Jeopardy! set evolution
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This article describes the evolution of the set of the television game show Jeopardy! through its run.
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[edit] Art Fleming versions
[edit] Jeopardy! (1964-1975)
On the original version of the show hosted by Art Fleming, which debuted on NBC on March 30, 1964, the contestants were seated behind table-height podiums on the left side of the set, while the game board faced them on the right side. The original Jeopardy! logo was mounted on the wall behind and above the podiums. At the beginning of the game, the contestants walked on set from the back and seated themselves at their podiums as they were introduced. Signaling devices were largely the same as they appear today. A cloth curtain covered the game board and parted in the middle at the beginning of each round to reveal the categories. Clues were printed on paper cards, and were obscured by paper cards with the dollar values printed on them; when a clue was selected, a stagehand behind the board would yank out its corresponding dollar value card to reveal the printed clue. Because the paper cards provided very little space for the clues to be written on, longer words in most clues were heavily abbreviated. No electronic sound effects were used; a ship's bell was rung to signify a round was over, and when a Daily Double was revealed, a Bermuda carriage bell was rung quickly several times. The Final Jeopardy! category and clue was revealed from its own smaller board next to the larger game board. For the Final Jeopardy! Round, contestants were provided two white paper or cardboard slates with fold-over covers, one upon which to write their wagers, which the contestants mounted standing up on the right sides of the prodiums just prior to the reveal of the clue, and another upon which to write their Final Jeopardy! responses. After a contestant's response was revealed, host Art Fleming folded back the cover on his or her wager slate to reveal the contestant's wager.
From the very beginning, the show was videorecorded and broadcast in color; however, virtually all of the few early episodes that survive are from kinescopes and are therefore in black-and-white.
[edit] Weekly syndicated Jeopardy! (1974-1975)
A weekly syndicated version that aired for about 40 episodes from September 9, 1974 to September 7, 1975 featured Fleming dressed in gaudy checkered tuxedos and a set designed by Tom Trimble and Merrill Sindler. The set was decorated with more lights and a larger logo hung behind the contestant podiums.
[edit] The All-New Jeopardy! (1978-1979)
For the 1978 revival version of the show, The All-New Jeopardy!, the orientation of game board and contestant podiums was reversed. At the opening of the show, contestants were hidden behind wall panels on the right side of the set, which moved away to reveal them when they were introduced. The game board was now on the left side of the set, hidden until the beginning of a round behind a sliding panel door similar to the doors used on The Price Is Right. The set was also adorned with an asterisk-shaped sign which featured "Jeopardy!" flashing in four different angles. The set's red background was ornamented with white "fireworks" hangings, and the scoreboards used "eggcrate" displays.
[edit] Alex Trebek version
[edit] Pilot 1 (1983)
The first attempt at a revival of the show with Alex Trebek for syndication yearned to be modernized for the technology age, as reflected in its "personal computer" set. Two large "PCs" sat facing each other at right angles, with their keyboards coming down steplike toward the floor, the "screen" on the right framing the three contestant podiums—each of which formed its own smaller "PC"—and the "screen" of the "PC" on the left forming the game board. (The host emerged from the left PC's "disk drive" upon his introduction at the beginning of the show.) Yet, the new set was anything but modern; the original jumbled-letter Jeopardy! logo was retained, and the clues were revealed, as in the original Fleming version, by means of hand-pulled cards on the game board. Contestants still wrote down their Final Jeopardy! reponses using slates and markers, and their wagers were revealed by Alex Trebek uncovering a wager slate placed atop each contestant's podium. This pilot also reused The All-New Jeopardy!'s opening theme music and sound effects.
