Blackout (1988) theme song - Full and Crystal Clear!

Thanks so much to the Winkster himself - Wink Martindale - and composer Chip Lewis for finally unearthing this masterpiece! It's the theme song to the criminally underrated and criminally short-lived CBS game show 'Blackout'!

[@denelson83]

Almost sounds like the theme from the UK version of Blockbusters.

[@JimmySand9]

Such a clever show; though so were all of Jay Wolpert's shows.

[@ChuckD79]

Spent years waiting for a clean, complete copy of this highly underrated theme to surface...many thanks!

[@SigmaRho2922]

Our thoughts and prayers are with Jay Wolpert, who passed away from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 79 on January 3, 2022.

[@HarlemHyena]

My body was not ready for that sax solo. Be it established that Blackout can make you rock out!

[@LeotheTiger1234]

I'm with you; the sax solo was the best part.

[@MadMikeSportsYT]

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone had a Blackout Button? Enjoy this newly-unearthed gem - the theme song to the short-lived CBS game show BLACKOUT!

[@GCBlues45]

It replaced $25,000 Pyramid & the show floped to fill in until Family Feud came CBS brung back Pyramid

[@RadioDon1]

And one could have a field day with that intro...using news actualities of certain well-known celebrities and personalities.

[@SigmaRho2922]

After the blank, Fluttershy decided to blank to the American Red Cross to raise blank for her lost blank.

[@LeotheTiger1234]

@@RadioDon1 Now you've got me wondering why Entertainment Tonight didn't use it (or did they?), because Bob Goen was on that show, too.

[@cutemimi25]

At the IMP headquarters, Loona was blank at Moxxie because he blank her blank so Blitzo got her blank

[@ksonchannel5261]

It would've been nice if Fortune Hunters or Fast Friends being sold they should use this theme instead of Frank Stallone's Far From Over

[@LunchboxKing]

Thanks so much for posting. Never heard the entire track before....5x undefeated Blackout champion checking in!

[@MadMikeSportsYT]

You were a champion on Blackout? SO COOL!

[@cbgmp]

If you can post them I'm sure we'd all love to see them again!

[@mrnmrsifl]

​@@cbgmp One of his shows minus the Clue Screen round is up here on another champion's channel - kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKalma2Cfc9oi5I

[@cbgmp]

@@mrnmrsifl Yup I've seen his channel! :)

[@LeotheTiger1234]

Were you actually a 5-time champion on the show? Amazing! I'll have to look for that!

[@cbgmp]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@drewcox2103]

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone had a blackout button? Well today, The Voice's Blake Shelton and his contestant partner Katie Dunn and Fuller House's and Hallmark actress Candace Cameron Bure and her contestant partner Ed Schafer all have blackout buttons, right here on Blackout! And now here's your host of Blackout...Bob Goen!

[@VahanNisanian]

Everyone says this is based on Frank Stallone's 𝘍𝘢𝘳 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳, but this is actually based on Bob James' 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱.

[@LeotheTiger1234]

Wouldn't it be nice if everybody had a blackout button? Well, today...[insert celebrity's name] and his/her contestant partner [insert name], and [insert second celebrity's name] and his/her contestant partner [insert name] all have blackout buttons, right here on...BLACKOUT! And here is your host, Bob Goen!

[@stedco75]

I loved Jay Wolpert’s game shows. Whew!, Hit Man, and Blackout were all great.

[@MadMikeSportsYT]

Shopping Spree was great, too! That's the one I remember watching the most.

[@donmccullen1973]

@@MadMikeSportsYT and it was Wolpert's most successful show. Ran for two years...unlike the others.

[@tnawcwvictoria]

@@donmccullen1973 and Jay Wolpert also Produced Rodeo Drive for Lifetime Television

[@NerdNest83]

Sorry to say Jay Wolpert died last night. I'm listening to his game show themes now. RIP Jay. You're games were too good for this world.

[@andyleclerc3600]

I always thought of Jay as "The Mad Scientist" of game show ideas (in a good way, of course), because of the creativity behind them.

[@marcpower4167]

This wasn't a bad show, the main reason it had such a short run: CBS canceled pyramid too quick and blackout took the blame as its replacement.

[@donmccullen1973]

Blackout was a placeholder for the Ray Combs era Family Feud.

[@marcpower4167]

@@donmccullen1973 how so? It replaced and was replaced by the $25,000 pyramid.

[@donmccullen1973]

@@marcpower4167 Yes, CBS saw they made a big mistake. They had a plan...the plan was a disaster. Pyramid should have kept going. This Jay Wolpert experiment should have been rejected by CBS Daytime. The weak link in Blackout is the endgame for those who don't know is called the "Clue Screen." It's not consistent unless you think not being able to see the clues is a "blackout" of sorts. Even the Spoilers on Wolpert's Double Dare had a consistency with the front game. Whew's Gauntlet of Villains' was still correcting bloopers, Hit Man's Triple Crown with its filling of broken connect four pieces was retating both topics in the two rounds of the front game. Rodeo Drive was about celberty gossip, and having actors give clues was clevering...still consistent with its front game. Wait Till You Have Kids was also consistant with its end game dealing with child's behavor. And Shopping Spree's Birthday Party was consisant by giving gifts to famous people based on what their job occupations were. Blackout's Clue Screen is just not really consistent

[@marcpower4167]

@@donmccullen1973 I noticed too in later episodes at one contestant found a "hack" for the front game: speaking slowly. It makes it more difficult for your opponent to black out key words.

[@mbclev]

@@donmccullen1973 The bonus game on the original "Chain Reaction" had nothing to do with the main game as well, because it involved forming a question one word at a time (the basis for the game show "Go"), and not using another chain of words (a problem corrected when the show moved to Canada, but uncorrected in some of the 21st-century versions).

