek wrote that he recommended Gilbert to Griffin: “How can you forget a voice like that?” (Gilbert’s voice was not just used to advertise; he was a singer early in his career and recorded two albums in the 1960s).
The result, said Gilbert, was a friendship that involved a lot of dressing room conversation, humorous teasing in front of the studio audience and a deep mutual respect. On the set of “Jeopardy!”, Trebek used to mock Gilbert’s age, joking that he had been the announcer for Abraham Lincoln.
“We have been together for longer than any of our marriages, and we have never had a crossword puzzle,” Trebek wrote of Gilbert in his memoirs.
Using one of its many “Jeopardy!” Branded college-style jackets, Gilbert warmed the audience before the recordings, encouraging them to talk to Trebek during commercial breaks and ask him any questions they might have. When the time came, Trebek would speak to audience members indefinitely, Gilbert recalled, adding that more than once Trebek’s conversations with members of the studio audience would last longer than commercial breaks.
Gilbert recalled how Trebek continued to work during his illness. When Trebek was receiving chemotherapy treatments, Gilbert said, there were times when he was clearly in great pain. Sometimes he was not well for the usual pranks between episodes with the production team.
Trebek wrote in his memoirs that there were days during his illness when he was barely able to walk to production meetings. But after Gilbert made his trademark introduction – “And now, here’s the host for ‘Jeopardy!’… Alex Trebek!” – Trebek wrote that he would feel himself again and be able to go on stage.
This transformation was also evident to Gilbert.
“Regardless of how he felt when he came on stage,” said Gilbert, “when I introduced him, there was Alex Trebek.”