[edit] Pilot 2 (1984)
A new set was constructed for a second pilot, with set design by art director Henry C. Lickel, who had also done work on Double Dare and Family Feud in the 1970s. Unlike the set for the first pilot, the second pilot Jeopardy! set was very modern, heralding in the "video game" age. Bordering the set were three neon bands—one red, one blue, and one almost yellow—that on the left and right edges grew thicker in width. A redesigned Jeopardy! logo was crafted out of 9-foot-high fixtures containing a series of vertical red neon tubes. The most prominent feature of technology on the set was a brand new game board consisting of 30 19-inch television monitors that were a drastic departure from the "card-pulling" game boards of the Fleming era and the first Trebek pilot. Each monitor was separated by a three-inch-thick border coated in red glitterized paint, and the category headings were printed on cardstock and were lit up by a neon tube surrounding the border of each card. The contestant podiums were topped with vane displays for keeping score, undearneath which were printed cards for the contestants' names. Underneath the cards were shown the contestants' "signature" versions of their names written with a light pen and displayed on a television monitor central to the podium. Surrounding this center was a neon border that served as a "signaling-in light". Contestants' Final Jeopardy! wagers and responses were written using the light pen and revealed on their podium monitors, updating the slate-and-marker system used during the Fleming era. The theme music was slightly different than when the show debuted in 1984, but it was now based on the "Think!" theme, unlike the first Trebek pilot, which recycled the Fleming-era music.
[edit] Season 1 (1984-1985)
Jeopardy! premiered on September 10, 1984 with only cosmetic changes to its 2nd pilot set. The floor was slightly enlarged, and the red set carpet was replaced with a blue carpet. The same blue carpet coated the podiums, which were redesigned, eliminating the contestants' printed name cards.
[edit] Season 2 (1985-1986)
The set saw minor redesigns by art director Bob Rang, who had previously worked on Dance Fever in 1979. The 9-foot Jeopardy! logo was redone in white neon lighting with opaque white acrylic glass panels covering the lights, the gameboard was repainted to a gray metallic and the carpet changed from blue to gray. The lecterns received a slight facelift and all traces of the color red were removed. The gameboard monitors also began to cycle through a rapid-pace flash routine during the credits crawl at the end of each episode, with each monitor rapidly alternating between a blank red or blue screen, the Jeopardy! logo, and an image seen from another of the studio's TV cameras. Beginning with this season, and on all sets until early in Season 14, the lighting would turn the set background from blue to red for the Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy! Rounds.
[edit] Seasons 3-7 (1986-1991)
The set received a minor facelift again. The white acrylic glass covers on the 9-foot Jeopardy! logo were replaced with ones matching the color of the outer almost-yellow neon band, and the spotlights above the set now had color to them. This set would be the second-longest running set Jeopardy! had, as they used it until the end of the 1990-1991 season. Minor changes were made over the years. In 1988 the category headings changed from a surrounding neon tube to a neon backlight (which would turn on when Alex announced each category and would turn off upon completion), the spaces between the gameboard monitors were trimmed up a little bit and the carpet on the set floor was slightly more refined. The riser on the stage was also changed from carpet to a blue acrylic glass with a neon backlight (which was almost always never used). In 1989, the spotlight on the upper support for the "O" behind Alex's podium was removed.
In 1990, for the 13-week Super Jeopardy! tournament on ABC, the set received an additional fourth contestant lectern for the quarterfinals, and the floor changed from gray carpet to a shiny sleek black linoleum tile. Additionally, the gray metallic on the gameboard and the lecterns was changed to a bronze like texture, and for Super Jeopardy! only, the red neon lights for the category headings (which were blue instead of red on regular Jeopardy!) made a return. One element of this set was kept for the regular games that fall—the outline surrounding the scoreboards became rounded off, as opposed to squared off.
