What GS-related things have terrified you, made you cry, hide behind the La-Z-Boy, or have otherwise caused you to lose your composure, either as a youngster or a not-so-youngster? The Penny Ante or Big Wheel sound effects? The slide whistle theme to Concentration? Smashing your iThing over Losing Horns after Range Game and posting the video on YouTube? Come on, spill. I know you\'re out there.
Me? Nothing game-show related, but when Nikita Khrushchev proclaimed \"We will bury you\" I thought he was literally going to travel down our street and place every American in a grave (Khrushchev visited San Francisco, not far from our home, in 1959).
The Penny Ante sound, yes. Also--
-The \"Scrabble\"/SOTC win sirens [if these turn up clean, let me know and you\'ll be my new best friend]
-The \"Classic Concentration\" losing horn
-The time up buzzer from \"Talkabout\"
Cliffhanger on The Price is Right was absolutely terrifying to the five year old me.
I was scared of the WoF Jackpot fireworks when I was little.
When I was a child, Martindale\'s TTD Dragon absolutely terrified me.
For me, it was the dragon roar on TTD.
The Tic Tac Dough theme song gave me the heebie-jeebies as a kid, prolly because of the squiggly Moog sound. When it aired on USA, I avoided the show because of that theme. Now I love it.
The wall behind the contestants on Remote Control also scared the crap out of me, esp. when they\'d have the cast members \"welcoming\" the contestant backstage. Can\'t remember what he said, but my older cousin used to make up some lie about what kind of torture those poor contestants endured once they got backstage.
ETA: It never bothered me on USA, but the SANDY FRANK PRESENTS Scanimate graphics at the beginning of Face the Music creeped me out when it aired on the Family Channel.
Shows that superimpose eggcrates for win totals/countdown clocks still creep me out a bit. Not to the point of where I cover my eyes, but just the whole tackiness of it all. I think Dawson\'s Feud is the one exception.
The stinger from $1M Chance of a Lifetime.
Also, unrelated to game shows, but people getting pies in their face terrified me. My folks would watch Three\'s Company reruns and they would throw pies in each others\' faces every so often. I would hide in the closet.
The wall behind the contestants on Remote Control also scared the crap out of me, esp. when they\'d have the cast members \"welcoming\" the contestant backstage. Can\'t remember what he said, but my older cousin used to make up some lie about what kind of torture those poor contestants endured once they got backstage.
This, this, a thousand times this. And I was none to thrilled the first time Barker walked onstage with white hair.
As mentioned on the other thread, that Time\'s Up/Tacky Buzzer used on the syndicated Hollywood Squares was at the top of my list.
And, while not really a Game Show specific, I give you \"The S From Hell\":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPUg1y-ftYQ
That creepy music and snakelike logo formation scared the crap out of me when I was little. And I wasn\'t the only one if the \"S from Hell\" moniker can easily be googled on the internet.
The Whammy and his blood-curdling voice SCARED ME TO DEATH when I was 4 or 5.
So did the Vin Di Bona Productions closing logo on America\'s Funniest Home Videos -- it was accompanied by the scariest, creepiest, most foreboding synth. It still gives me shudders to this day, for some odd reason.
I\'d often watch the showcase reveal on TPIR from a distance when I was little - the clangs, whoops and \"DOUBLE SHOWCASE WINNER\" flashing on the screen terrified me.
I\'d turn the volume down during any B-E bonus round as a kid. Even Play the Percentages.
My terror was the Dragon from TTD\'90. Rapping made it worse.
As mentioned on the other thread, that Time\'s Up/Tacky Buzzer used on the syndicated Hollywood Squares was at the top of my list.
And, while not really a Game Show specific, I give you \"The S From Hell\":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPUg1y-ftYQ
That creepy music and snakelike logo formation scared the crap out of me when I was little. And I wasn\'t the only one if the \"S from Hell\" moniker can easily be googled on the internet.
Since we\'re extending this to closing logos (and I remember how well THAT went the last time...;-)), let me further nominate the Thames \"rising buildings\" and Colex Enterprises as ones that bothered me as well...because the jingles sounded like the above Screen Gems music. And there was the AAP logo that used to appear before Popeye and Looney Tunes shorts back in the day.
The other arch villian in the closing logo world is the \'70s and \'80s Viacom \"V of Doom\"...but that never bothered me, actually.
Back to game shows, I\'ll reiterate mine:
- The TPIR losing horns (and any similar ones, like both Blockbusters Gold Run loss SFXs or the Classic Concentration bonus round loss)
- Someone mentioned Cliff Hangers...when I was really young I thought the \"yodely guy\" music was weird...
- Bankrupt slide whistle
- TTD dragon (and I turned the sound down on TJW too cause I thought the devil made a noise too...though I didn\'t like the Penny Ante sound as I likened it to a weed whacker starting for some reason...)
- The Stopper
- The Whew! opening, esp. the vampire\'s roar. That haunted me from when I was 3 when the show aired until I found out about it on ATGS and got an episode. I didn\'t even know what it was called or anything until then...I just remembered that opening!
- Yes, at first I feared the Whammy too.
- The Davidson HS bonus game loss sound bothered me too for some reason.
