Jeopardy! - "Barbara Lowe / Weiss / Molenaar" - WLS Channel 7 (Complete Broadcast, 3/12/1986) 📺

Here's the complete broadcast of an early edition of (the 2nd incarnation of) Jeopardy! from within the first years of its long syndicated run (which commenced in 1984) - and when its host, Alex Trebek, still had his moustache. Contestants ocarn this installment (from frame right to frame left) are Phoenix, AZ-based engineer Mark Molenaar, Sepulveda, CA-based law clerk (originally from The Bronx, NY) Ivy Weiss, and returning champion, Anaheim, CA-based writer/researcher Barbara Lowe.
(Technical Trivia: From the start, Korinna Medium was the font used for the answers on the screen.)
All show voiceovers by Johnny Gilbert.
Includes:
Station ID / promo for "Macon County Line" (voiceover by Ernie Anderson)
Show open with the introduction of today's contestants, followed by host explaining difficulties in contestants winning a fifth game, before introducing Round 1 which categories are: The Earth, Colors, Movie Mammals, Food, Technology, and "Sea" Words (at one point, a snippet of Jackson Browne's "Lawyers in Love" is played (which had to be degraded slightly))
Commercials for:
Sears Professional Portraits
Wickes Furniture - "Everything on Sale" Sale
Promo for March 17th issue of People (Caroline Kennedy on cover)
United Airlines - "The Biggest Bargain Airline"
Butternut Enriched Bread
Alex has words with Mark, Ivy and Barbara about their lives and careers, then continues to Round 1 (which ends with one answer left on the board)
Commercials for:
Woman's Day magazine
Fantastic Sam's (with president George Carnall) - Easter Special
Zayre (with version of Pat Benatar's "Treat Me Right")
Taco Bell - Nachos bel Grande
"Double Jeopardy!" Round 2, with categories: Presidential Trivia, Anatomy, Landmarks, Time, Frontier Life, and Sports; followed by plugs for Kelvinator electric range ovens, Krups kitchen products, and Jules Jurgensen diamond dial watches for him and her
Commercial: Vicks Formula 44, 44D and 44M (with Peter Bergman)
Bumper promoting "Final Jeopardy!" round
Commercials for:
Rich Chocolate Ovaltine (jingle sung by Jake Holmes)
Gussini shoes (music sounds a bit like Bowie's "Modern Love")
La-Z-Boy Sleep Center (with man in "unemployed sheep" suit named "Bob")
Wonder Bread (with Nancy Marchand)
"Final Jeopardy!" round, with "State Capitals" as the category (they were still using the original 1964 version of "Think!" at this point); afterwards, Alex closes show, followed by additional plugs for Zip-Strip Paint Varnish & Stain Remover and Zip-Guard Wood Finish from Star Bronze Company, Ogilvie Home Permanents, Rice-A-Roni Long Grain & Wild Rice, Oxygen Plus plant food, Mr. Turkey low-calorie meats, Hershey's Milk Chocolate Chips, Mini Chips and Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips, and Honey Nut Cheerios
Ending credits (with voiceover promo for NCAA Basketball Preview Show by Jim Rose)
Linda Yu and Joel Daly preview stories of Eyewitness News at 4pm (including natural gas explosion in Fort Worth, TX, roundup of almost 100 gang members and drug pushers in Chicago, the Comic Relief press conference with Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams, and Buddy Black interview with 82-year-old artist who'd started during Great Depression)
Commercials for:
Dodge Car & Truck - "Thanks Again, America" (up to $1,000 cash back)
ChemLawn (with Jim Delfino, head groundskeeper of Candlestick Park in San Francisco)
Station ID/promo for The Oprah Winfrey Show (with Oprah herself; this was in its last months of being local only, before reaching national syndication)
First 23 seconds of Eyewitness News at 4pm, with opening (featuring Jerry Taft and Tim Weigel; voiceover by Al Parker) and start of report on Fort Worth gas explosion (newscast can be viewed in its entirety here: • WLS Channel 7 - Eyewit... )
This aired on local Chicago TV on Wednesday, March 12th 1986 during the 3:30pm to 4:00pm timeframe.
This is from a videotape donated to the Museum of Classic Chicago Television as part of the Dr. William Matviuw collection.
About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:
The MCCTv (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s to early 80s, mostly) recorded off of TV (in Chicago or other cities now too); things which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. If you have any old 1970s videotapes recorded off of TV please email: [e-mail] Even though (mostly) short clips are displayed here, we preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical preservation. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to digital, please e-mail [e-mail] Thank you for your help!