[edit] Seasons 8-13 (1991-1996)
In 1991, Jeopardy! moved production from the KTLA lot to the old Zoetrope Studios on Las Palmas Avenue in Hollywood. The new studio space permitted for a new, larger set to be designed, one that could incorporate more permanent features, since it would not need to be broken down to accommodate other productions. The brand new set, designed by art director Ed Flesh, consisted of a revised 9-foot Jeopardy! logo, with changes being made to the "R", the "Y", and the "!"; the logo alternated colors between white and red during the Jeopardy! Round, and white and blue during the Double Jeopardy! Round. In addition, the 2-tone blue and white band making up the border of the set was overhauled and replaced by a solid light blue neon band. The upper band was a 1-piece design while the lower piece consisted of elements from the previous set and elements of the new set. A 6-foot gap separated the edges of the upper and lower bands at the left and right sides, and a shiny metal grid was the main feature behind the contestants. The lecterns also received a new look, incorporating the new shiny grid and a perennial white backlight. The gameboard was also substantially revised. Instead of a 3-inch border surrounding 30 19" TV monitors, the new gameboard consisted of 30 25" TV screens encased in a half-inch frame. The end result resulted in a near-seamless video wall that was inspired by both Disney's short-lived 1990 The Challengers game show hosted by Dick Clark, and also TNT's NBA basketball studio show. Additionally, the posterboard category headings were also changed to the use of TV monitors. Also, before the categories for the day were revealed, they were kept secret by a shattered-glass/starburst/geometric-puzzle effect that turned the words on the category screens into gibberish. To reveal the category, the effect was reversed. This way of revealing the categories was kept from 1992 to 1996, although the effect wasn't adapted into play the first few months of the set's use, as the categories just appeared on their screens during that time. After that, and until the end of the first season with the set, the categories zoomed in until they reached their optimum size. Another aspect of the board during the start of the set's tenure was that the clue screens did not show the Jeopardy logo individually before play started, but rather had the logo spread out across the video wall which broke up as the dollar amounts filled the individual screens. The Jeopardy! logo on the set also was changed to a cycle between flashing red-to-white and flashing blue-to-white during the Jeopardy! Round and Double Jeopardy! Round respectively. The "entrance arch" was replaced by a wall of the "metal grid" material and contestants from then on until 2002 walked onto the set. The floor now adopted the shiny black look from Super Jeopardy! From the 9th season up until the end of the 12th, the video monitors that displayed the players' names changed to red during the Double Jeopardy! round, to match the color of the backdrop. Alex talks to the three contestants starting from the third player through the first player (returning champion) right after concluding the Jeopardy! Round.
This set lasted until Season 13 in 1996, and was the longest-tenured set on the Trebek version. With the set's 1991 introduction also came a revised version of the original theme from 1984.
[edit] Seasons 13-19 (1996-2002)
Two months after the start of Season 13, accompanying their move to Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, Jeopardy! introduced an entirely new set by production designer Naomi Slodki. The main feature was a new 9-foot Jeopardy! logo etched in glass, with the P and A being sliding doors for Alex's new entrance walk. The backdrop behind the contestants and for the remainder of the set consisted of dark gray granite columns and huge wood panels with small etched glass "windows". The set floor was also changed, to a more angular shape and the color scheme on the floor consisted of a mix of granite tile, tan tile and gloss black. The contestant lecterns were overhauled to a more wood-like appearance and Alex's lectern received a similar treatment. Alex's podium also had a light blue neon backlight and a blueish marble globe in front of it. Additionally, 2 large television displays were added to the left and right hand sides (usually seen off-screen) of the set, and the audience now became a part of the set at the start of Season 14. The following season, Jeopardy! rolled out a brand-new rendition of the famous theme music and a retooling of the Final Jeopardy! "Think!" theme. In addition, the microphones on the podiums were removed- the contestants and Alex now had clip-on ones in place. All of these changes nearly alienated longtime loyal viewers of the show, while the set was nicknamed by some the "sushi bar" studio.[citation needed] The red background, used for the Double and Final Jeopardy! Rounds since the second season of the show, was eliminated a few weeks into Season 14 (when the show finished, the background would change back to blue on this set).
Alex now talks to all three contestants starting from the third player through the first player (returning champion) coming out of the 1st commercial break before concluding the Jeopardy! Round.
In the middle of Season 14, the practice of "popping in" the dollar figures on the Double Jeopardy! Round board was ended; the dollar figures would already be present on the screens coming out of the 2nd commercial break.
In the middle of Season 16, the applause coming out of the 2nd commercial break was ended.
