What on a game show scared you as a child?

[Bluescreen_ODeff]

If I'm ever on the show, my family will NOT let me live it down if I don't mention this. 

Many elements of Jeopardy!, and probably the show itself, really scared me as a kid.  Some really scary parts of it (to me) were:

The opening "swish" sound
Johnny Gilbert going "THIS! IS! JEOPARDY!"
Any time they play the tournament music (which included the first few notes in the theme, used in the first...six seasons I think.)
Trebek's moustache

[whowouldeverhurtawhammy]

Oddly enough, I used to be so scared of the Price is Right losing horns, especially when they were used on Card Sharks. I was just watching them lose it all, and then (cue horns LOUDLY). I got so startled by the disaster that I would always mute the TV whenever the Money Cards were played.

It's just a silly fear that I realized was unfounded, and hilarious.

[Rosequartz2000]

Oddly enough, nothing. The only thing closest to it would be the Family Feud strike buzzers when I first saw the show when I was little. It startled me, but by the next viewing, I was fine.

I used to call the losing horns the "wah-wahs" and this made Liz laugh so hard. And as for Cliffhangers, I always enjoyed the people clapping to the song and would try to do so along with Liz whenever the game was played. Same as when people would thank others during the Big Wheel.

I actually liked the Dragon from Tic-Tac-Dough and always laughed when he appeared. He kinda reminded me of Bowser Koopa from the old Super Mario Bros. games. I was a Sonic fan more, but it was still funny.

[Rosequartz2000]

Olmec from Legends of the Hidden Temple.

Really? He was my favorite on the show. However, those Temple Guards were kinda creepy. I can't say I was scared of them growing up, though...

[tpir04]

The Daily Double "zaps" on Jeopardy. And, boy, did they ever! I don't mind them now.

[pannoni1]

The Daily Double "zaps" on Jeopardy. And, boy, did they ever! I don't mind them now.

For those who mention the DD zaps, ever notice that whenever watching earlier episodes of Jeopardy! that Alex would say "Answer" more often prior to the clue being read, and of course, "Answer" is still almost always said prior to the DD being revealed. "Answer" would usually be said during category bounces, and this practice ended around the Sushi Bar set era. And more often than not when that word was shouted, I thought that a Daily Double was about to be revealed. But the sound never bothered me like the end-of-round beeps did, unless during the rare occurrences that applause from a correct Daily Double drowned out the sound. I do remember turning the volume down when the "Less than a minute" warning was heard, and I was even afraid of the Merv Griffin Enterprises logo at the end of the show since I thought the logo animation would give me seizures, since the bright King World logo (especially the purple '80s version) followed afterwards. I would usually change the channel right after the closing sponsor plugs were read.  Around the time I was nine was when I stopped being scared of those, with the logo naturally going away and being replaced by the Columbia Tristar TV logo.

[ooboh]

Ironically enough, the The Price is Right’s clangs and whoops and the firework graphics whenever someone won the jackpot on Wheel of Fortune weren’t something I was afraid of as a child. In fact they actually gave me life.

HOWEVER, I noticed that the buzzer that played if someone busted on the second line or the Big Bet of the Money Cards of the Jim Perry version of Card Sharks sounded like it came from the depths of hell — the NBC Klaxon. Add that to the fact that this was the first show that I watched outside of Price that used the losing horns, and I pretty much muted the TV whenever I detected that a player was going to bust.

[TheBigAK]

We bumped a thread from 2011?   That was dead and bumped once already in 2017.

Am I missing something?

[BillyGr]

We bumped a thread from 2011?   That was dead and bumped once already in 2017.

Am I missing something?

No, but the first (2017) one did apologize for doing it and the one this year was a new member (which there is still somewhere in the rules an exception for that, if they add something to it). 

[Grand_game2004]

Sounds like a fire alarm, doesn't it?  And I hated fire drills in school!

I used to hate fire drills. I lived in a group home for a while (about 10 months) before I moved to the downtown Aberdeen, SD area, and the group home I was in once had an early morning fire drill, which didn't scare the crap out of me, but it gave me the creeps for a while. Anyone know if there's a thread on favorite alarm sounds on game shows? If not, I'll start one.

[crazypackersfan]

Cliff Hangers. My mom still teases me about this today. I was so scared of the mountain climber falling off the mountain that I forced my mom to change the channel. I'd be okay if he stayed on the mountain, but I'd cry if he fell off. And every time The Price Is Right is on, my mom tells this story.

[COINBOYNYC]

We bumped a thread from 2011?   That was dead and bumped once already in 2017.

Am I missing something?

No, but the first (2017) one did apologize for doing it and the one this year was a new member (which there is still somewhere in the rules an exception for that, if they add something to it).

This is one of those timeless topics where I think an exception to the 30-day rule is warranted.  It's not like where somebody might be called upon to defend or explain an opinion they may no longer have (there may be people here who thought "Drew Carey sucks" in 2007 but by 2018 have grown to like him), which is my understanding of why the rule exists.  If a certain buzzer sound scared you when you were 5, it scared you when you were 5 regardless of whether you share the story in 2011, 2018 or 2025.

[Yuuki96]

Sorry to bump the thread, but Southern Hospitality Week from Wheel of Fortune, along with Jeopardy's Back to School Week, brings back bad memories. Why? I was  7 at the time, and like all kids at that age, I watched Cartoon Network's afterschool action fest Toonami religiously. That same week Wheel did their Southern Hospitality Week, Toonami was doing a promotional event (I forget if they did this every year or not.) The main villain of the storyline (told through between-show interstitials) was this robotic-looking devil thing that SCARED THE MATH OUT OF ME. And it had some deep scary voice to boot. I freaked out so much I did not watch Toonami at all for the rest of that week and would change the channel immediately if a commercial for the event aired during other Cartoon Network hours. If I couldn't, I'd throw a pillow on myself and block my ears while singing loud nonsense to drown the villain's voice out (it would always come at the end of the ad.) So when Wheel aired that Monday, I didn't even pay attention to what was going on, I just sat in silence trying to get that demonic freak out of my head. My parents always wondered why I was so anxious every time we gathered to watch J! and Wheel that week. I never told them. Looking back on that guy now, he seems so stereotypical it's hard to believe he terrified me.

(Sorry to bump this thread, my friend Martha had replied to it. If you know of a newer thread on this topic, feel free to link me in its direction.)

Swayzak?! How did he scare you?! He wasn't scary at all to me; I had the biggest crush on him! You must have been terrified of Spawn. (TBH, Spawn isn't for kids.)

Honestly, Swayzak reminds me of a shameless copy of Emperor Zurg. There's a theory I have that Swayzak wasn't going to be like that, but only Jason DeMarco knows.

Anyway, those Temple Guards from Legends of the Hidden Temple freaked me out as a kid, as well as the heartbeat when the skull was returned to the king.

[Alfonzo]

Like I said before Yuuki96, let's not make a habit of bumping older threads...or responding to people that haven't posted here in over a year.

LOCKED