Jeopardy! set evolution

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The set of the American television game show Jeopardy! has evolved through a number of iterations during its more than 40-year broadcast history. As the show has matured into a fixture of American popular culture and as display technologies have improved, the show's sets have progressively assumed more sophisticated, more permanent incarnations. The advances in the show's technological sophistication are exemplified by the successive versions of the show's iconic game board, which began as columns of manually-operated pull-cards in the 1960s, was updated to a bank of CRT video monitors in the 1980s that were later upgraded in the 1990s, and was replaced with a nearly-seamless projection video wall in the 2000s. While the show's set initially shared studio space with other productions and required repeated disassembly and reassembly, today the set is housed in its own dedicated sound stage on the Sony Pictures Studios lot.

Contents 1 Art Fleming versions 1.1 Jeopardy! (1964-1975) 1.2 Weekly syndicated Jeopardy! (1974-1975) 1.3 The All-New Jeopardy! (1978-1979) 2 Alex Trebek version 2.1 Pilot 1 (1983) 2.2 Pilot 2 (1984) 2.3 Season 1 (1984-1985) 2.4 Season 2 (1985-1986) 2.4.1 KTLA Lot 2.5 Seasons 3-7 (1986-1991) 2.6 Super Jeopardy! (1990) 2.7 Seasons 8-13 (1991-1996) 2.7.1 Hollywood Center Studios 2.7.2 Sony Pictures Studios 2.8 Seasons 13-19 (1996-2002) 2.8.1 Set auction on eBay 2.9 Seasons 19-22 (2002-2006) 2.10 Season 23 (2006-present) 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Art Fleming versions

[edit] Jeopardy! (1964-1975)

The original version of the show was hosted by Art Fleming, and debuted on NBC on March 30, 1964, taped in Studio 6A at NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.^[1] The contestants were seated behind table-height desks on the left side of the set, while the game board faced them on the right side. The original Jeopardy! logo, white on pink, was mounted on the wall behind and above the desks, as well as on the wall of the alcove (in a reverse pattern) from which the contestants and Fleming emerged at the beginning of each program. At the beginning of the game, the contestants walked on set from the back and seated themselves at their desks as they were introduced by announcer Don Pardo.

Signaling devices were largely the same as they appear today; pushing them lit up an oval on the front of the desk, which had the contestant's name superimposed in raised capital letters on it. A small bulb at the bottom right side of the contestant's desks indicated whose turn it was between clues. The contestants' score displays were mechanical, not electronic, as was the custom of games produced in New York. They consisted of four lighted panels, each containing 10 black rotary slides with clear printed numerals (0-9); a fifth panel after the fixed (and unlit) dollar sign character contained plus and minus signs, to indicate what direction above or below zero the contestant's score was.

A blue cloth curtain covered the game board and parted in the middle at the beginning of each round to reveal the categories. Clues were printed in white on blue-colored paper cards, and were obscured by blue-colored paper cards with the dollar values printed on them; when a clue was selected, a stagehand behind the board would yank out, by hand, 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 (e.g. "ACC'D'G" for "according"). Once used, the stagehand then removed the clue, which revealed a blank blue card. A Daily Double was indicated by a blue-and-yellow diagonal-stripe-patterned card between the money card and the clue. The categories above the clues were printed in cream color on cards with a somewhat darker shade of blue.

No electronic sound effects were used; a ship's bell was rung to signify a round's conclusion, and when a Daily Double was revealed, a Bermuda carriage bell was rung quickly several times to alert Fleming and the selecting contestant.^[1]

The Final Jeopardy! category and clue was revealed from its own smaller board, which in the early years was placed next to the larger game board, but sometime in the 1970s was relocated to between the frame and the curtain in front of the regular 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. In the later years of the NBC version, players used magic markers to write with; in previous years, they may have used grease pencils or even black crayons. After a contestant's response was revealed, host Art Fleming folded back the cover on the contestant's wager slate to reveal his or her wager.

