History Series / NameThatTune

* LicensedGame:
** Milton Bradley came out with two editions in the late 1950s (during the original version's run on CBS). The game was actually a reformatted Bingo game, with the names of songs replacing the familiar numbers on players' Bingo cards. The designated emcee played a record (that was included with the game), and the players had to mark their cards with tokens when they recognized the song being played. The first player to get five-in-a-row won. The song selection was a mix of then-recent hits, old standards, folk songs and classical "pops" that would be reasonably familiar to the average late 1950s teen or adult (no rock-and-roll hits were included) but are now mostly obscure for those not knowledgeable about that era of music.
** Imagination Games released a DVD game in 2005 with 1980s tunes, which were familiar to most at the time of release (and still are as of 2021) thanks to frequent nostalgia airplay.

* SuddenDeath: Season 3 of the 2021 revival revealed what happens if the game is tied at the end of the Bid-a-Note round. Rather than doing another round of this, instead a song is played with lyrics. If one of the contestants thinks they know the correct answer, they can buzz in. If they get it right, they win. However, if they either get it wrong or don't answer, then it's an automatic win for their opponent, without the opponent having to even attempt to answer.

After several failed attempts at a revival, Creator/{{Fox}} acquired a new primetime version in November 2020 for a January 2021 premiere, hosted by Creator/JaneKrakowski with a $100,000 grand prize, and unusually filmed in Australia. It was renewed for a second season, which moved to Ireland. A third season began airing in 2023. All episodes of this season feature celebrities playing for charity.

* BonusRound: The Golden Medley, in which the contestant had to identify seven tunes in 30 seconds. Oh, by the way, [[OneHitPointWonder one miss ends the game]], though this rule is dropped in the celebrity edition of the 2021 revival, as contestants are playing for charity. Also the Mystery Tune, which was played up in a suspenseful (and [[Series/DealOrNoDeal not-cutting-to-commercial-halfway-through-the-big-reveal]]) manner. Here's how suspenseful the Mystery Tune was. The contestant slated to play it waited in a room backstage with a locked safe that held a carousel loaded with dozens of manila envelopes. Each envelope held the sheet music for a song (with a piece of tape covering the title) and a smaller envelope containing the correct title and some details about the song. A security guard opened the safe, and one envelope was chosen (by the producers in the 1976-77 season, by the contestants in 1977-78). The guard handed it to Tom, then escorted the contestant onto the stage; Tom gave the sheet music to the show's pianist and kept the inner envelope for himself. The contestant was placed in an [[SoundproofBooth isolation booth]], and could only hear Tom and the piano. The pianist played the song for 20 seconds, then stopped; the contestant then had 10 seconds to offer one guess, which was tape-recorded. They were then brought out of the booth, and Tom read the background information and any appropriate writing and performing credits for the tune. The contestant's guess was played back, and Tom read off the correct title. If the contestant had it exactly right, they won a huge (for the time) cash prize — $10,000 a year for a decade on the nighttime show, a flat $25,000 on the '77 daytime show.

* BonusSpace: The DOUBLE and CAR (later PRIZE) spaces on the "outer" Melody Roulette wheel.

* BonusRound: The Golden Medley, in which the contestant had to identify seven tunes in 30 seconds. Oh, by the way, [[OneHitPointWonder one miss ends the game]], though this rule is dropped in the celebrity edition of the 2021 revival, as contestants are playing for charity. Also the Mystery Tune, which was played up in a suspenseful (and [[Series/DealOrNoDeal not-cutting-to-commercial-halfway-through-the-big-reveal]]) manner. Here's how suspenseful the Mystery Tune was. The contestant slated to play it waited in a room backstage with a locked safe that held a carousel loaded with dozens of manila envelopes. Each envelope held the sheet music for a song (with a piece of tape covering the title) and a smaller envelope containing the correct title and some details about the song. A security guard opened the safe, and one envelope was chosen (by the producers in the 1976-77 season, by the contestants in 1977-78). The guard handed it to Tom, then escorted the contestant onto the stage; Tom gave the sheet music to the show's pianist and kept the inner envelope for himself. The contestant was placed in an isolation booth, and could only hear Tom and the piano. The pianist played the song for 20 seconds, then stopped; the contestant then had 10 seconds to offer one guess, which was tape-recorded. They were then brought out of the booth, and Tom read the background information and any appropriate writing and performing credits for the tune. The contestant's guess was played back, and Tom read off the correct title. If the contestant had it exactly right, they won a huge (for the time) cash prize — $10,000 a year for a decade on the nighttime show, a flat $25,000 on the '77 daytime show.

