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The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: MikeK on January 30, 2011, 11:12:26 AM

Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: MikeK on January 30, 2011, 11:12:26 AM
How many shows used a theme different from the one most associated with that show?  Some stipulations:  The different theme couldn't have been used on a pilot or nor could the theme be used on a very rare basis, like when MG 7x closed with Auld Lang Syne to finish a year.

I came up with two:
*  Now You See It--for a few weeks early in its original run, the main theme was the halftime cue.
*  The Joker's Wild--for the 3rd and/or 4th weeks, a vastly different tune was used before reverting back to The Savers.

Any others?
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: irismason42 on January 30, 2011, 12:19:15 PM
* Child's Play -- For the first 3 weeks of episodes when they went to their first commercial break, the opening theme we initially heard on the '80s TV Theme Supersite, was used, the actual main theme that was heard on the one TPIR episode from October 1982 is used throughout its entire run.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Steve Gavazzi on January 30, 2011, 12:37:57 PM
Didn't WML change its closing theme for a few months around 1959 or 1960?

[quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'255963\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 11:12 AM\']*  Now You See It--for a few weeks early in its original run, the main theme was the halftime cue.[/quote]
Anyone have a clip of that?  I was watching pretty much every show back when GSN was airing it, and I don't remember that at all.

[quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'255963\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 11:12 AM\']*  The Joker's Wild--for the 3rd and/or 4th weeks, a vastly different tune was used before reverting back to The Savers.[/quote]
I didn't think it was so much "vastly different" as an odd remix...but hell, what do I know?  I haven't heard it in over a decade.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: MikeK on January 30, 2011, 12:51:15 PM
[quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' post=\'255967\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 12:37 PM\']Anyone have a clip of that?  I was watching pretty much every show back when GSN was airing it, and I don't remember that at all.[/quote]
Check the TVPMM's free NYSI page.  The halftime cue, in short and long form, are there.  If you're talking about a video clip, I might have one on a portable hard drive, but I wouldn't put money on it...
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Eric Paddon on January 30, 2011, 01:19:05 PM
When I saw those NYSI episodes on GSN, they actually kept using "Chump Change" for the open of the show but then used the halftime music everywhere else.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: WhammyPower on January 30, 2011, 01:27:54 PM
[quote name=\'Eric Paddon\' post=\'255974\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 12:19 PM\']When I saw those NYSI episodes on GSN, they actually kept using "Chump Change" for the open of the show but then used the halftime music everywhere else.[/quote]
Here is one of those (http://\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvXkQ3bxUEY\")
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Steve Gavazzi on January 30, 2011, 02:50:07 PM
[quote name=\'Eric Paddon\' post=\'255974\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 01:19 PM\']When I saw those NYSI episodes on GSN, they actually kept using "Chump Change" for the open of the show but then used the halftime music everywhere else.[/quote]
That I remember.  Hated it, too.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: chrisholland03 on January 30, 2011, 05:12:29 PM
There was one episode where they used the halftime cue (aka Cat in the Blender theme) as the intro theme.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: MikeK on January 30, 2011, 05:38:32 PM
[quote name=\'chrisholland03\' post=\'255983\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 05:12 PM\']There was one episode where they used the halftime cue (aka Cat in the Blender theme) as the intro theme.[/quote]
Take great offense to your parenthesized description (http://\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v342/hmtriplecrown/cats.jpg\").
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Joe Mello on January 30, 2011, 06:11:56 PM
[quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'255986\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 05:38 PM\'][quote name=\'chrisholland03\' post=\'255983\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 05:12 PM\']There was one episode where they used the halftime cue (aka Cat in the Blender theme) as the intro theme.[/quote]Take great offense to your parenthesized description (http://\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v342/hmtriplecrown/cats.jpg\").[/quote]There goes any intelligent debate (http://\"http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/cat_proximity.png\")
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: JasonA1 on January 30, 2011, 06:17:30 PM
Here's one of the alternate theme Joker's Wild opens (http://\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPSg7oFv734\") (Tiller warning). Try not to snicker too much as Jack ad-libs.

