When Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek died last November, he’d pre-taped enough episodes of his show that they continued airing for the rest of the year. That backlog ran out on Friday, and after Trebek’s final Final Jeopardy—“What is ‘isotope?”—the show aired a video tribute to Trebek’s decades-long tenure as host. Here it is:
The song is Hugh Jackman’s recording of “Once Before I Go,” from The Boy From Oz, a jukebox musical about the life of songwriter Peter Allen. The clips highlight Trebek’s warmth, charm, and humor, but above all, they show how much fun he was having hosting Jeopardy!, which becomes even clearer when you look at a few of the original sources. Take the shot of Trebek dressed as Pagliacci: It’s not just any Pagliacci costume, it’s the one Enrico Caruso wore, from a sequence where Trebek clowned around in the costume department of the Metropolitan Opera:
The shot of Trebek with a gigantic tortoise came from this series of video clues about the Galapagos islands:
Best of all, the shot of Trebek wearing full KISS makeup came from a 2018 episode in which the host got tips from Gene Simmons himself:
A familiar fixture on television screens since 1984, when he took over a role originally held by Art Fleming, this beloved game show host will be sorely missed for years to come.
