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Jeopardy's real origins

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uncamark:
[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Dec 5 2003, 03:09 AM\']My recollection is that there were four music cues on NY Jeopardy. The main theme was composed by Mrs. Griffin and you never hear it any more. The Final Jeopardy! think cue, "Time for Tony", was written by Mr. G. and is now the main theme, leaving Mr. G. to collect royalties every time it is played. The other two music cues on NY Jeopardy! were the contestant entrance cue and the fee plug cue: "Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia* is a source authority for the questions and answers used on Jeopardy!".[/quote]
At one point it switched to the equally-crappy Encyclopedia International, but Compton's was there in the beginning.  I had believed that the fee plug cue was simply the beginning of "Take Ten" (Juleann's theme) that you rarely heard over the credits since the music was back-timed--and when Art Fleming was a co-host on Mike Douglas, Joe Harnell's band played the fee plug cue for Art's entrance.


--- Quote ---Ach! How could I forget! There was a fifth cue: the curtain cue! That right there fills up a five-slot Mackenzie.
--- End quote ---


Although a post on a moderated radio newsgroup a few years ago seemed to indicate that well into the early 70s NBC was still dubbing music submitted on reel-to-reels to the old "electrical transcription" discs that were used to record programming until magnetic tape came along.  This was to allow the musicians union turntable operators to play them--and the union was still requiring the network to use them.  Tape cartridges could only be used for sound effects or audio/radio news reports.  This pretty much explained to me why original recorded music cues on NBC game shows back then always sounded so muffled compared to the other networks (if they were using commercially-released music, of course the platter spinners played the record).  Consider the source, but it sounds possible.

And this story also confirms to me that if Norm Blumenthal couldn't bring himself to fire Milt Kaye, he could have him do platter spinning on "Concentration," improve the music and perhaps (with whatever other cosmetic changes Lin Bolen wanted) bought himself a few more years on the air.

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