-Jason
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Matt Ottinger on January 30, 2011, 06:34:39 PM
[quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'255986\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 05:38 PM\'][quote name=\'chrisholland03\' post=\'255983\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 05:12 PM\']There was one episode where they used the halftime cue (aka Cat in the Blender theme) as the intro theme.[/quote]
Take great offense to your parenthesized description (http://\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v342/hmtriplecrown/cats.jpg\").[/quote]
Likewise. (http://\"http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/blentec_total_blender.jpg\")
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Clay Zambo on January 30, 2011, 07:03:00 PM
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'255992\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 06:34 PM\'][quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'255986\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 05:38 PM\'][quote name=\'chrisholland03\' post=\'255983\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 05:12 PM\']There was one episode where they used the halftime cue (aka Cat in the Blender theme) as the intro theme.[/quote]
Take great offense to your parenthesized description (http://\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v342/hmtriplecrown/cats.jpg\").[/quote]
Likewise. (http://\"http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/blentec_total_blender.jpg\")
[/quote]

Where's the "disgusted" button?
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: chrisholland03 on January 30, 2011, 09:58:33 PM
No cats were harmed in the production of said theme...just an old joke from the atgs days.

The backstory -- very few people, if any remembered the alternate NYSI theme until about 4-6 weeks into GSN's premiere when the theme appeared.  The non-GSNers wanted to know what said theme sounded like, and it was described as 'a cat in a blender'

I'm guessing we were less PETA aware back then too ;D
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: CarbonCpy on January 30, 2011, 11:04:48 PM
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'255992\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 06:34 PM\'][quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'255986\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 05:38 PM\'][quote name=\'chrisholland03\' post=\'255983\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 05:12 PM\']There was one episode where they used the halftime cue (aka Cat in the Blender theme) as the intro theme.[/quote]
Take great offense to your parenthesized description (http://\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v342/hmtriplecrown/cats.jpg\").[/quote]
Likewise. (http://\"http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/blentec_total_blender.jpg\")
[/quote]
Doing it wrong. (http://\"http://carboncpy.com/what.gif\")
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Clay Zambo on January 30, 2011, 11:05:23 PM
[quote name=\'chrisholland03\' post=\'256011\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 09:58 PM\']No cats were harmed in the production of said theme...just an old joke from the atgs days.[/quote]

I didn't remember the joke (but neither did I think anybody wanted to puree Boots and Fluffy).  Thanks, though.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Twentington on January 31, 2011, 10:21:32 AM
[quote name=\'JasonA1\' post=\'255989\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 06:17 PM\']Here's one of the alternate theme Joker's Wild opens (http://\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPSg7oFv734\") (Tiller warning). Try not to snicker too much as Jack ad-libs.

-Jason[/quote]

[quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' post=\'255967\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 12:37 PM\']I didn't think [TJW's theme] was so much "vastly different" as an odd remix...but hell, what do I know?  I haven't heard it in over a decade.[/quote]

Here's a rundown of all the Joker themes I know of:

*The Savers (http://\"http://www.gameshowthemesongs.net/sounds/Joker%27s%20Wild/JOKER72.mp3\")
*Joker's Jive (http://\"http://www.gameshowthemesongs.net/sounds/Joker%27s%20Wild/Joker%27s%20Jive.mp3\"), Alan Thicke's shameless attempt at a Savers soundalike
*Hal Hidey's reorchestration (http://\"http://www.gameshowthemesongs.net/sounds/Joker%27s%20Wild/1978%20Joker%27s%20Wild.mp3\") of The Savers
*This (http://\"http://www.gameshowthemesongs.net/sounds/Joker%27s%20Wild/Joker%27s%20Wild.mp3\"), which I believe is also a Hidey composition. (Do either of these latter two have a name? I've heard both called the "Whistle Theme".)
*And of course, the BtB'76 theme on the $1,000,000 tournament.

And now we have the odd theme that shows up in the intro Jason linked to. It sounds sort of like a "second movement" to The Savers — the instrumentation's the same, but the melody is different.

Getting back to the original topic, I know Wheel sometimes brought in marching bands for college week and had the bands play the commercial bumpers. In 1996, they also played the opening theme, as heard here (http://\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chgu6gjJ_dY\"). I find this one interesting because it follows the older "Changing Keys" melody, not the more "stretched out" melody of the 1994 remix.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: rjaguar3 on January 31, 2011, 12:50:45 PM
I know that Sports Challenge used a different theme for one season*, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere.  Would anyone happen to know any information about that theme?

