Jeopardy! Timeline (syndicated version)/Season 14

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Season 14 (1997-1998)

Title card for Season 14 (1997-1998).

On the October 31, 1997-episode, Alex Trebek made his entrance by wearing a Statue of Liberty costume.

On September 19, 1997, Jeopardy! celebrated its 3,000th episode.

Season changes:

• Harry Friedman became the producer of Jeopardy!, and its sister show Wheel of Fortune, succeeding George Vosburgh.
• The opening credits have changed to the same CGI flyover of the Sony Pictures Studios complex, and a red cube zooms out, with the floating silver Jeopardy! logo, which is flying over a series of red floating cubes on a mint green and blue gradient background. The silver Jeopardy! logo flies away, and a red cube zooms in to reveal the 1996-2002 set.
• The glass backdrop had a lighter shade of pink with the grid in blue, but the set became more of a purple color.
• The main theme and the "Think!" music are re-recorded in a more modern style, and was composed by Steve Kaplan.
  • Starting this season and lasting through today, the theme finishes playing when the credits do; an exception to this practice occurred during most of Season 37. When the original music package was in use, the credits ended mid theme.
• This season is both the last season where the set changed from blue to red for Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy!, and the first season where the set stayed blue throughout the whole show.
• This season is also both the last season with the dollar figures popping in at the start of Double Jeopardy!, and the first season where the dollar figures did not pop in, meaning already shown on the board coming out of the commercial break.
• This is the last full season to have the KingWorld "Spotlights" logo, due to being replaced by the "Star Shooter" logo the next season.
• The winnings limit is doubled from the previous $100,000, in place since Season 7, to $200,000.
• Beginning with this season, and lasting until early Season 18, all five-time champions win their choice of one of three Chevrolet cars.
• This season also marked minor changes: the microphones were removed from all podiums (Alex's and the contestants'), and Alex and the contestants started wearing clip-on microphones, which have been done since then. The studio audience is now shown on camera. The categories were flipped over by a Jeopardy! logo, the Double Jeopardy! logo, the Final Jeopardy! logo, and the Jeopardy! logo, which would be for particular tournaments. Video clues were introduced in this season, taking the place of the regular Daily Double clues.
• The Daily Double, Audio Daily Double, and Video Daily Double graphics had a red background to match the season's title card.
• Also starting with this season and continuing to today, the categories are covered by the Jeopardy! and Double Jeopardy! logos, as well as the logo for a particular event/tournament.
  • From this season until early episodes of Season 17, the category effect screen rotated up.
• This is the first season in which the College Championship is taped on a college campus. This format remained until Season 24.
• This is also the first time, Alex introduced a new black college trophy to the viewers and the contestants. There was a small and big trophy. This would remain in use until Season 24.
• Starting with this season, a Game Show Network ID appeared during the closing credits. The first ID had a voice-over saying; "It's the only network you can play at home, Game Show Network, where it's all play, all day! Buzz your cable company and get in the game!".
• The contestant's names and winnings in the introductions, as well as the graphic showing the Final Jeopardy! winner's new winnings count for the day, were changed to Optima, which continued to be used for them until Season 18.
• Optima became the font for video clues, as well as the Final Jeopardy! segments.
• Additionally, the sponsor list, closing credits, and the copyright notice were changed to Optima, and continued until Season 25.

This season:

