TVSquad

Wayne Brady will host Don't Forget the Lyrics, a new game show in which contestants must not forget the lyrics (in case the unoriginal title didn't make that clear).

The series debuts on FOX July 11 at 9:30 p.m. and July 12 at 8:30 p.m., and features contestants singing along with a studio band, the words in front of them karaoke-style. When the music stops and the words disappear, the contestant must continue to sing the correct lyrics. If the contestant correctly guesses nine lyrics in a row, they have one final chance to try for a tenth lyrics and the chance to win one million dollars.

If this sounds familiar, that's because NBC's Great American Singing Bee is pretty much the exact same concept. I don't quite understand how two networks became infatuated with this idea, but I blame the popularity of karaoke. And like karaoke, I assume these shows will be much tolerable if you've had a few drinks beforehand.

Of course, one "Great American Singing Bee" was already on NBC many, many years ago, but this is different.

The Great American Singing Bee is a new game show from producers Phil Gurin and Bob Horowitz, who will each produce different versions for American and UK television audiences. Contestants will be given lyrics to songs and asked to sing the missing words. This is very similar to an old family game called SongBurst, which was based on pretty much the exact same idea.

Okay, so I was in the mood to create another fun TV game for y'all like I did with my "TV opposites" game, so here it is.

Below you will find altered lyric samples from TV themes that more or less mean the same thing as the original lyrics. For example, if I wrote:

One takes that which is affirmative, and also that which is negative
and puts these two opposing forces together
in conclusion, the result is the truth of all existence

When The Kennedy Center Honors airs on Monday night, we won't be seeing Jessica Simpson's flubbed tribute to Dolly Parton. In fact, we won't be seeing Simpson at all. Despite running through Dolly's "9 to 5" a second time at the taping, Simpson asked that her performance be pulled from the televised version of the show entirely. Why? Because Simpson's a perfectionist, damn it - a regular Maria Callas.

According to Simpson's spokesperson, the young singer and reality show punchline "idolizes Dolly" and "wasn't happy with her performance" so she nixed it. Thanks to the internet, however, you can see snippets of Simpson's performance online. Just think - before the days of YouTube, you couldn't see the lackluster production numbers that got trimmed from bloated tribute shows. Now, you can. Thanks, technology!

USA Today has an article this morning about how American Idol producers choose the winning singles for the end of the season. It turns out the two songs that Katharine McPhee and Taylor Hicks sang last night were what the producers considered the best of 150 potential singles for the winner of American Idol. Producers want a song that is fittingly climactic but also would do well on Top 40 radio.

This year, Katharine's song, My Destiny, was written by Harry Sommerdal, Hanne Sorvag and Tim Baxter. Taylor's song, Do I Make You Proud, was written by Tracy Ackerman and Absolute. You know those songwriters all tuned in to American Idol last night with their friends and family to see their songs debut, only to have them bashed by the judges in front of 30 million people. And, I'm sorry songwriters, but I agree with the judges. Those songs were corny.

The Simpsons receives plenty of well-deserved praise, but I think people take for granted the great music in the series, all composed by the great Alf Clausen. Clausen worked on several other TV series as well, including, funny enough, ALF. His contribution adds a great dimension to the show, so I thought it would be cool to use this episode of The Five to talk about our favorite musical moments from The Simpsons. Here's a few I like:

Jasper sings the theme from A Summer Place:  This is possibly my favorite Simpsons moment of all time, or a least in my top five. During the episode when Homer is telling his family how he was once in a popular barber shop quartet, there's a scene where they're auditioning new singers. Jasper chooses to sing the theme from A Summer Place, which doesn't actually have words, so he just keeps singing the words, "theeeeeme, from a suuummer plaaaaaace...." It cracks me up every time, but unfortunately I think that segment is cut out when the episode airs in syndication.

I found this song via my Web chum Brad. Mixing Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven with the theme to Gilligan's Island makes the show seem EPIC, you know? Now that I've heard this new (improved?) version of the theme I no longer think of it as a quirky show about a group of zany castaways. Now I think of it as an epic struggle raging in one man's soul as he battles demons on an island unstuck from the fabric of space and time. Also, it's too bad they couldn't stretch the theme to match Stairway's eight minute-plus runtime. That would give you plenty of time to grab a snack before the show started.