COMING SOON: Jeopardy! classic episodes from season 1 (and possibly more)

[wheelfan1991]

There’s not enough surviving Woolery footage for me to really make a judgement, but from the little that does exist I don’t think he was a great host for Wheel, he was a bit awkward.

Not enough? There's more than what you think. Just give a look on YouTube sometime. I'd say there 30+ episodes floating around that have made their way to the surface, thanks mostly in part to the contestants or family members of the contestant converting and uploading the episodes. Many times, you'll get all of their appearances if they were a returning champion.

[Spmahn]

Not enough? There's more than what you think. Just give a look on YouTube sometime. I'd say there 30+ episodes floating around that have made their way to the surface, thanks mostly in part to the contestants or family members of the contestant converting and uploading the episodes. Many times, you'll get all of their appearances if they were a returning champion.

I see that now, that must be a fairly recent development, I remember a few years ago there was basically nothing out there from Woolery Wheel, a Pilot or two, clips from his last episode, and maybe a couple of stray episodes. Good to see that more was found, but there probably isn’t much hope for more from that source, not many people had video recorders in 1981 or earlier, and tapes back then were so expensive that people tended to re-use them over and over.

[JayC]

To add another update on the upcoming Jeopardy rerun schedule, it was posted in the Season 48 rerun schedule thread in the Talk is Right section that the Million Dollar Masters tournament will also be reran according to a user on the Game Show Forum.
http://www.gameshowforum.org/index.php/topic,32057.0.html

[RatRace10]

I could see them running the first all cash show or even all cash week from that season. That'd be interesting. And hey....NEON $25,000 sign! lol

Also.....maybe they could dig up the first road series of shows at Radio City Music Hall the following season? Could possibly see that too.

GSN did air the first all-cash episode and the first Radio City episode in the Wheel portion of their Merv Griffin Tribute marathons of Wheel and J!. Ironically, Wheel was a variety of vintage notable shows while J! was just a then-recent tournament; pretty much the opposite of what will be happening in a few weeks.

[pricefan18]

GSN did air the first all-cash episode and the first Radio City episode in the Wheel portion of their Merv Griffin Tribute marathons of Wheel and J!. Ironically, Wheel was a variety of vintage notable shows while J! was just a then-recent tournament; pretty much the opposite of what will be happening in a few weeks.

You know thinking back on it, it's interesting that the Fleming era wasn't represented there for J!, given they had ran the daytime finale in the past and I think the 2000th show too (but don't quote me on that). It's even moreso, when you consider the fact Woolery's Wheel was included in its' portion of the tribute. Wonder why it was decided to only show stuff from the Trebek run, and then recent stuff at that.

[blozier2006]

You know thinking back on it, it's interesting that the Fleming era wasn't represented there for J!, given they had ran the daytime finale in the past and I think the 2000th show too (but don't quote me on that).

AFAIK, the "finale" they've aired was the 3/2/79 finale, not the 1/3/75 finale.

[Trevor Tuominen]

Few episodes in the Fleming run exist. Wiped by NBC. Ditto for Woolery Wheel.

[pricefan18]

AFAIK, the "finale" they've aired was the 3/2/79 finale, not the 1/3/75 finale.

I coulda sworn when they did their big finales marathon on New Year's Eve in 1999 heading into 2000, that that finale was part of it. Looking it up it seems not the case, but I woulda bet dollars to donuts it had.......I'm a bit stunned at that.

[jude_este]

TVLine has confirmed the reruns dubbed From The Vaults that will include openings from Alex at home on these shows who also shared an update on his battle with pancreatic cancer. (My treatment is paying off, though it has fatigued me a great deal, My numbers are good. I’m feeling great.”)

[RatRace10]

Sorry if this sounds insensitive, but do you think they would do this for Wheel if Pat or Vanna were sick? I mean, they did air reruns when Pat had surgery, but they were only a season old.

It just doesn't seem right that they're not doing this for Wheel since the two shows are aired together. People will be so amazed by old school Jeopardy and then when Wheel starts and they see that it's "new-ish" shows, they'll just turn it off.

[imhomerjay]

It does sound insensitive and petty. This idea that the two shows need to be treated as if they're both identical and there's no imagined favoritism is absurd.

Sometimes things are just different. It's a business, and runs like one. Being obsessed with equal treatment doesn't change any of that--what works for one may simply not work for another.

There is nothing fundamentally unfair about that.

[BillyGr]

Sorry if this sounds insensitive, but do you think they would do this for Wheel if Pat or Vanna were sick? I mean, they did air reruns when Pat had surgery, but they were only a season old.

