In today's edition of looking back on how cooked Australian kids' shows really were, we're going to be talking about Jeopardy.
Not to be confused with the popular American game show, Jeopardy was a British-Australian children's sci-fi program that ran from 2002-2004.
Over three seasons, the show delved into some pretty creepy storylines, which we'll dive into later. But, in the beginning, it starts off with a group of eight Scottish high school students and their teacher who travel to the Australian bush to look for UFOs.
We're introduced to them in the first episode — there's Lucy, Sarah, David, Harry, Simon, Leon, Shona and Chrissie, as well as their teacher named Gerry.
Now, to document their adventures and any ~paranormal sightings~, the students are given camcorders — which results in the show alternating between normally shot scenes and jerky handheld footage.
If that wasn't already Blair Witch Project-esque fodder, things start to get real spooky in the Aussie outback. There's weird sounds, continual radio interference (meaning that they can't call for help) and Gerry straight up disappears after falling over a waterfall.
Oh, and people start getting abducted, of course.
But, that's just the tip of all the batshit things that happened in Jeopardy. From memory, there were also a bunch of creepy twins, a military complex that monitored abductees and this whole subplot of the students time travelling to an alternative timeline where they had died.
Let's also not forget Helen Stanich, the government agent that kept trying to track the group down.
As well as that horrifying moment when Simon got locked in a railway wagon to be taught a lesson after he betrayed the group to Stanich. Then, if things could get worse, the "abandoned" train suddenly came to life, taking Simon on a journey across the country.
It's no wonder that this show scared the absolute shit out of everyone as kids.
Like, first of all, how was this even deemed appropriate for children? Even the theme song, with all the static and spooky music gives me goosebumps to this day.
Plus, the whole red-eye virus — which turned out to be a side effect of getting abducted — was pure nightmare fuel.
The way it worked was if someone got stressed or feared for their life, the virus would suddenly make their left eye glow red, before their body would split into two and then vanish into thin air.
It didn't help that this was set in Australia as well. I was six years old when Jeopardy came out and you can bet that I was sitting there, watching the episodes, thinking "OH NO, WILL I NOW SUDDENLY GET ABDUCTED BY ALIENS IN THE BUSH???"
Does anyone remember that alien abduction show in Australia on CBBC called “Jeopardy” when you were a kid? Mate, that used to give me mad nightmares!!!!
In saying that, Jeopardy was one heck of an addictive show. The whole handheld footage aspect was genius. Plus, the mysterious and slightly cooked plot made you want to keep watching.
The best bit was viewers actually got to ~interact~ with Jeopardy, by voting for how they wanted it to end. You could choose between a surprise, spooky or happy (read: boring) ending.
It's a show that was, and still is, iconic. I even rewatched it a couple years back as an adult and can confirm that it definitely still creeped me out and had me binge-watching episodes because I was hooked.
does anyone else remember that terrifying kids show jeopardy about the scottish kids looking for aliens in australia because wtf
It makes sense that this series won a BAFTA back in 2002 for Best Children's Drama.
So, here's one last final shoutout to Jeopardy. Although you gave us nightmares as kids, it was absolutely worth it because you were one of the best Aussie shows of the '00s.