[@thefrase7884]

Wow….classic Jeopardy. Thank you for uploading this. Back when champions can only be 5 time winners plus the Barbara Lowe twist adds to it.

[@pacificrules]

Oh wow, I didnt know that. No wonder she's crying.

[@mejokallamthanam1348]

Amazing! A Barbara Lowe episode! Thanks!

[@bellabliss1860]

You have NO IDEA how much i needed this, I'm making a video about Jeopardy TOC players who never returned and this is perfect

[@thefrase7884]

Are you including Turd Ferguson?

[@uhdudewhy7980]

"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV" .. Man did that bring out some of my dormant brain cells.

[@frankwm1988]

There was a recent commercial with that line, about a tool you can use for testing heart rhythms, whether normal, bradycardia, or tachycardia.

[@RadioLaPrincess]

Wow this is the Holy Grail of Jeopardy. I have tried to find episodes of Barbara Lowe for years.

[@alexmeyers2274]

No way real episode of jeopardy lost media found

[@kengeorgejones6855]

Oh this is one of the Barbara Lowe episodes. Fascinating. Thanks.

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

Wow, I had no idea of the backstory. To think this Betamax recording has been sitting in someone's house for so long. If it had been found before the episodes were unearthed, it would have been quite a coup!

[@IvoryM1986]

And none of Barbara Lowe’s episodes ever reran on GSN believe it or not, that includes the episode where Lionel Goldbart was defeated.

[@kengeorgejones6855]

@@FuzzyMemoriesTV Definitely. It's still a treat for those like me who read about them but never saw them.

[@theirongiant2182]

@@FuzzyMemoriesTV - ah, Betamax. No wonder it looks and SOUNDS so good.

[@dkillelea1977]

@@FuzzyMemoriesTV Ha! What a gem. When I saw this post yesterday I was CERTAIN you were aware of Barbara Lowe and were posting for that reason. To find out that it was just happenstance is mind-blowing. This episode, in particular what happens during Final Jeopardy!, is the holy grail of lost Jeopardy! episodes. Thanks for this!

[@morgan8757]

thank you i never got to see her games

[@timothykozlowski2945]

I remember finding this Jeopardy episode on an old VHS Tape.

[@lisab7977]

Back when Johnny called Alex “Alex TREBEK” and not TREEbek! 😂

[@damin9913]

This music be popping hard❤😊

[@kengeorgejones6855]

It's such a thrilling way to go into a show. They don't make them like that anymore.

[@damin9913]

@kengeorgejones6855 no they don't sad

[@julietvalcouer]

I'm actually kind of worried the official account will see this. The whole Barbara Lowe thing is infamous.

[@bellabliss1860]

given how much info about Barbara's run was unearthed last year, idk if there's really much more they can prevent.

[@EvaFull]

Such an awesome find for the Lost Media Community #BarbaraLowe #Jeopardy #Episode5 #LostMedia

[@adammandelawalden9256]

Alex Trebek (July 22nd, 1940 - November 8th, 2020) "You are missed every day."

[@grovers_paradise]

guys it's Livia freakin Soprano selling Wonder Bread

[@JPKfanMVs]

1:14 I miss that sound so much! 🙂 Thanks Fuzzy! And a great grand total of... 27:10 Not bad.

[@unfasten]

Barbara didn't get the Seabees clue in this game, and nearly 17 years later a Seabees question ended her run on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

[@dedeee29]

Wow. Amazing

[@davidrivera9743]

Luther Billiss strikes again, lol.

[@matthewschwartz6607]

She was on that show too?

