Dough Re Mi

Dough Re Mi was an American game show that aired on NBC from February 24, 1958, to December 30, 1960.[1] The series was hosted by Gene Rayburn and was somewhat of an answer to CBS' Name That Tune, which began in 1953.

For other uses, see Do Re Mi (disambiguation).
Dough Re Mi
Created byJack Barry
Dan Enright
Directed byTed Nathanson
Dick Schneider
Dick Auerbach
Presented byGene Rayburn
Narrated byRoger Tuttle
Wayne Howell
ComposerPaul Taubman (Music Director)
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes620
Production
Executive producersRobert Noah
Ed Pierce
ProducersHugh Branigan
Fred Stettner
Production locationsNBC Studios
New York, New York
Running time30 Minutes
Production companiesBarry & Enright Productions (1958)
NBC Productions (1958-1960)
Release
Original networkNBC
Original releaseFebruary 24, 1958 (1958-02-24) –
December 30, 1960 (1960-12-30)

Among those who substituted for Rayburn during the run were Jack Barry (prior to the scandals pushing him out of television), announcer Roger Tuttle, Dayton Allen, Keefe Brasselle, and Fred Robbins.

Game play

Three contestants competed to identify song titles using the first few notes. Each game consisted of three songs worth $100, $300, and $500, respectively. The contestants were each given a $200 bankroll to start the game. In each round, each contestant was given one opportunity to guess the title of the song after the first three notes were played. If the song title was guessed correctly, the contestant won the value of the song.

If nobody could identify the song, the fourth note was then put up for bid in a similar format to The Price is Right. Each player, one at a time, would take turns bidding any amount of their bankrolls until either a bell rang or all players had stopped bidding.

The first four notes were then played for the contestant with the highest bid. If the song title was guessed correctly, the contestant won the value of the song. If the title was guessed incorrectly, the contestant could recoup by challenging their opponents. If the challenged player could not guess the title of the song, the challenger lost half of their bid and bidding started for the fifth note, and so on. However, if the challenged player correctly guessed the title, the challenger lost their entire bid and the challenged player won the value of the song.

The player with the most money in their bankroll following the third song won the game.

This show also had a home audience participation segment wherein on Mondays two notes were played for the home audience to try and guess the song and send in a Postcard with that title. On Tuesday they would play three notes for the same purpose and continue through the week. The following week a prize was awarded by selecting a winning Postcard.

Celebrities

Occasionally, celebrities would appear and play the game for charity. Among the celebrities who appeared were Lou Costello, Florence Henderson, Jaye P. Morgan, and Peter Marshall.[2]

Scandal

Partly due to being developed by Jack Barry and Dan Enright, Dough Re Mi was one of the games caught in the quiz show scandals. Like Barry & Enright's Concentration, the show was bought by NBC and became an in-house production.[3]

Home Game

A board game, complete with an eight-key xylophone, was released in 1960 by Lowell Toy Mfg. Since its release, the game has become very hard to find – a copy complete with the xylophone is both very rare and, when a complete copy surfaces, very expensive.

Episode Status

Dough Re Mi is believed to have been wiped due to network policies of the era; however, this is uncertain since Concentration has been reported to be intact. No episodes are known to exist; however, a clip of the intro to the program can be viewed on YouTube.

References
  1. Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. p. 133. ISBN 978-0823083152. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  2. Schwartz, D., Ryan, S., & Wostbrock, F. (1999). The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows (3rd ed.). New York: Checkmark.
  3. Shepard, Richard F. (October 4, 1958) N.B.C. Takes Over 4 TV Quiz Shows; Barry & Enright Yielding Reins to Devote Time to Disproving "Fix" Charges. The New York Times
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