What on a game show scared you as a child?

[WilliamPorygon]

It's weird, I've been thinking about this for a good 15 minutes and can't really come up with anything, which surprises me, because I liked video and computer games just as much as a child and can list all kinds of non-scary things that spooked the heck out of me as a child in that category. 

Thinking about it some more, I do remember one thing, but it's a really weird one... when I was young I saw an episode of Wheel of Fortune where the score was tied at the end so they had to play a tiebreaker round with only the two leading contestants.  I was very young at the time, and my brain missed or mixed up pretty much all of the details.  Somehow I wound up getting it in my head that one of the players was disqualified because the flipper in front of them on the wheel broke off.  So for a few years it always scared me when a contestant had to pick a prize wedge up off the wheel, because I was afraid they might accidentally snap the flipper off the wheel and get disqualified.   

[PatrickRox80]

When I first watched The Price is Right, I was afraid when Squeeze Play was brought out. I used to cover my ears it when made the creaking sound because I thought the board was going to explode.

[wpghi5]

When Bob had dark hair it was quite alright for the contestants to "harm" him. However when he decided to let his hair go white for me as a child and probably still right up until he retired whenever a contestant goes completely wild once they get called on down I feared that Bob would get hurt if that contestant got out of the row there. There was even one occasion that when a male contestant won on Temptation he started to carry Bob there. Luckily I changed the channel before that happened. When I did changed it back to TPIR it showed that still image of him carrying Bob there. As a result of that I was just too afraid to watch the rest of the show for fear that Bob was hurt which luckily he wasn't. Lol.

[bustergreycat]

When the Devil popped up during the bonus game on "The Joker's Wild".  That image just freaked me out.

[GameShowDude]

Even to this day I get startled when I hear a buzz for an illegal clue in the Winners Circle in the '80s Pyramids.  

[whowouldeverhurtawhammy]

I'd say the Million Dollar Lose Cue from Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
I was watching Ken Basin's question at the time, and when I heard the lose cue, I was like "OH MY GOD!"

EDIT: Even though WWTBAM wasn't on when I was a kid, I figured I would just point this out anyway.

[rn]

Lucky Seven's Number reveal scared me when I was a kid.

[Shaymin]

I'd say the Million Dollar Lose Cue from Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
I was watching Ken Basin's question at the time, and when I heard the lose cue, I was like "OH MY GOD!"

EDIT: Even though WWTBAM wasn't on when I was a kid, I figured I would just point this out anyway.

Came here to post this.

[pete1974]

..also Geoff Edwards' intense screaming for a win on "Treasure Hunt" used to make me "Ill at ease".

[Johnnya2k4]

The explicit showering of balloons and confetti on $100,000 Name That Tune (Jim Lange version) were too much for me to handle, as well as the old sound effects on Wheel of Fortune (the current ones came in 1989).

The "whoosh" sound on The Challengers (when all three players chose the same question) and the sirens from Fun House (when the Secret Power Prize tag was grabbed) also creeped me out.

[Briguy]

Probably the top two choices:

• Tic Tac Dough's bonus round, "Beat the Dragon." The roar of the dragon and his pixelated self popping out of the box whenever a (losing) contestant would select the box that concealed him was just scary to me. Today, it's laughable.

• The finale of Rhyme and Reason. As a 4-year-old at the time this show was cancelled (in July 1976), I must have had the show on, because I seemed to (faintly) recall people destroying things and sparks flying where the light bulbs used to be. I didn't remember seeing this on TV until reading about it years later in "The Game Show Encyclopedia," where that episode's guest celebrities took hammers to the set during the course of the episode. Guess that's one unique way of ending an episode.

Brian

[kens5368035]

 

The ONE thing that scared the absolute CRAP out of me was........the strike buzzer on the Dawson version of FF!! Loud, piercing and punishing for a wrong answer and for a young buc like me growing up in Southeastern NC in the late 70s and ealy-mid 80s!

[trytobecharming]

The ONE thing that scared the absolute CRAP out of me was........the strike buzzer on the Dawson version of FF!! Loud, piercing and punishing for a wrong answer and for a young buc like me growing up in Southeastern NC in the late 70s and ealy-mid 80s!

WHile the sound may not be as annoying not as then, the red X box for a strike hasn't changed a whole lot in the 35 years of Feud runs.

[FieldsFan336]

The ONE thing that scared the absolute CRAP out of me was........the strike buzzer on the Dawson version of FF!! Loud, piercing and punishing for a wrong answer and for a young buc like me growing up in Southeastern NC in the late 70s and ealy-mid 80s!

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

[AndrewRMora]

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

Me Too.