• Season 14 of Jeopardy! premieres on September 1, 1997.
  • For the first two weeks of this season, the "Think!" cue has a piano lead in both verses.
  • On the season premiere, the theme song ends before Johnny's catchphrase.
• On early episodes of this season, the show's set both still turned red for Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy!, and reverted to blue in the closing credits.
• On the September 2, 1997 episode, the theme song ends a few seconds before Johnny's catchphrase.
• As with the season premiere, the only applause from the audience is heard over the KingWorld logo at the start of this season.
• Starting with this season, the copyright date and "Created by Merv Griffin" were changed to Optima.
• On the September 11, 1997 episode, oddly, the copyright date and "Created by Merv Griffin" credit are done in Compacta-D.
• Starting with the September 15, 1997 episode, the "Think!" cue is re-recorded to include a trumpet lead in the second verse. This would remain in use until the end of Season 24. Additionally, the Final Jeopardy! category appeared onscreen, when the contestants wrote their final responses. This remained in use until Season 25.
• On September 19, 1997, the 3,000th episode aired on this date. On this episode:
  • Johnny appears on camera to announce the 3,000th episode, as a 3,000th Jeopardy! logo is shown.
  • After the announcement, a clip from the first episode "Greg/Lois/Frank" from September 10, 1984 is played.
  • The contestants were standing at their podiums to celebrate the 3,000th episode.
  • The categories in the Jeopardy! round is the same one used on the first episode: "Lakes & Rivers," "Inventions," "Animals," "Foreign Cuisine," "Actors & Roles," and "Number Please."
  • The "Actors & Roles" category consisted of video clues from the Celebrity Jeopardy! tournament.
  • The categories in the Double Jeopardy! round are related to the milestones: "September 1984," "Debuts," "Missed on Show No. 1," "3,000," "Anniversaries," and "Look to the Future."
  • The Final Jeopardy! category is the same one on the first episode: "Holidays", and was introduced in the same manner.
• Starting with the October 6, 1997 episode, the set no longer turned red for Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy!, so the set stayed blue throughout the whole episode.
• On the October 31, 1997 episode, the contestants celebrated Halloween were Mark Dickerson, Bob Harris, and Matt Mann. On this episode:
  • Alex makes his entrance wearing a Statue of Liberty costume, which makes Johnny Gilbert laugh.
  • The categories in the Jeopardy! round consisted of: "Fictional Ghosts", "Real Ghosts?", "Bones", "Bobbing", "For Apples", and "Universal Monsters", featuring the video clues of Bela Lugosi, the Frankenstein Monster, and The Creature.
  • The categories in the Double Jeopardy! round consisted of: "Asia", "All That Jazz", "The Civil War", "Small Midwestern Colleges", "Unfinished Business", and "10-Letter Words".
  • The Final Jeopardy! category is "Halloween".
• The first week of the Teen Tournament airs from November 3-7, 1997.
• The second week of the Teen Tournament and Power Players Week, airing from November 10-21, 1997 are both held at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
  • Special roadshow elements are added for the first time, including a new game board and podiums that look similar to the ones used at Sony Pictures Studios except they further apart from each other.
• Instead of Alex announcing the nine semi-finalists who will be playing next week, while the contestants walk up on stage, each player will say their name and location and so on followed up the applause from the audience. This also applied to the four wildcard spots. And also they did the same practice for the three finalists. This practice has been done for the Tournament of Champions, College Championship, Teen Tournament, and finally, Teachers Tournament (which did not exist at that time until Season 27), since then.
• Starting with the December 15, 1997 episode, the Final Jeopardy! category appeared onscreen, while contestants wrote their responses.
• The December 16, 1997 episode marked the first time, the "Bonus" category is used. The category consisted of two correct responses. If the contestant gave the correct response, they get an option to give the other correct response to the clue. However, if the contestant gave either incorrect response, they lost the value, so that they are playing for double the clue value.
• On the December 19, 1997 episode, the real 3,000th episode of Jeopardy! airs, which is the 3,065th episode.
• On the December 31, 1997 episode, the "Bonus" category is used for the second time.
• The set changed its color from blue to red in the Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy! segments for the last time, which aired on the January 23, 1998 Celebrity Jeopardy! sportscasters episode.
• On the January 26, 1998 episode, the same day Toby Keith's "Dream Walkin'" was released to country radio stations. The contestants that day were Melissa Singer, Vinnie Iyer, and Ron Hankey. On this episode:
  • The categories in the Jeopardy! round consisted of: "Ancient Rome", "Lyricists", "Just Logos", "Let's Talk "Dirty", "Odds", and "Ends".
  • The categories in the Double Jeopardy! round consisted of: "Religion", "A Trip to Literary Britain", "Movies: Been There, Done That", "Notable Americans", "Body Part Homonyms", and "Odds & Ends", which is in the same category.
  • The Final Jeopardy! category was "Animals of the New World".
• The Tournament of Champions aired February 2-13, 1998.
  • The February 10, 1998 episode marked the last time, the "Bonus" category is used.
  • During the quarterfinals week of the Tournament of Champions, Alex said, "(contestant's name), you won the toss, you go first."
  • The dollar figures didn't pop in at the start of the Double Jeopardy! round; they were already present in the monitors coming out of the second commercial break.
• On the March 2, 1998 Celebrity Jeopardy! Ladies Night episode, all three celebrity female contestants each had $0 at the end of the match.
• In March 1998, the practice of popping in the dollar figures on the Double Jeopardy! round board ended, the figures were already shown on the board coming out of the commercial break.
• The Celebrity Invitational is held from April 27, 1998-May 1, 1998.
• The College Championship was held at UC Berkeley and aired from May 4-15, 1998. This is the first time they took the College Championship on the road.
• The June 5, 1998 episode is Celebrity Jeopardy! Olympians Night.
• On the June 12, 1998 episode, all three contestants have zero dollars at the end of the game the first known instance since the 2nd show.
• Season 14 of Jeopardy! concludes on July 17, 1998.
• Summer repeats air from July 20 to September 4, 1998, with replacement fee plugs. Repeats later air on weekends from September 12, 1998 to September 4, 1999 and on Game Show Network between 2001 and 2005.
• Game Show Network airs every night at 9pm, 9:30pm, 7pm & 7:30pm.