/ObGameShow: a still version of the SFH was seen at the end of All About Faces.
The stinger from $1M Chance of a Lifetime.
The Double sound from the Challengers was bad for me...I got used to it, though.
And Steve and Mitch, the stinger noise STILL scares me, and I didn\'t watch COAL as a kid. Only years later.
Relating closing logos with game shows, I absolutely had to turn off Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? before the Buena Vista Television logo showed up. That music bothered me for some reason.
I found Beat the Clock to be nice soothing and calm television during the late night when I stayed up, but so help me if there was a big win because all of the noise from it, and most specifically a Bud Collyer outburst, would startle me something fierce.
Not directly from a game show, but for some reason, WNEM\'s logo used to scare me when I was about 5. And every night during Wheel of Fortune, they would chyron the lottery numbers onto the bottom of the screen, with said logo above it. I remember that I would run and hide whenever it came up. One time, when watching Wheel at a friend of my mom\'s, I made a pit stop and walked back out of the bathroom… straight into my mother\'s jacket, because she was shielding me from the logo that scared me. (I also remember that one day, they just did the lottery numbers on a full screen closer to the end of the show, sans logo, much to my relief.)
I still have no friggin\' clue how a little \"5\" inside a triangle would scare me.
The other arch villian in the closing logo world is the \'70s and \'80s Viacom \"V of Doom\"...but that never bothered me, actually.
Lol! Yep. This.
I never watched the Dragon or the Devil. Ever. Hated the way they appeared so suddenly. At the age of 5, I skipped \"Whew\"....
And, adding one to the list that hasn\'t been mentioned - as a toddler I could not watch \"Hurdles\" on TPIR - between the gun and the \'crash\' of the losing player - I was terrified at the age of 3.
Nothing game show related ever frightened me, but I was scared by local station sign-offs. Not the actual sign-off message itself, or even the national anthem, but the impending color bars/tone combination or just the loud static. However, the national anthem films would send me running because I knew what was coming next. Tests of the Emergency Broadcast System were a bit nerve-wracking as well, and again that was because of the loud noise. I had no idea about the cold war/nuclear bomb implications that were originally behind the EBS.
I\'d often watch the showcase reveal on TPIR from a distance when I was little - the clangs, whoops and \"DOUBLE SHOWCASE WINNER\" flashing on the screen terrified me.
What Aaron said. I remember one DSW from the early 80s with the clangs, the whoops, the graphics, and the background behind the prizes repeating from red to blue to purple. Scared the bejeezus out of me.
I\'d often watch the showcase reveal on TPIR from a distance when I was little - the clangs, whoops and \"DOUBLE SHOWCASE WINNER\" flashing on the screen terrified me.
Same here.
And, adding one to the list that hasn\'t been mentioned - as a toddler I could not watch \"Hurdles\" on TPIR - between the gun and the \'crash\' of the losing player - I was terrified at the age of 3.
I couldn\'t remember what happened with a Hurdles loss so I searched YT for one and found one - was it the \"Crash!\" graphic and the zooming in and out of the camera? yeah, I\'d be terrified of that too.
The other arch villian in the closing logo world is the \'70s and \'80s Viacom \"V of Doom\"...but that never bothered me, actually.Lol! Yep. This.
I never watched the Dragon or the Devil. Ever. Hated the way they appeared so suddenly. At the age of 5, I skipped \"Whew\"....
And, adding one to the list that hasn\'t been mentioned - as a toddler I could not watch \"Hurdles\" on TPIR - between the gun and the \'crash\' of the losing player - I was terrified at the age of 3.
I loved the \"V of Doom\" as a kid, but I\'ve mentioned before that Lorimar-Telepictures sent me running into the next room. I still get an uneasy feeling about that one...damn flashy 80s graphics. I have vague memories of Chuck closing out Love Connection*, and wailing to turn the channel or hiding behind a chair because I knew what was up next. Cracked my mom and my grandfather up. :-P
Relating it to game shows, when I lived in Dallas, Chance of a Lifetime came on at 6 pm, right before Rafferty\'s Card Sharks. Needless to say, I wouldn\'t turn the TV to CS until about 6:32. ;-)
*Or any of the primetime soaps of the era
Count me among those who didn\'t care for the devil or the dragon, although I think the dragon was worse because of his roar.
I recall not being terribly fond of the Screen Gems logo, though I don\'t think it really creeped me out. Now, however, when I watch, say, Bewitched on DVD, I\'m disappointed when it doesn\'t appear at the end and instead I\'m treated to the (very loud) Sony logo instead.
Yes! Also the \"Sandy Frank Productions\" copyright line at the end of the credits, too.
. ETA: It never bothered me on USA, but the SANDY FRANK PRESENTS Scanimate graphics at the beginning of Face the Music creeped me out when it aired on the Family Channel.
Nothing game show related ever frightened me, but I was scared by local station sign-offs. Not the actual sign-off message itself, or even the national anthem, but the impending color bars/tone combination or just the loud static. However, the national anthem films would send me running because I knew what was coming next. Tests of the Emergency Broadcast System were a bit nerve-wracking as well, and again that was because of the loud noise. I had no idea about the cold war/nuclear bomb implications that were originally behind the EBS.