*It's the theme that goes E-E-F#-A-B---E-E-F#-A-B-A-F#-C#-B-E-E-F#-A-B----A-F#-A-A-A, and so on, for those for whom this transcription may help.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: BrandonFG on January 31, 2011, 01:05:51 PM
[quote name=\'rjaguar3\' post=\'256057\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 12:50 PM\']I know that Sports Challenge used a different theme for one season*, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere.  Would anyone happen to know any information about that theme?

*It's the theme that goes E-E-F#-A-B---E-E-F#-A-B-A-F#-C#-B-E-E-F#-A-B----A-F#-A-A-A, and so on, for those for whom this transcription may help.[/quote]
It had a synthesized feel to it and had a faster tempo, if it's the same one I'm thinking of. I'd say it was used in the later seasons, maybe the next-to-last?
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: chrisholland03 on January 31, 2011, 01:26:23 PM
[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' post=\'256028\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 10:05 PM\'][quote name=\'chrisholland03\' post=\'256011\' date=\'Jan 30 2011, 09:58 PM\']No cats were harmed in the production of said theme...just an old joke from the atgs days.[/quote]

I didn't remember the joke (but neither did I think anybody wanted to puree Boots and Fluffy).  Thanks, though.
[/quote]

I'm sure I could use wayback, but I honestly don't remember who was around in '94-'95.  Plus it was one of those weird pieces of minutia that was rattling around in my empty head.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Offshored2007 on January 31, 2011, 01:43:49 PM
[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'256060\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 01:05 PM\'][quote name=\'rjaguar3\' post=\'256057\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 12:50 PM\']I know that Sports Challenge used a different theme for one season*, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere.  Would anyone happen to know any information about that theme?

*It's the theme that goes E-E-F#-A-B---E-E-F#-A-B-A-F#-C#-B-E-E-F#-A-B----A-F#-A-A-A, and so on, for those for whom this transcription may help.[/quote]
It had a synthesized feel to it and had a faster tempo, if it's the same one I'm thinking of. I'd say it was used in the later seasons, maybe the next-to-last?
[/quote]
It was used in the next-to-last season and I have never seen it available anywhere on the web (it is bouncing around in my head).
They went back to the original "Get Back" theme in the final season by Patrick Williams.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Chief-O on January 31, 2011, 02:37:04 PM
[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'256060\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 12:05 PM\'][quote name=\'rjaguar3\' post=\'256057\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 12:50 PM\']I know that Sports Challenge used a different theme for one season*, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere.  Would anyone happen to know any information about that theme?

*It's the theme that goes E-E-F#-A-B---E-E-F#-A-B-A-F#-C#-B-E-E-F#-A-B----A-F#-A-A-A, and so on, for those for whom this transcription may help.[/quote]
It had a synthesized feel to it and had a faster tempo, if it's the same one I'm thinking of. I'd say it was used in the later seasons, maybe the next-to-last?
[/quote]

I believe you're right. For the not-so-musically-inclined, here's a credit roll from one of those shows (http://\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NQLPeLaERw&t=9m15s\"), with the theme in the clear. Gets pretty wild near the end!

Re. the TJW theme, I can't help but think that too was a Perrey & Kingsley composition.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: mmb5 on January 31, 2011, 03:05:19 PM
[quote name=\'Twentington\' post=\'256055\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 10:21 AM\']*Joker's Jive (http://\"http://www.gameshowthemesongs.net/sounds/Joker%27s%20Wild/Joker%27s%20Jive.mp3\"), Alan Thicke's shameless attempt at a Savers soundalike[/quote]

Not shameless, it was likely his job to make sound-alike themes.  He did that here, he did it with Blank Check, he did it with Wheel of Fortune and even Diamond Head and Wizard of Odds are similar to each other.  There's also a pilot that I can't remember right now that he rips off Gospel John by Maynard Ferguson.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Twentington on January 31, 2011, 09:36:45 PM
[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'256074\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 03:05 PM\'][quote name=\'Twentington\' post=\'256055\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 10:21 AM\']*Joker's Jive (http://\"http://www.gameshowthemesongs.net/sounds/Joker%27s%20Wild/Joker%27s%20Jive.mp3\"), Alan Thicke's shameless attempt at a Savers soundalike[/quote]

Not shameless, it was likely his job to make sound-alike themes.  He did that here, he did it with Blank Check, he did it with Wheel of Fortune and even Diamond Head and Wizard of Odds are similar to each other.  There's also a pilot that I can't remember right now that he rips off Gospel John by Maynard Ferguson.
[/quote]

So he was the Jimmy Hart of game show theme composers.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: That Don Guy on January 31, 2011, 11:30:48 PM
I can think of three shows that changed themes, although I don't know if these qualify as "very temporary":

'60s Match Game;

Celebrity Sweepstakes, although it switched back to its original theme for the end of its run;

'70s Sale of the Century, when it switched from the three-player to the two-couple format.