Tom Trimble and Merrill Sindler's original set design used a wood-beam motif with pastel shades of blue and pink; the game board was encased by wooden frame-like paneling. Originally, Fleming stood in front of an aqua-pattern curtain, but in the final months of the show, it was replaced by a blue curtain similar to that covering the game board. Other than that and several other slight changes (made by NBC staff designers Kathleen Ankers and Frank Skinner), the set remained intact for the entirety of the 11-year run on NBC.

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. The special charity 2000th episode from February 1972 and several episodes from the show's final year (including the January 3, 1975 finale) have survived in color, however.

In addition to Studio 6A, Studio 8G was also frequently used to record the show.^[1][2]

Art Fleming introduces a 1974 episode of the show. Fleming hosted every episode of the NBC versions, not missing even one taping. Note the detachable wired microphone, standard television audio equipment during the original version's run.

A blue curtain parted in the center to reveal the Jeopardy! round categories. The word "DOUBLE" appeared superimposed in the top of the logo oval for the second round, and "FINAL" in the end game. The host's podium is at far left.

The clues on the original version were revealed by pull-cards, which stagehands removed by hand.

Contestants on the original version were seated during play. The lighted oval on the contestant's desk indicated a signal for a response.

[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 desks.

[edit] The All-New Jeopardy! (1978-1979)

The 1978 revival version of the show, The All-New Jeopardy!, was taped from NBC Studio 3 in Burbank, California, with set design by Henry Lickel and Dennis Root.^[2] The orientation of game board and contestant desks was reversed to the orientation that remains on today's version. 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, making it the only version of Jeopardy! to ever use the eggcrate displays.

Screenshots seen below are from the 1979 finale of the series.

The set of The All-New Jeopardy! circa 1979

Panels opened to reveal the contestants on The All-New Jeopardy!

The panels closed again once the players took their seats.

Panels on the left side of the set opened to reveal the pull-card game board.

[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, erected in the TAV Celebrity Theater on Vine Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, the home of The Merv Griffin Show and the offices of Wheel of Fortune. 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 desks — 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. The board values were the same as in The All-New Jeopardy! ($25-$125 in the first round; $50-$250 in Double Jeopardy!). Contestants still wrote down their Final Jeopardy! responses using slates and markers, and their wagers were revealed by Alex Trebek uncovering a wager slate placed atop each contestant's desk. This pilot also reused The All-New Jeopardy!'s opening theme music and sound effects. The Merv Griffin tune "Nightwalk", which played during the shopping segment on Wheel of Fortune, was used as the commercial cue.

The first Trebek pilot had a personal computer theme.

Alex emerges from the "disk drive" of the pilot 1 set.

Each contestant desk was its own smaller PC — but the "monitors" were not actually monitors yet.

The game board still used pull-cards.

[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 and somewhat serious looking, heralding in the "video game" age, looking more like the set that was used when the show made it to air. Bordering the new set were three neon bands—one a deep shade of red, one reddish-orange, and one almost yellow—that on the left and right edges grew thicker in width (on the bottom, only two bands were present). 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 thirty, 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 first used during the Fleming era. Board values were double that from the first Trebek pilot ($50-$250 for the first round, $100-$500 for Double Jeopardy!). 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.

Trebek pilot 2 set

Logo and podiums on the Trebek pilot 2 set

Pilot 2 contestant podiums

The pilot 2 game board is set up for the Double Jeopardy! Round.

[edit] Season 1 (1984-1985)

Jeopardy! premiered on September 10, 1984 with only cosmetic changes to its second 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, and Alex's podium, which was also redesigned and slightly enlarged. The deep red, reddish-orange, and yellow neon bands were redone in a red, blue, and white color. Until 1996, people in the audience could be heard talking before the introduction. A laser swooshing sound was added during the show's introduction and during the Jeopardy! Round and Double Jeopardy! Round. Dollar values once again doubled from the second pilot's amounts, settling into the familiar $100-$500 in the Jeopardy! Round, and $200-$1,000 in Double Jeopardy!

