Jeopardy! has been airing for 58 years. As popular as the show is, we’ve never seen the original episode. The pilot, the proof of concept for the show, was filmed and never aired. To celebrate the show’s 58th anniversary, NBC has—at long last—uploaded the unaired pilot to its YouTube channel.
Watching the 1964 pilot, it’s incredible how little has changed. The basics of the show are all there. Original host Art Flemming mugs for the camera while leading three contestants through the pressure or answering trivia in the form of a question. Even the music for final Jeopardy! is the same.
Watching the episode was as good as watching any modern episode of the show. I rolled my eyes at the contest “Jesse” when he said he was an artist who did plumbing as a hobby. I yelled at my monitor when none of the contestants knew that Mary Shelly wrote Franekenstein. The Final Jeopardy!, in particular, was excruciating to watch in the best ways.
