Jeopardy! not as good as it used to be
I remember when I was young and Art Fleming hosted a program that truly tested the smartness and savvy of viewers and contestants, with a serious challenge of their knowledge about useful and practical information. Science, History, Geography, Politics, these were the kind of categories that would come up to test the minds of the contestants. The new program has become all-too-much a test of how much pop junk info you've got in your head, what celebrity married whom, which Shakespeare play has a redheaded man who wears black shoes and brown socks, which sports team did such and such or which athlete lost or won what contest. I was talking to one of my brothers the other day, and he summed it up that today's society has got to place too high a value on useless information, and become too little concerned about teaching young people things that will benefit them throughout their lives. If it would be of absolutely ZERO value to you if you were marooned on a desert island, you might be less brilliant, and more of the other kind of "maroon" à la Bugs Bunny, to know the latest about the Kardashians, Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears; who killed Roger Rabbit?, and which country won the most medals for synchronized swimming at the 2004 Olympics (were there Olympics in 2004?); than if you know the significance 3.14159, that there are 2.2 pounds in a kilogram, 5,280 feet in a mile, that -40C = -40F, that the USA is a Constitutional Republic and not a Democracy, what the Federal Reserve System is, or other actually useful information. Shame on those who have taken a great and classic game show, and dumbed it down. I've also noticed that, historically, men were much, MUCH more likely to win the game than women; and have heard recently that there are or were allegations that Jeopardy! altered the clues in some way to favor female contestants. I don't know if they did, or didn't, but there have been an increasing number of women winning on Jeopardy, with certain characteristics in common. Finally, I also have a problem with the change that allows a winner to keep being a winner, for days, weeks, even longer if he/she is "good" enough. Think what it would be like, you've waited two and a half years for your chance to get on the show. You've paid for your airfare out to Los Angeles, you're in a hotel, you've got your good clothes all dry-cleaned, and it isn't even until the fourth day you've reported to the studio that you get your chance, and you go out onto the set only to find yourself facing a champion who has been on the show for three weeks and has got the method of buzzing in down pat. You don't stand much of a chance. You wind up in third place, and get $1,000.00 for your appearance. Alas, you spent a lot more than that getting out there and staying in your hotel, but hey, you get to say that you were on Jeopardy!score 4/10
madisonwisconsinite 25 March 2013
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2772558/14712
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