[@classz123]

This is awesome

[@flemishdog]

17:08 Mark did not put his answer in the form of the question and yet got the money

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

I noticed that. I thought if that happened they usually corrected the score after the commercial break?

[@flemishdog]

@@FuzzyMemoriesTV no score correction but before the double jeopardy reveal Alex does remind everyone it has to be a question

[@RetroWinnipeg]

Basically, the judges did not catch this gaffe.

[@smashwhammy]

@@FuzzyMemoriesTV they've always let it slide with just a warning in the first round, with Double Jeopardy! being more strict on that rule

[@alexanderpytko5394]

Yeah. If the judges had noticed it, Alex would've said this after the break, "Before we go into Final Jeopardy, we have some score correcting to do which I'm also sorry to say is unfortunate news for Mark. Mark, our judges noticed that when you said, "The use of tree rings," you didn't phrase it in the form of a question so we can't accept it. Which means you have to lose $1000, taking you down to $2100."

[@GarryJohnson-xh6vy]

I remember when I lived back home in Chicago as a kid, I would turn on the TV and turn to WLS(ABC7) every weekday at 3:30PM I didn't start watching it until I was 10 years old(1992-1993 season) because I didn't really understand the format. GOOD MEMORIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@alexanderpytko5394]

Alex says that many champions have trouble winning that 5th game. Well, back then, they a limit to only 5 wins but today, that there is no limit and because of that 4 Jeopardy players crossed the $1Million mark in their winnings(2 of them even crossed the $2Million mark) Ken Jennings[74 Ws & $2.52M], James Holzhauer[32 Ws & $2.46M], Matt Amodio[38 Ws & $1.51M] and Amy Schneider[40 Ws and $1.38M]. I also recall that there was a time is a player won 5 games in a row, they would also receive a brand new car.

[@Cofjn]

Love jeopardy. It's harder to answer the questions lately because I haven't kept up with much of anything the past decade

[@bluestrife28]

I don’t think I’d watch this show today, it’s prolly all reality tv and politics, but the old show, the Old Show, is something of greatness. I remember being a kid in the 80’s and you didn’t mess with tv it was all what grandma wanted on tv: Matlock, Young and the Restless, MacGuyver, WOF, Jeopardy, Golden Girls. These ladies had had control of the tv since it first came out and weren’t giving it up yet 😂😂 #GoodOleDays

[@VectraQS]

Do you know what you just unearthed???? Holy cow!

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

I had no idea. The episodes with Barbara Lowe had been previously found though, right?

[@VectraQS]

@@FuzzyMemoriesTV They had, but are part of a series of tapes under lock and key at the Strong Museum of Play. J-Archive was graciously granted access to the recordings so they could archive the games. But this is the first full Lowe episode seen publicly since the original broadcast. A small clip had previously surfaced from a 6 hour compilation of game show clips made by a tape trader in the 90s.

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

Well, I guess download it while you can then. All we ask is that you leave our watermark intact so people know where it originated.

[@Lupton2000]

I think this last aired on GSN in 1996.

[@VectraQS]

@@Lupton2000 Barbara Lowe's episodes never reran.

[@coreypearl5506]

Yesterday I said hello to my two cats. "Oh that explains it"

[@user-rz5vl5ft3k]

Funny when they leave in the old commercials. Memory lane. LOL

[@cabalenproductions6480]

Its Interesting that WLS-TV was the first among ABC Owned Stations to air Jeopardy in 1986. KGO-TV didn't get the rights to air Jeopardy until 1992 given that the way syndicated contracts went back then was from individual stations.

[@jerseyfla]

I don’t know when WLS started showing Jeopardy but WABC in NY started showing it at 4pm weekdays on January 1985 when The Edge of Night was cancelled. They have had J! ever since. WNBC was the original holder but didn’t have room for it on their schedule so J! was on at 1:30am on WNBC.

[@GarryJohnson-xh6vy]

​@@jerseyflaI think WLS started airing this version of Jeopardy! in September 1984 because there was a commercial that WLS had here on KZbin from before this version of Jeopardy premiered(I'm not sure if it's still on here though)

[@jeffreylong3963]

Great episode

[@andyrose5616]

13:18 Zayre commercial voiced by Doug Paul.

