This episode was written & produced by Casey Emmerling.

It’s the most recognizable TV theme in America. But Jeopardy’s “Think Music” wasn’t originally written for a game show… It was written for a toddler. In this episode, we trace the unlikely journey of the Jeopardy theme, from Merv Griffin’s living room to over 10,000 episodes across six decades. Along the way, we explore the show’s sonic evolution, including honking buzzers, 80s synths, and orchestral remixes. Featuring Lisa Broffman, Jeopardy’s Consulting Co-Executive Producer.

MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE

Harry Endivo - Don’t Bore Me Alberto!
Medité - This Round's On Me
Flickering - The Squad
Andreas Dahlbäck - 808 or 909
Trevor Kowalski - Watercolor Motion I
Gavin Luke - The Power of One

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View Transcript ▶︎

[20K Sonic Logo]

[60s NYC sounds + music in: Harry Endivo - Don’t Bore Me Alberto!]

New York City, 1963. Mervyn Griffin Jr is at his home with his three year old son Tony. Merv is 39 years old, and already has decades of experience in the entertainment industry. In his twenties, he started singing with a Big Band, and in 1949, they had a hit with a quirky song called “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.”

[clip: Merv Griffin - I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts]

In the 1950s, Merv acted in several films, and then became the host of a TV game show called Play Your Hunch.

[clip: Play Your Hunch]

Play Your Hunch: If you wanna know what these folks are doing, you’ll have a chance to figure it out for yourself on Play Your Hunch, starring Merv Griffin.

In 1962, he got his own talk show called the Merv Griffin Show. That same year, he and his wife Julann flew to Duluth, Minnesota, where Merv recorded the official song for their annual Christmas parade.

[clip: Merv Griffin - Christmas City]

On their flight back to New York, Merv and Julann discussed ideas for a new question and answer style game show. Then Julann said, "Why not switch it around. Make a show where the contestants are given the answer first, and then have to come up with the question." For instance, five thousand two hundred and eighty, with the answer being, "How many feet are in a mile?"

Merv loved this idea. He took it to NBC, who bought it without even seeing a pilot.

[NYC sounds resume + fussy toddler]

But right now, back at the house, Merv’s not thinking about show business. He’s thinking about his young son Tony, who’s having trouble going to sleep. So Merv sits down at his piano, hoping to come up with some kind of lullaby. In less than a minute, he settles on a pleasant, looping melody.

[sounds fade into clip: Merv Griffin - A Time for Tony]

Merv endearingly calls the piece a Time for Tony. What you’re hearing is a version of the song that he recorded in 1970.

Lisa Broffman: You can hear in “A Time for Tony” that he was writing a lullaby for a baby.

That's Lisa Broffman, who first started working with Merv in the mid 70's.

Lisa Broffman: It has a very slow tempo. It's a lovely piece.

[music under]

Soon after, Merv is back at work, developing that new game show for NBC. He and the producers decide the show will have a final round, where the contestants can wager their winnings on a single guess. And they want some kind of music to play while they write down their answers. Something pleasant that also builds anticipation.

Then, Merv thinks back to his lullaby, “A Time for Tony.”

[Humming melody]

It could almost work... But the melody's not quite right.

[Humming melody altered]

Then suddenly, he gets it.

[Humming melody becomes Think Music]

And the world of television will never be the same.

[crossfade in original Think Music]

Lisa Broffman: He changed the melody and obviously sped up the tempo. You can feel the similarity, but you can hear in the Jeopardy theme that he was writing something completely different. Something that had a very tick tock sound counting down the time for a game show.

[Think Music out]

Jeopardy first aired in 1964, with Art Fleming as host. In the Final Jeopardy round, they used Merv's tune, which they called the Think Music.

[repeat 60s Think Music]

Lisa Broffman: It warms my heart to hear that still to this day. The thing that I loved about that original Think Music was the metronome. That tick tock sound was probably so important to him, because it was counting down the seconds that you had to finish your Final Jeopardy response.

[Think Music under]

In the original run of Jeopardy, that melody was only used in the Final Jeopardy Round. As the contestants took the stage at the top of the show, they played this energetic, bongo-driven piece… [clip: Jeopardy 70s Intro]

70s Jeopardy: Jeopardy presents today’s three contestants. This is Mrs. Norma Dancis, from Roslyn, Pennsylvania.

Then, when Art Flemming came out, they played a jazzy piece written by Merv's wife Julann, called Take Ten. It was also used during the credits.

[clip: Julann Wright - Take Ten]

There were also differences in the sound effects.