It just doesn't seem right that they're not doing this for Wheel since the two shows are aired together. People will be so amazed by old school Jeopardy and then when Wheel starts and they see that it's "new-ish" shows, they'll just turn it off.

That definitely won't happen here, since Wheel is at 7 and Jeopardy at 7:30

The other difference between shows is that Jeopardy has not normally done weekday reruns, except the few weeks of Tournaments in the summer.  Those are easy to rerun, as they are "self contained", while any other shows you pick aren't (since they 99+% always have a returning champ). 
So perhaps you might say it's an extra "thank you" for the extra work Alex has done over the years (several more weeks of shows per year).

[LiteBulb88]

Jeopardy! has just posted what they're doing for the next 4 weeks:

https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/news-events/vault-4-weeks-jeopardy-milestones

Quoting from that webpage:

JULY 20-24: Best of Jeopardy!’s First Decade
Mon., July 20            First Jeopardy! Episode
Tue., July 21             First Jeopardy! Surprise Ending
Wed., July 22            First Super Champion: Chuck Forrest
Thu., July 23             First $100,000 Champion: Frank Spangenberg
Fri., July 24               First Big Tournament Final: 10th Anniversary

JULY 27-31: Best of Celebrity Jeopardy!
Mon., July 27            Carol Burnett, Regis Philbin, Donna Mills
Tue., July 28             Jodie Foster, Nathan Lane, Harry Connick Jr.
Wed., July 29           Jeff Probst, Charles Barkley, Martha Stewart
Thu., July 30             Wayne Brady, Dana Delany, Eric Idle
Fri., July 31               Michael McKean, Cheech Marin, Jane Curtin

AUGUST 3-7:           Million Dollar Masters Quarterfinals
AUGUST 10-12:       Million Dollar Masters Semifinals
AUGUST 13-14:       Million Dollar Masters Finals

Sorry if this sounds insensitive, but do you think they would do this for Wheel if Pat or Vanna were sick? I mean, they did air reruns when Pat had surgery, but they were only a season old.

It just doesn't seem right that they're not doing this for Wheel since the two shows are aired together. People will be so amazed by old school Jeopardy and then when Wheel starts and they see that it's "new-ish" shows, they'll just turn it off.

Pat isn't quite as iconic as Alex is, as that's due in no small part to the format of each show. Alex is constantly reading clues and responses on J!, while WoF has a lot more non-talking time simply due to its nature. Also, J! tends to draw a geekier audience than WoF, and one thing J! fans tend to geek out over is the show itself. There aren't as many WoF geeks out there as there are J! geeks. In other words, earlier WoF episodes just don't interest as many people as earlier J! episodes would.

[JayC]

Early Wheel of Fortune, especially before 1987 is also much different than what the show is today compared to Jeopardy which has never had any real format change in its 36 year history. Wheel from 1983 until the 1987-88 season had the shopping format, and the show did not introduce elements like the current bonus round wheel, toss-ups, Prize Puzzle, the Million Dollar wedge, and other modern elements were not introduced until much later. While long time fans would probably like the walk down memory lane and some would be interested to see what the show was like in its earlier days, most viewers will probably just find it "old" and wonder why so many elements are missing. The vault Jeopardy episodes will look old too obviously, but the game is the same except for the dollar values.

There's likely other reasons they're declining to show vintage Wheel also that have more to do with costs. I've also seen rumors that Pat doesn't want old episodes on because they show how much he's aged.

[pricefan18]

Early Wheel of Fortune, especially before 1987 is also much different than what the show is today compared to Jeopardy which has never had any real format change in its 36 year history. Wheel from 1983 until the 1987-88 season had the shopping format, and the show did not introduce elements like the current bonus round wheel, toss-ups, Prize Puzzle, the Million Dollar wedge, and other modern elements were not introduced until much later. While long time fans would probably like the walk down memory lane and some would be interested to see what the show was like in its earlier days, most viewers will probably just find it "old" and wonder why so many elements are missing. The vault Jeopardy episodes will look old too obviously, but the game is the same except for the dollar values.

There's likely other reasons they're declining to show vintage Wheel also that have more to do with costs. I've also seen rumors that Pat doesn't want old episodes on because they show how much he's aged.

Would companies that featured various prizes need to be reimbursed for the reairing of old content? I could see that coming up possibly if so.....an issue J! wouldn't have obviously, outside of the cars for 5 day champs for a time in the late 90's and early 2000's and no games they are reairing will feature one. Where did you hear the rumors about Pat and aging incidentally?