Author Topic: A theme question (Read 3083 times)

Kevin Prather · « **on:** March 18, 2006, 02:56:37 PM »

I've seen so many different sources say different things. Hopefully someone here can give me a definitive answer.

Is "A Time For Tony" the Jeopardy theme or a jewelry prize cue from Wheel?

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 18, 2006, 03:04:22 PM »

[quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Mar 18 2006, 02:56 PM\']Is "A Time For Tony" the Jeopardy theme or a jewelry prize cue from Wheel?

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I believe "Take Ten" was the theme from the 2nd run of NBC Jeopardy!, while "A Time for Tony" is the jewelry cut.

EDIT: Never mind. I was wrong, upon viewing "The Art Fleming Years". Iris was partially right? I might as well be banned.

irismason42 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 18, 2006, 03:34:34 PM »

Not quite, "Take Ten" was a theme for the first version of NBC Jeopardy! and also for the weekly syndicated version and "Frisco Disco" was the theme for the second version of NBC Jeopardy!, which was later used as a WOF prize cue.

Kevin Prather · « **Reply #3 on:** March 18, 2006, 04:02:24 PM »

But either way, Tony was a prize cue?

chris319 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 18, 2006, 07:50:02 PM »

"Time For Tony" is the Jeopardy! think music and main theme.

Kevin Prather · « **Reply #5 on:** March 18, 2006, 08:16:19 PM »

Then what song is this? I think it was Casey that put up the full version and called it "A Time For Tony."

FeudDude · « **Reply #6 on:** March 18, 2006, 08:36:46 PM »

From what I've gathered, the Jeopardy! theme and that WoF jewelry cue are both variants of "A Time for Tony", with the jewelry cue being the definitive version.

snowpeck · « **Reply #7 on:** March 19, 2006, 02:45:01 AM »

The piano prize cue is "A Time for Tony". The Jeopardy theme and think music are simply "Jeopardy Theme" and "Jeopardy Theme Music." They are not variations of each other.

Greg

chris319 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 19, 2006, 05:57:32 AM »

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The Jeopardy theme and think music are simply "Jeopardy Theme" and "Jeopardy Theme Music." They are not variations of each other.

They're the same tune. The theme is mereley the same eight bars of "Time for Tony" repeated ad nauseam.

Clay Zambo · « **Reply #9 on:** March 19, 2006, 02:50:43 PM »

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Mar 19 2006, 05:57 AM\']

Quote

The Jeopardy theme and think music are simply "Jeopardy Theme" and "Jeopardy Theme Music." They are not variations of each other.

They're the same tune. The theme is mereley the same eight bars of "Time for Tony" repeated ad nauseam.

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The Jeopardy "think music" cue and "Tony" aren't the same tune--though there are similarities. The first couple of phrases of both consist of even quarter notes. There's a three-note figure that skips up a fourth then back down, but it's not in the same place in both tunes. The fourth bar of each tune contains a descending figure, but the two runs don't start on the same scale degree.

But is "Tony," or some variation thereof, the original "Jeopardy" theme? Couldn't tell you. (I would guess not--having two tunes on a show that are so boringly similar would seem to cancel each other out.)

Robert Hutchinson · « **Reply #10 on:** March 19, 2006, 02:57:16 PM »

[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' date=\'Mar 19 2006, 02:50 PM\']The Jeopardy "think music" cue and "Tony" aren't the same tune--though there are similarities.[/quote]

There are enough similarities, in my mind, to call them the same tune with variations. The piano cue basically sounds like somebody took the notes from the J! cue and modified them enough to sound like something you should hear while the audience is oohing and aahing at a rotating piano. (I'm not saying that's how any modification actually happened, of course, or if it even happened in that direction.)

snowpeck · « **Reply #11 on:** March 20, 2006, 07:17:00 PM »

What I was trying to say in my post was that Time for Tony and Jeopardy theme are different compositions entirely and are not related to each other except that Merv wrote both of them. He wrote a lot of simple piano tunes (and released several albums of them).

Greg

Robert Hutchinson · « **Reply #12 on:** March 20, 2006, 10:04:25 PM »

I still hear just a slight variation on a theme in the Wheel cue. But I'm not knowledgeable enough about music to argue it.

(Nor am I equipped to counter the argument "it just is". Ahem.)

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #13 on:** March 21, 2006, 09:07:10 AM »

Quote

What I was trying to say in my post was that Time for Tony and Jeopardy theme are different compositions entirely and are not related to each other except that Merv wrote both of them. He wrote a lot of simple piano tunes (and released several albums of them).

And many of those were used as "Wheel of Fortune" prize cues when they changed the music in the summer of 1983, just before the syndie premiere.

FOXSportsFan · « **Reply #14 on:** March 21, 2006, 01:57:44 PM »

I always thought there were more similarities between the Jeopardy theme and "I'm a Little Teapot" myself...