Scary moments in game shows...

[aaron sica]

....not something that was *truly* scary, but was scary to you as a child.

I can lead off with two examples:

1) I would watch the showcase reveals from another room and peering around the corner, because seeing the "DOUBLE SHOWCASE WINNER" graphic flashing scared me.
2) It's since been on blooper specials but when a contestant on TJW was playing "Face the Devil" and the lever snapped off and broke. The way Jack said "You broke my wheel" I didn't realize he was kidding and I thought he was legit angry.

[TLEberle]

Jack had resting irritable face, so you may have had a point.

[nowhammies10]

Loud, unexpected, dissonant sound effects. I can think of three specifically:

1) the "EROOOO!" sound effect from TPIR's Pathfinder (yes, yes, it was Trivia Trap first...)
2) the "time's up" French horn glissando from Millionaire
3) the "time's up" horn sound effect from Bergeron Hollywood Squares (wah-WAH-wah-WAHHHHHH)

[BrandonFG]

While everyone else hid their eyes over the Dragon, I avoided TTD because the theme song gave me the creeps. Didn't know what a Moog synthesizer was at 6 or 7; I just knew I wanted no parts of the "squiggly" music. Now I love it.

I've said numerous times that I was terrified of the Lorimar-Telepictures logo as a child and would hide until whatever show ($1M Chance, Love Connection, etc.) were done. When I lived in Dallas, Chance came on before Rafferty's Card Sharks so I knew I was safe once the latter started.

Two from Remote Control: the way departing contestants exited the stage also terrified me, esp. when they'd rotate the chair 90-degrees upward and into the wall. Then when they strapped the contestant in for the bonus round I got a little unnerved...I got stitches when I was 5, and I think their contraption gave me flashbacks to being strapped to a board.

[rjaguar3]

The end-of-round sound on Jeopardy!

[Kevin Prather]

The first time I heard the Minor Chord of Doom (Q15 loss) playing the Millionaire CD game, I nearly hit the ceiling.

[BrandonFG]

The first time I heard the Minor Chord of Doom (Q15 loss) playing the Millionaire CD game, I nearly hit the ceiling.

During the ATGS era, someone shared the sound byte and I nearly had the same reaction.

[TimK2003]

Easy:  The Hollywood Squares "Tacky Buzzer" when time ran out on the syndicated nighttime shows.

[SuperMatch93]

The fireworks graphics on Wheel in the 90s when someone won the Jackpot scared the bejeezus out of me when I was little, because I thought those were actual explosions in the studio.

Also, the Viacom logo. Not the V of doom, but the *wigga wigga wigga wigga...VIACOMMMM* one.

[PYLdude]

The first time I heard the Minor Chord of Doom (Q15 loss) playing the Millionaire CD game, I nearly hit the ceiling.

It still gives me the willies today.

I don’t seem to remember if the new music set from the second half of the syndicated series had any loss music that was ascending in tone; only that the three biggies from the shuffle set and all four Classic Millionaire questions did if you got them right. (There weren’t any tries at the million after Chip Esten played, were there?)

[That Don Guy]

Easy:  The Hollywood Squares "Tacky Buzzer" when time ran out on the syndicated nighttime shows.

I was the same way, even though I had no problem with the same buzzer as the penalty buzzer on Baffle or the "time's up for the day" buzzer on The Gong Show.

There was also the X buzzer on Feud, but only when it wasn't expected - for example, there was one weekly syndicated episode when it went off just as they were going to a commercial.

[TLEberle]

The first time I heard the Minor Chord of Doom (Q15 loss) playing the Millionaire CD game, I nearly hit the ceiling.

It still gives me the willies today.

I don’t seem to remember if the new music set from the second half of the syndicated series had any loss music that was ascending in tone; only that the three biggies from the shuffle set and all four Classic Millionaire questions did if you got them right. (There weren’t any tries at the million after Chip Esten played, were there?)
[/quotenot tha5 I recall

[PYLdude]

Onto my picks:

-Price was Cliff Hangers for me for awhile. The falling of the mountain climber freaked me out.

-the time’s up bell on Wheel freaked me out because it was so loud compared to everything else.

[curtking]

The opening to The New Treasure Hunt was quite frightening to four year old me.

[whewfan]

Adding to what Aaron said, for me, it was the DSW clangs and whoops that scared me as a 4-5 year old. I too kept a distance! In fact for a while I would watch the show up to the showcases.

Also, a vague memory of TTTT with Garry Moore... I remember he was put in a situation that really made him jump and yell from being scared... Mom laughed, but I didn't understand what was so funny. I would say this was circa 1976-77, not long before he retired.