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The Most Underrated Game Show Sound Effect
TLEberle:
How would you even quantify underrated?
BrandonFG:
The “only one letter left” sound from Scrabble. Honestly a lotta SFX from that show qualify. The Speedword sound effect comes to mind. Anything that sounds like it came from a synthesizer or Casio keyboard fascinates me…the X/O sound from Davidson’s Hollywood Squares also comes to mind.
The TPiR fail horn is too mainstream to be considered “underrated” IMO. That one is well-known even amongst non-diehards. The abridged Card Sharks (Perry) BUST horns on the other hand is somehow underrated for me. I think a lot of it is because I have to listen hard to realize it’s the same horn minus the first two notes.
I second the Pyramid cuckoo.
Joe Mello:
--- Quote from: parliboy on November 05, 2025, 01:32:06 PM ---
--- Quote from: TimK2003 on November 05, 2025, 12:06:12 PM ---Hence why I nominate it as the most underrated sound effect in game show history.
--- End quote ---
A sound effect that is so synonymous with a product that it's still being used over 50 years later and had other people copying it has a hard sell with me on being underrated.
--- End quote ---
I assume the argument is that, given the level of notoriety within the industry, the Pyramid tick should be as prominent in the public consciousness as the "Fail Horns" or "The Jeopardy Song" or any number of dings, buzzes, or womp womps.
jcs290:
I think it’s a sound effect? The pla-dunk sound of someone inserting a scrabble tile into the slot on Scrabble. It’s subtle, but always made me think as a kid that something mechanical was happening under the desk to catch and sort the tiles for the next game.
All the sound effects on that show were unique and amazing, but mostly forgotten outside of diehard fan circles.
That Don Guy:
Two from Celebrity Sweepstakes come to mind: the "scratch horn" when a question was scratched, which they didn't need in the final episodes as the contestants no longer wrote down their answers except in the Homestretch and All Or Nothing rounds, where scratches were edited out and replayed, and the "dinner bell" for when only one celebrity got a Homestretch question right (and the odds automatically doubled).
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