In Jeopardy of Cancellation

Posted on August 5, 2020 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“Everything that happened to me
happened by mistake.
I don’t believe in fate.
It’s luck, timing and accident.”
Merv Griffin

Art Fleming host of Jeopardy! circa 1964

For the past week, the game show Jeopardy! has been airing old historic episodes. As I watch these episodes, I came to realize I’ve been watching one of the oldest game shows on television. Since it first aired March 20, 1964, this show was so popular in my home, my parents bought us the first Jeopardy! board game which quickly became a family favorite.

Over five decades, Jeopardy! remains popular even as game shows come in and out of fashion. This show is largely responsible for re-energizing the quiz show format following a series of quiz show scandals in the 1950s. The rife scandals broke viewing audience’s trust and so began federal law that prohibited the fixing of game shows and their genre across the networks began to disappear.

In the early 1960s, Merv Griffin, a young genius in designing game shows for NBC, was not happy about all the negativity happening to his livelihood. As a television host, producer, and game show developer for NBC, he began to craft a game show that would change the format forever.

On a flight from Duluth to New York City, Griffin and his wife Julann were discussing game show ideas, when she noted that there had not been a successful “question and answer” game on the air since the quiz show scandals. Griffin recalls his wife asking, “Why not do a switch, and give the answers to the contestant and let them come up with the question?” She then fired a couple of answers to her husband and that’s where the show was born. After landing in NYC, he went straight to executives at NBC with the idea.

The shows name, What’s The Question? which Griffin first pitched to NBC executive Ed Vane was very skeptical about the show. Vane claimed the game format didn’t have enough, “jeopardies”. Griffin went back to the drawing board and came up with a new format as well as the fitting new name, Jeopardy!. NBC bought and green lit Griffin’s show without even looking at a pilot show.

Merv was searching for his game host star, when Art Fleming caught his attention after seeing Fleming in a few tv commercials and shows. Although Art was a game show novice, Merv selected him to host. The show needed background music, so the multitalented Griffin composed the current and rather suspenseful tune.

Within weeks of Jeopardy! first airing, it grabbed 40% of viewers in its daytime slot. People were playing along on college campuses and during lunch breaks. Despite its success, NBC felt fewer demanding clues would reap greater rewards. They wanted 13-year-olds to be able to keep up. Griffin refused. He wanted the program to stay smart. This was a competition between adults, and he saw little sense in diluting a game meant to highlight intellect.

Despite solid ratings, in 1975 NBC abruptly pulled the plug on the show. Executives at the network wanted to appeal to a younger, female demographic. The show was reinstated in 1978, then just six months later the show was canceled once again.

Merv Griffin never gave up on his show and in 1983 he met with executives at King World Productions about doing a syndicated version. Luckily, King World executives agreed, and they had reason for their optimism. The board game Trivial Pursuit, which had debuted in 1981, had grown into a sensation, proving consumers had a healthy appetite for trivia.

Alex Trebek circa 1984

Griffin updated his show in the 1980s with a high-tech game board made up of video monitors instead of paper cards and rerecorded his theme music with synthesizers. But, the biggest update was in 1984 when Art Fleming was replaced with the younger, more polished Alex Trebek and the show started airing in the early evening. Ratings immediately improved in this new time slot.

In 2004 the show removed its five-game limit for returning champions. With that rule removed, contestant Ken Jennings was able to win an unprecedented 74-show winning streak making headlines across the country. The $2,520,700 he won from 2004 to 2005 during this winning streak, still holds the record for the most money an individual has ever won on an American game show making Jennings a minor celebrity.

Trebek continues to host Jeopardy!, despite his recent diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer. However, during the coronavirus quarantine the show has not been taping any new shows since March, the longest hiatus in the history of the show.

There’s no denying this game show is a staple in America. It’s won 16 daytime Emmy awards for Outstanding Game Show, the most ever by one program. It will be a sad day when Trebek retires from his hosting job, but it will be a sadder day if the show ever becomes in jeopardy of cancellation.

Shine On

Funny Girl

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“People
People who
need people
Are the luckiest
people in the world.”
Bob Merrill

funny-girl1

My favorite Barbra Streisand musical Funny Girl was on television the other night. I was just a kid when my parents brought this Broadway hit album home in 1964. It didn’t take me long before I had every lyric of every song memorized, belting out each song like any other normal 8-year old.

Funny Girl became a huge hit, not only as a Broadway Musical but also as a movie. I was too young to see the Broadway version, but I was the first in line at the movie matinee theater with my elementary school friends when it was released in 1968.

I can remember sitting in the movie theater quietly singing along with each and every song. My friends were surprised that I knew all the lyrics, especially since I hadn’t told them. I just thought every kid knew the lyrics. Guess I was wrong.

To my surprise, when I watched the movie the other day, all the lyrics came back to me. How is it I can’t remember what I made for dinner two days ago, but start playing the music from Funny Girl and I start singing along without forgetting a single note or lyric. Guess I’m just a funny girl.

Shine On

The Pandumbic

Posted on July 29, 2020 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“If you laugh with somebody,
then you share something.”
Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah

When the Coronavirus pandemic began, all the late-night shows such as The Tonight Show, The Late, Late Show and even Stephen Colbert began broadcasting their shows from home, usually their significant other filming their host husbands.

There was one show I had not watched before and that was The Daily Show with host Trevor Noah. However, that changed when I began watching Trevor along with the other daily YouTube late night shows.

