Syndicated Fleming Jeopardy

There's been an interesting discussion over at the ipb board about the syndicated version of Art Fleming Jeopardy, which ran in 1974-75.  You may remember that on the last NBC show, Art mentioned that the "nighttime version" of Jeopardy would continue.  That was this syndicated version that they're talking about.  It's not to be confused with NBC "Revival" Jeopardy, which aired on the network in 1979.

I'm not aware that the syndicated version has ever been seen since 1975.  The original NBC version has been apparently been almost totally erased.  There are four episodes on the trading circuit, and a few more in the UCLA archives (and thus inaccessible to everyone), but that's it.  (Revival Jeopardy has two episodes in the trading circuit and the status of the rest is unknown, but it does post-date the supposed great NBC tape wipe of 1978.)

Well, anyway, syndicated shows are more likely to survive than others because so many copies were made an "bicycled" around to the various stations airing them.  And according to game show giant Matt Ottinger (not to be confused with your humble blogger), there were 39 episodes produced of this Fleming syndicated Jeopardy, and they all survive.

On one hand that's good news, because they're not lost to history.  The number of Fleming eps in existence is three times what we might have thought before.  On the other hand, Matt reports that the tapes are in an obsolete format (two inch quads?) and are unlikely to be converted anytime soon.  Which means they might as well be in the UCLA archives.

Oh, well, if the tapes exist, there is always the chance, however remote, that they'll sneak out someday.  I wonder if any of the syndicated version of 70's Sale of the Century are in that same vault?