The \"program change\" messages would usually get to me, especially coming from the then-WNEW 5 in New York, and especially when a show was cancelled/removed from the schedule, and Tom Gregory or whoever said it \"will NO LONGER be seen...\" And the Technical Difficulties slide/elevator music/announcements too...really creepy stuff!
I loved the \"V of Doom\" as a kid
Me too, as well as its predecessor, the \"Pinball V-IA-COM\" which I commonly saw at the end of \"Josie and the Pussycats\" reruns.
I recall not being terribly fond of the Screen Gems logo, though I don\'t think it really creeped me out. Now, however, when I watch, say, Bewitched on DVD, I\'m disappointed when it doesn\'t appear at the end and instead I\'m treated to the (very loud) Sony logo instead.
Fortunately (?), the SFH has made somewhat of a comeback in this decade, currently you can see it intact on several shows on Antenna TV. Yes, the Sony logo has followed in the footsteps of the Columbia-Tristar \"Boxes of Boredom,\" eliminating almost every previous Columbia TV logo.
ObGameShow: This was actually funny on WOF or J! \'80s reruns on GSN, as Jack Clark/Johnny Gilbert\'s spiel at the end of the show would be interrupted by C-T and CHARLIE O\'DONNELL saying \"Columbia-Tristar Television.\"
Never got freaked out by the \"V\" of Doom.
Did get freaked out by the Saban logo at the end of \"I\'m Telling\". On the non-GS list, the Group W logo on some \"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles\" eps scared me too. Mainly the music/sound in both cases.
Not game show related, but since we\'re veering off into scary TV stuff, this skit from \"Sesame Street\" always made me turn away at the end....
1. The original Concentration buzzer
2. On the same topic, Hugh Downs yelling \"IS RIGHT\" would scare the sh1t out of me
3. Art Fleming singing bits of songs that were clues on the original Jeopardy! - creepy.
And, adding one to the list that hasn\'t been mentioned - as a toddler I could not watch \"Hurdles\" on TPIR - between the gun and the \'crash\' of the losing player - I was terrified at the age of 3.
I couldn\'t remember what happened with a Hurdles loss so I searched YT for one and found one - was it the \"Crash!\" graphic and the zooming in and out of the camera? yeah, I\'d be terrified of that too.
Yep. That.
Not game show related, but since we\'re veering off into scary TV stuff, this skit from \"Sesame Street\" always made me turn away at the end....
HOLY CRAP YES! What a memory that I haven\'t seen in 35 years!!!!!!!!
Thanks! (jerk... :) )
Here\'s another one that scared me that is somewhat game-show related.
Back when I was a kid, I would watch the original Channel 61 in Cleveland (WKBF) all the time. One night (might have been after watching Dealer\'s Choice), they put up a static of that night\'s winning Ohio Lottery Numbers along with the (at that age) slightly-creepy OL Logo. Not too bad, except their booth announcer was Phil McLean, a voice with pipes so low, he made Ernie Anderson sound like a soprano!! His deep, creepy voice was bad enough, until you threw in over-blaring music bed they used for the lottery segment -- the opening 10 notes of \"The Savers\" (70\'s Joker\'s Wild Theme) looped over and over.
he made Ernie Anderson sound like a soprano!!
I always get Ernie Anderson mixed up with Ernie Anastos.
/keep f**king that chicken
he made Ernie Anderson sound like a soprano!!
I always get Ernie Anderson mixed up with Ernie Anastos.
/keep f**king that chicken
Not that Ernie Anderson always had a clean mouth (NSFW):
http://soundcloud.com/fortyfps9/ernie-anderson_vs_the-copy
Not game show related, but since we\'re veering off into scary TV stuff, this skit from \"Sesame Street\" always made me turn away at the end....
The one that always got me was: the \"street\" one with the rabbits...I liked it up until the rabbit in the car drives by and says, \"Would you be more careful, crossing the street?\" Also, the life cycle of the frog, ending with a grown frog hopping away and yelling, \"Heyyyyyyyyyyyy Kermiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!\" (it should have been funny to me, but the yelling got to me back then)
-Late 80\'s/early 90\'s Jeopardy intro with the \"whoosh\" sound and the Jeopardy logo on the spinning globe. I distinctly remember being at my aunt\'s house once and running into another room because I knew Jeopardy was coming on. If I ever get on the show, I\'ll mention being afraid of Jeopardy as one of my interesting things for the contestant interview.
-TPIR Pathfinder wrong number SFX. The set for the game was a little overwhelming too, but that sound was what really got me.
-The Dark Forest room in Legends of the Hidden Temple
-TTD dragon, moreso the roar than anything else. Didn\'t see this one until GSN came along.
-This last one is a little weird, but I had some fears about Doug Davidon\'s TPIR. The thought of people being injured scared me as a child, and I remember him joking about Hans being taken to the hospital when someone lost Cliff Hangers. Also related to the injury fear, I remembered my mom watching Y&R around that time and seeing Davidson\'s character get hit by a car. I couldn\'t watch him on Price for a few days after that.
One day on \"You\'re Putting Me On,\" the panel was acting out \"Judy Garland.\" Trouble was that Ms. Garland had passed away a few days before. Don Pardo made a voiceover explaining that the program was recorded prior to her death. Sorta cast a pall on the fun and frivolity. A similar situation happened on \"Stumpers\" as Jack Cassidy was a panelist a few days after his death.