* BonusRound: The Golden Medley, in which the contestant had to identify seven tunes in 30 seconds. Oh, by the way, [[OneHitPointWonder one miss ends the game]]. Also the Mystery Tune, which was played up in a suspenseful (and [[Series/DealOrNoDeal not-cutting-to-commercial-halfway-through-the-big-reveal]]) manner. Here's how suspenseful the Mystery Tune was. The contestant slated to play it waited in a room backstage with a locked safe that held a carousel loaded with dozens of manila envelopes. Each envelope held the sheet music for a song (with a piece of tape covering the title) and a smaller envelope containing the correct title and some details about the song. A security guard opened the safe, and one envelope was chosen (by the producers in the 1976-77 season, by the contestants in 1977-78). The guard handed it to Tom, then escorted the contestant onto the stage; Tom gave the sheet music to the show's pianist and kept the inner envelope for himself. The contestant was placed in an isolation booth, and could only hear Tom and the piano. The pianist played the song for 20 seconds, then stopped; the contestant then had 10 seconds to offer one guess, which was tape-recorded. They were then brought out of the booth, and Tom read the background information and any appropriate writing and performing credits for the tune. The contestant's guess was played back, and Tom read off the correct title. If the contestant had it exactly right, they won a huge (for the time) cash prize — $10,000 a year for a decade on the nighttime show, a flat $25,000 on the '77 daytime show.

* {{Auction}}: In "Bid-A-Note", given a clue, the contestants perform a reverse auction to bid on how ''few'' notes they need to identify a tune, starting at seven notes. It ends when a contestant is told to [[TitleDrop name that tune]] by their opponent or bid down to one note, though the opponent could one-up them by bidding ''no'' notes. The winning bidder hears the note(s), if any, before giving an answer. In the earlier eras of the series, Bid-a-Note was played with a first-to-three format, and a wrong answer handed the point to the opponent by default. The 2021 version starts bids at 10 notes, and plays three-to-four tunes for increasing cash amounts, starting at $10,000 ($5,000 in season 2) and increasing by $5,000 for each; if the player who won the bid gets it wrong, the other player gets to hear all 10 notes (no money by default here). The highest-scoring contestant after the round wins the game and advances to the Golden Medley.

After several failed attempts at a revival, Creator/{{Fox}} acquired a new primetime version in November 2020 for a January 2021 premiere, hosted by Creator/JaneKrakowski with a $100,000 grand prize, and unusually filmed in Australia. It was renewed for a second season, which moved to Ireland.

** The 2021 version: The contestant wins $10,000 for each of the first six correct responses and $40,000 for the seventh, for a top prize of $100,000. They may pass on a tune and return to it after hearing all seven if time permits.

* {{Auction}}: In "Bid-A-Note", given a clue, the contestants perform a reverse auction to bid on how ''few'' notes they need to identify a tune, starting at seven notes. It ends when a contestant is told to [[TitleDrop name that tune]] by their opponent or bid down to one note, though the opponent could one-up them by bidding ''no'' notes. The winning bidder hears the note(s), if any, before giving an answer. In the earlier eras of the series, Bid-a-Note was played with a first-to-three format, and a wrong answer handed the point to the opponent by default. The 2021 version starts bids at 10 notes, and plays three-to-four tunes for increasing cash amounts, starting at $10,000 and increasing by $5,000 for each; if the player who won the bid gets it wrong, the other player gets to hear all 10 notes (no money by default here). The highest-scoring contestant after the round wins the game and advances to the Golden Medley.

After several failed attempts at a revival, Creator/{{Fox}} acquired a new primetime version in November 2020 for a January 2021 premiere, hosted by Creator/JaneKrakowski with a $100,000 grand prize, and unusually filmed in Australia. It was renewed for a second season, which is moving to Ireland.