If you’re not familiar with Trevor Noah, he’s a 36-year old South African comedian, political commentator, writer and television host of The Daily Show. Born in Johannesburg, he began his career in 2002 as a comedian, presenter, and actor in South Africa. After coming to America in 2011, he became the first South African comedian to appear on The Tonight Show in the summer of 2013. As his popularity grew and Trevor became a recurring contributor on The Daily Show, he replaced Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show September 28, 2015.

I was a fan of Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show but I must admit I stopped watching after he retired. I didn’t even give Trevor Noah a chance to show his talent. I now regret I did that, after becoming a diehard fan of Trevor.

After a few months of watching him on the Daily Show, I read his 2016 book, Born A Crime. He writes about growing up in South Africa, a child of interracial parents and apartheid South Africa. Trevor was kept mostly indoors in his youth by his mother, for fear that at any moment the government could take him away from her because of his interracial status. In South Africa before 1985, it was a crime to have interracial marriages as well as have an interracial child, hence the title of the book, Born a Crime. Against all odds, this smart, handsome, talented young comedian has made his way to the top. In my opinion, Born a Crime should be required reading for all young people.

If you don’t have cable, you can watch him on YouTube. Here’s a recent segment of The Daily Social Distancing Show from July 22, 2020 he calls, The Pandumbic:

Shine On

Captivating Comet

Posted on July 27, 2020 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“Science is an ongoing process. It never ends.
There is no single ultimate truth to be achieved,
after which all the scientists can retire.”
Carl Sagan

NEOWISE Comet from Mt. Hood, Oregon by Daniel Springer – July 2020

A few weeks back, a good friend asked if I had the opportunity to photograph the comet, NEOWISE in the skies over Redondo Beach. Unfortunately, because of overcast evening skies, I have not been able to get a good photo of the comet. However, I still have time since the comet will be visible through mid-August.

This fairly large, 3 mile across comet was first spotted by The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on March 27^th. NEOWISE is named after the JPL space telescope used to first discover the comet, the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer aka NEOWISE. To learn more about the NEOWISE JPL Mission visit, https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/neowise/

The newly discovered comet might become known as the Great Comet of 2020 because it won’t be returning to our neck of the world for another 6,800 years. Why? Because, that’s how many years it takes this comet to complete its journey around the sun. It’s also one of the few comets visible without the use of a telescope or even binoculars. According to JPL, NEOWISE is the brightest comet since Comet Hale-Bopp visited us in 1997.

Joseph Masiero, NEOWISE deputy principal investigator at JPL, said in a recent interview that, “. . . by combining the infrared data with visible-light images, we can tell that the comet’s nucleus is covered with sooty, dark particles left over from its formation near the birth of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago.”

If you’re interested in capturing a beautiful photograph like the one my friend’s son Daniel took at Mt. Hood in Oregon, start looking up at the sky about one hour after sunset. According to the Sky & Telescope magazine, you’ll find the comet just over the northwest horizon as the last of twilight fades into darkness. Look about three fists below the bowl of the Big Dipper. The comet has also been getting brighter and brighter in the early morning sky as well.

Good luck my fellow Blogaholics in photographing or just experiencing this captivating comet.

Shine On

Exceptional Eggs

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“The key to everything is patience.
You get the chicken by hatching the egg,
not by smashing it.”
Arnold H. Glasow

Exceptional Eggs

Everyone has heard the old famous question; What came first the chicken or the egg? Well, scientists say the egg came first about 340 million years ago while the chicken evolved about 58 thousand years ago.

Scientific records show that fowl were domesticated and laying eggs for human consumption since the 14th century. There is also archaeological evidence dating back to the Neolithic age for egg consumption. In North America, the first domesticated fowl arrived with the second voyage of Columbus in 1493.

Just a little over 100 years ago most people with farmland had chickens and the majority of these chickens were kept in a henhouse. So how did we go from gathering a few eggs on a farm to shipping millions of eggs across the country every day?

James Ashley’s Egg Case Maker circa 1900

In the late 19th and early 20th century, families leaving the farm for the city couldn’t take the chickens with them, so they had to rely on markets in the city to get their eggs. With the demand for fresh eggs, an innovative Civil War veteran, James Ashley developed a crate for eggs that allowed eggs to be mass marketed.

Ashley first patented his egg case maker in 1896 and received additional patents for improvements to the machine in 1902 and 1925. Farmers could then put their logo stamp on the outside of the crate and ship them off on the rails to major cities. Today, egg farmers are still using Ashley crates to get their eggs to grocery stores.

There are different types of eggs available at your local grocery stores, such as pasteurized, farm fresh free range, and organic type eggs. Pasteurized eggs means they have been treated to destroy any bacteria on the egg so it has a longer shelf life but they must be refrigerated. Farm fresh eggs come from chickens that are free range and eat non-GMO feed, mostly small bugs. Organic means these eggs aren’t from free range chickens but may have been fed non-GMO feed. You do not have to refrigerate your farm fresh organic eggs because they have a shelf life of over a month.

Eggs have about 7 grams of protein per egg. An individual needs about 40 grams of protein a day. So, eggs are an excellent source and inexpensive way to get your daily protein.

I’m a fan of farm fresh eggs and it is one of my main source of protein. I’ve noticed if I buy grocery store eggs, they’re just not as agreeable with my digestive system. That’s why I buy farm fresh organic eggs that I get at the local farmers market, which in my opinion are exceptional eggs.

Shine On