Lisa Broffman: There was actually a sound effect when you rang in. And on the pilot, it sounded like a goose honking. [original honk sound]

Lisa Broffman: As soon as you saw the clue, you could ring in. So as Art Fleming is reading the answer, someone right in the middle of his read could “Honk!”

[clip: Jeopardy Pilot]

Art Fleming: Changing the category for thirty dollars, the answer is, “She financed Columbus’ first voyage. Jesse?”

Jesse: What did Queen Isabella do?

Lisa Broffman: That went away for the series. It became more of a “ding.”

Art Fleming: Book Beat the Dealer suggests card counting as a way to win at this gambling game. Norma?

Norma: Uh, what is Black Jack?

Art Fleming: That is right. Yes, Black Jack. Select.

[clip: Jeopardy 70s Ding]

[music in: Medité - This Round's On Me]

The original run of Jeopardy was pretty popular, though it wasn't as iconic as the later iterations. And despite running for eleven years, all you can find these days are a couple of very low-quality episodes.

Lisa Broffman: The original 1964 to 1975 show doesn't exist. In those days, in the ‘60s, all shows were recorded on two inch videotape, and it was extremely expensive. So it was a common practice to reuse reels.

In other words, after the episode aired, they'd tape over that recording for a different show.

Lisa Broffman: We have found five copies of the show and the pilot. So unfortunately, those 2,200 shows don't exist anymore, except for the few that we have found.

[music out]

In 1975, during some network restructuring, NBC decided to cancel Jeopardy. But the show still had a year left in its contract. So to make up for this, NBC greenlit another game show that Merv Griffin had been developing, a little show called Wheel of Fortune.

[clip: Wheel of Fortune 70s intro]

That's around the time that Lisa started working for Merv Griffin Enterprises, as a Production Manager.

Lisa Broffman: I started with Merv in 1976. I was 24 years old.

Shortly after, NBC rebooted Jeopardy, calling it The All New Jeopardy.

Lisa Broffman: And I remember, because everyone that worked at Merv Griffin Productions had a choice of working on either Jeopardy, or Dance Fever, which was another production of Merv's.

[clip: Dance Fever intro]

Lisa Broffman: So all the really established people on the staff, their first choice was, of course, Jeopardy. All the rest of us worked on Dance Fever.

For The All New Jeopardy, Art Flemming returned as host. But other parts of the show were less familiar. In the intro, they used a new Merv Griffin composition called “January February March.”

[clip: Merv Griffin - January February March]

They also changed some of the rules. And crucially...

Lisa Broffman: It did not have the Think Music because there was no Final Jeopardy. They changed the format, and it didn't do well. It didn't last very long. It was only one season.

[music in: Flickering - The Squad]

By the spring of 1979, the All New Jeopardy had fizzled out... but the story of Jeopardy was far from over. Five years later, Jeopardy would be back on the air with a new host and a synthy new soundscape. And from there, it would blast off into the pop culture stratosphere.

That's coming up, after the break.

[music out]

MIDROLL

[60s Think Music sting]

[80s Jeopardy theme sneaks in]

After the cancellation of The All New Jeopardy, many people thought the show was done for good. But in 1984, NBC revived this game show again. This time, it included the voice of Johnny Gilbert as the show announcer... [Johnny Gilbert line]

Johnny Gilbert: Now entering the studio are today’s contestants…

And the legendary Alex Trebeck as the new host... [Alex Trebeck line]

Alex Trebeck: Welcome to America’s favorite answer and question game, Jeopardy. You know how we play it…

This time, they brought back Final Jeopardy, including the classic Think Music. And for the intro, Merv worked with orchestrator Mort Lindsey and a large group of musicians to craft a hyped up, synthesized theme song built around the Think melody.

[theme music up, then under]

This iteration of Jeopardy exploded in popularity. Within a few years, it was reaching around eleven million households per month. And ever since, it's been on the air continually, with over nine thousand episodes and counting.

[theme music fade under]

Along with the new theme song, the 80's reboot of Jeopardy included a batch of new sound effects, some of which are still used to this day. There's the lasery Daily Double sound... [sfx: Daily Double]

And the phone-like Time's Up sound... [sfx: Time's Up]

Then, there was the Board Fill sound, which they simply called the Beep Boops.

[sfx: Beep Boops]

That one was eventually replaced.

Lisa Broffman: We don't know what mechanism Merv had to record that. But we used that forever. And we miss it.

[sfx: 1984 Board Fill]

[music in: Andreas Dahlbäck - 808 or 909]

It was in the late ‘80s that Lisa started working on Jeopardy.

