Alex Trebek Is the Guest in the Latest Episode of SCOOBY-DOO AND GUESS WHO?
It’s still sad to think that Alex Trebek has passed away. I was shocked then when I was putting on some Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? for my daughter recently and saw that there was a new season of episodes. I clicked on the new season and there was one episode called “Total Jeopardy!” I loaded the episode up and sure enough, Trebek was the special guest to work alongside Mystery Inc. to solve the mystery. This episode was apparently released recently as a posthumous tribute to the man, and it’s a fun episode. It’s very different and breaks the formula in a lot of ways, but that honestly makes it a bit more interesting to watch. I will warn you now that there are some very minor spoilers ahead, so if you’re sensitive, maybe wait until you watch the episode on Boomerang (or with VRV). Also, I do want to note that Trebek’s last appearance on Jeopardy! will air on December 25.
The episode is a bit of a play on when IBM’s Watson computer played against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Velma and Shaggy end up as contestants on the game show, and the third contestant is the first robot to play on Jeopardy!, Max Kilobyte. The trick is that Max gets jealous when Velma starts destroying him in the game and throws a temper tantrum. This is where Trebek really shines as he cuts to commercial break and talks Max down. It’s crazy, but Trebek never really panics. Sure, he runs away from the monster (and lags for a second like Scooby and Shaggy which I think is cool), and he hides from the monster while providing random trivia knowledge, but he never loses it. He’s always as calm and friendly as he seems to be when people talk about him.
Overall, the episode was a lot of fun. As I mentioned, the formula is really broken up in this one. The mystery is almost non-existent in all honesty. There’s also no ruse. However, it’s nice to change things up on occasion, and watching the episode, it made me think about how glad I am that we were ever granted the gift of Alex Trebek.