Sarabanda was an Italian television show initially proposed as a variety and later as a musical game with prizes, adaption of the TV format Name That Tune, presented by Enrico Papi and broadcast on Italia 1 in the time slot of the access prime time from 8 September 1997 to 20 February 2004. After the first closing was resumed from 14 March to 10 April 2005 with the broadcasting of Super Sarabanda, a tournament among the most representative champions of the game. The program was re-proposed from 8 June to 30 August 2009 on Canale 5 in the pre-ward, presented by Teo Mammucari with Belén Rodríguez. The program is back on air for a third time with three special episodes in prime time on Italia 1 from 13 to 27 June 2017 with the return to the running of Enrico Papi.
It aired from Monday to Saturday (from April 2000 to June 2001 also on Sunday, from January 2004 only until Friday) with starting time between 7:40 pm and 8:00 pm even if the most common was between 7:56 pm and 7:58 pm, with an end between 8:40 pm and 9:00 pm (variable duration depending on the editions). In 2005 it was scheduled from Monday to Friday from 8:45 pm to 9:05 pm, and in 2009 from Monday to Friday from 6:50 pm to 8:00 pm. The three episodes in prime time 2017 are aired every Tuesday from 9:15 pm to midnight.
The program was produced by RTI-Mediaset, realized by Videotime S.p.A. licensed by Sandy Frank Entertainment and distributed by Einstein Multimedia from 1997 to 2004. In 2005 the Duck On Line s.r.l. has joined the Videotime in the realization. In 2009 production went to Endemol Italia, while in 2017 the production sees a co-participation of RTI and EndemolShine Italy with the format distributed by Sky Vision.
Until the sixth edition, the episodes were recorded in Studio 1 of the Centro Titanus Elios, Settecamini (Rome), while from the seventh they moved to the Teatro 3 of Cinecittà in Rome, then moved to the Teatro 9 in 2005. In 2009 the program is back to be registered at the Elios Studios. In 2017 the program was broadcast live from the historic Studio 1 of the Centro Titanus Elios.
With 1727 episodes (including 50 special) as well as 20 specials in prime time, it turns out to be the most enduring music-themed quiz on Italian television and one of the longest-running Italian television prizes in general. Considering also the first version, the program has 1757 total episodes.
Editions
Variety version
Game show version
Format
First version
The first version of the program was a variety with a musical background that aired live, with phone calls to dedication and other song numbers, where Papi was assisted by Formula 3 and by imitator Gigi Vigliani, who performed in some comic sketches. The program also took part in a musical ensemble called Saraband, and an audience of about a hundred people, called "choir", who were the outline of the set design.
This formula soon proved to be a fiasco, recording low television ratings, so the authors, after just one month of transmission, decided to implement a drastic change in the format, while maintaining the same title, which referred to the variety of shows offered in a chaotic way and noisy from the cast of the broadcast in its first version.
Second version
The program was thus transformed into a quiz with a musical theme, inspired by the historical Italian program by Mario Riva, Il Musichiere (broadcast from 1957 to 1960 on Programma Nazionale); as the famous program, also Sarabanda was based on the NBC format Name That Tune, created by Harry Salter in 1952 and present in many countries of the world, where competitors challenged themselves by answering questions of musical culture and, above all, guessing the titles of the reasons heard in the various games, in order to win the title of champion and, at the same time, win the final prize money. The quiz was divided into several elimination games, in number proportional to the number of participants (initially three, then four or even five in the last editions). Some of the games were modified or replaced by others during the seasons, while the final game remained unchanged. The melodies that were made to listen to the competitors were the arranged MIDI versions of the original songs (although in the first three episodes the bases were prepared by Saraband), while in the most recent edition were proposed in the MP3 version. Following this change of format, the Formula 3 and Gigi Vigliani were excluded from the cast of the transmission while both the chorus and the Saraband remained.