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00:00When you shaved your mustache off, it was disconcerting to me.
00:03Jimmy, you said it too.
00:04I cried.
00:04That's when you...
00:05You had a tear in your eye when he shaved his mustache.
00:07I didn't like it at all.
00:08But I grew it back this season.
00:10Alex, that was 2001.
00:13When you'd make a decision to shave off your mustache,
00:15you're probably thinking in your mind,
00:17this is not that big a deal, right?
00:19Did you go to the producers of the show, the owners of the show?
00:22Do you say to...
00:22I don't know, is King World on the show, I guess?
00:25No, I thought it was King World.
00:26No, Sony.
00:27Sony.
00:27Do you go to Sony or do you go to someone there who owns...
00:29I was in the makeup room just before we were taping the fifth show that day.
00:34We taped five shows a day, normally two days in a row,
00:37three weeks on, one week off.
00:39And before the fifth show, I said, I'm going to shave my mustache.
00:43So I cut off half.
00:45Were you just sick of the mustache?
00:47No, I just did it on a whim.
00:48Right.
00:49And then the producer came over.
00:52He said, oh, God.
00:54I said, do you want me to come out with half?
00:56He says, no, no, not half.
00:58So I came out, and half the people in the audience didn't notice immediately.
01:06Wow.
01:06I went home.
01:07My wife, my son, and my daughter were sitting in the kitchen, and they didn't notice immediately.
01:14And I chatted for a few minutes, and I said, anybody notice anything different about Dad?
01:22And then my wife said, oh, my God, you shaved your mustache.
01:27Yeah.
01:28And my son, who was only 10 at the time, I think, started to cry.
01:32It was such a big shock.
01:34For some reason, I'm not a big mustache guy.
01:36I had a mustache years ago, but I'm not a big...
01:39Because it's annoying, and...
01:40Most people can't pull it off well.
01:42And don't you notice, too, that guys with mustaches, a lot of times, as an announcer, they're unwilling to move their mouth.
01:49They want to keep it straight and keep their mustache looking well, and it sort of affects the way they speak, even.
01:54So I'm not a fan of the mustache, but with you, it worked.
01:57It was a betrayal when you shaved that mustache.
02:00I actually filed a class action lawsuit.
02:02People still ask me at the studio, they say, and usually it's guys in the audience who have mustaches or beards, or full beards and mustaches.
02:14They say, are you going to grow it back?
02:16When are you going to grow it back?
02:16Some things are comforting.
02:18I found your mustache comforting.
02:19And everything in the game show business, too, is likability, and how much do you trust the guy?
02:24After the game show scandals, it became about trust.
02:28And that's where Jeopardy! came out of.
02:30Jeopardy! was a direct answer out of the game show scandals.
02:34From what I remember of the history of Jeopardy!
02:36Yeah, Merv's wife.
02:37Merv's wife said, hey, if we give the answers, then we can't be accused of cheating, because people were giving them the answer.
02:45And Merv says, oh my God, what do you mean?
02:46We can't do that.
02:48What do you mean?
02:50The answer is 5,280.
02:53There's your answer.
02:54How many feet in a mile?
02:56Boom.
02:57Merv had a wife?
02:58Yes!
02:59Yes!
02:59She came up with Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.
03:02By the way, did you...
03:04She didn't do Wheel of Fortune, I thought she had.
03:07Did you audition for the job?
03:10No.
03:10No.
03:11You were working in game show.
03:13After you graduate college, you go into radio, and this is what, CBC?
03:16CBC.
03:17For 10 years or so?
03:1812 years.
03:1812 years.
03:19I came to the United States in 73 to host Wizard of Odds.
03:24Oh!
03:24Alan Thicke was one of the writers.
03:26Are you still close with Alan Thicke?
03:27I'm...
03:28Yes.
03:28Well, not that close, but I mean, we're friendly, and...
03:31I mean, Alan Thicke gave you your break.
03:33Yeah.
03:34He made you the host of Wizard of Odds.
03:35He was a fan of yours.
03:37Well, I had hosted a daily talk variety show in Toronto, and Alan and his singing partner
03:45used to appear as guests on the program.