And of course the same was done for the last four weeks of Allen Ludden\'s run on Password Plus. Wonder if any of the OB versions of those episodes exist anywhere, with the announcement intact? (GSN versions have no announcement) This was something I vaguely remembered from when I was 3...and thus qualifies as a scare bomb as I do think I recalled the transition from Allen to Tom and feeling weird about it. The voiceovers on Allen\'s last eps. couldn\'t have helped.
Only thing that vaguely fits this thread that I can ever remember being unsettled by -- I wouldn\'t go all the way to say \"scared\" -- was the late-\'70s local sponsorship announcement for \"Sesame Street\" on WEDU in Tampa, which was courtesy of GTE and featured some Touch-Tone beeps; we didn\'t have Touch-Tone phone service at the time.
I don\'t recall ever having any issues with production company logos, the \"Tic Tac Dough\" dragon, or anything else mentioned in this thread.
And of course the same was done for the last four weeks of Allen Ludden\'s run on Password Plus. Wonder if any of the OB versions of those episodes exist anywhere, with the announcement intact?
Two words: Ken Basin.
And of course the same was done for the last four weeks of Allen Ludden\'s run on Password Plus. Wonder if any of the OB versions of those episodes exist anywhere, with the announcement intact?
I seriously doubt any such announcements ever existed, seeing as when said epiodes aired, Allen was still alive.
I should have clarified that...the (alleged) announcements were to mention Allen\'s illness, not death.
And back to closing logos, check out the (creepy) end to St. Elsewhere...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fce6tlwwjQo
I don\'t think this was ever seen again in reruns. Censorship on behalf of MTM/whoever, perhaps?
Censorship on behalf of MTM/whoever, perhaps?
To this day, I\'m not entirely comfortable with the Warner Bros\' \"WB\" badge - the way it was all angles and came shooting straight at you. DUCK, RABBIT, DUCK!
To this day, I\'m not entirely comfortable with the Warner Bros\' \"WB\" badge - the way it was all angles and came shooting straight at you. DUCK, RABBIT, DUCK!
I forgot about that! And the \"twang\" sound effect...I turned the volume down before any Merrie Melody/Looney Tune began, believe me.
Censorship on behalf of MTM/whoever, perhaps?
Did you really just suggest a conspiracy theory without a single shred of evidence to back it up? Really?
I was asking a question. I didn\'t say they definitely censored it.
I was asking a question.
Yeah, that was always Glenn Beck\'s excuse, too.
To this day, I\'m not entirely comfortable with the Warner Bros\' \"WB\" badge - the way it was all angles and came shooting straight at you. DUCK, RABBIT, DUCK!
You must\'ve seen \"Lumber-Jack Rabbit\" (http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuJ3NeVlcwE) at least once in your life.
Most unsettling thing ever on GSN was \"Beat the Clock\" when they started the \"Hickory Dickory Dock\" thing to open the show. After the song they showed creepy bottom-lit faces of a mom, dad, and young sun, slowly zooming in on their laughing faces as about a hundred people could be heard laughing. Extremely creepy. Ugh! Brrr!
I\'d often watch the showcase reveal on TPIR from a distance when I was little - the clangs, whoops and \"DOUBLE SHOWCASE WINNER\" flashing on the screen terrified me.
Now here\'s how dumb I was--I cringed on a Showcase overbid because I didn\'t like the buzzer (not realizing it\'s the same klaxon buzzer used in \"Clock Game,\" \"Most Expensive\" and other games that didn\'t use the more common buzzer).
TPiR--big enough for two buzzer sound effects.
Also related to the injury fear, I remembered my mom watching Y&R around that time and seeing Davidson\'s character get hit by a car.
Wow...I remember watching that too. I\'m pretty sure it was over the Christmas break, because I was out of school, but I remember being a bit curious about whether Doug was being written out of Y&R.
TPiR94 was of course canceled a month or so later, but I wonder had the show taken off, would that have been Y&R\'s way of allowing Doug out of the show?
Yeah, that was always Glenn Beck\'s excuse, too.
Considering you are acting like Mr. Beck in attacking under false pretenses don\'t throw stones.
It was a simple question, no need to overreact to it.
Thank you for adding some reason to this!
So, um, if I can rephrase my question in proper GSF-ese....I notice that you never saw the \"Mimsie dying\" end to the St. Elsewhere finale after the original broadcast. Does anyone know why that might have been? Extensive detective work to back up your suggestions necessary, apparently!
Most unsettling thing ever on GSN was \"Beat the Clock\" when they started the \"Hickory Dickory Dock\" thing to open the show. After the song they showed creepy bottom-lit faces of a mom, dad, and young sun, slowly zooming in on their laughing faces as about a hundred people could be heard laughing. Extremely creepy. Ugh! Brrr!
I can see your point. But I actually thought it was funny the first time I saw it. It reminded me of the Carrie \"they\'re all gonna laugh at you\" scene.
To this day, I\'m not entirely comfortable with the Warner Bros\' \"WB\" badge - the way it was all angles and came shooting straight at you. DUCK, RABBIT, DUCK!
