Some of My Favorite Game Shows From The 1970s---Name That Tune and Wheel of Fortune

NAME THAT TUNE

       The house band in that game show was cheesy but it was sad that the credits did not acknowledge the musicians, but it was a setup similar to The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson—-technically a big band, with a brass section, a rhythm section with a drummer in the center, and a

keyboardist with a conductor. In my further research, this seemed almost like an Allyn Ferguson band setup—the band who released the “Barney Miller” theme song (as mentioned earlier).

       Tom Kennedy was famous as a host of the show from 1974-81, and I realized that the voice-over at the time was Jules Harlon (the man who mentioned the game prizes’ and some

of the end credits, etc.), but I did not care about both of these people.

       The structure of the game was a little bit like Family Feud with red

plunger buttons that set off an alarm sound effect just before the contestant answers. The Golden Medley, one of the structured final rounds in that game show, was a little bit like Beat The Clock on another game show, “The Price Is Right”. But what struck me about the game structure was the

vast variety of musical tunes from the pop, easy listening, swing, big-band, and jazz eras that I was exposed to, even if it was not done in the complete versions (some of the songs only lasted 3-15 seconds, and when the plunger sounds, the music stops—so it is a little bit like “musical

chairs”—the game I used to play in Beacon School).

        Kathie Lee Johnson was the most inspiring lady in the game show, setting up the buildup to what Vanna White did later on in another game show, Wheel of Fortune. She was born on August 16, 1953 and was formerly Kathie Lee Epstein, and she joined up with a group called

Pennsylvania’s Next Right before she earned a spot as a singer on Name That Tune.

           Being first raised in a town called Bowie, Maryland (her birthplace), I did not yet know at that time that Kathie was known as the “La La Girl”, on that game show, because when she sings with

the house band, the titles of the songs the contestants need to answer would be replaced by “la la” syllables. In my autistic mind, I secretly called her “The Little Jean” (not just the aforementioned “La La Girl”) —because to me, the name Jean is perceived to me as something with a sense of fullness and extroversion, but at the same time, a strong dose of gentleness. In other words, when she sings the songs, she strongly expresses herself as musically as she can, but in doing this, her dancing was controlled—she dances during some songs, but she doesn’t do it too wildly.  Her vocal style, overall, is a little bit like her being in the Keith Textor Singers and Band—her singing

with the house band was worthy of her being in that band that was famous on Sesame Street, even though she was not appointed to sing for that ensemble. She also reminded me of Karen Carpenter,

a singer and drummer who was famous at that time.

          Regrettably, after 1980, Kathie Lee Johnson was dropped from singing in future Name That Tune episodes, which made me a bit maudlin.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

      In my perceptions, this game show was definitely based on the casino game known as roulette, and add a bit of a twist on solving crossword puzzles and you get the meat of what the game is all about. I have seen this show in the 1970s over 100 times already probably

because I loved all of the variety in it—from the colorful indications of money values on the spinning wheel all the way to that “Eeeeehhhh” buzzer when a contestant utters the wrong letter in the attempt to solve the puzzle. 

      In the movie “Rainman” (with more details in it mentioned later in the book), character Raymond Babbitt was known to recite perfectly the script of the opening mentioned by the voice-over at the start of the Wheel of Fortune game. But I had reluctance to recite the famous open for

the show—unlike the character. I usually wanted to feel much more introvert at that time.  Pat Sajak and Vanna White had run the helm of the show for over 25 years or so, but I do not know why they had been on for so, so long.