Reach for the Stars (game show)

Last updated
Reach for the Stars
GenreGame Show
Created by Merv Griffin
Directed by Gilbert Cates
Presented by Bill Mazer
Narrated byChet Gould
Wayne Howell (substitute)
Theme music composer Horst Jankowski
Opening themeA Walk in the Black Forest by Herb Alpert
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes65
Original release
Network NBC
ReleaseJanuary 2 (1967-01-02) 
March 31, 1967 (1967-03-31)

Reach for the Stars was an American game show which briefly aired on NBC weekday mornings at 10:00 beginning January 2, 1967 for a total of 65 episodes. The show was produced by Merv Griffin Productions at NBC's New York studios and was hosted by Bill Mazer.

Contents

Gameplay

Like most games of the period, contestants played for the fulfillment of a dream via a series of trivia questions and stunts. A correct answer allowed a contestant to "reach for a star" on a game board; a wrong answer meant the loss of the star.

Theme music

In a move similar to the early version of The Match Game with its Bert Kaempfert-performed theme and Eye Guess with its Al Hirt-performed theme, Reach for the Stars looked to the popular music charts of the day for its theme. The eventual theme, the Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass version of Horst Jankowski's A Walk in The Black Forest, had been released two years before on the Going Places album.


Related Research Articles

<i>Hollywood Squares</i> American television game show

Hollywood Squares is an American game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show piloted on NBC in 1965 and the regular series debuted in 1966 on the same network. The board for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions by the host and the contestants judge the truth of their answers to gain squares in the right pattern to win the game.

<i>Match Game</i> American television game show

Match Game is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and has been revived several times over the course of the last six decades. The game features contestants trying to match answers given by celebrity panelists to fill-in-the-blank questions. Beginning with the CBS run of the 1970s, the questions are often formed as humorous double entendres.

<i>Password</i> (American game show) American television game show

Password is an American television game show in which two teams, each composed of a celebrity player and a contestant, attempt to convey mystery words to each other using only single-word clues, in order to win cash prizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howie Mandel</span> Canadian actor and comedian (born 1955)

Howard Michael Mandel is a Canadian comedian, television personality, actor, and producer. Mandel is known for voicing Gizmo in the 1984 film Gremlins and the 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch, playing rowdy ER resident Dr. Wayne Fiscus on the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere, and creating and starring in the Fox children's cartoon Bobby's World. He has also been a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent since 2010, and Citytv's Canada's Got Talent since 2022. He hosted the American NBC and later CNBC game show Deal or No Deal, as well as the show's daytime and Canadian-English counterparts.

<i>Sale of the Century</i> American game show

Sale of the Century is an American television game show that originally debuted on September 29, 1969, on NBC daytime. It was one of three NBC game shows to premiere on that date, the other two being the short-lived game shows Letters to Laugh-In and Name Droppers. The series aired until July 13, 1973, and a weekly syndicated series began that fall and ran for one season.

The Joker's Wild is an American television game show that aired at different times between 1972 and 2019. In the show, contestants answer questions based on categories determined randomly by a mechanism resembling a slot machine. The show's title refers to the game's slot-machine mechanism also having jokers.

<i>Now You See It</i> (American game show) American TV series or program

Now You See It is an American television game show created by Frank Wayne for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. The object of Now You See It is to answer general knowledge trivia questions by finding the answers hidden in a grid, similar to a word search puzzle.

<i>Jackpot</i> (game show) American game show

Jackpot is an American and Canadian television game show produced by Bob Stewart which saw contestants attempting to solve riddles in order to win cash and prizes.

<i>Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour</i> Hybrid game show

The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour is an American television panel game show that combined two panel games of the 1960s and 1970s – Match Game and Hollywood Squares – into an hour-long format.

<i>Tic-Tac-Dough</i> American game show

Tic-Tac-Dough is an American television game show based on the paper-and-pencil game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on the board. Three versions were produced: the initial 1956–59 run on NBC, a 1978–86 run initially on CBS and then in syndication, and a syndicated run in 1990. The show was produced by Barry & Enright Productions.

