The well-known game, “Jeopardy,” was able to impact Plymouth State University students and staff. Dr. Patricia Cantor was a contestant on the show, which aired Tuesday, March 12 at 7 on channel 10. and did very well.
“Jeopardy” has had a long productive, and successful history on television. The show’s idea came from Merv Griffin, who created a quiz show in the 1950’s called “Questions,” and decided to not just give the players the answers, but to have them come up with the answer instead. The show was then called, “What’s the Question?” and changed to “Jeopardy” when it moved to the NBC network from March 30,1964 until January 3,1975. The show also ran a syndicated version from October 2, 1978 to March 2, 1979. “Jeopardy” went through one other host, Art Fleming, before the famous Alex Trebek.
Patricia Cantor took part in filming the show over three months ago. During that period of time she could not reveal anything about the outcome or any other details. No matter how many students, faculty, and family asked, she kept her promise to not give away anything.
Cantor said that when she first stepped out onto the set, “I was a little nervous during the rehearsal, but more excited.” Cantor’s demeanor makes it very easy to see that she could handle being on this game show. “I knew I could do it,” she explained. Cantor talked about how her family was one hundred percent behind her, and really had an influence on her trying out in the first place.
Cantor’s opponents were Jennifer Gotcher and Tom Gort. When discussing Gotcher, Cantor she said, “She was a little intimidating especially with the way that she held the buzzer.” Cantor said that, “Gort was very hard on himself after he missed that question, I felt bad for him.”
The game itself included some very interesting categories including Real Men of Genius, Women’s First, Historic America and The Peabody Awards. One of Cantor’s favorite categories was Literary Brothers, because of her English experience.
At the end of the game Cantor placed second, while Gotcher placed first once again, and Gort placed last. Cantor’s final money score was $23,400. Even though she couldn’t keep this money, she did receive $2000 for coming in second. The winner of the game is the only one that receives the exact money they have at the conclusion of the game. The last place player receives a total of $1000 dollars.
Everyone who knows Cantor is very proud of how she did on the show.