(Plus, of course, some of the old GSN B&W classics, like Password, WML, and IGAS, but I assume these go without saying.)

-- Don
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: BrandonFG on February 01, 2011, 03:36:14 AM
[quote name=\'Chief-O\' post=\'256072\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 02:37 PM\']I believe you're right. For the not-so-musically-inclined, here's a credit roll from one of those shows (http://\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NQLPeLaERw&t=9m15s\"), with the theme in the clear. Gets pretty wild near the end![/quote]
Yep...that's the one I had in mind. Brassier than I remembered...
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: chris319 on February 01, 2011, 10:05:44 AM
IGAS had several themes during its New York run, then another in L.A.

Bob Stewart's Pyramid had Bob Cobert's rejiggered theme during its L.A. run.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Offshored2007 on February 01, 2011, 11:47:21 AM
[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'256125\' date=\'Feb 1 2011, 03:36 AM\'][quote name=\'Chief-O\' post=\'256072\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 02:37 PM\']I believe you're right. For the not-so-musically-inclined, here's a credit roll from one of those shows (http://\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NQLPeLaERw&t=9m15s\"), with the theme in the clear. Gets pretty wild near the end![/quote]
Yep...that's the one I had in mind. Brassier than I remembered...
[/quote]
The beginning part is missing from the credit roll, but it is as much of the theme as I have ever heard in the clear. I recall asking Terry over at TVPMM about this "temporary" version of the "Sports Challenge" theme being available.  He has the original "Get Back" in the vault.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Tony Peters on February 01, 2011, 05:04:11 PM
[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'256131\' date=\'Feb 1 2011, 09:05 AM\']Bob Stewart's Pyramid had Bob Cobert's rejiggered theme during its L.A. run.[/quote]
Except the '80s Pyramid theme was by no means temporary (or were you thinking only of themes that rip off other themes?).
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: SuperMatch93 on February 02, 2011, 12:34:50 AM
[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' post=\'256113\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 10:30 PM\']'70s Sale of the Century, when it switched from the three-player to the two-couple format.

-- Don[/quote]

What was the original? (the non-british one)
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Bob Zager on February 02, 2011, 01:42:08 PM
[quote name=\'Chief-O\' post=\'256072\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 02:37 PM\'][quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'256060\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 12:05 PM\'][quote name=\'rjaguar3\' post=\'256057\' date=\'Jan 31 2011, 12:50 PM\']I know that Sports Challenge used a different theme for one season*, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere.  Would anyone happen to know any information about that theme?

*It's the theme that goes E-E-F#-A-B---E-E-F#-A-B-A-F#-C#-B-E-E-F#-A-B----A-F#-A-A-A, and so on, for those for whom this transcription may help.[/quote]
It had a synthesized feel to it and had a faster tempo, if it's the same one I'm thinking of. I'd say it was used in the later seasons, maybe the next-to-last?
[/quote]

I believe you're right. For the not-so-musically-inclined, here's a credit roll from one of those shows (http://\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NQLPeLaERw&t=9m15s\"), with the theme in the clear. Gets pretty wild near the end!

Re. the TJW theme, I can't help but think that too was a Perrey & Kingsley composition.
[/quote]

I believe the announcer for  that season of Sports Challenge was the late Art James, whom, IIRC, introduced the show as "The Olympia Sports Challenge."

I'd noticed the name "Kathleen Sullivan," in the credits, and wondered if it is the same woman who worked as an occassional sub on Good Morning America, and later CBS This Morning.
Title: Very temporary themes
Post by: Chief-O on February 02, 2011, 01:56:53 PM
[quote name=\'Bob Zager\' post=\'256211\' date=\'Feb 2 2011, 12:42 PM\']I believe the announcer for  that season of Sports Challenge was the late Art James, whom, IIRC, introduced the show as "The Olympia Sports Challenge."[/quote]

I believe you are correct on Art James as announcer. Certainly correct on "Olympia Sports Challenge"----as a frequent watcher of the show when I had ESPNC, I always wondered what was up with that. Oh well, that's another question for another thread.