[@matthewschwartz6607]

The OLD Jeopardy episodes are all sooo easy. I needed a boost after doing poorly on the past few new ones .

[@marktabla5434]

8:52 started singing "Our primary colors", the LDS children's song, in my head... (sidenote: aired March 12, 1986, per j - archive)

[@Midnighttokerroc]

Oh my 😮

[@OnScreenThatStudios]

27:05 Why is Barbara Lowe crying? Isn't that because she has won her fifth game? I felt completely sorry for her all of a sudden. 😢

[@pamelamls]

She is a drama queen.

[@theweysermanisback5205]

Barbara Lowe’s Last Ever Appearance

[@coyoteartist]

Bit funny having seen Forrest just this year on the Invitational, I should randomly get suggested a Jeopardy in which he's mentioned.

[@anthonyguarino4242]

Thanks for finding this! It’s a shame that Barbara Lowe wasn’t participating in the TOC because she was found to be ineligible after the tapings due to her appearances on other game shows before Jeopardy.

[@carlreed6186]

Also using different SSN

[@anthonyguarino4242]

@@carlreed6186 yep.

[@alexanderpytko5394]

So the winner keeps the cash, the second place finisher gets a kitchen stove and kitchen appliances, and the third place finisher gets a matching pair of his and hers watches. Back then, that's how it always was. Today the winner still keeps their winnings, the 2nd place finisher gets $2000 and the third place finisher gets $1000 which is less than what those kinds of prizes would be worth. All because of the government and inflation.

[@NYChica23]

Played along at home, and I ended up getting 9,543

[@jamesmoss3424]

R.I.P. Alex Trebek.

[@markheying2830]

I would have guessed Jefferson City & Salt Lake City on this Final Jeopardy Clue.

[@mitchellhodack657]

Barbara Lowe did not participate in the 1986 Tournament of Champions despite being retired undefeated during the 2nd season. She was excluded from the 1986 Tournament of Champions due to discovery of her ineligibility to appear on Jeopardy! and because she was not eligible, the argument can be made that her results are annulled and she did not win any games, but that argument is complicated by the fact that the show reportedly paid out her winnings. Lowe's 5 original games have since never been rerun. Lowe was completely disqualified from participating in the future Tournament of Champions due to being declared ineligible as a regular-play contestant for competing under a fake name and competing on another game show in the probationary period. The spot was replaced by 4-time champion Gary Palmer, who won $18,400 in 4 consecutive games.

[@theweysermanisback5205]

Gary Palmer made it to the Semi-Finals, got eliminated by Marvin Shinkman, and that's the last we ever saw of him.

[@mitchellhodack657]

American mountains was the Final Jeopardy! category and no one came up with Colorado.

[@alexanderpytko5394]

At 22:21, Peter Bergman who is best known for playing Jack Abbott on "The Young and the Restless."

[@jonelfilipek7848]

At that time, he played Dr. Cliff Warner in All My Children.

[@amichels]

I need to know what the last Jeopardy round answer was…

[@andyrose5616]

Looks like there was a small edit at 8:11. Normally not remarkable, but you have to wonder what they cut out of a Barbara Lowe episode.

[@jimlange944]

That might have been the moment she had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the show and they had to stop tape.

[@bellabliss1860]

@@jimlange944 nah, that was her third game.

[@ericnelson9100]

What exactly was the whole Barbara Lowe thing about; why was she never involved in the TOC? I heard it had to do with not disclosing that she had been on Bullseye several years prior; is there more to it?

[@noneofyourbusiness6269]

There's a very in depth article by theringer (no links allowed) Apparently she disclosed appearing on other quiz shows and it all comes down to Trebek and co disliking her mannerisms

[@PGTransformed]

Oh, wow! That same week, the Syndicated version of Sale in its second to final week saw Lisa Munoz retire an undefeated champion with over $122,500.

[@myatypicalworld]

Another interesting thing to point out is the theme song. Since they did not extend it until 88.

