1964 Jeopardy! Pilot Recap

The Final Jeopardy question (3/30/1964) in the category “Fiction” was:

He prowled through the Transylvanian night

Returning champ Mrs. Grace Miller, a housewife from New York City, has won $300 so far (they pretended). In this test game, she is up against: Mrs. Dolores Green, a housewife from Saddle River, NJ; and Jesse Bigelow, an artist from Meriden, CT.

This is a recap of the 1964 Jeopardy! pilot and I had to adapt my regular format to the game. For one thing, the Daily Doubles are extra clues. If the player landed on a Daily Double, he or she first had to answer a regular clue correctly before being told a Daily Double was also there.

For another, Art Fleming was introduced as “the star of Jeopardy!”

If you missed it, you can still watch the pilot on Jeopardy!’s YouTube channel. It will be there for a week.

Round 1 Categories: Television – U.S. Geography – Women – Bits & Pieces – Politics – The Funnies

Jesse got the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Women”, around the 3:30 mark, right after he picked up $30 for telling Art Fleming “who financed Christopher Columbus’ voyage.”Jesse said “let’s go for the bundle” and thought it was Lincoln’s wife’s name. That was WRONG.

Nancy Hanks show

WHO WAS LINCOLN’S MOTHER?

Grace finished in the lead with $120. Jesse was second with $90 and Dolores was last with $80.

Round 2 Categories: Famous Quotes – Sports – Business & Industry – Words – Opera – Unreal Estate

Grace got the first Daily Double in “Famous Quotes” under the $60 clue around the 18.07 mark in the video. First she correctly answered “Frank Buck’s Famous Line”. Then she bet $120 of her $380 on the DD clue and made a comment with the right response in it. Art Fleming said that was RIGHT and told her to put it in the form of a question. (Obviously that would never happen now!)

“Goodnight Sweet Prince” was originally said to him. show

WHO IS HAMLET?
Grace commented that it was originally said to Hamlet.

At about 19:28, Grace got the last Daily Double in “Unreal Estate” under the $80 clue. She correctly supplied the question to “A hospital in a blue song”. She had $580 after that, $60 more than Dolores. Grace bet $100 and she was RIGHT.

Peppermint trees and a soda-water fountain. show

WHAT IS THE BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN?

Grace finished in the lead with $800. Dolores was next with $520 and Jesse was in third place with $250. All clues went uncovered.

NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

Jesse responded with “Who was William Penn? He lost the whole bundle but he got a beautiful color TV as a consolation prize.

Dolores wrote down where did one of the famous monsters prowl? That was not acceptable. She lost $120 and finished with $400.

Grace came up with Ichabod Crane. She lost $300 and won the game with $500. That made or would have made Grace a 2-day champion with $800.

Art Fleming said that Dolores was going home with “a bundle”, presumably the $400.

He also said the FJ! answer was “WHERE DID DOCTOR DRACULA PROWL?”

The Jeopardy! Team thought the contestants may have been instructed to come up with wrong answers just to give the producers an idea of what could really happen on the show. (They weren’t envisioning anything like “Kinky Boots” or “Turd Ferguson” back then!)
A triple stumper from each round:

WOMEN ($50) A poet’s wife who wrote “Frankenstein”

BUSINESS & INDUSTRY ($80) The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street

ANSWERS: show

SEE THE BOX SCORES HERE