You must\'ve seen \"Lumber-Jack Rabbit\" at least once in your life.
Ah yes, I think I saw that as part of the WNEW/WNYW package of LT shorts, that didn\'t help my phobia of the WB \"twang\" zooming shield.
I\'m only old enough to have caught the last season or so of Barker Truth or Consequences in first run but was terrified of ol\' Beulah the Buzzer. Around that same time, along with the previously mentioned effects surrounding Cliffhangers and Hurdles losses, there was the Secret Square sounder. That was duck-and-cover time!
Outside of game shows, Lincoln-Mercury\'s \"Sign of the Cat\" campaign. I fled the room to escape that mean ol\' cougar! XD
Dinah Shore always made me uncomfortable for some reason.
I think Burt Reynolds felt the same way after they broke up.
Anyway, my game show terror was that \"tacky buzzer\" on the nighttime Hollywood Squares. I eventually got used to it. It was always funny when it sounded on Paul Lynde.
For a while, mine was the \"dit-dit-dit-dit-dit\" end-of-round sound on Jeopardy. Whenever Alex said \"a minute to go\", I had to leave the room.
As for closing logos, the Worldvision Enterprises logo was a little scary to me, because of the white flash, and the whooshing sound.
Outside of game shows, Lincoln-Mercury\'s \"Sign of the Cat\" campaign. I fled the room to escape that mean ol\' cougar! XD
And going back to game shows but related to the above, this didn\'t scare me but it could be startling: the Buick hawk popping up above the logo in \"new car\" plugs for the B-E shows.
Now let\'s take this to another subject: RECORD LABEL FEARS. Since we are talking about felines, I thought of this subject, as it allows me to nominate: the Riva lion...
http://www.nationmaster.com/wikimir/images/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/Riva.jpg
ObGameShows: Another big cat from the record labels, that of Scotti Bros., would be seen at the end of WordPlay.
Had I been around in the 50\'s, I probably would have been avoiding \"Choose Up Sides\" with Gene Rayburn.
That show came up on the last VCR tape I watched and that big-headed Mr. Mischief character hanging on the wall with Don Pardo providing the squeaky voice felt a little creepy even to this day!
/And yes, add me to the Mercury Cougar roaring on the sign phobia as well. Forgot about that one!
Nothing game show related ever frightened me, but I was scared by local station sign-offs. Not the actual sign-off message itself, or even the national anthem, but the impending color bars/tone combination or just the loud static. However, the national anthem films would send me running because I knew what was coming next. Tests of the Emergency Broadcast System were a bit nerve-wracking as well, and again that was because of the loud noise. I had no idea about the cold war/nuclear bomb implications that were originally behind the EBS.
The \"program change\" messages would usually get to me, especially coming from the then-WNEW 5 in New York, and especially when a show was cancelled/removed from the schedule, and Tom Gregory or whoever said it \"will NO LONGER be seen...\" And the Technical Difficulties slide/elevator music/announcements too...really creepy stuff!
When I was growing up, EBS tests were at 10:00 AM, just in time to interrupt the opening of The Price Is Right. (Actually, they still are at 10:00ish occasionally, but by the time it filters down from Texas Homeland Security to KEYE, it\'s usually about the time the price of the first one-bid is revealed.) I didn\'t understand that \"If this had been an actual emergency...\" was a euphemism for \"If nuclear holocaust was imminent...\" but I knew enough about the words \"actual emergency\" to know I didn\'t want to hear that noise in any other context.
The other thing along those lines was that whenever the cable company lost the signal from a station, they had an automated system that would switch to a computer system that would spell out a message about \"THIS STATION HAS CONCLUDED ITS BROADCAST DAY\" character by character, hold it for a few seconds, and then clear the screen and start again. (I assume, now, that it was configured to be able to show multiple messages if necessary, but seldom (if ever) had more than that.) Our PBS station was run on a shoestring budget at the time, so that message appeared fairly often when something broke down. It felt a little creepy to see it in the middle of the day even when I was a kid--the sense that nobody was home even though someone should be.
Though not strictly game show related:
wigga wigga wigga wigga wigga
VIACOM
When I was growing up, EBS tests were at 10:00 AM, just in time to interrupt the opening of The Price Is Right.
Sounds like they were doing it wrong -- Emergency Broadcast System tests were supposed to happen at various times, between (if I recall correctly) 6:00 A.M. and sunset, and could be done during commercial breaks, without interrupting programming.
The current Emergency Alert System, of course, is a different matter entirely.
On September 11, 2001 the Emergency Alert System in the New York metro remained silent. Not a peep. It\'s a good thing there were no emergencies that day.
The current Emergency Alert System, of course, is a different matter entirely.
True this. My TV provider will break into the system to do an EAS test. Sometimes multiple times within an hour. Can\'t change the channel, your remote is useless.
True this. My TV provider will break into the system to do an EAS test. Sometimes multiple times within an hour. Can\'t change the channel, your remote is useless.
TiVo does this too. (Including if you are watching a recording. And, annoyingly, when it\'s over, it doesn\'t return you to it; you have to restart it yourself.) I\'ll be curious to see how Windows Media Center handles them.
