Art Fleming: Forgottenly Underrated or Underattedly Forgotten?

[staytuned]

"My Friends", when it comes to Jeopardy! host, sure most people will remember Alex Trebek (R.I.P), others Ken Jennings and some Mayim Bialik. But Art Fleming seems like he's treated as the black sheep of the family. Is it because most people probably werent born in the 60s or 70s have never watched him on television when they were growing up with their parents at the time or is it that people (mainly the youth) have never heard of him?

[stevea]

Most people have never heard of Art Fleming. He was an excellent Jeopardy host.

At that time Jeopardy was a daytime show.

[staytuned]

I figured it could've been the later stevea, but its still bothersome that he still never gets his dues to this day.

[cd637299]

Fleming was a great fit for J! in the 60s and 70s, but for the “new” 1984 version, Merv Griffin needed someone younger ISTR, and Merv planned a long LONG run for this current Jeopardy, and here we are even today, after Alex’s passing, that the show with Ken has kept it up.

Also, one thing Fleming could almost never do, that Alex & Co. can, is to “clear the board,” even as Fleming had LESS timeout for commercials back then. However that can be attributed to Fleming having to read much longer clues. He also did little “asides” after some responses, poking fun at Don Pardo, or singing part of the song in a clue….also saying “You’re the last correct questioner” or “Correct, please select….”

There shoule be one full 1974 Jeopardy on YT, and last I checked on Archive dot org, the 1964 pilot was there. If you get a chance to see it, the whole “answer and question” setup was really convoluted! After some time, the bugs were worked out. See for yourself:

https://archive.org/details/jeopardy...ot-1964_202204

and a 1974 show:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kGYbCFpjaL8

cd

[howilu]

I remember Art Fleming hosting the original version of Jeopardy as well as the short lived revival in 1978. He was the key to the show's success and I remember him always saying to contestants who gave an incorrect question "No, sorry." and "Please be sure it's in the form of a question" in Final Jeopardy.

April 25 marks the 30th anniversary of his passing but he will always be remembered to game show fans as the cordial host of Jeopardy.

[stevea]

"What's My Line?" set the tone for civilized and polite game shows; "Jeopardy!" and Art Fleming kept up that tradition.

The interesting thing about this show is, aside from modernizing the sets and operations, and slight rules tweaks, the game remains the same after 30+ years.

[staytuned]

Correct me if I'm wrong here folks, but I think Mr. Fleming died the same disease that Mr. Trebek went through with pancreatic cancer.

Also sorry to be off topic steavea, but If What's My Line? got the reboot treatment today, it's probably going to be more focused on the raunchy comedy aspect instead of the gameplay. In fact, it would have been so focused on the unfunny raunchy comedy that even Arlene Francis couldn't save it if she were alive today.

[Mitty]

For me, just plain unforgettable.

[vitoscotti]

The show today is masterfully constructed. It doesn't really matter who hosts the show they have little or no allotted time to give personal views on anything or plug social agendas. The contestants can be off center but again the mid first round chat is light and sometimes thankfully quick. The only time you need to fast forward anything is during commercials. I've searched other game shows of this ilk but nothing came close but maybe Who Wants to Be a Millionaire with Regis Philbin which is long gone. Most others are too slow paced, too much personalities, boring small talk, etc.