Celebrity Sweepstakes is an American television game show that aired on NBC's daytime schedule from April 1, 1974, to October 1, 1976. The show also had two separate weekly syndicated runs from September 9, 1974, to September 1975 and again from September 20, 1976, to May 23, 1977.

<i>Mindreaders</i> American television game show

Mindreaders is an American game show produced by Goodson-Todman Productions which aired on NBC from August 13, 1979, through January 11, 1980. Although NBC originally agreed to a 26-week run, the network canceled Mindreaders after 22 weeks. The host was Dick Martin and the announcer was Johnny Olson, with Jack Narz subbing. The program was taped at Studio 4 at NBC in Burbank, California.

<i>Weakest Link</i> (American game show) American television game show

Weakest Link is an American television game show that made its debut in 2001. It is an adaptation of the British television series of the same name.

PDQ and Baffle are American television game shows created by Heatter-Quigley Productions. Both shows' objective was for contestant/celebrity teams to guess a given word or phrase in the shortest amount of time with the fewest letters given as possible.

<i>1 vs. 100</i> (American game show) American game show

1 vs. 100 is an American game show that was broadcast by NBC from 2006 to 2008 and revived on Game Show Network (GSN) with a new series, which ran from 2010 to 2011. Based on the Dutch game show Eén tegen 100, the game features a single player competing against 100 other contestants in a trivia match. The 1 earns prize money depending on how many Mob members they have eliminated from the game, but loses all winnings with an incorrect answer at any point. The host of the original NBC version was Bob Saget, while Carrie Ann Inaba hosted the GSN revival.

<i>Dont Forget the Lyrics!</i> (American game show) American TV series or program

Don't Forget the Lyrics! is an American television game show in which contestants compete to win $1 million by correctly recalling song lyrics from a variety of genres. The program originally aired on Fox from July 11, 2007, to June 19, 2009, hosted by Wayne Brady and produced by RDF USA, part of RDF Media. The premiere of the show prompted NBC to move up the premiere of their similar game show, The Singing Bee.

<i>The Singing Bee</i> (American game show) American TV series or program

The Singing Bee is a sing-along game show that originally aired on NBC and then CMT. Combining karaoke singing with a spelling bee-style competition, this show features contestants trying to remember the lyrics to popular songs. Originally slated to begin with a six episode season during late 2007, it launched early in reaction to Fox's competing Don't Forget the Lyrics!

<i>Wheel of Fortune</i> (American game show) American television game show

Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show has aired continuously since January 1975. It features a competition in which contestants solve word puzzles, similar to those in hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a giant carnival wheel. The current version of the series, which airs in nightly syndication, premiered on September 19, 1983. It stars Pat Sajak and Vanna White as hosts, who have hosted the nighttime version since its inception. The original version of Wheel was a network daytime series that ran on NBC from January 6, 1975, to June 30, 1989, and subsequently aired on CBS from July 17, 1989, to January 11, 1991; it returned to NBC on January 14, 1991, and was cancelled that year, ending on September 20, 1991.

Now You See It was a Scottish television game show that aired mostly in Scotland throughout its run. It was shown to a lesser degree across some of the ITV Network. It was based upon the U.S. version of the show and used the US show's "halftime cue" as its theme music.

<i>Ask Me Another</i> (radio program)

Ask Me Another is an hour-long radio puzzle game show that was produced by WNYC and National Public Radio. It was hosted by Canadian American comedian Ophira Eisenberg and featured as its "in-house musician" or "one-man house band" independent rock musician Jonathan Coulton. Episodes of the show were usually recorded at The Bell House in Brooklyn, New York, however the show did go to various states across the country and recorded one or more episodes from those locations. The show was produced by WNYC Studios. During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the show continued taping episodes from the homes of the participants, without a studio audience.