Lisa Broffman: The producer of Jeopardy called me and said, "I need you to come over here.” And there was one thing that I knew that I never wanted to work on a game show. It just wasn't where I wanted my career to go. But when Jeopardy called... Jeopardy is something completely different and the level of respectability of that show was something that I thought that I would be very proud to be a part of.

Lisa Broffman: So in 1989, it was toward the end of season five I joined the team. And it's been absolutely wonderful.

[music out]

The next big change for Jeopardy's sound came in 1997, when Executive Producer Harry Friedman decided it was time for a musical refresh. So they brought in composer Steve Kaplan for some new, piano-heavy arrangements. Here's Steve's update on the theme song.

[clip: Jeopardy - Steve Kaplan 1997]

He also revamped the Think Music around a jazzy piano, replacing Merv's ‘60s version after decades of use.

[clip: Think Music - Steve Kaplan 1997]

Around this time, they also ramped up various Jeopardy specials and spin offs, which often involved unique music.

Lisa Broffman: When we did the College Championship, we actually had a marching band arrangement done.

[clip: College Championship 90s promo]

Lisa Broffman: Rock & Roll Jeopardy, we had a very rock and roll sound for the opening theme.**

[clip: Rock & Roll Jeopardy theme]

Lisa Broffman: Sports Jeopardy, we had a very athletic sounding theme.**

[clip: Sports Jeopardy 2014 theme]

Then in 2008, they worked with a company called Chris Bell Music to create some more fleshed out, orchestral arrangements, including a new theme song.

[clip: 2008 Jeopardy Theme]

Lisa Broffman: We used a full orchestra, and we only had an hour with them. And there were two minutes left in our session, and we hadn't yet recorded the Think Music. And the musicians started getting up and leaving, and we said, "Wait, wait, wait! We need the Think Music!" So they went through it twice...

[2008 Think Music in]

Lisa Broffman: And we got it, and they got up and left.

This is the version that's still plays on the regular show today.

Lisa Broffman: It's beautiful Think Music, but it doesn't have the metronome, and that always bothered me.

[music out]

Soon after, they replaced this sound…

[80s Board Fill]

…with something much more modern and airy, almost like a gentle notification.

[2009 board fill sound]

That one only lasted about six years. When they updated it, they kept the basic melody, but made it more rhythmic and pulsing.

[2016 board fill sound]

In the late 2010s, the Jeopardy team commissioned a new music package from a company called Bleeding Fingers Music, which was co-founded by Hans Zimmer.

[GOAT Think Music in]

Lisa Broffman: It actually happened in 2019 when we were producing GOAT, the Greatest of All Time short series.

Here’s the Think Music that Bleeding Fingers produced for the GOAT series.

[GOAT Think Music into 2021 Jeopardy Theme]

And here's their title theme, which debuted on the main series in 2021.

[2021 Theme up, then under]

Lisa Broffman: It was a wonderful thing because they were so in tune to what we wanted and what we hoped for, and so creative, and so professional. So we've used Bleeding Fingers ever since.

[2021 Theme up, then under]

The arrangement of Jeopardy's latest theme song happened right around the time that the pandemic was taking off. And after shutting down for several months, Lisa and the crew worked hard to rebuild the set, and revamp their workflows.

Lisa Broffman: So when we came back in July, I went into the ladies room, and some clever staff member wrote lyrics, but it was just “Do do do do do do do do do do, do do, do, do, do, do.” And it was the spacing of those lyrics where you looked at it, and you immediately figured out it was the Think Music.

Lisa Broffman: The protocol was to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds. So if you hummed the Think Music, you knew you hit that 20 seconds. But it was so charming because every once in a while I would pass by a restroom and I could hear the person inside singing the Think Music.

[someone heard from outside bathroom, washing hands, humming Think music]

Of course, it's not just the Jeopardy crew that knows this music front to back. Basically everyone does. A 2021 survey revealed that the Jeopardy music is the most recognizable TV theme song in America. And there are references to it all over the place.

Lisa Broffman: It must have been in the late ‘90s, early 2000s when one of the NFL games started playing the Think Music during Instant Replay when the referees were judging a particular play. And I remember thinking, "Wow, this has really become part of American culture," because everyone knew what that meant.

There are only a few pieces of branded music that even come close to this level... like the McDonald’s I'm Lovin' It... [sfx: I'm Lovin' It]

And maybe The Simpsons theme song. [clip: Simpsons theme]

Anything that well known is worth a lot of money, and the Jeopardy theme is no exception. In 2005, Merv Griffin told the New York Times that this thirty second jingle had made him between seventy and eighty million dollars. That was twenty years ago, so it’s safe to assume that this is now over a hundred million.