[@jamesbochnik1696]

27:05 tears of joy

[@alexanderpytko5394]

I thought maybe a crew member was going to give her a tissue.

[@aaronbruceladner1983]

Poor Barbara... We Need to Build a Time Machine, and Make Sure She Competes in the Tournament of Champions

[@pamelamls]

The Tournament of Champions existed back then in 1986 when this episode was filmed. Alex mentions the TOC in the episode.

[@carlreed6186]

She could have gone to jail for using different SSN on different shows.

[@alexanderpytko5394]

At 17:08, Mark didn't respond correctly. If Alex had noticed he would've said, "Oh, I'm sorry Mark. It IS the use or study of tree rings but you didn't phrase it in the form of a question so we couldn't give it to you."

[@bearlh40]

I caught that too.

[@SagittariusQueen1980]

At 0:20 I thought the announcer said Heidi Fleiss, the Hollywood Madam for a second, lol! 😂

[@rjust2297]

I thought the question about the sheep was going to be a lambda lambda lambda but I would be nerdy

[@GrandGame1440]

Love seeing this! You don’t happen to have that nights Wheel of Fortune episode as well do you? Hope that turns up as well. Thank you for all you do!

[@dedeee29]

She's kind of annoying but not maliciously. Bless, modes of behavior change over the years. Really interesting

[@MauroDanielMezaZamora1998]

I never knew a Jeopardy contestant could cry. On this date in the United States: Wednesday March 12th, 1986 was also the date where PBS stations across the country including my local station KPBS for San Diego, California are all continuing the Festival '86 Membership Pledge Drive which began Friday February 29th and continuing through Sunday March 16th, 1986 with the Gala of Stars 1986 with Beverly Sills as the host. TV Worth Watching and TV Worth Supporting For!!

[@holzman00]

According to Barbara, she got sick during one of her appearances and they had to pause a taping while she went to the restroom. This apparently irritated Trebek and the Jeopardy brass, along with her overzealous personality, which was interpreted as rude. After this game, Jeopardy supposedly withheld her winnings, claiming that her restroom break cost the show thousands. As a result, she sued and apparently ended up with about $5000 while Jeopardy kept the rest.

[@ktujon]

I was going to ask What are Carson City and Salt Lake City?

[@jamesmoss3424]

Barbara Lowe got a dark secret.

[@IlGreven]

19:26 Jimmy Carter surpassed Hoover's record in 2012...and somehow is still going...

[@mitchellhodack657]

Barbara Lowe is one of only two qualifying contestants to not compete in the Tournament of Champions, the other one being Jerry Slowik.

[@darrendoyle568]

Also Cindy Stowell cause she passed away

[@mitchellhodack657]

Who took Cindy's place in order to play the 2017 Tournament of Champions?

[@darrendoyle568]

@@mitchellhodack657 Emma Boettcher the one who ended James H streak

[@myatypicalworld]

Thought her run was lost

[@EvaFull]

I think at this point all the episodes have been found.

[@carlreed6186]

Sometimes studios lose the print for movies. In this case a long time fan had almost all jeopardy episodes on tape so they were recovered.

[@myatypicalworld]

Yes, I recall a KZbinr saying her whole run was found

[@redmanr5522]

what really infuriates me is that they cut the closing credits of Jeopardy for a news preview and an ad? come on! they could have just let the credits roll and then go on to the news, let the people stay tuned to find out what's going to be reported. good grief!

[@Numbers832]

Thanks for this. Do you think you can post the rest of her run if you have it?

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

Nope, this was just pure chance. A single tape with 3 and a half hours of uninterrupted recording from 3/12/1986, which included this Jeopardy! episode.

[@Numbers832]

@@FuzzyMemoriesTVThat’s cool. What other shows are on the tape?

[@theirongiant2182]

@@FuzzyMemoriesTV - WOW. What luck.

[@bsteven885]

​@@Numbers832, after this Jeopardy episode is the Channel 7 Eyewitness News at 4 (released less than 2 hours ago when I posted this): kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJ-Ycp2YZchgi9ksi=6uxNQ_kEuRLHwKU9

[@dougmarkham6791]

Just like the show today. 25 minutes of commercials.