[@bodinefan1126]

I feel like there are lyrics that go with this music.

[@SigmaRho2922]

Does anyone remember this theme being used outside of this show other than the ABC miniseries The Stand?

[@SigmaRho2922]

This was partially based on the theme to one of Jay Wolpert’s unsold pilots, Fast Friends.

[@BiffGreggle]

That theme was actually a looped instrumental portion of the song "Far From Over" by...you guessed it...Frank Stallone.

[@bmasters1981]

Opening portion, if I were the announcer and that were on today (just hypothetical, of course): "Wouldn't it be nice if everyone had a Blackout Button? Well, today, Patricia Arquette from Hulu's The Act, and her contestant partner X, and Joey King, also from The Act, and her contestant partner Y, all have Blackout Buttons, right here on...Blackout!" "And now here's the host of Blackout: Bob Goen!"

[@MadMikeSportsYT]

Oh...at timestamp 2:53-3:03... Okay, I have to talk fast because I only have 20 seconds; at any moment, somebody could push the Blackout Button on me. I'm Bob Goen, I'll be hosting an exciting new game show called Blackout, premiering...(BLACKOUT)

[@cutemimi25]

Announcer: This is CBS.

[@tnawcwvictoria]

and 15 months after Blackout was cancelled, Goen would return to CBS Television City and he would find success as the host of the Daytime Version of Wheel of Fortune working alongside Wheel of Fortune Diva Vanna White for 2 years before being axed for good in 1991

[@LeotheTiger1234]

@@tnawcwvictoria Bob's other shows include the Home Shopping Game, Hollywood Connection, and Perfect Match. He kept on Goen (pardon the bad pun) all the way to Entertainment Tonight, and I enjoyed watching him on the Game Show Network in the late 2000s hosting "That's the Question."

[@jrjames99]

And blackout hasn’t even been on other networks as reruns, at least not to my knowledge.

[@mixon270]

Maybe buzzr will bring it back to life

[@jrjames99]

mixon270 would be sweet, I wish they would do scrabble also. Unfortunately, I cannot get Buzzr where I live, Spectrum doesn’t offer it at this time.

[@jrjames99]

Cold Snap I think they do now that I think about it.

[@mrnmrsifl]

These short-run shows would be great for Buzzr Lost & Fun, if they still exist and Fremantle has or gets the rights. Not enough episodes to run daily or even in the twice weekly weekend slots. Scrabble would be killer but they'd have to cut in Hasbro, plus they may not want to put Woolery back on TV given his recent track record.

[@LeotheTiger1234]

@@mrnmrsifl Chuck has been on TV since then, but all I've ever seen him do are commercials and infomercials. One infomercial he did was getting people to invest in gold.

[@Chrisgrove813]

Actually, the music was composed by middle c productions

[@LeoVargas94Oficial]

Actually, the music was composed by Chip Lewis.

[@donmccullen1973]

@@LeoVargas94Oficial Boys, Chip Lewis either worked for middle c or WAS middle c.

[@aaronbruceladner1983]

Wouldn't It Be Nice if Everyone had a "Blackout Button"?

[@tnawcwvictoria]

Blackout was Recorded at CBS Television City in Hollywood the home to Double Dare, Whew!, Daytime Wheel of Fortune with Bob & Vanna White, Nighttime Wheel with Pat & Vanna, The Pat Sajak Show and Rodeo Drive

[@Rlotpir1972]

PLUS The Price is Right, Match Game, Press Your Luck, Child's Play, Tattletales, Body Language, Now You See It, Gambit, Card Sharks '86, The Joker's Wild '72-'75, '90, Tic-Tac-Dough '78, Bullseye '81, and Spinoff.

[@Musicradio77Network]

You got that right! It was the Bob Barker Studio (aka Studio 33).

[@craigfoye6674]

“Stephen King’s The Stand” brought us here during the opening credits

[@donmccullen1973]

How? Was a clip of the show used in the first TV adapt?

[@tnawcwvictoria]

Blackout from Jay Wolpert producer of Double Dare with the late Alex Trebek, Whew! with the late Tom Kennedy, Hitman with the late Peter Tomarken, Rodeo Drive with Louise DuArt, Shopping Spree with Ron Pearson, Wait 'til You Have Kids with Tom Parks and the infamous Match Game with Michael Burger and from Taft Entertainment Television the Co-Producers of You Again? with the late Jack Klugman, John Stamos & Elizabeth Bennett and Throb with Diana Canova of SOAP Bob Goen is one of the most underrated Game Show Hosts, but he did have success after Blackout with the Daytime Version of Wheel of Fortune which was Recorded at CBS Television City in Hollywood the same home to Blackout, I thought that him and Vanna were having so much fun together in the daytime version of the series also, during the time this show was out, Entertainment Tonight (another show in which he was a correspondent and later co-anchor) still had Robb Weller, Mary Hart, John Tesh, Leeza Gibbons and Film Critic Leonard Maltin

[@daviddavenport1485]

Wouldn't it be nice if everybody had a blackout button? Well, today, singer Bebe Rexha and her partner Contestant A, and Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones and her partner Contestant B all have blackout buttons, right here on BLACKOUT! And now, here's the host of Blackout, Howie Mandel!

[@MadMikeSportsYT]

Why not Bob Goen?

[@zachhoran]

Chip Lewis' other game show theme was Rodeo Drive on Lifetime in 1990 for Jay Wolpert

[@andyleclerc3600]

Yep...definitely musical connective tissue between the two pieces. Both great!