(hard rock music with videos shown)
This is...
SHOW: NAME THAT VIDEO
AIR DATES: March 12, 2001 to June ??, 2001
CREATOR: Sandy Frank Entertainment; Broadway Video
HOST: Karyn Bryant
WATCH IT AT: YouTube
Before Viacom bought the rights to "Hollywood Squares" and made it "Hip
Hop" on MTV2 in 2012, Sandy Frank (of SO many MST3K movie fodder infamy)
pitched his old hit, "Name That Tune" to them to see if he couldn't
update it for modern audiences. But, let's face it, no one (not even
VH1's slightly older audience) wanted to listen to Tommy Oliver and his
orchestra play the oldies anymore. And, for some reason, the band for
"Turn It Up" (see next GGB...) didn't want to reunite. So the only thing
to do was introduce music videos from the last twenty-plus years and
build the show around THAT. The result was "Name That Video". No "Melody
Roulette", no "Tune Topics", no "Build-a-Tune"...just a gerry-rigged
version of "Bid-a-Note", a ridiculous first round and a bonus round with
the most slapdash "catch-phrase" ever in game show history: "Get all ten
of these and you win the keys."
HOW WAS IT PLAYED?
ROUND 1
Three players start the game. They play a game with three different
categories. Each category shows a specific artist or group. A contestant
(chosen at random before the show) picks a category and a toss-up
question (usually accompanied by a video) is asked of the contestants.
Whoever buzzes-in with the right answer gets 100 points and picks the
next category (the artist of the category just played is replaced until
about five different artists are played, causing the category to be out
of play for the rest of the round). A wrong answer subtracts 100 points
and gives the opponents a chance. The categories are:
FINISH THE PHRASE: When the video is paused, the contestants must give
the correct line afterwards (like "Sing Along With Colin" on "Remote
Control").
SAY IT AGAIN: Lyrics difficult to decipher are played twice and
contestants must choose from a multiple-choice list to find the correct
lyrics.
SPOKEN WORD: Lyrics are shown WITHOUT the accompanying video and
contestants must guess the song.
ROCK RHYMES: The writers rewrite a lyric and the contestant must give
the ORIGINAL lyric.
One category shows a "Mystery Artist" which is worth +/- 200 points. At
the end of the timed round, the two with the highest point totals
advance.
ROUND 2 ("BID-A-VID")
Similar to "Bid-a-Note", save with videos instead of a piano. The
contestants are shown seven categories (which give a clue to the artists
in the videos) The contestant who led in Round 1 chooses one and a clue
to the song is shown. (For example: the category could be "Friends of
Gadget" and the song clue could be "Getaway"). The one who chose the
category then starts the bidding on how many seconds of video viewing it
would take to "name that video" (maximum of seven seconds). When a
contestant is asked to "name that video" or bids just one second, they
are shown the video. If they get it right (both artist AND song title),
they win a point; otherwise the opponent does. They, of course, can use
the category and clue to help. (In the example, it's the Go-Gos and
"Vacation".) First to three points is the champion. However, a third
point CANNOT be won by default; if the opponent cannot name it, the one
that can win is shown the full seven seconds of video and must answer it
right to win.
BONUS ROUND
Like the "Golden Medley", the contestant must now name ten videos in 60
seconds or less (also like the bonus game of "Remote Control"). They are
shown the number of the video (like the number of each tune in "Medley")
so they can keep track. They can pass to the next one but cannot return
to it until it comes up in the sequence. Each right video nets $500 for
the champion. Guessing all ten before time runs out gets the contestant
a Toyota 4Runner and VH1's 100 Greatest Rock Albums CD Collection.
WHAT WORKED?
I guess the set was all right for the show. Must've been a pain during
the first round to constantly slide those small monitors out of the way
so the videos can be seen on the wall behind them. The set was really
minimalist...which worked for a show that was trying to give away a car
every day.
The extra trivia about the videos WERE interesting. This was like
"Pop-Up Video" if the "pops" were narrated...which I'll admit to doing
when I watched that.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK?
Something like the first round should NOT have a "Name That..." title
upon it. I understand that they had to justify putting videos into a
game show like this but...I guess I'm just old-fashioned. I wanted to
SEE "Melody Roulette" and the other games I remembered with Tom Kennedy
and Jim Lange.
Say what you will about "Name That Tune" but you actually had to KNOW
your music to win. The "Bid-A-Vid" made it a BIT too easy in my opinion
to work out the artist and video. I mean, sure, it wasn't easy ANYway
but...c'mon! If you're gonna give away a car, make them WORK for it.
If I had to describe Karyn Bryan's work on this show, I can only
describe it as, "Ehhhhhhh". She wasn't BAD...but she wasn't all that
great, either. It's good that she went on to other shows like "Junkyard
Wars" and "Showbiz Tonight" but...it's like they picked her just because
she had a few shows on MTV beforehand.
Seriously? "Get all ten of these and you win the keys"?! THAT'S the best
they could come up with?! Oy...
WOULD IT WORK TODAY?
Dunno, really. I mean...I guess VH1
or BET could give it a shot but...it doesn't look like it would fly to
me these days. Name That Tune is a success in Poland, Russia and Armenia
and is just starting again in Indonesia...but I don't see anyone
clamoring for its return in the US, even in video format. And, given the
LACK of music videos on TV lately, who would even KNOW what they were?
Yeah, nice try, Sandy...but let's just see of "Face the Music" comes
back before pitching something like THIS again.
NEXT TIME: Where
rock 'n' roll FIRST met "Jeopardy!".
Chris Wolvie admits to knowing TOO much about music videos.
Follow him on Twitter
@ChrisWolvie
and e-mail him at
chriswolvie@yahoo.com. |