* LimitedWardrobe: Many fans have made it clear that "Name that Tune" worked much better as a weekly show as opposed to a daily show, primarily due to the fact that unlike Jeopardy! or Wheel of Fortune, there is a finite number of songs that could be featured on the show, since there are only so many recognizable tunes that people have heard of. And since one daily episode of the 1984 version (to use one example) could feature up to 29 tunes (seven in melody roulette, five in Tommy Oliver's tune topics, five in Bid-A-Note, and seven in the Golden Medley), or 145 different songs every week, the same songs were bound to crop up many times. As game show expert Steve Beverly once put it "you know there was a problem when the daytime version used 'Bali H'ai!' at least once every week."

After several failed attempts at a revival, Creator/{{Fox}} acquired a new primetime version in November 2020 for a January 2021 premiere, hosted by Creator/JaneKrakowski. Due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, it is being filmed in Australia with Americans living in the country as contestants. It is based on the 1970s format, with contestants playing for cash and a chance to win up to $100,000 in the Golden Medley bonus round.

* LicensedGame: Milton Bradley came out with two editions in the late 1950s (during the original version's run on CBS). The game was actually a reformatted Bingo game, with the names of songs replacing the familiar numbers on players' Bingo cards. The designated emcee played a record (that was included with the game), and the players had to mark their cards with tokens when they recognized the song being played. The first player to get five-in-a-row won.
** This is an example of both SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames and TheProblemWithLicensedGames. The "no problem" was when the game was originally sold in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as there were many popular music songs that had recently been popular included in the game (along with songs from other genres, including children's, holiday, religious, patriotic, folk and traditional, and classical). The problem lie in what happened in the years following: Even into the 1970s, there were likely a lot of people who, if they came across this game, could play and do reasonably well because the pop songs were recent enough, but today, in the early 2020s, unless you are in your late 70s or older and know your music, or were a genuine music expert, few people are likely to know the pop music songs making up a significant part of the game, thus making the game of very little interest to anyone but collectors.
** The "no problem" aspect comes back into play with Imagination Games' DVD game that includes all 1980s tunes ... to wit, songs almost everyone younger than 50 (the intended demographic) have heard many times.

After several failed attempts at a revival, Creator/{{Fox}} acquired a new primetime version in November 2020 for a January 2021 premiere, hosted by Creator/JaneKrakowski. Unusually, it is being filmed in Australia with Americans living in the country as contestants. It is based on the 1970s format, with contestants playing for cash and a chance to win up to $100,000 in the Golden Medley bonus round.

!!GameShowTropes in use:

* BonusRound: The Golden Medley, in which the contestant had to identify seven tunes in 30 seconds. Oh, by the way, [[OneHitPointWonder one miss ends the game]]. Also the Mystery Tune, which was played up in a suspenseful (and [[Series/DealOrNoDeal not-cutting-to-commercial-halfway-through-the-big-reveal]]) manner.
** Here's how suspenseful the Mystery Tune was. The contestant slated to play it waited in a room backstage with a locked safe that held a carousel loaded with dozens of manila envelopes. Each envelope held the sheet music for a song (with a piece of tape covering the title) and a smaller envelope containing the correct title and some details about the song. A security guard opened the safe, and one envelope was chosen (by the producers in the 1976-77 season, by the contestants in 1977-78). The guard handed it to Tom, then escorted the contestant onto the stage; Tom gave the sheet music to the show's pianist and kept the inner envelope for himself. The contestant was placed in an isolation booth, and could only hear Tom and the piano. The pianist played the song for 20 seconds, then stopped; the contestant then had 10 seconds to offer one guess, which was tape-recorded. They were then brought out of the booth, and Tom read the background information and any appropriate writing and performing credits for the tune. The contestant's guess was played back, and Tom read off the correct title. If the contestant had it exactly right, they won a huge (for the time) cash prize — $10,000 a year for a decade on the nighttime show, a flat $25,000 on the '77 daytime show.

* GoldenSnitch: The 1-1-2 variant. Could become a 1-2-4 (or similar) in the Kennedy era, since in the first two rounds, a tie was possible if one or more tunes were missed by both players, then they split the points.