One further change would also take place in revealing of categories, which began in Season 14, and has continued into the current set. The category names would be covered by a Jeopardy! logo (or Double Jeopardy! in the second round, or the respective tournament logo in tournaments), and then be revealed one-by-one as Alex read them, though the April Fool's episode from 1997 with Pat Sajak of Wheel of Fortune fame hosting shows the Category Screens blank, and the category split up into lines and meeting in the middle, forming the complete category name. From 1997-2000, the category effect screen rotated the page up, and from 2001 onward, the category effect screen faded in.
Beginning in Season 17 (2000-2001), the contestants no longer entered the studio during their introductions by Johnny Gilbert. They simply stood already positioned behind their podiums for their introductions. Coming out of the 1st commercial break until May 2002, there are prizes for the 2nd and 3rd place contestants introduced by announcer Johnny Gilbert before Alex talks to all three contestants starting from the third player through the first player (returning champion). It was previously used after the Double Jeopardy! Round before giving the Final Jeopardy! category.
[edit] Seasons 19-22 (2002-2006)
On November 25, 2002, three months after the start of Season 19, Jeopardy! introduced another all-new set by Naomi Slodki, having completely deconstructed the previous set in order to build it. The set featured hanging panels with stone textures and metallic finishes in gold, silver, and bronze, as well as translucent light blue (perhaps sanded glass). Some of these panels would be switched out for special tournament and nontournament play to feature the logos of the special games being played. New, trapezoid-shaped podiums displayed contestant scores (as of January 9, 2003) on new flat-panel electronic displays (allowing, for the first time, a contestant in the red to have his or her score display shown with a red background). Several virtual tours featured on the official Jeopardy! web site are based on the 2003 set. [1] On January 6, 2003, the scoreboard was changed from the original vane display to a blue and red digital display with digital numbers, meaning that positive scores were displayed in blue and negative scores were displayed in red.
Slodki also designed the numerous travelling sets used for College Championships, Power Players Weeks, etc., all of which were fabricated in Southern California and shipped to their road venues for tapings.
[edit] Season 23 (2006-present)
Jeopardy! and its sister show Wheel of Fortune became the first game shows to air in high-definition when both shows debuted their new seasons on September 11, 2006. While the show did not receive a completely new set as it had in 2002, the following changes to the set accompanied the move to HD:
- The Jeopardy! game board, which had appeared as a wall of individual video monitors since 1984 and had not been updated since 1991, was replaced with a (nearly) seamless projection video wall. [2] (A seamless board had been a part of the show's travelling set since November 1997; a similar [or perhaps the same] one was used for Rock & Roll Jeopardy!.)
- The blue background of the category and clue screens was given a random gradient texture to accommodate the screen resolution of high definition.
- The contestant podiums and host's lectern were revised. The contestant podiums were spaced wider apart so that a camera shot could be trained on a single contestant within a 16:9 aspect ratio frame, without showing the other contestants on the sides of the screen.
- The paneling on the sides of the game board was made symmetrical; previously, the paneling had existed only on the board's right side.
- The control room and post-production facility were upgraded for HD compliance.
Between Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, the various HD improvements represented an investment of about $4 million, 5,000 labor hours, and 6 miles of cable. [3] Both shows had been shot using HD cameras for several years prior to the production, post-production, and distribution upgrade. On standard-definition television broadcasts, the shows continued to be displayed full-screen (i.e., not letterboxed).
One common complaint among viewers about the new set was that the LED-based red podium signal lights were difficult to see, particularly on standard definition screens, making it hard to identify which contestant had rung in on a clue. The producers of Jeopardy! apparently arrived at the same conclusion, because on September 25, 2006, two weeks after the new set's introduction, the red podium signal lights were replaced with white ones. Viewer feedback could not have contributed to this change, since the September 25 show was taped in advance of the September 11 set debut; the swap was made after the first two-day taping session.
[edit] External links
- Official Jeopardy! Web site (The Virtual Tour and desktop wallpapers are based on the Season 19-22 Jeopardy set)
- Official Jeopardy! message board
- Jeopardy! at the Internet Movie Database
