Games - Face The Music

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	Games - Face The Music

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, things, etc.

"Face the Music" was hosted by Ron Ely, best known for his TV role as Tarzan. The show also featured the Tommy Oliver Orchestra and vocalist Lisa Donovan. Dave Williams was the announcer for much of the series' run; during the second season, he was replaced by John Harlan and Art James.

The show was produced by Sandy Frank Productions.

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.

The Main Game

Round 1 – The contestants are shown six pictures of famous people (or, sometimes places). 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. An incorrect song title disqualified that contestant from the next song.

Round 2 – Songs were played as 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 earned 20 points.

When time expired for this round (generally, five minutes), the lowest-scoring contestant was eliminated. In the event of a tie for second place, a shortened version of Round 1 was played, with three faces and the first correct answer earning the right to move on to Round 3.

Round 3 – Same as Round 2 except correct answers are worth 30 points & the player whom guessed an incorrect song title gives the opposing player a chance to answer. 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.

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 a certain amount of time 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, 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.

Trivia

Despite its relatively short run, "Face the Music" was frequently rerun for many years on cable networks – most notably the USA Network and The Family Channel.

:The show gained a cult following during its mid-1990s run on The Family Channel, particularly by the fledgling online game show fan base. Several Web pages often provided commentary lampooning the show's production values (such as choppy editing and set lighting breakdowns), Ely's interaction with contestants, wacky contestant behavior, and so on.

Every episode started with a tease for that show's championship round, a graphic reading SANDY FRANK PRESENTS, and a taped wide shot of the studio that would "flip" onto the screen. In early episodes, this caused a continuity problem -- the set shown was from the pilot, which was slightly different than the actual set used in the series.

Unlike the similar "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 after the title had been given away!

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Face The Music (game show) ]

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