* Personnel:
** TheAnnouncer: Johnny Olson during at least the tail end of the 1950s run, John Harlan (in his most famous announcing role aside from perhaps ''Series/AmericanGladiators'') from 1974 to 1985. [[Series/AmericanIdol Randy Jackson]] serves as bandleader and announcer for the 2021 version.
** GameShowHost: Red Benson, Creator/BillCullen, George [=DeWitt=], Richard Hayes, Dennis James, Tom Kennedy (above), Jim Lange. Peter Allen hosted an unsold pilot around 1990, and Bob Goen hosted the 1994 [=CDi=] game based off that pilot. Creator/JaneKrakowski hosts the 2021 version
** LovelyAssistant: Kathie Lee Johnson/Gifford, to an extent, in the 1977-78 season. Jackson also plays this role to an extent on the 2021 version, often chiming in as a sidekick for Krakowski.
** StudioAudience
** Featured singers, including Steve March and Monica Burris (above), Dan Younger.
** The "$100,000 Pianist": Joseph Harnell or Michel Mencien.
** And the "Name That Tune Orchestra", led by Tommy Oliver (not [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers that one]]), Stan Worth (above), and Harry Salter.
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!!This show provides examples of:
* AffectionateParody: The late-night talk show ''Series/{{Conan}}'' did an AudienceGame[=/=]sketch called ''Basic Cable Name That Tune'', where the show couldn't afford the rights to play the original songs, so the contestants had to guess the song that the band and homeless lounge singer Brian [=LaFontaine=] were performing a [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong suspiciously similar version]] of.
* {{Auction}}: In "Bid-A-Note", given a clue, the contestants perform a reverse auction to bid on how ''few'' notes they need to identify a tune, starting at seven notes. It ends when a contestant is told to [[TitleDrop name that tune]] by their opponent or bid down to one note, though the opponent could one-up them by bidding ''no'' notes. The winning bidder hears the note(s), if any, before giving an answer. In the earlier eras of the series, Bid-a-Note was played with a first-to-three format, and a wrong answer handed the point to the opponent by default. The 2021 version starts bids at 10 notes, and plays three-to-four tunes for increasing cash amounts, starting at $10,000 and increasing by $5,000 for each; if the player who won the bid gets it wrong, the other player gets to hear all 10 notes (no money by default here). The highest-scoring contestant after the round wins the game and advances to the Golden Medley.
* CatchPhrase: "I can [[TitleDrop name that tune]] in ''X'' notes."
* ContentWarnings: Parodied with one of the promotional posters for the 2021 revival, which states "Viewer Advisory: No Lyrics!"[[note]]Though this isn't strictly true - lyrics are used in the first round, but dropped for the bid-a-note round and the bonus round.[[/note]]
* CurbStompBattle: The finals of a 1984 $100,000 Tournament had Michael Langmay and Hap Trout in a head-to-head Golden Medley Showdown. The final score: 16 to 4! Michael simply destroyed Hap, often naming tunes after just one or two notes had been played. You could see Hap just giving up midway through, waiting for the whole thing to be over with.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The show's title tells the contestants exactly what they're supposed to do. In the 1950s, 1971, and 1974, one had to not only know the tune but also be the first to ring a bell at the opposite end of the stage.
** In fact it was used that way in the Kennedy version. He would regularly say "(Contestant name), listen, and [[TitleDrop Name.....that.....tune...]]."
* FiveEpisodePilot: The Lange version had this, which ended up airing at some point. The pilots had several notable set differences, and "Tune Countdown" (basically a Golden Medley Showdown, but with only 20 seconds on the clock) was played instead of "Tune Topics".

''For the trope that used to be called "Name That Tune", see ThemeTuneCameo.''

** LovelyAssistant: Kathie Lee Johnson/Gifford, to an extent, in the 1977-78 season.

* FiveEpisodePilot: The Lange version had this, which ended up airing at some point. The pilots had several notable set differences, and "Tune Countdown" (basically a shortened Golden Medley Showdown with only 20 seconds on the clock) was played instead of "Tune Topics".

* {{Auction}}: In "Bid-A-Note", given a clue, the contestants perform a reverse auction to bid on how ''few'' notes they need to identify a tune, starting at seven notes. It ends when a contestant is told to [[TitleDrop name that tune]] by their opponent or bid down to one note, though the opponent could one-up them by bidding ''no'' notes. The winning bidder hears the note(s), if any, before giving an answer. In the earlier eras of the series, Bid-a-Note was played with a first-to-three format. The 2021 version starts bids at 10 notes, and plays three-to-four tunes for increasing cash amounts, starting at $10,000 and increasing by $5,000 for each. The highest-scoring contestant after the round wins the game and advances to the Golden Medley.

* FiveEpisodePilot: The Lange version had this, which ended up airing at some point. The pilots had several notable set differences, and "Tune Countdown" (basically a shortened Golden Medley Showdown) was played instead of "Tune Topics".

