Saturday, April 05, 2008

Cliff Clavin on JEOPARDY

One of the more memorable episodes of CHEERS is the one where Cliff went on JEOPARDY. It was written by Dan O'Shannon & Tom Anderson and directed by James Burrows. I remember the fun the staff had coming up with appropriate categories. During the strike I spoke to a writer for JEOPARDY who said from time to time they do use those categories and contestants have given Cliff's final answer: "Who are three people who haven't been in my kitchen?"

Alex Trebek did such a good job that during the week of production we added him to a scene in the bar. He's got a career in comedy if this game show host thing doesn't pan out for him.

Here is the JEOPARDY scene.



Tomorrow: What spec scripts should you write?

23 comments :

Richard Cooper said...

I've heard Alex will be co-starring in a revival of BJ AND THE BEAR this fall on NBC if they can find an eighteen wheeler large enough for his head. And he's also negotiating to drop "The Bear" from the title, due to the chimp's inability to phrase his lines in the form a question.

Christina said...

This is one of my favorite episodes of Cheers. When I saw it the first time, I choked on my drink as the categories were revealed. Genius!!

The Bumble Bee Pendant said...

just like Ralph Kramden's venture onto the $99,000 question, it is utterly perfect, but utterly heart breaking for cliff to fail in the end. Because you want Cliff to have one win in life.

Anonymous said...

Have you written for any new shows lately? Just wondering.

Anonymous said...

This episode inspired a question on the TV trivia quiz in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly.

A said...

Still
Painful
...poor Cliffie

Mike Barer said...

I remember that episode well. Poor Cliff.

Anonymous said...

Wow, quite a few continuity errors in this scene. First, before Cliff's answered is revealed, there's a reaction shot of him where his answer is clearly already written on his podium screen. Then later, after he answers wrong and is ranting, there's a shot of the lawyer lady where her money jumps from 400 to 3300! And I never notice this kind of stuff! Still... brilliant stuff. :-)

Max Clarke said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Max Clarke said...

Good timing, Ken, this is John Ratzenberger's birthday. 61.

It was a great episode, too, I put it up there with the one in which Cliff gets his joke on the Carson show.

Anonymous said...

I've always wondered why you never blogged about John Ratzenberger on Dancing with the Stars. You will support little David Archuleta but no Cliffy?

ajm said...

REAL-LIFE CLAVIN/JEOPARDY! EXPERIENCE:

During my junior year of high school we had "Spirit Week" with the student body divvied into two teams, and I was a contestant in the game show competition. One of the opposing players was an AVID fan of "The Wizard of Oz" -- she had first-editions of every Baum novel, she'd dress up as Dorothy for Halloween, etc.

Penultimate question in the final round, with scores tied: "In The Wizard of Oz..."

Megan, the girl in question, buzzes in as our side collectively groans.

"...In The Wizard of Oz," the emcee continues, "what is Dorothy's last name?"

Silence. "Oh, my God," Megan whispers as she slumps forward and her face falls. "I forgot."

I buzz in. With every ounce of my 17-year-old smugness, I sneer, "...Gale."

PS: In college I appeared on ESPN'S SUPER BOWL OF SPORTS TRIVIA, and choked on what for ME was an easy baseball question (How many 3-homer World Series games did Babe Ruth have?). Not Clavin territory by any stretch -- our team lost by 150 points instead of by 140 -- but my heart still goes out to Cliff anyway, the big lug.

Anonymous said...

Even since this episode first aired, I've wanted to tell this to the writers who made one mistake in an awesome episode: "One of the categories should have been Florida!!!"

Anonymous said...

Ken, While you're talking about Cheers again, I have a question that has always bugged me. On the final episode, there's a guy who comes down the outside stairs and knocks on the door right at the very end and Sam says, "Sorry, we're closed".

Was that guy just an extra, or one of the writer/producers? Was it you? I've never seen it mentioned in any of the articles about Cheers.

Thanks.

By Ken Levine said...

The guy coming down the outside stairs is Bob Broder. He was the Charles Brothers, James Burrows, and our agent.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Ken, that's one piece of trivia that is no longer vexing me.

Jason Togyer said...

The brilliance of Trebek's performance is that he plays it completely straight --- no mugging or hamming it up.

It wouldn't be nearly as funny if Trebek was reacting to Cliff's insanity.

Someone should wrap this clip around a brick and use it to hit the writers of "Scary Movie," "Epic Movie," "Date Movie," etc.

Thanks for posting this stuff, Ken!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
"Even since this episode first aired, I've wanted to tell this to the writers who made one mistake in an awesome episode: "One of the categories should have been Florida!!!"

And strange looking vegtables.

Anonymous said...

Of course, the coolest thing which has happened was that for Double Jeopardy on Tuesday, May 10, 2005, all six of Cliff's categories were used on the actual show: Civil Servants, Stamps From Around the World, Mothers & Sons, Beer, Bar Trivia, and Celibacy. I remember Alex mentioning the fun fact after the categories were read.

Roger Owen Green said...

Naturally, you can find Clavin's Rule on the JEOPARDY! Archive - http://www.j-archive.com/help.php#clavinsrule

RA said...

My other favorite Cliff line, from his standup act: "The Avon lady. Ding Dong. What's up with that?"

Anonymous said...

Thursday 4/10 7pm, video no longer available doggone it

Alphabeter said...

Yeah its been awhile (I got about 200 posts behind in my blog reader) but I felt I had to comment as the video played just fine for me.

I'm on a mac using firefox but it also played fine in safari (the mac equivalent of internet explorer).

Thanks for everything Ken.