When Jeopardy! premiered, it was taped at Metromedia Studio 7, KTTV-TV, on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.^[2] (This studio was torn down in 2003 to make room for a public high school.^[3])

Screenshots seen below are from the 1984 debut episode.

The set of Jeopardy! in Season 1

A view from behind the contestant podiums

The Season 1 podiums were coated on the sides with the same blue carpeting that covered the floor.

The game board from the first game of Season 1 had a sparkly red material coating the monitor borders.

[edit] Season 2 (1985-1986)

[edit] KTLA Lot

For its second season of production, Jeopardy! moved across the street (Van Ness Avenue) to Studio 4 of KTLA-TV's Hollywood Television Center (now known as Tribune Studios), on Sunset Boulevard between Van Ness and Bronson Avenues in Hollywood.^[4][2] 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 podiums received a slight facelift and all traces of the color red were removed. Also, nine light bulbs (which signified how much time the player had to give a response) were installed on the top of the scoreboard of the player's podiums. Also new to the set was a contestant entrance arch, which was an extension of the set near the podiums and featured a light blue and yellow neon band setup similar to the main set border. Instead of walking in front of the gameboard and across the set during their introductions, contestants walked through the entrance arch from an area behind the right-hand side set border.

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 received border covers over the neon tubes that surrounded each heading. (A category's neon would illuminate when Alex announced the category, would turn off when all of the clues in the category had been selected.)
• The spaces between the gameboard monitors were trimmed up a little bit.
• The carpet on the set floor was slightly more refined.
• The riser on the stage was changed from carpet to a blue acrylic glass with a neon backlight (which was almost always never used).
• In 1989, the spotlight hung over the "O" behind Alex's podium was removed.
• Starting in Season 7, the set lighting dimmed for Final Jeopardy!

In 1986, Jeopardy! taped in Studio 5,^[4] and in 1987 moved production to Studio 1 on the KTLA lot, where they remained until 1991.^[2]

TV executive Bob Boden received the "J" from the logo sign after this set was retired.^[5]

The Season 3 set background was blue during the Jeopardy! Round...

...and turned red during the Double Jeopardy! Round. (Richard's about to break a 3-way tie to find a Daily Double.)

Contestants write their Final Jeopardy! responses using light pens.

The Double Jeopardy! Round game board

[edit] Super Jeopardy! (1990)

In 1990, for the 13-week Super Jeopardy! tournament on ABC, the set received an additional fourth contestant podium for the quarterfinals, and the floor changed from gray carpet to a shiny sleek black linoleum tile. Additionally, the gray metallic borders on the game board and the podiums was changed to a texture resembling brushed bronze or marble, and the category headings were printed in blue (instead of red on the regular show). One element of this set was kept for the regular games that fall (for the final season of the 1986 set)—the outline surrounding the scoreboards became rounded off, as opposed to squared off (albeit without the bronze texture). Another element, as mentioned above, was the set in which the lights first dimmed during Final Jeopardy!

The Super Jeopardy! set

The texture on the game board borders also appeared on the podiums and dividers.

An extra podium was added for the quarterfinal games.

The Double Jeopardy! round game board—note high point values and lack of dollar signs

[edit] Seasons 8-13 (1991-1996)

[edit] Hollywood Center Studios

In July 1991, Jeopardy! moved production from the KTLA lot to Studio 9 of Hollywood Center Studios (formerly the lot of American Zoetrope) on Las Palmas Avenue between Santa Monica Boulevard and Romaine Street in Hollywood,^[2][6] about 1.7 miles southwest of their former home on the KTLA lot. The new studio space permitted for a larger set to be designed, one that could incorporate more permanent features. 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. The font for all the dollar value spaces on the game board was also changed.

