ARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2021 NEWS/FEATURES 13

People & Places

Television

‘Nobody can do it’ Voice of Jeopardy! keeps going at 92

LOS ANGELES, June 5, (AP): Johnny Gilbert, who decided to stick with “Jeopardy!” after Alex Trebek’s death, faced the wrenching question once again as production for next season neared. This time it would mean adjusting to the quiz show’s yet-to-be-named host, as opposed to the succession of celebrities who have been fi lling in since Trebek suc- cumbed to pancreatic cancer last November. “It’s not easy for me because I worked with Alex for 37 years, and I never thought of anybody replacing him,” he said. “Nobody can do it like he did it, you know.” No one does it like Gilbert either, who at age 92 has decided he’s not ready to call it quits on the show busi- ness career he began pursuing as a teenager. Last year, when he was re- luctant to continue after losing his admired and longtime col- league, others with the show urged Gilbert to consider his role as a comforting touchstone for viewers who also were in mourning for Trebek. “If you just listen to the way Johnny articulates each name, each word, he has a voice and Gilbert even more importantly, de- livery, unlike anyone else,” said Mike Richards, the show’s executive producer. Without Trebek, “the fact we can still rely on Johnny is obviously very impor- tant to us as well.” “This is ‘Jeopardy!’” is Gilbert’s richly booming introduction that opens each episode and belies his years. In turn, he’s acknowledged with thanks from the host and, occasionally, has been shown at an oth- erwise off-camera stage perch. This photo provided by Crowded House shows Neil Finn of the band Crowded House performing at a concert in Auckland, New Zealand, April 24, 2021. (AP) During the pandemic, he’s been taping his contri- butions remotely from the Los Angeles-area home he shares with his wife, Sheree Gilbert. They’ve been together for several more years than his “Jeopardy!” stint, the sort of marital and career longevity that’s rare in Hollywood. Music Born near Roanoke, Virginia, and raised in the coastal city of Newport News, Gilbert had something different in mind when he fi rst dreamed of being an entertainer - singing - and his parents supported their Chloe x Halle, H.E.R. part of Apple Music Juneteenth playlist only child’s aspirations. “I started taking voice lessons when I was still in high school, got a job with a little band and traveled around in that area for a while,” he said. “That was the beginning of it all.” Finn revives Crowded House Impressive NEW YORK, June 5, (AP): Touring anyone else on the planet,” Finn said. It has left them eager to play more. A winding path followed, one with bumps and by- as a member of Fleetwood Mac in Liam, a guitarist, and Elroy, a drum- Finn’s time with Fleetwood Mac, ways that included military service, but Gilbert wasn’t 2018-19 made Neil Finn appreciate the mer, have their own independent mu- where he and Tom Petty’s former to be deterred. His advantages, besides an impressive memorable band in his own history. sic careers and have also worked with guitarist, Mike Campbell, replaced vocal range: determination and a willingness to adapt Two years later, Finn has brought Neil before on projects, minimizing Lindsey Buckingham, was “a glorious to the work at hand. that group, Crowded House, back to life any awkwardness that comes from be- experience because I didn’t expect it. He was 18 when a newspaper want-ad for a band with his sons Liam and Elroy, producer ing in a band with dad. “It’s good to be cast in a different singer sent him to Jacksonville, Florida. Turned out Mitchell Froom and original bass player The new Crowded House started re- role and not be the frontman for a the act had already hit the road but instead of back- Nick Seymour. A new album, “Dream- cording new music in a Los Angeles change,” he said. “I really wanted to do tracking home, he searched out a local talent manager. In this 2014 image provided by Jeopar- ers Are Waiting,” arrives Friday. studio, but the COVID-19 lockdown a good job of playing and representing A club on the outskirts of town was looking for an dy Productions, Inc., shows announcer “There’s a sense of occasion at- forced them to abandon the session someone else’s music. It was good for emcee, the manager told Gilbert, who had to admit he Johnny Gilbert, (left), and game show tached to that band, in my head, I sup- before fi nishing. “Dreamers Are Wait- me. It is a sometimes very insular and host Alex Trebek appear on the set pose,” Finn, 63, said on a video call ing” was completed remotely. not always healthy experience to be was unfamiliar with the term. Master of ceremonies, of ‘Jeopardy!’ Gilbert worked with explained the manager, who was undaunted when Gil- Trebek for 37 years and was reluctant from his native New Zealand. “We were forced by circumstances obsessed with your own music.” bert said he had no experience. to continue after losing his admired col- “Coming off of Fleetwood Mac, to throw things in the air and reassem- Any future with Fleetwood Mac, “He taught me how to introduce people on the stage league. But others with the show urged when we surprisingly had the opportu- ble them,” Finn said. such as recording new material, was nity to be part of a great, classic band, left open-ended, he said. and take them off the stage,” he recalled. He got the him to consider his role as a comforting Reintroduce job and the opportunity to sing with the club band, a touchstone for viewers who also were it reminded me of the gravitas and hon- “It’s a big mountain to move to get gig that lasted for about six weeks and set the pattern in mourning. (AP) or that comes with that,” the singer and They chose the energetic cuts “Playing everyone in the same frame of mind for his fl edgling career. songwriter said. “In the audience there with Fire” and “Whatever You Want” to at the same time,” he said. “There’s a It was America in the 1950s, dotted with nightclubs were young people who had grown up make videos and reintroduce Crowded lot of work that goes into going from, and supper clubs, and Gilbert made the most of the with the songs, and were singing them House to the world, although the album’s ‘Yeah, that would be fun,’ to actually opportunities. He started in the South and worked “my as if they were just as current today as heart is arguably revealed in a more moody making it happen.” way all across the country,” he said. they were 30 years ago.” middle, with songs “Start of Something” The draft interrupted his career but not his stage One singalong included in the set and “Too Good for This World.” Also: work: Gilbert’s talent was noticed and he was as- was Finn’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” “Each of the fi ve persons has deep NEW YORK: Artists including Chloe x signed to a US Army special services entertainment from the 1987 Crowded House debut connections to the origins of the band Halle, Black Thought of the Roots and unit in Germany. that also produced the hit “Something but are also brimming with ideas for H.E.R. have recorded songs honoring He was back on the nightclub circuit post-service So Strong.” how good it possibly could be,” he Juneteenth for Apple Music. when an agent suggested to a delighted Gilbert that Crowded House never matched that said. “That feels like a really good Some artists recorded cover songs, he give television a try. He started in New York with early success in the United States but place for a band to be.” while others composed new tracks for game shows including “Music Bingo,” then moved to remained popular worldwide with The new Crowded House has also the exclusive “Juneteenth 2021 Freedom LA to host “Beat the Odds” and back again to New Hilderbrand Bailey songs like “Better Be Home Soon,” been able to experience something few Songs” playlist, which launches Friday on York as work dictated. “Weather With You” and “Distant other musical acts have over the past the streaming platform. It comes about two Among his many other TV credits are “The Joker’s Sun.” They called it quits with a fare- 15 months - an honest-to-goodness weeks ahead of the annual holiday, also Wild,” Dinah Shore’s talk show “Dinah!” and “The well concert outside the Sydney Opera concert tour before packed arenas. known as Emancipation Day and Freedom $25,000 Pyramid.” Then the syndicated version of Variety House in 1996 that drew a crowd esti- They played a dozen gigs in New Zea- Day, that commemorates when the last former network series “Jeopardy!” beckoned in 1984, mated around 200,000 people. land, where the smaller, island country enslaved African Americans learned they with both co-creator Merv Griffi n and Trebek in his The band reconvened twice in the was able to open things up more swift- were free on June 19. corner, Gilbert said. NEW YORK: Elin Hilderbrand has 2000s with Matt Sherrod replacing ly than elsewhere in the world. The 20-song playlist also features “So 37 years ago, Merv hired me to be the announc- asked that a reference to Anne Frank in original drummer Paul Hester, who At fi rst, the band and audience country singers Kane Brown and er on a show called ‘Jeopardy!’ for 13 weeks,” he said. her new novel be taken out after numer- died in 2005. members stared at each other, stunned. Jimmie Allen, gospel performer Kirk Gilbert expressed reservations about whether the ous online readers alleged the passage Finn said Seymour and his sons were Maybe it was a year without live mu- Franklin, Panamanian singer Sech Sony Pictures Television series would bring him back was insensitive and anti-Semitic. enthusiastic when he suggested trying sic, but it felt like fi ve. and rappers D Smoke and Saba. when taping resumes in late July or early August for “In a fl ashback scene in Elin Hilder- again. Froom, who produced Crowded “We were determined to make the H.E.R. covers Marvin Gaye’s “In- season 38. He’s served as warm-up host for the studio brand’s novel ‘Golden Girl,’ the main House’s fi rst three albums, turned Finn most of it,” Finn said. “We weren’t ner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Hol- audience as well as the show’s announcer. character Vivi compares herself to Anne down when he asked him to join in the late going to slip into that slightly errant ler),” Chloe x Halle takes on TLC’s “I’m not as young as I used to be,” Gilbert said. But Frank,” publisher, Little, Brown and 1980s because he was pursuing a produc- behavior you get on tour - ‘Oh, where “Waterfalls” and Franklin re-works there is a tradition of longevity in the fi eld, including Company, announced Friday. “We are ing career. This time he was onboard. are we tonight?’ You can allow a little the classic gospel protest song “We the late Don Pardo of “Saturday Night Live.” He was removing this passage from the digital edition of the book immediately, and “These three people have more to thing going wrong to spoil your whole Shall Overcome” to create “Overcome the show’s voice for 38 seasons until his 2014 retire- do with Crowded House, understand night. We couldn’t afford to. We had 2021” for the playlist. Black Thought, ment at age 96. from all future print editions.” In “Golden Girl,” Vivi and her friend the ethos, the humor and the music, 12 shows. We had to get over what D Smoke, Sech, Saba and Hit-Boy “Jeopardy!” producer Richards, who’d stepped in and have a natural intuition for it than went wrong instantly.” produced original tracks. as the show’s fi rst fi ll-in host, quickly brushed aside Savannah are talking about staying in the notion that Gilbert’s tenure was in anyone’s hands the attic of Savannah’s home and wheth- er Savannah’s parents would approve. but his own. “You’re suggesting I hide here all “Johnny will be the announcer of ‘Jeopardy!’ as In a legal career that lasted more than as bold, brilliant, meticulous and tireless Bailey said an in interview with US summer?” Vivi says, then cites the girl four decades, Bailey was seen as ar- in the defense of his clients. News and World Report in September long as he would like to be the announcer of ‘Jeop- who with her family hid in an Amster- ardy!’” Richards said. “I have told him that, and it’s rogant, egocentric and contemptuous of “The legal profession is a business 1981. “Few people who are not strong dam attic from the Nazis but was eventu- egotistically gravitate to it.” just how he is, humble. He’s never taken the job for ally captured and died in a concentration authority. But he was also acknowledged with a tremendous collection of egos,” granted.” Some of Bailey’s other high-profi le camp. “Like ... like Anne Frank?” clients included Dr Samuel Sheppard — Also: Hilderbrand is known for such best- accused of killing his wife — and Capt Er- sellers as “The Identicals” and “Summer LOS ANGELES: CBS is reviving its hit “CSI: Crime nest Medina, charged in connection with of ‘69,” in which one character is reading the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam Scene Investigation” brand with a series that brings “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Responding War. “I have never known a greater intel- original cast members William Petersen and Jorja to complaints about “Golden Girl” on lect than that possessed by F. Lee Bailey,” Fox back home. Instagram, Hildebrand wrote that she had said J. Albert Johnson, Bailey’s longtime “CSI: Vegas” will debut this fall alongside the made a “poor choice, that was tasteless legal partner and childhood friend. network’s expansion of its “NCIS” and “FBI” drama and offensive.” Bailey, an avid pilot, best-selling author franchises, CBS said Wednesday in unveiling its She added: “Those of you who have and television show host, was a member 2021-22 schedule for advertisers and media. read Summer of ‘69 will realize Anne of the legal “dream team” that defended “NCIS: Hawai’i,” starring Vanessa Lachey, will be Frank was a courageous young woman Simpson, the former star NFL running paired Monday night with “NCIS,” entering its 19th whom I revere, and her story remains back and actor acquitted on charges that season with star Mark Harmon. “FBI: International” deeply infl uential in my life.” (AP) he killed his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, will be bookended on Tuesday by family members ❑ ❑ ❑ and her friend, Ron Goldman, in 1995. Bailey was the most valuable member “FBI” and “FBI: Most Wanted.” WALTHAM, Mass: F. Lee Bailey, the Peterson and Fox’s characters, who were based of the team, Simpson said in a 1996 story celebrity attorney who defended O.J. in The Boston Globe Magazine. in Las Vegas in the original 2000-2015 “CSI” that Simpson, Patricia Hearst and the al- spawned a trio of spinoffs, will join ranks with a new “He was able to simplify everything leged Boston Strangler, but whose legal and identify what the most vital parts of team of forensic crime-busters led by Paula Newsome career halted when he was disbarred in (“Chicago Med”). the case were,” Simpson said. “Lee laid two states, has died, a former colleague down what the case’s strategy was, what “We’re very excited to have three new franchise has said. He was 87. was going to be important and what was shows come on, which we know are going to help The death was confi rmed Thursday not. I thought he had an amazing grasp of the schedule everywhere” they’re placed, said Kelly by Peter Horstmann, who worked with what was going to be the most important Kahl, president of CBS Entertainment. Bailey as an associate in the same law Jon Bon Jovi performs at the fifth annual Love Rocks NYC concert to benefit parts of the case, and that turned out to offi ce for seven years. God’s Love We Deliver at the Beacon Theatre on June 3, in New York. (AP) be true.” (AP)