* {{Auction}}: In "Bid-A-Note" the contestants had to do a reverse auction and bid on how ''few'' notes they needed to identify a tune and its clue, starting at seven notes. It ended when a contestant was told "Name That Tune" by their opponent or bid down to one note, though the opponent could one-up them by bidding ''no'' notes. The winning bidder got to hear a clue and the note(s), if any, before giving an answer. If it was right, they won a tune, if not, the opponent did. Three tunes won Bid-A-Note.
** The 2021 revival had the contestants play for cash, not tunes. So if a contestant got it wrong, the opponent got to hear TEN notes for a chance to win the cash by THEN correctly naming that tune.

* MinigameGame: The 1974-85 versions turned the main game into one, with games such as Melody Roulette (typically the opening round, where a two-part wheel was spun to determine a dollar amount and potential bonus), and the Money Tree ($100 in bills on a fake tree, the opponent plucked money off it while the player tried to guess, whoever had more left won the round; discontinued mainly because Kennedy thought it felt too greedy). The Dennis James version also had a game emulating the format of the 1950s and '71 versions, where players raced to ring a bell to get a chance to guess. The 1976 Kennedy daytime run, meanwhile, had a few exclusive to that run: Build-A-Tune, where only one member of the orchestra would start playing the tune and gradually the rest would join in; Pick-A-Prize, where the contestants would compete to name tunes and pick different prizes; and Cassette Roulette, where Tom would pick music cassettes out of a rotating drum. The final round was always Bid-A-Note, the game ''everyone'' remembers. The 2021 version has a similar structure, with a theme-based round of toss-ups played first, followed by Bid-a-Note.

* ConfettiDrop: Confetti, balloons and streamers were dropped after $100,000 wins on the Lange version. The massive amounts of them that dropped, however, meant that viewers couldn't see much of what was happening onstage. Seriously, there was ''so much'', it was practically an ''avalanche'' of balloons and confetti.

** TheAnnouncer: Johnny Olson during at least the tail end of the 1950s run, John Harlan (in his most famous announcing role aside from perhaps ''Series/AmericanGladiators'') from 1974 to 1985.
** GameShowHost: Red Benson, Creator/BillCullen, George [=DeWitt=], Richard Hayes, Dennis James, Tom Kennedy (above), Jim Lange. Peter Allen hosted an unsold pilot around 1990, and Bob Goen hosted the 1994 [=CDi=] game based off that pilot.

* MinigameGame: The 1974-85 versions turned the main game into one, with games such as Melody Roulette (where a two-part wheel was spun to determine a dollar amount and potential bonus), Bid-A-Note (the game ''everyone'' remembers), and the Money Tree ($100 in bills on a fake tree, the opponent plucked money off it while the player tried to guess, whoever had more left won the round; discontinued mainly because Kennedy thought it felt too greedy). The Dennis James version also had a game emulating the format of the 1950s and '71 versions, where players raced to ring a bell to get a chance to guess. The 1976 Kennedy daytime run, meanwhile, had a few exclusive to that run: Build-A-Tune, where only one member of the orchestra would start playing the tune and gradually the rest would join in; Pick-A-Prize, where the contestants would compete to name tunes and pick different prizes; and Cassette Roulette, where Tom would pick music cassettes out of a rotating drum.
* SelfDeprecation: After wrapping production on the 1976-77 season (the first with the $100,000 top prize), the staff produced [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTcb7OgoCFk an extra 40-minute episode]] that's either a very disturbing look at a television classic or one of the most magnificent "gag reels" ever. Using the show's set and props, Kennedy and the staff poked fun at the quiz show scandals, made tons of [[RefugeInAudacity bawdy]] and [[CrossesTheLineTwice line-crossing jokes]], gave away wildly-fluctuating amounts of cash, and had men in drag modeling crappy prizes. Notable among the rampant anarchy is the fact that this was the very last time the show used the Money Trees — they were removed from the format when tapings began for the 1977-78 season.

After several failed attempts at a revival, Creator/{{Fox}} acquired a new primetime version in November 2020 for a January 2021 premiere, hosted by Creator/JaneKrakowski. Unusually, it is being filmed in Australia with Americans living in the country as contestants. It is based on the 1970s format, with contestants playing for cash and a chance to win up to $100,000 in the Golden Medley bonsu round.