Just spotted this thread. I have no memory of this, but my brother tells me I ran out of the room any time TPIR did Danger Price with the skull and crossbones.
I used to get scared of the Cliff Hangers guy falling off- so much so that for a brief period whenever TPIR would come on, I would unplug the TV and run off screaming. I was seven, and I knew no better. What can I say?
Sometimes the Price is Right\'s logo looks like a creepy laugh whenever it zooms into the center.
On September 11, 2001 the Emergency Alert System in the New York metro remained silent. Not a peep. It\'s a good thing there were no emergencies that day.
EAS is designed to keep people informed in the event of an emergency. One would assume that very few people in the NYC metro area on Sept. 11, 2001 were unaware of the day\'s events and found themselves with no way of getting information. EAS activation, even on a local level, would only have cut off the flow of information.
When I was growing up, EBS tests were at 10:00 AM, just in time to interrupt the opening of The Price Is Right.
Sounds like they were doing it wrong -- Emergency Broadcast System tests were supposed to happen at various times, between (if I recall correctly) 6:00 A.M. and sunset, and could be done during commercial breaks, without interrupting programming.
The current Emergency Alert System, of course, is a different matter entirely.
Unrealtor might be remembering monthly EAS tests, which usually take place the first Tuesday of the month around 10 or 11A, IIRC. The relay goes over the air regardless of what\'s happening.
A weekly EAS test, OTOH, you\'re right about - it\'s 30 seconds and stations put that test in commercial break pods.
OBthread: Let\'s see: Sesame Street train sketch? Check. Buzzer on Card Sharks? Check. Any B/E endgame? Check. The Whew! opening animation? Check. Yeah, there was a lot. Did I mention the Spiderman web throw from Electric Company?
but I was scared by local station sign-offs. Not the actual sign-off message itself, or even the national anthem, but the impending color bars/tone combination or just the loud static. However, the national anthem films would send me running because I knew what was coming next.
That scared the hell out of me too. The scariest one for me had to be then-independent WNFT (now CBS affiliate WTEV) out of Jacksonville, FL. There was no tone, but there were bars across the screen. Not the usual TP, just straight vertical bars going across the screen. That could be why it was the scariest, it was so unusual for a test pattern.
Game show related, the Bullseye lightning used to scare me (I was 4 when the show debuted). I would watch the show with my parents, but everytime they went to play the bonus game, I would hide my face. The fears were gone by the time Bullseye started airing in reruns on CBN.
OBthread: Let\'s see: Sesame Street train sketch? Check. Buzzer on Card Sharks? Check. Any B/E endgame? Check. The Whew! opening animation? Check. Yeah, there was a lot. Did I mention the Spiderman web throw from Electric Company?
Forget Spidey, the HEYYYYYYYYYYYY YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU GUYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYSSSSSSSSSSSS! was enough to put me off.
On September 11, 2001 the Emergency Alert System in the New York metro remained silent. Not a peep. It\'s a good thing there were no emergencies that day.
EAS is designed to keep people informed in the event of an emergency. One would assume that very few people in the NYC metro area on Sept. 11, 2001 were unaware of the day\'s events and found themselves with no way of getting information. EAS activation, even on a local level, would only have cut off the flow of information.
People always have excuses for EAS not being deployed. Usually it\'s \"the local stations will cover the story.\" Local stations (I work for two) will report what their news departments are able to get. They don\'t necessarily broadcast information from a centralized \"official\" source. In TV this could easily be done with lower-third captions without interrupting programming content. In the aftermath of an emergency there is PLENTY of information to be reported.
EAS remained silent on 9/11, during hurricane Katrina, and during various earthquakes in California. It was inspired by the attacks on Pearl Harbor where Japanese bombers used the local AM station to home in on their target. It is a relic of the cold war, intended to be used to inform the public that it\'s time to panic, that the Reds are headed this way with planes full of A-bombs, and if you can\'t make it to a fallout shelter to duck and cover so as not to witness the coming nuclear immolation.
and if you can\'t make it to a fallout shelter to duck and cover so as not to witness the coming nuclear immolation.
In middle school, we used to have regular earthquake drills where you got under your desk, but a couple of times we had nuclear drills where we were to line up against the wall. One time I asked the (pretty hip) teacher if this was so people who came along later could identify us by our silhouettes after we were turned to ash. She had to go through the motions, but she gave me a look that said \"yeah, farking tell me about it.\"
Don\'t forget your air raid sirens. Here is one located just steps away from Capitol Records and the former Hollywood Palace theater in Hollywood:
And every time Louis Untermeyer scratched his nose on WML? he was really sending secret messages to his Communist cohorts who got their orders by watching him on WML?
Sometimes the Price is Right\'s logo looks like a creepy laugh whenever it zooms into the center.
What, pray tell, are you smoking/drinking/injecting/snorting?
Maybe he just has synesthesia.
Sounds like they were doing it wrong -- Emergency Broadcast System tests were supposed to happen at various times, between (if I recall correctly) 6:00 A.M. and sunset, and could be done during commercial breaks, without interrupting programming.
The current Emergency Alert System, of course, is a different matter entirely.
A weekly EAS test, OTOH, you\'re right about - it\'s 30 seconds and stations put that test in commercial break pods.