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 podiums 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-inch TV screens encased in a half-inch frame. The result was a markedly more seamless video wall that was inspired by both Disney's short-lived 1990 game show, The Challengers, 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. By the end of 1991, 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 or images of Alex 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. After a couple of shows, the entire logo on the board was revised to individual globe logos, using the globe logo in the show's intro. 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 2000 walked onto the set. The floor now adopted the shiny black look from Super Jeopardy!, also, the video monitors that displayed the players' names changed to red during the Double Jeopardy! round, to match the color of the backdrop (The monitors stayed blue throughout the show for the first [8th] and last [13th] seasons on this set). Coming out of the 1st commercial break from seasons 9-12, Alex talked to the three contestants starting from the third player through the first player (returning champion) right after concluding the Jeopardy! Round.

A few months after the new set's introduction in 1991 came a revised version of the original theme from 1984. In the 1991-1992 season, the original 1984-1991 theme was still used, but played at a lower pitch. The revised "bongo" version was first used during tournament/specials weeks that season before being put permanently into use from the start of the 1992-1993 season onward. Another difference during the 1991-1992 season was that the blue background was richer and darker during the Jeopardy! Round. From 1992-1996, the blue background was slightly lighter and had a slight aqua tint to it.

[edit] Sony Pictures Studios

After the last shows of Season 10 were taped on February 15, 1994, the set was disassembled and reconstructed at Sony Pictures Studios' Stage 10 in Culver City, California,^[2] where the first shows of Season 11 were taped on July 12, 1994. The deeper soundstage permitted for the audience risers to be placed further away from the main set area.

This set lasted through the shows taped September 4, 1996 (mid-Season 13), and is tied with the 1986-1991 set as the second longest-tenured set on the Trebek version.

The Season 8 set background was blue during the Jeopardy! Round...

...and turned red during the Double Jeopardy! Round. (Check out Jerome Vered's lead.)

The lighting darkens for Final Jeopardy!

Alex Trebek watches the dollar values pop in on the game board.

[edit] Seasons 13-19 (1996-2002)

On the episode aired November 11, 1996, two months after the start of Season 13, Jeopardy! introduced an entirely new set by production designer Naomi Slodki, also constructed on Stage 10 on the Sony lot. Its purple-backlit gridded walls and wood accents earned it the nickname the "sushi bar" set amongst fans.^[7]

A notable new feature was a 9-foot Jeopardy! logo etched in glass, with the P and A being automatic sliding doors through which Alex walked during his introduction at the beginning of each show. The backdrop behind the contestants, and for the entire set, consisted of dark gray granite columns and huge wood panels with small etched glass windows.

A glass grid was placed behind the glass "Jeopardy!" logo, both of which were backlit. In the first season of this set, the glass doors were backlit in red and the grid behind it in blue for the Jeopardy! Round. For the Double Jeopardy! round, the glass doors' color was changed to blue and the grid to pink. In the second season of the set, the Double Jeopardy! round changed them both to purple, and, for the third season, the glass and grid remained the same throughout the entire episode: red glass with a blue grid. For the rest of the entire time of this set, the glass was always backlit in white and the grid in purple.

The set floor consisted of a glossy black circle rimmed by tan wood- and granite-textured tile, surrounded by a floor that reflected the dark blue of the studio lighting.

The contestant podiums were overhauled to a more wood-like appearance and Alex's podium received a similar treatment. Alex's podium also had a light blue neon backlight and a bluish marble globe in front of it.

Additionally at the start of Season 14, two large television displays were added to the left and right hand sides of the set (usually seen off-screen), and a wood-toned backdrop in the style of the set was built behind the audience, which was now occasionally seen on-camera.

Also in Season 14, Jeopardy! rolled out a brand new rendition of the 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 lavalier microphones.

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 changed back to blue on this set).