[music in: Trevor Kowalski - Watercolor Motion I]

Merv passed away in 2007, at the age of 82. But the royalties for this theme still go to his family, including his only child Tony, Merv's original inspiration all those years ago.

By this point, Jeopardy has been a cultural touchstone for decades. Many people like me started watching it as a kid, and then kept watching it their whole lives. If that includes you, then chances are, your favorite versions of the theme song and the Think Music are the ones you heard when you first fell in love with the show. And that just proves how malleable and timeless this melody really is.

Lisa Broffman: We've produced over 9,000 episodes. And how many times we have heard that theme and that Think Music, and every single time it's pleasing. There's something about it that just feels good.

The crew behind Jeopardy know just how powerful this music is. And that's why, more than sixty years after Jeopardy started, this melody is still going strong.

Lisa Broffman: You know, through different producers that have come and gone on the show, they've all been extremely careful to keep the integrity, and the historic elements of the show intact. Any changes that have been made have been just slight modifications as the show evolved.

Lisa Broffman: You know, it's not just what you see, but it's what you hear. Alex's voice over all those years became so recognizable.

Alex Trebeck: Thank you. We’ll see ya next time ladies and gentlemen. New champion gets to defend his title right here on Jeopardy. So long!

Lisa Broffman: And now we don't have Alex anymore, but we have wonderful Ken Jennings.

Ken Jennings: Thank you folks. Thank you Johnny Gilbert. Welcome to Jeopardy, and Happy May Day.

Lisa Broffman: To hear that same music, and to hear Johnny Gilbert's voice from the very beginning still through the shows today...

Johnny Gilbert: From the Alex Trebeck stage at Sony Pictures Studios, this is Jeopardy!

Lisa Broffman: It brings you back. It makes you feel like you're part of this history. So I think it's really important. It is what it's always been, and that's not gonna change.

After thirty six years on the show, Lisa herself is a big part of that history. And she's still thrilled to be working as Jeopardy's Consulting Co-Executive Producer.

Lisa Broffman: It's like getting to stay in college for your whole life. 61 pieces of information for every single show that is fascinating. It's about the world, music, and cultures, and politics, and history, and wars, and brilliant minds.

Lisa Broffman: There's so much in life to know. And it's so fascinating the more you know. So it's been so rewarding for me. I've been very proud of my career at Jeopardy.

[music out into music in: Gavin Luke - The Power of One]

Jeopardy has been in my life ever since I can remember. And every time I watch it, I'm reminded of how intentional everything feels. Every shot, every audio cue, every interjection from Ken Jennings... It's this well-oiled machine that feels familiar and comfortable, while consistently surprising me with new bits of knowledge.

Now, I've always wanted to see how that machine operates from the inside. But for how famous this show is, there's been very little behind the scenes footage... until now.

I’m excited to announce that today marks the expansion of Twenty Thousand Hertz into video. And on my Youtube channel, I go behind the scenes on the set of Jeopardy to learn the sonic secrets of this iconic show. I interview all four people on the show’s audio crew, and go into areas that the public, as far as I know, has never seen before.

To watch it right now, just tap the link in the show notes, or search for Dallas Taylor dot mp3 on Youtube. Once you’re there, make sure you subscribe to see more of the incredible journey I’ve been on. I can’t wait for you to see this.

[music out into music in: Andreas Dahlback - Do the Pony]

Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced by my sound agency, Defacto Sound. To hear more, follow Defacto Sound on Instagram, or visit defacto Sound dot com.

Other Voices: This episode was written and produced by Casey Emmerling, with help from Grace East. It was sound designed and mixed by Brandon Pratt and Joel Boyter.

Thanks to our guest, Lisa Broffman.

Subscribe to my youtube channel, Dallas Taylor dot mp3 to see our new, exclusive video series. I’ve been traveling across the country, getting behind the scenes access to all kinds of amazing people and places. It’s all crafted with video in mind, so what you’ll see over there will be different from what you hear on this podcast. But it’s the nine years of respect and enthusiasm for Twenty Thousand Hertz that has opened these doors for me, and I’m so grateful for you, our listeners, for making this possible. So, thank you for listening, please continue to do so, and also come join me on Youtube for even more incredible sound stories. Again, that link is in the show notes.

Finally, you can also find me on Linkedin, Instagram and TikTok where you’ll get a more behind the scenes look at my process, along with short videos pulled from these experiences.

I'm Dallas Taylor. Thanks for listening.

[music out]