Well, I was talking about the Emergency Broadcast System, which is what I remember from my youth (and learned about from the broadcaster\'s perspective when I trained as a college radio DJ in the mid-1990s). Those tests were more like 60 seconds, including the intro and outro narration. \"This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.\"
People always have excuses for EAS not being deployed. Usually it\'s \"the local stations will cover the story.\" Local stations (I work for two) will report what their news departments are able to get. They don\'t necessarily broadcast information from a centralized \"official\" source. In TV this could easily be done with lower-third captions without interrupting programming content. In the aftermath of an emergency there is PLENTY of information to be reported.But that\'s not how EAS works. EAS activation is specifically designed to interrupt programming. When there is an actual emergency situation **in progress** (i.e. tornado warning, incoming attack, etc.), EAS activation is essential and helpful. You don\'t have to mobilize an entire news department and production crew to get on the air; you just have the MCO press a button and it\'s there. (This, assuming your MCO is smart enough to do so, but that\'s another story...) Yes, there\'s lots of information to be reported afterward, and yes, a lower third super or crawl would handle it--indeed, the now-ubiquitious news ticker at the bottom of news programs came into widespread use on 9/11/01 specifically for that purpose. But EAS activation in that case would, IMHO, hindered the distribution of information simply because it cuts off the people who actually are working to get as much information on the air already.
When there is an actual emergency situation **in progress** (i.e. tornado warning, incoming attack, etc.), EAS activation is essential and helpful.
Yes, like an incoming attack on the World Trade Center towers. It was very helpful then.
One more game show terror:
Jack Barry. Simply him. That face alone scared me! That blooper that makes the rounds when the \"Face the Devil\" lever was broke? At 7 I honestly thought Jack was upset when he said \"You broke my wheel!\". I always looked forward to Jim Peck filling in...
Well, I was talking about the Emergency Broadcast System, which is what I remember from my youth <snip>aor
Fair enough, but IIRC EAS or EBS tests had the same rules. I remember back in college that as long as we aired it once a week (in other words, if we missed it) - we had to do an EBS test. The monthly one came over by itself and we had to do that.
When there is an actual emergency situation **in progress** (i.e. tornado warning, incoming attack, etc.), EAS activation is essential and helpful.
Yes, like an incoming attack on the World Trade Center towers. It was very helpful then.
If you can show me evidence that officials in a position to be able to activate a local EAS alert had specific information about either aircraft\'s plans prior to 9:03:02am, then I\'ll agree with you. But simply activating and saying \"Hey, there\'s another plane coming in and it\'s probably gonna crash into something, so everyone better evacuate\" or something similar would do nothing but create panic and confusion (considering people in the south tower were being told their building was secure).
But this is all second-guessing, and we can second-guess all day long and not get anywhere. I doubt that an EAS activation would have done any good in the morning, and it certainly wouldn\'t have done any good in the afternoon. You appear to disagree. Meh.
RE: EAS and 9/11
I am 99% sure that I read in a report regarding how communcations on 9/11 were handled that Bush had considered activiating the EAS for the attacks on the towers, however the idea was scrapped because an Emergency Action Notification (or EAN) had a protocol of a black screen with no information being presented on the screen. TPTB decided since the national news was providing a running report of the attacks with video to leave well enough alone.
ObGameShow: Dragon\'s roar from TTD scared the heck out of me.
Those tests were more like 60 seconds, including the intro and outro narration. \"This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.\"
Re: My original comment, It wasn\'t an every-week or an every month thing to do the tests at 10 AM, but it happened enough times over the course of my childhood that I remember them as a 10:00 thing.
Re: 9/11, anyone who lives in the deep south or tornado alley and has a working weather radio will tell you that EAS as-is has a hard enough time keeping up with hazards the size and speed of supercell thunderstorms without also sending the same message to a lot of people who aren\'t in any imminent danger. An airplane would be even worse, especially in a densely-populated area when it would likely lead to a panic. Given that GPS and cell-tower triangulation are now relatively cheap, I\'m surprised that there isn\'t talk of moving to a system that allows finer-grained control over which areas to warn.
Those tests were more like 60 seconds, including the intro and outro narration. \"This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.\"
In fact, didn\'t it say outright, \"For the next 60 seconds, this station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System?\"
There\'s variations of the EBS script but that is one of the openers.
Those tests were more like 60 seconds, including the intro and outro narration. \"This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.\"
In fact, didn\'t it say outright, \"For the next 60 seconds, this station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System?\"
There\'s variations of the EBS script but that is one of the openers.
The Official Script:
1) DISCONTINUE NORMAL PROGRAM2) BROADCAST THIS ANNOUNCEMENT
\"This is a test. This station (optional -- insert station call sign) is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.\"
(TV stations shall display an appropriate EBS slide and transmit all announcements visually and aurally in the manner required by Section 73.1250(h) of the FCC rules. Stations which provide foreign language programming may transmit emergency announcements in the foreign language prior to broaadcasting such announcements in English.)3) TRANSMIT ATTENTION SIGNAL
Broadcast the two-tone Attention signal from the EBS encoder for 20 to 25 seconds (see Sections 73.906 and 73.940 of the Rules).4) BROADCAST ANNOUNCEMENT
\"This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The broadcasters of your area in voluntary cooperation with the Federal, State and local authorities have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency, (optional -- stations may mention the types of emergencies likely to occurr in their area) the Attention Signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news or instructions. This station (optional -- insert station call sign) serves the (operational area name) area. This concludes this test of the Emergency Broadcast System.\"
Or, if you prefer it to a beat...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YRHAro1iTE
Or, if you prefer it to a beat...
