What with James’ streak and all the Jeopardy talk going around, I thought it might be interesting to look up the very first winner. There is tons of info out there on winners in general but I couldn’t find who the first winner was. Maybe I just overlooked it.
Does anyone know? Thanks.
It looks like Frank Selevan. From the Jeopardy Archive: J! Archive - Frank Selevan
But that’s Alex Trebek’s Jeopardy, not Art Fleming’s.
I figured there would be a copy of the Art Fleming one, but like a lot of shows from that era they were taped over.
One of the people pictured here? Sorry, just a short clip and don’t know if this is actually the pilot.
[quote=“Folly, post:4, topic:834406”]
One of the people pictured here? Sorry, just a short clip and don’t know if this is actually the pilot.
[/QUOTE]Notice how straightforward the categories were back then. None of the strange ones of today.
One of the earliest episodes - the second one, I think - had all three players bet everything on Final Jeopardy and miss, so the first champion didn’t last very long.
And the one episode that I know of that exists - the 2000th episode, with Mel Brooks doing his 2000-Year-Old Man character - is in very poor quality. Color tapes from that area just don’t last that long.
Looks like it was Greg, not Frank that won:
http://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=365
The very first winner on the original version (30 March 1964) was Mary Eubanks of Candor, North Carolina, and she won $345. Source: The Jeopardy! Book of Answers: 35th Anniversary by Harry Friedman and Barry Garron (Rosetta Books, 2018). Friedman is the show’s executive producer, so I would guess that he has access to whatever paperwork survives from the show’s original run.
Two episodes from 1974 and the finale from 1975 also survive in their original color videotape format. An episode from the weekly syndicated version from 1974 is posted on YouTube, an off-air recording in B&W.