This unique work profiles the private lives and careers of 32 American game show hosts, including the originals (e.g., Bill Cullen, Peter Marshall), the classics (e.g., Bob Barker), and the contemporaries (e.g., Regis Philbin). Organized by host, each chapter includes birth and family information and a complete career history. The most significant developments of each host's early life and career are highlighted--complete with successes, failures, and scandals. Many of the biographies are accompanied by interviews with the host or his family and friends.

This is the HARDBACK version. "I got interested in Gene Rayburn during the 1990s, when I was a teenager and I discovered a marvelous cable channel called Game Show Network. I'd been a fan of game shows my entire life, and I was excited about seeing all these shows that I just vaguely remembered from my early childhood. My biggest surprise was how obsessed I became with a show I had never heard of until I got Game Show Network; a show that was cancelled the same year I was born, funnily enough. It was a show called Match Game. Gene Rayburn, of course, was the host of Match Game, and I appreciated right away how different he was from other game show hosts. He was so hammy and mischievous and physical, and he fit the show he was hosting better than anybody I had ever seen hosting a game show. He and Match Game were absolutely made for each other. I think the biggest discovery I made was the way Gene just got repeatedly sidetracked during his career. He came to New York to become a star in musical theater. When he couldn't find work in musical theater, he wound up becoming a disc jockey. And after a decade of that, he decided to try being a television star. That didn't work out right away, so he took a job announcing a new show. Well, that turned out to be The Tonight Show. His career, right up to the end, was filled with little detours. Gene always wound up doing something besides what he was really trying to do. John Lennon was right and Gene was the proof; life is what happens when you're making other plans. The biggest pitfall I encountered was the dearth of materials from earlier in Gene's career. Because reruns weren't a consideration for so long, a considerable chunk of the man's work in television is just gone. Think about it-he's best remembered for the 1970s version of Match Game, a job that he started when he was 55 years old. So finding resources from earlier than that could be surprisingly tricky, but that made it all the more exciting when I finally did see the occasional kinescope or hear an audio recording. I think readers will enjoy #1, the memories, if they enjoy Match Game as much as I do, and #2, the surprises. Gene really had a remarkable career outside of that show. My hope for this book is that it makes that image on the TV screen a little more three-dimensional. Gene was very human, very flawed; he had his frustrations and disappointments like the rest of us." -- The Author

A RECOMMENDED SUMMER READ BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, TIME, AND NEWSWEEK Longtime Jeopardy! host and television icon Alex Trebek reflects on his life and career. Since debuting as the host of Jeopardy! in 1984, Alex Trebek has been something like a family member to millions of television viewers, bringing entertainment and education into their homes five nights a week. Last year, he made the stunning announcement that he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. What followed was an incredible outpouring of love and kindness. Social media was flooded with messages of support, and the Jeopardy! studio received boxes of cards and letters offering guidance, encouragement, and prayers. For over three decades, Trebek had resisted countless appeals to write a book about his life. Yet he was moved so much by all the goodwill, he felt compelled to finally share his story. “I want people to know a little more about the person they have been cheering on for the past year,” he writes in The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life. The book combines illuminating personal anecdotes with Trebek’s thoughts on a range of topics, including marriage, parenthood, education, success, spirituality, and philanthropy. Trebek also addresses the questions he gets asked most often by Jeopardy! fans, such as what prompted him to shave his signature mustache, his insights on legendary players like Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer, and his opinion of Will Ferrell’s Saturday Night Live impersonation. The book uses a novel structure inspired by Jeopardy!, with each chapter title in the form of a question, and features dozens of never-before-seen photos that candidly capture Trebek over the years. This wise, charming, and inspiring book is further evidence why Trebek has long been considered one of the most beloved and respected figures in entertainment.

What is the smartest, most celebrated game show of all time? In this insider's guide, discover the rich history of Jeopardy! -- the beloved game show that has shaped our culture and entertained audiences for years. Jeopardy! is a lot of things: record-setting game show, beloved family tradition, and proving ground for many of North America's best and brightest. Nearly four decades into its current edition, Jeopardy! now finds itself facing unprecedented change. This is the chronicle of how the show became a cross-generational touchstone and where it's going next. ANSWERS IN THE FORM OF QUESTIONS dives deep behind the scenes, with longtime host Alex Trebek talking about his life and legacy and the show's producers and writers explaining how they put together the nightly game. Readers will travel to bar trivia showdowns with the show's biggest winners and training sessions with trivia whizzes prepping for their shot onstage. And they'll discover new tales of the show's most notable moments-like the time the Clue Crew almost slid off a glacier-and learn how celebrity cameos and Saturday Night Live spoofs built a television mainstay. ANSWERS IN THE FORM OF QUESTIONS looks to the past -- and the future -- to explain what Jeopardy! really is: a tradition unlike any other.

"The primetime television sitcom business of making America laugh is a cut-throat industry swarming with abundant greed, deceit, and deliciously evil players and of course the nave yet creative buffoon who wants to change the world. Life can become a canceled sitcom if one is not careful."--Publisher's website.

"...fascinating...everything you'd want to know about those wonderful years of live TV can be found in this book!" --Ed McMahon