What Is Jeopardy!'?

"How do you know he's not bluffing?" asked Peter Marshall, then the Squares M.C.

"Art Fleming wouldn't lie," she replied. "He's on Jeopardy!" (And Moody it was.)

"My God!" says Fleming. "What a burden to put on a person's shoulders!"

Fleming claims to watch the new Jeopardy! infrequently, and then only for a handful of questions. "It's much too easy," he says, "And the prizes! In my day, runners-up used to get to keep their prize money. Now they get a carton of dog food or something! You finish a dollar out of first place and you win a year's supply of lip gloss!"

He hates the glitz, the polish. "It's not part of the real world." he says, "it's part of Hollywood."

In his day, the show was filmed in Manhattan. "People are more intelligent in New York," says Fleming, a native of the Bronx. "New Yorkers are alive, with-it. They know what's going on in the world. In California there's no mental stimulation. A typical conversation consists of 'I've got a new diet. How's your tennis game? Are those clothes from Gucci?' And then you look at each other."

Fleming laughs at Trebek's grandiose claims as to the show's educational value. "To me Jeopardy! has always been one big party game." Fleming says. "That's all it is. I mean, you're not doing open-heart surgery. It's an entertaining way to fill up 30 minutes of air time, but basically fluff."

The trivia boom disturbs him. "Nowadays everything's got to be condensed." he says. "No lengthy explanations. Don't bore me with the details. Just the facts, ma'am. Instant total gratification. When I was host. Jeopardy! was just a show. Now it's a state of mind."

But Fleming doesn't have time to brood. Here comes another burden to shoulder.

"Mr. Fleming! Mr. Fleming! My wife and I are having a terrible row."