Whew! (found soundtrack of CBS game show; late 1970s)

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The show's logo.

Status: Partially Lost

Whew! was an American game show created by Jay Wolpert that aired on CBS from April 23rd, 1979 to May 30th, 1980, and was hosted by Tom Kennedy. The show is notable for its unique format and animated intro created by Hanna-Barbera. The object of the show is that two contestants go head to head to correct "bloopers" in a variety of statements (ex: A favorite accordion song goes "Lady Of Spain, I Abhor You" Correct answer: Adore). The show wasn't very popular during its airtime but would build a cult following in the years to come.

Background

The show's soundtrack was composed by the late Alan Thicke who also did the themes for Wheel Of Fortune, The Joker's Wild, The Wizard Of Odd's, Stumpers, Blank Check, The Diamond Head Game, and many more. The soundtrack is another thing why the show is so memorable.

Availability

The show's entire soundtrack has never been heard since the show's cancellation although numerous stitches and recreations of the soundtrack have circulated throughout the years,[1] most notably the closing theme to the show was uploaded to YouTube by user Thewhammy83 on June 27th, 2010. Alan Thicke not only said he doesn't remember the show but also that he doesn't have the soundtrack in his possession. The show's executive producer Burt Sugarman also doesn't have a copy of the soundtrack, but confirmed he has all 247 episodes of the show.[2] There were rumors floating around that Thicke destroyed the master reels of the soundtrack after an ugly divorce,[3] but the rumor has never been confirmed.

In late 2012, the Museum of Television Production Music announced that they have found the entire soundtrack and posted a picture on their website of the soundtrack's reels and tracklist.[4] They restored it and made it available to their yearly subscribers as a renewal gift for a limited time until mid-2013.

The soundtrack was used as part of a charity live stream called "24 Hour Game Show Marathon 2" on May 18th, 2013 in which 24 of the greatest game shows of all time were played for 24 hours straight. Whew! was part of the lineup and the charity organizers were allowed to use the soundtrack from the show. The footage of Whew! being played was uploaded to YouTube by user Pacdude Games on May 21st. They played Whew! again in 2014 but the only footage from that run of Whew! was silent and sped up, but it could be possible that the soundtrack was used. The theme was also used as a remix of "X Gon' Give It to Ya" called "X Gon' Whew It To Ya" that was uploaded to SoundCloud also by Pacdude Games in 2014.

The only way the entire soundtrack could see the light of day is if any of the Museum Of Television Production Music's yearly subscribers got a copy when it was available to the public.

On September 13, 2020, Lost Media Wikia user Comedyfan74 used a website called PhonicMind.com to remove the vocals from X Gon' Whew It To Ya leaving just the instrumental that is basically the Full Open. It was uploaded to the Internet Archive two days later.

Tracklist

1. Full Open

2. Full Close

3. Long Win #1

4. Long Win #2

5. Short Win

6. Small Prize

7. Prize Bed (Rock Vamp)

8. Contestant Entrance Vamp #1

9. Contestant Entrance Vamp #2

10. Contestant Entrance Vamp #3

11. Contestant Entrance Vamp #4

12. Unused Vamp #1

13. Unused Vamp #2

14. Unused Vamp #3

15. Unused Vamp #4

Gallery

Stiched version of the closing theme by thewhammy83.

Whew being played at the 24 Hour Game Show Marathon with the soundtrack being used.

Comedyfan74's unofficial version of the theme.

References