Article about "Musical Chairs"

[Adam Nedeff]

This is an article that I wrote for the employee newsletter at the Pantages Theater last week. My boss liked it so much that he forwarded it to his bosses, and it wound up on the official Pantages Theater blog.

And before anyone corrects it: I was pressed for print space when I originally wrote the article; those are the COMBINED lengths of Tattlestales' separate runs and Gambit's separate runs.

[Ian Wallis]

Thank you for adding some info about the bonus round.  On the one episode that exists of this show, time expires before the bonus round could be played, and I really couldn't remember how it went.

As I recall though, when the show started in June it was self-contained.  After a few weeks, they changed the rules and episodes could now be straddled (the episode that exists is from September 1975).

Anyone out there remember exactly what the changes were?

[GameShowGuru]

Great article.  Brief yet very insightful!  I loved it!

[trainman]

[quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' post=\'238037\' date=\'Mar 22 2010, 12:29 PM\']And before anyone corrects it: I was pressed for print space when I originally wrote the article; those are the COMBINED lengths of Tattlestales' separate runs and Gambit's separate runs.[/quote]

And, of course, Don Kirschner discovered The Archies in the same sense that James L. Brooks discovered The Simpsons.

[alfonzos]

Nice writing but one could argue that The Monkees and The Archies were assembled rather than discovered.

[Jay Temple]

My recollection of the game play and bonus round is this:

Initially, it went 3 50's, 2 50's, 1 50; 3 75's, 2 75's, 1 75. After the 100x3 question, the player with the lowest score was eliminated. After the 100x2 question, the reminaing player with the lowest score was eliminated. When only two were left, you had to answer correctly first and be in the lead in order to win. Thus, there was no such thing as a mathematical lock on first. Later on, they switched the eliminations to the points mentioned in the article.

Initially, they had a different bonus round. If memory serves, you were given lines from ten different songs and had to come up with the next line. There was a fixed amount for each one you got right ($100, I think), and it doubled if you got all ten.

Later, they dropped the bonus round and just doubled the winnings. Sometime after that, they stopped doubling the winnings and added the bonus mentioned in the article.

Also, they occasionally had questions that were not simply, "What's the next line?" ISTR one where the question was, "Who had a hit with this song?" and the correct answer was Adam Wade.

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' post=\'238077\' date=\'Mar 22 2010, 10:08 PM\']My recollection of the game play and bonus round is this:When only two were left, you had to answer correctly first and be in the lead in order to win. Thus, there was no such thing as a mathematical lock on first.[/quote] That's really badass. I like that a bunch.

[Matt Ottinger]

Very nice article, Adam.  

Wade was in East Lansing when The Color Purple came to MSU last year.  I didn't get to meet him, but a colleague did, and talked to him about Musical Chairs.  My guy said Wade was perfectly charming, and enjoyed getting asked about the game.  Wade said he used to be surprised when he would be asked about something that was such a blip on his resume all those years ago, but now he says he's used to it and gets a kick out of being the answer to a trivia question.

[irwinsjournal.com]

Although I do recall watching "Musical Chairs," I can't say I remembered a whole lot about it.   This was a fun piece in that respect.  But what really worked was bringing the story up to the present day.  Thanks for sharing.

[Ian Wallis]

Also, they occasionally had questions that were not simply, "What's the next line?" ISTR one where the question was, "Who had a hit with this song?" and the correct answer was Adam Wade.

They frequently had joke answers as the C choice because usually all 4 contestants had rung in by that point and sometimes they wanted to catch you off-guard.  I remember one episode where they asked who sang the song, and the choices were something like this:

A.  Gladys Knight & the Pips
B.  Gerry & the Pacemakers
C.  Tony & Orlando

That got a big laugh!

[ChuckNet]

They frequently had joke answers as the C choice because usually all 4 contestants had rung in by that point and sometimes they wanted to catch you off-guard. I remember one episode where they asked who sang the song, and the choices were something like this:

A. Gladys Knight & the Pips
B. Gerry & the Pacemakers
C. Tony & Orlando

That got a big laugh!

And on the sole ep circulating, they did the same thing w/a line from "I've Got a Crush On You"...the choices were:

A. For a cozy cottage we could share
B. For a charming castle in the air
C. For a case of kumquats or eclair

Amazingly, all 3 players chose C(!), which got a good laugh from the audience.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' post=\'238125\' date=\'Mar 23 2010, 09:55 PM\']Amazingly, all 3 players chose C(!), which got a good laugh from the audience.[/quote]
That was the inherent cleverness of the format, though.  If players didn't know the answer, the strategic move was to hit 'C' as soon as possible, even before you saw it, if neither A nor B looked right.  If the writers could slip the correct answer past them (which was easier to do with an older standard), then they could spring the comic trap with a goofy 'C'.