Harvey Silikovitz tried 10 times to get on Jeopardy! over 24 years and finally made it. (And won!) “He’s pretty sure he has made history as the first Jeopardy! contestant to play with Parkinson’s.”
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. 💞
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Beloved by 86.47% of the web.
Comments 4
This makes me smile.
Great Job Harvey!
Lots of friends in his corner doing what they could to get him on that show. Sounds like a great community.
I was on Jeopardy in 2003 and there was a lot that made me smile here.
I also took the test in NYC, but in June of 2002 (it was at the Waldorf Astoria). Our test was pen and paper, but the casting people said outright that 35/50 was a passing score, "it doesn't matter if all of you get 35 or none of you do - that's the passing grade" (there were about 120 of us in the room, 7 passed).
I ID'd myself as a stay-at-home-dad (because i was at the time, but also figured it would help me stand out against the crowd)
One thing the article doesn't mention is that I had to cover the cost for flight and accommodations.... the 3rd place prize being enough to basically cover the trip if worse comes to worst.
Even in the green room there is no guarantee that i was going on. They pulled the contestants' names from a hat before every new episode. (I went in on for game 3 of the 5 they shoot in a day)
I ended up winning the first game and coming in second on the next one. It's one of my fondest memories.
What a great story! I had this episode on real, live TV (am I the only one left?) with the volume up, listening to it as I was making supper in the kitchen. I kept hearing a contestant with a distinctive voice and speaking style, and absolutely nailing most of the answers... er... questions. After they returned from commercials to do the personal anecdote 1-on-1s, I just HAD to go into the other room to see who this was! After hearing his story and seeing his gameplay, I couldn't turn away. I just kept watching and watching. Needless to say, I almost burned supper.
Hello! In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions. Or try logging out and then back in. Still having trouble? Email me!
In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. Check out your options for renewal.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
This thread is closed for new comments & replies. Thanks to everyone for participating!