Face The Music (game show)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Face the Music was an American television game show that aired in syndication from January 1980 to September 1981. The show tested contestants' knowledge of popular music songs, and association of song titles with famous people, places and things.
Face the Music was hosted by Ron Ely and also featured the Tommy Oliver Orchestra and vocalist Lisa Donovan. Dave Williams was the announcer for the first (half-)season; during the second season, he was replaced by John Harlan, with Art James occasionally filling in.
The show was produced by Sandy Frank Productions.
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
On each show, three new contestants compete for the right to face a returning champion in the end game. The first part of the show was played in three rounds.
[edit] The Main Game
- Round 1 – The contestants are shown six pictures. Most are faces of famous people, although places and even fictional characters could be shown. The Tommy Oliver Orchestra (with Donovan sometimes providing vocals) played a song. The first contestant to ring in and guess both the song title and the "famous face" it related to earned 10 points. Failure to identify a song disqualified that contestant from the next song.
- Round 2 – Songs were played as clues to the identity of a famous person, place, thing, title, event, fictional character, etc. Up to four songs were played for each category.
-
- Example: the category is "fictional character." The songs are:
-
-
-
- "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
- "The Teddy Bears' Picnic"
- "Go Away, Little Girl"
- "Band of Gold"
-
-
-
- Answer: Goldilocks
The first contestant to ring in with a correct song title was entitled to guess the answer. A correct guess to the puzzle earned 20 points. An incorrect song title guess incurred a penalty (as it did in round 1); contestants who guessed incorrectly for the puzzle were not penalized.
When time expired for this round (generally, five minutes), the lowest-scoring contestant was eliminated.
- Tiebreaker - In the event of a tie for second place, a shortened version of Round 1 was played -- three pictures were shown, and the first contestant to answer correctly advanced to Round 3. If all three players were tied, a second song was played to determine the second contestant for Round 3.
- Round 3 – Same as Round 2 except correct answers are worth 30 points. Instead of a penalty, the opposing player was offered the chance to identify a song if a contestant failed to do so. After time expired (generally, three to five minutes), the highest-scoring contestant advanced to the championship game to meet the day's previous champion, for a grand prize and the right to return for the next show.
[edit] Championship Round
In the championship round, contestants faced a board concealing six portraits of a famous person, arranged from "early childhood to maturity." The first picture – depicting the famous person as a baby – was revealed, and the first "musical clue" was played.
The contestant who gave a correct song title was allowed to identify the person after being given 10 seconds to think it over. A correct guess was worth $10,000 (originally a prize package, later it was changed to straight-forward cash). If a wrong answer was provided, or if no one guessed the song title for that picture, the next face was revealed, and the jackpot decreased to a $5,000 prize package. Subsequent pictures/songs were worth $1,000 less than the previous jackpot prize packages.
At any point, if a correct answer was provided, all of the portraits were revealed, and viewers were treated to a chronological montage of the famous person from birth to a present-day photo. However, if the person was still not identified after the $1,000 clue, the winner was determined by playing a tiebreaker "Round 1"-type game for the $1,000 prize package.
A five-day champion won a new car (usually, the Datsun 510 or – in later episodes – the Dodge Aries). A 10-day champion won a trip around the world, or in later episodes, a camping trailer.
In the first season, champions stayed on for up to ten games or until defeated. In the second season, champions stayed on until defeated.
[edit] Trivia
- Contestants who rang in to answer would usually shout "I got it!" - Ely would normally respond "Whaddyagot (Contestant)?"
- Despite its relatively short run, Face the Music was frequently rerun on the USA Network and The Family Channel.
- Unlike Name That Tune, where the vocalist often self-censored any incriminating words that would give away the answer, vocalist Lisa Donovan often sang the title of the song as part of the clue. Presumably, these questions were conceived as easy ones which would test the players' reflexes rather than their song recognition skills. However, more than once, contestants failed to identify the song even after the title had been given away.
- The program became known among game show fans for its consistent technical problems (usually involving broken or burned-out lights, a frequent occurrence), sloppy editing (usually involving the opening and closing shots of the program) and quirky remarks between Ely and the contestants.
- As the show's run continued, Ely became more comfortable with the band, and began joking with them about their playing ability. In one episode, the band went "on strike" for compliments after one of Ely's remarks - but quickly relented.
