Jeopardy: An Inside Look (DVD)

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But you know, it would have been nice to see the very first show from 1964 and others from that first run to get a feel for the show's longevity and evolution, and viewers who like to play along will find that the Ultimate Jeopardy episodes have such tough questions that many in the home audiences will return to being just plain spectators. And while the producers seem to think that Jennings' losing episode is worth showcasing, could you imagine if this were a sports DVD capturing a dynasty? Why not show Jennings at his Brett Favre best, or, for that matter, the other champs? Why not show a broader range of the players who have done well over the years, like the first blind champion, Eddie Timanus, or Robin Caroll, the top-earning woman? Why not show cop Frank Spangenberg in action, especially if you're going to feature him as a talking head on one of the extras?

Video: For a TV game show, the quality is pretty decent. There's not as much halo effect from all those marquee lights as you'd expect, and the graininess is slight—typical of most TV shows on DVD these days. The aspect ratio is 1.33:1, and the picture is in color except when black-and-white clips from the earlier run are shown.

Audio: The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, which is more than enough to handle the dialogue, "beeps" and "Jeopardy!" theme song.

Extras: The producers of this DVD did a great job of making the menu board look exactly like the Jeopardy! board, and what's great is that you can navigate easily from one menu to go up to different categories, including DVD-Rom (as usual it's the Windows 98se or higher running IE 5.5 or higher who can access these features), a text-only trivia category under the heading "potpourri," a category for previews, a category for bonus features, and a category for episodes. The main behind-the-scenes feature, "21 Years of Answers & Questions," offers a good mini-history of the show, with clips of the vintage shows and Griffin talking on-camera, as well as participants. There's another feature that shows the work that goes into devising the answers and questions, a feature on what contestants go through, and, for the curious, the chance to watch an episode through five different camera-angles to make you feel like you're on the set. Sort of.

Bottom Line: "Jeopardy!" lovers will be happy with the extras, but many will lament that there isn't more variety in the episodes that were chosen for this disc, ones which better span the show's 21 years.