Jeopardy Game Show! Now, you can join host Alex Trebek on the Hollywood set of the Jeopardy Game Show, either as a member of the studio audience or as a contestant. The second most popular game show on TV, "Jeopardy!" has been on the air for over 35 years, and has won 19 Daytime Emmy Awards. It's a fun, exciting game, requiring split-second decisions under pressure, and the courage to wager it all in the Final Jeopardy Challenge. Top winners can take home over $100,000 in cash. But it's not easy. Winning takes a virtually encyclopedic treasury of knowledge, plus knowing how to work the buzzer and wagering just the right amount. Jeopardy Tickets for the studio audience are free (just click here to get them).

The show was created by Merv Griffin, who also created "Wheel of Fortune." Both of these popular game shows are taped at what was originally the historic MGM Studios. It's now called the Sony Entertainment Studios in Culver City. And you can enter the studio when you go to see the show.

There's another advantage to being in the "Jeopardy!" studio audience: the show's popular Celebrity Championships have brought out big stars such as Rosie O'Donnell, Kelsey Grammer, Carol Burnett, David Duchovny, Jason Alexander, Jane Curtin, Kirsten Dunst, Jon Lovitz, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Jeri Ryan, Naomi Judd and General Norman Schwarzkopf.

If you've never seen "Jeopardy!", it's played in a unique answer/question format. Three contestants vie to answer a series of questions, on a wide variety of subjects, but the show's questions are provided in the form of an "answer", while the contestants must phrase their answers in the form of a "question".

Contestants first choose a category, such as "U.S. States", and then they are shown the "answer", which might be "Alaska and Texas". The first of the three contestants to "buzz in" gives what he or she hope is the correct "question", which in this instance might be "What are the two largest states in the U.S.?" Each correct answer wins a dollar amount - and the higher the dollar amount, the more difficult the question.

The game's second round is called "Double Jeopardy" because the dollar amounts of the questions are double that of the first round. At the end, the contestants play "Final Jeopardy". They are shown a category, but not the question. They can wager any amount, up to the entire total of their day's winnings, on that one make or break question. After the contestants have decided how much they want to wager, they are shown the final question, and they write down their answers while the familiar "Jeopardy Game Show!" theme song plays in the background.

(Is it my imagination, or does the final portion of this Merv Griffin melody sound remarkably like the final portion of the well known children's song, "I'm a Little Teacup"?)

For tickets to see the show, you can write to:

Jeopardy Tickets
P.O. Box 3763
Hollywood, CA 90028

But it's faster and easier to get them online, where you can print out your tickets immediately on your own printer.