03:48What made you give up your dream of being a doctor or, let's say, a more legitimate profession?
03:53Yeah, how did you get into this?
03:54I got into it because I needed a job to help pay for my tuition at university, and tuition
03:59was a whopping $500 a year.
04:02Right.
04:02But you had no money.
04:03I had no money.
04:04And that was...
04:04And so you went into TV.
04:06I got a job at the CBC, and they said...
04:09What do you mean?
04:09You walk into the CBC, and you're like, hey, I'm a pretty polished guy.
04:12No, I auditioned for a summer announcer job, and they hired me, and then they had two openings
04:20that came up in February on their permanent staff, and they offered me one of them, and
04:25I said, I'll take it if I can finish my college, and they said, okay.
04:29So I'd go to school in the morning, 9 till noon, and then I'd work the 4 to 12 shift.
04:33What gave you the confidence to walk into the CBC when you're clearly a novice, you'd
04:38never done this kind of thing before?
04:39Or did people just say to you, boy, you sound like a radio announcer or a television announcer?
04:42Is that what they...
04:43No, I had done well in debates at school and in public speaking contests at school, but
04:52that was about it.
04:53And I auditioned for a private radio station before the CBC, and the guy said, well, that
04:59was pretty good, but we have some of the top announcers in Canada on our staff, and you
05:04have no experience whatsoever, so we're going to pass on you.
05:08I said, oh, thank you very much.
05:10But you went out there, and you got a job at the CBC being a complete...
05:13You see, that's what is awful about the business, that you could be a trained professional.
05:18My father used to tell me this.
05:19He says, and he goes, the local garbage man could walk in and take your job, because...
05:25Why do you bring up local garbage man?
05:27Because I did that in Cincinnati, Ohio.
05:29That is correct.
05:29There you go.
05:30Is that right?
05:31That's the correct answer.
05:31Oh, yeah.
05:32Wow.
05:32In fact, can you answer all my questions in answer form, if you don't mind?
05:35So, it really is an amazing story that you could go in there and get a job, and then
05:40you do that for 12 years, and then Alan Thicke discovers you, and then you become known as
05:45a game show host, because you host Wizard of Odds.
05:47That lasts, what, a year?
05:49Lasted one year, and it was replaced the following Monday by High Rollers, which I wound up hosting
05:55for four and a half years.
05:56Thank God for High Rollers.
05:58Did you think after Wizard of Odds, that's it?
06:00My career is over?
06:00Uh, almost.
06:03They called to cancel the program on the day that I put a...
06:08I signed the final papers on my first house in Los Angeles.
06:12Oh, my God.
06:13Always works that way.
06:14They say, don't buy a house.
06:15It's a jinx, yeah.
06:16But then, uh, I've been canceled twice and replaced myself twice on network television,
06:24so it worked out pretty well for me.
06:26I see.
06:26What is it, Ralph?
06:27Quick, for Alex Trebek, he's got to get out of here.
06:29Quickly, quickly, if these people are so smart to play the game, how come so many zero out?
06:33Like, isn't the basic rule to at least leave a dollar at the end of the game?
06:36It's true.
06:37A lot of people...
06:38That used to be the rule.
06:39Once I saw three people, they all lost.
06:41My father goes nuts.
06:42My father watches Jeopardy! every night.
06:44He knows you better than you know you.
06:45And he goes, he goes, these people...
06:48I get a lecture on him.
06:48He goes, these people, they don't know how to bet!
06:50But why does it matter if you have a dollar left?
06:53Well, because in the early days, somebody figured out that, hey, they're going to bet it all,
07:00and I'm going to leave myself a buck.
07:02Right.
07:02And it started a trend, and everybody thinks that...
07:05It's like when we had Chuck Forrest as the champion on the program.
07:09He would jump all over the board.
07:11So all the newcomers say, oh, well, the way to succeed is to jump all over the board.
07:15So doesn't this drive you nuts?
07:17Yeah, it drives me nuts because you don't know what the category is all about.
07:22The writers get very creative, just as your writers do.
07:25You say, oh, okay, that's where they're going.
07:29It drives me nuts because as smart as they are, as Ralph says, they're idiots!