issue 11// vol 47

Death of the quiz master

» Host of ‘Jeopardy! and Canadian icon, Alex Trebek, passes away at 80 years old

  

Craig Allan
Staff Writer

 

lex Trebek, host of Jeopardy! for 36

years, Order of Canada recipient,
and considered by many to be one of the
greatest game show hosts of all time, died
Sunday in his Los Angeles home after an

almost two-year bout with pancreatic
cancer. He was 80 years old.

Trebek was born in Sudbury, Ontario
in 1940. After a tremulous childhood
in which he was almost kicked out of
boarding school, Trebek went on to the
University of Ottawa and graduated with
a degree in philosophy. While going to

Illustration by Udeshi Seneviratne

school, he began working at CBC. As the
years went on, Trebek rose up through the
network, covering everything from sports
to game show hosting. By the 1970s, he
was one of the most recognisable hosts on
the network. In 1973, another Canadian
talent, future Growing Pains star Alan
Thicke, was starting a game show called
The Wizard of Odds and wanted Trebek to
host. The show would last for a year before
being cancelled, but Trebek would prove
his staying power—bouncing from game
show to game show before finally landing
the hosting gig of a rebooted version of
the classic game show Jeopardy! in 1984.
The game show would prove to be a hit,
and as the years went on, Trebek became
synonymous with the game—winning the
Emmy Award for Best Game Show Host
six times.

With his recognisable cadence and
dry sense of humour, Trebek’s star would
rise. It eventually got to the point where
for many contestants, just being in the
presence of Trebek was as exciting as
winning money. This could be seen ina
post made to the Jeopardy! Twitter account.
Just three days before Trebek’s passing,

a show contestant named Burt Thakur
said that watching Jeopardy! and Trebek
helped him learn English. While fighting
back tears he said “I learned English from
watching you. My grandfather, who raised
me, I used to sit on his lap and watch you
everyday, so this is avery special moment
for me man. Thank you.”

In February of 2019, Trebek
was diagnosed with stage four

arts // no. 11

pancreatic cancer. In the week after his
announcement, he received countless
letters and tweets from fans wishing for his
recovery. In an interview less than three
months later, Trebek mentioned how well
his chemotherapy was going, and surmised
that it might be due to the support he was
receiving from fans. He said that some days
he would feel weak and tired, but it was
not detectable on the show, where Trebek
continued to read out the questions as
steady and confidently as he always had.

While Trebek grew to become an icon
in the US, he never forgot his Canadian
roots, donating five-million dollars to
the University of Ottawa to start the Alex
Trebek Forum for Dialogue, and returning
to the country regularly for speaking
appearances and other events. His love
for Canada was also shown on Jeopardy!
as Trebek required that every episode of
the show contained at least one Canadian
question. In 2017, Trebek received the
Order of Canada, Canada’s second highest
civilian honour, for his lifetime of work and
service to the nation.

Tebek’s death has brought out a
flood of emotion from past contestants
and celebrities. He was one of the most
respected personalities to ever grace the
television screen. For the many families
who would gather around suppertime to
play the popular quiz game, the absence of
Trebek will be felt. Whoever takes on the
role as the new host of Jeopardy! will have
a mighty task trying to equal the legacy of
the man with all the answers.

A cautionary tale about sexual assault
accusations and due process

>» Movie review of Danish film ‘The Hunt’

Janis McMath
Editor-in-Chief

 

keen

his 2012 film is an accurate and

disgusting representation of real life—
showing exactly why due process is so vital.
This dark drama is about a male teacher
who is falsely accused of rape—and articles
on similar real-life cases attest to how
unfortunately authentic the tone of this
movie is. (Note: SPOILERS AHEAD!)

The film is beautifully shot and

unendingly unnerving. Close up shots
of star Mads Mikkelsen (who plays Dr.
Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal) bring you
into his distress. The movie ensures that
you feel as helpless as the protagonist.
Lucas (played by Mikkelsen) is an
elementary school teacher who forms
a friendship with his student, frve-year-
old Klara. Lucas is much kinder than
Klara’s parents and allows her to walk his
dog—leading to her harbouring a crush
on him. Klara pursues her crush on Lucas
by surprising him with a kiss right on his
lips; Lucas sternly explains to her how
inappropriate this is, and Klara in turn

becomes wildly hurt and angry.

In her childish hate, Klara tells
another teacher that Lucas exposed himself
to her—and that teacher then brings
in a psychologist. The ugly situation is
worsened by the fact that the psychologist
asks a slew of leading questions—and this
interview tactic has been a huge problem in
many real false rape accusation cases. The
following example highlights why this film
is so accurate.

One of the most famous real-life
cases was the “McMartin Preschool Abuse
Trial,” in which children were nudged into
answering certain ways through clearly
leading questions and the promise of
rewards. Children were even coached
into saying the correct answers. The
evidence was used in court and reported
on by biased journalists who printed their
accusations and permanently damaged
the reputation of the accused. Even 20/20
did a special on this, blatantly taking the
side of the prosecution before the case
was over. Ray Buckey, the accused, spent
five years in jail before being released. Up
to 500 people protested during the trial,
carrying signs that read “we believe the
children.” Yet additional holes in the story

were adding up—
children’s stories
were all inconsistent
and utterly bizarre.
Parents, and the
majority of the
public, were still
steadfast in their
feelings though. The
fallout of this case
and similar ones
were not pretty;
California daycares
had to shut down because of hiked up
insurance rates from insurance companies
that feared molestation lawsuits—and laws
around the US changed to restrict physical
contact between caretakers and children.
The film portrays this public hysteria
maddingly—and also shows the permanent
and irreversible damage that is done to one’s
reputation in my favourite scene in the film.
Lucas is constantly being attacked by the
small town, eventually leading to physical
encounters with those who were once his
friends. He is immediately deemed guilty
by the whole town—and even his partner.
Yet when it is revealed that the children
all have inconsistent stories full of lies and

 

Promotional image for 'The Hunt'

Lucas is acquitted, the town slowly circulates
him back into the community. My favourite
scene in the entire film is the finisher;
during a town deer-hunt, Lucas is shot at.
He will never be seen the same way again.

A 2014 article for the National Post
ona BC teacher who faced similar false
accusations of terrible sexual crimes shows
that the problem is not far from home
either. In the same article, a professor of
education at McGill University, Jon Bradley,
commented that “there's none of this
innocent until proven guilty. It’s far more,
“We say youre guilty, now prove youre not.”
I would recommend this film to anyone
looking for a very meaningful and utterly
uncomfortable experience.