The swooshing sound effect played at the top of the show was removed two months after the start of Season 13. A wind blowing sound effect was used in the theme from the start of Season 14 until halfway through Season 17. Shortly after the start of Season 18, the swooshing sound effect returned in the introduction, and has remained there ever since then.

In the middle of Season 14, the practice of popping in the dollar figures on the Double Jeopardy! Round board had ended; the dollar figures were already present on the screens coming out of the second commercial break. Also, halfway through Season 16, the audience no longer applauded coming out of the second commercial break.

In the first season with this set, the category monitors were blank, and came in with split in half in horizontal lines, and then came together, forming the category name. Beginning in Season 14, and continuing into the current set, the category names were covered by a Jeopardy! logo (or Double Jeopardy! in the second round, or the respective tournament logo in tournaments). From 1997-2000, the category effect screen rotated the page up like the tumbler on a slot machine, 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 were prizes for the 2nd and 3rd place contestants introduced by announcer Johnny Gilbert before Alex talked 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. This would be the longest-used set on the Trebek version.

On the episode aired September 21, 2001 during the 18th season, Alex shaved off his mustache.^[8] Beginning on November 26, 2001, the clue values were increased to $200-$1,000 in the Jeopardy! Round and $400-$2,000 on the Double Jeopardy! Round.^[9]

[edit] Set auction on eBay

After the set was dismantled, portions of it were placed on eBay by Sony Pictures between December 8, 2002 and December 15, 2002, with auction proceeds donated to charities World Vision and the Motion Picture & Television Fund.^[10] The items that were placed up for bid were ten, 19-inch by 19 3/4-inch by 1/2-inch plywood with Pergo laminate panels, twenty, 15-inch by 15-inch frosted glass tiles (the tiles behind the contestants), all three contestant podiums, and the entire 9-foot-high Jeopardy! logo. All auction items were autographed by Alex Trebek. The logo sold for approximately $100,000, at the time one of the most expensive sales on eBay, and one of the podiums sold for nearly $10,000.^[11] Some past contestants participated in the auction. Bob Fleenor used some of his Jeopardy! winnings to buy one of the panels in a Dutch auction that ended at $545.01.^[12] College Champion Pam Mueller bought the rightmost podium.^[13] Million Dollar Masters winner Brad Rutter was outbid for the leftmost (champion's) podium.^[14]

The set of Jeopardy! in Season 18

A view from behind the contestant podiums

The Season 18 podiums

The Season 18 game board in the Double Jeopardy! round

[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 torn down the "sushi bar" 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 were switched out for special tournament and non-tournament play to feature the logos of the special games being played. New, trapezoid-shaped podiums displayed contestant scores on new flat-panel video monitors (allowing, for the first time, a contestant with a negative score 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.^[15] The scoreboard was changed from the original vane display to a blue and red video display with dynamic scoring, meaning that positive scores were displayed in blue and negative scores were displayed in red. There was some neon surrounding some of the square panels in the set's first year of use. Also there was a neon light on the bottom of the set which was removed at the end of the 19th season, then used again for a short time during season 21.

Slodki also designed the numerous traveling 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.

The set of Jeopardy! in Season 22

A view from behind the contestant podiums

The Season 22 podiums had a trapezoidal shape to them.

The game board from the last game of Season 22 used the seamed bank of monitors for the last time.

[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.^[16] (A seamless board had been a part of the show's traveling 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 podium 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 signaling device buttons were now dark turquoise rather than white.
• 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.^[17] 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 continue 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.

The Season 23 "HD-friendly" Jeopardy! set

A view from behind the contestant podiums

The red signal lights on the new podiums were replaced with white ones (shown) after the first two weeks.

The Season 23 game board featured an almost-seamless bank of monitors.

[edit] References

[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
• Tribune Studios floor plans, including a studio lot map
• Hollywood Center Studios lot map
• Sony Pictures Studios lot map (PDF)

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