[@misstee101]

I'm shocked that she didn't participate in the toc that was promised.

[@jimlange944]

You shouldn't be shocked. Long story short, she was found to be ineligible after she taped her shows.

[@fable9159]

She was also on Wheel of Fortune a little before and other gameshows and she lied to Alex and that’s why she couldn’t participate

[@bellabliss1860]

a lot of what alex trebek and harry eisenberg claimed didn't have a whole lot of evidence to back them up tbh. so far she's only been confirmed to have been on three game shows before jeopardy, and none of them would have affected barbara's eligibility within the show's requirements. i think they just didn't like her honestly.

[@kengeorgejones6855]

@@bellabliss1860 Yes. There was a very good article in The Ringer about this. People who watched the tapes suggested many of the claims made about her were never in those episodes, so either everything objected to happened offcamera (other than her correctly arguing an answer, which was in an episode), or it was just a personality clash. It's a shame how the whole thing ended, but I'm glad her side of the story has finally come out in the last few years.

[@chrismc410]

0:06

[@Davidjon1946]

I'm good at this show unless I've been drinking

[@trevorpanno516]

Between Lionel Goldbart and Gary Palmer.

[@mitchellhodack657]

Lionel made it to the Tournament of Champions and so did Gary.

[@trevorpanno516]

They were both 4-time champions.

[@theweysermanisback5205]

Gary made it to the Tournament of Champions, because of Barbara Lowe’s attitude.

[@mitchellhodack657]

In 2014, Mark Japinga replaced Jerry Slowik because he had some legal issues.

[@theweysermanisback5205]

Those legal issues disqualified Jerry Slowik from participating in the 2014 Tournament of Champions, and Mark Japinga, the man who toppled eventual 2014 TOC Winner: Ben Ingram, took his place.

[@yvonnerogers6429]

👍🏻

[@lesliebell4189]

If Barbara competed on $ale of the Century, she would have gone all the way, cleared the Winner's Board, win $50,000 in her 11th match and walked away with over $100,000 in cash in prizes.

[@rjust2297]

Hang on my dog's going to take a pause

[@samsticka]

Why was Barbara ineligible to play in the Tournament of Champions?

[@RobertHustwick]

Barbara seems like kind of a poor winner

[@benkizer9509]

This was when the five day rule was a good thing. Barbara was a perpetual game show contestant who liked to make the rounds and acted over the top. While her breadth of knowledge is impressive, her personality is pretty unlikable. You can tell how uncomfortable she makes Alex Trebek.

[@frankwm1988]

Alex had no business “consoling” the champion. These were tears of JOY. Joy is a positive emotion, whether one cries or not. You could sing for joy, smile, jump for joy, whatever, but if joy leads to tears, it is still positive. Consoling is what you do in negative emotion. Ken Jennings never cried, not even on his last game!

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

I think Alex Trebeck was just reacting instinctively - apparently up until this point the reactions of winners had all been pretty staid. If he had not reacted at all people would probably be criticizing him for being heartless.

[@bellabliss1860]

weird thing to be mad about tbh

[@unfasten]

I think by "console" he just meant helping to calm her down.

[@anniefinch6843]

RIP Alex Trebek! I remembered that both Ken Jennings and Miam Biiak are doing a good job on this game show.

[@drewconway7135]

By the end of the episode I really disliked Barbara.

[@AldousHuxleysCat]

Yes, honest human emotions are so offensive

[@drewconway7135]

@@AldousHuxleysCatWho said anything about emotions?

[@AldousHuxleysCat]

@@drewconway7135 first off, dislike is an emotion. Second off I'm guessing the reason you did not like her was her emotional outburst. Otherwise I guess you just prejudiced against women

[@nyo1026]

The most disturbing candidate and attitude.

[@Scottwilkie18]

She almost got away with it

[@Scottwilkie18]

She got lucky

[@TheGanguma]

Could she be any more annoying?

[@martingainty9623]

I forgot White People were allowed to do Commercials in 1986