That jingle really would\'ve worked best on a radio station, let alone a TV station.
The first time I remember hearing such a test was in 1972 or 1973(about the time I went to school im Batavia NY back then). If they did the tests at 10 AM, I was too busy with school. Of course, the EBS tones are scary enough as they were but at least it was an attention-grabber for sure.
That jingle really would\'ve worked best on a radio station, let alone a TV station.
Which is probably why WHEN-AM Syracuse used it on radio. Go figure.
For those who have never heard it...this is what a national EBS activation sounds like:
http://historyofwowo.com/audio/WOWO-Bob%20SieversEBS_02-20-1971_scoped.mp3
(courtesy of http://historyofwowo.com)
One of these days, I\'ll get around to scanning pages out of my 1967 EBS handbook. Just reading the \"ATTACK WARNING\" script is enough to send shivers down your spine...
One other interesting thing about the old EBS tones via the radio stations:
In each of the radio markets where I worked, there was one station -- usually an AM station with the strongest coverage signal -- that was the primary EBS activator (or whatever the official term was). Anyhoo, in both of the stations I worked at, whenever the tones would be activated by said station, a device hooked up to our off-air cue speakers that would instantly simulcast that station\'s feed. To turn off that signal, we had to go into another room and hit a button to reset and mute the other station.
This was to ensure that we either heard immediately why the EBS tones were activated (test or storm warnings) so that we would relay the same information in a timely manner if it was within our coverage area. If we were on the air or stepped out of the booth and missed the announcement, then it would still be an indicator that something was going on and we had to go to the ol\' UPI News teletype to see what the tone was for.
I got another one - seeing Jack Barry in those creepy sunglasses hosting the 1976-1977 syndicated version of Break The Bank.
Wish someone had the WABC version of the EBS from the \'80s up somewhere...the black background with \"TEST\" in the middle in bold, red font would add to the unsettling feeling, IMO.
Funny thing...I used to think the tone was when you were \"supposed to talk to the TV\" if there was an emergency. No, really. As such you can tell that EBS\'s truthfully never scared me. Kind of related, as it had to do with a weather report, but I was creeped out by an old WNBC slide for said report. It was just a cloudy sky with the moon in the middle, and \"WNBC Weather Report\" or similar in the \'80s News 4 New York font. I never saw it since though.
/ObGameShows: NBC was the king of daytime game shows in the \'80s. [Alberto Del Rio] But you already knew that. [/Alberto]
//Yes I am so passionate in that opinion that I actually quoted ALBERTO DEL RIO.
Who the hell is ALBERTO DEL RIO?
In each of the radio markets where I worked, there was one station -- usually an AM station with the strongest coverage signal -- that was the primary EBS activator (or whatever the official term was).
Common Program Central Station.
Who the hell is ALBERTO DEL RIO?
A wrestler.
Oh. My eyes. They roll.
You\'re just jealous because you don\'t have your own personal announcer.
I *am* my own personal announcer.
I got another one - seeing Jack Barry in those creepy sunglasses hosting the 1976-1977 syndicated version of Break The Bank.
Ah yes...the blind man\'s aviator shades. Richard Dawson wore them for a time on Feud and I found them equally creepy.
Most unsettling thing ever on GSN was \"Beat the Clock\" when they started the \"Hickory Dickory Dock\" thing to open the show. After the song they showed creepy bottom-lit faces of a mom, dad, and young sun, slowly zooming in on their laughing faces as about a hundred people could be heard laughing. Extremely creepy. Ugh! Brrr!
Same with me, and from the fact that it was pulled rather quickly, I have a feeling we were not alone in this.
I can think of two things that I actively tried to avoid: the \"jack in the box\" secret word near the end of the run on the original You Bet Your Life, and the time\'s up signal on the 1970s syndicated Hollywood Squares (which is strange, as I am under the impression that it was the same buzzer as the penalty buzzer on Baffle and (when Chuck needed it) the time\'s up buzzer on The Gong Show), and I didn\'t have a problem with those. (It may have been combined with the fact that, because (for some strange reason) every TV in my house got both the OTA and cable signals for the local ABC station that it was on, but out of video horizontal sync, the picture was pretty much unwatchable.)
I got another one - seeing Jack Barry in those creepy sunglasses hosting the 1976-1977 syndicated version of Break The Bank.Ah yes...the blind man\'s aviator shades. Richard Dawson wore them for a time on Feud and I found them equally creepy.
Also on the syndicated BTB, why did Jaye P. Morgan start hugging everyone on the top row whenever somebody broke the
bank? Weird,
I got another one - seeing Jack Barry in those creepy sunglasses hosting the 1976-1977 syndicated version of Break The Bank.Ah yes...the blind man\'s aviator shades. Richard Dawson wore them for a time on Feud and I found them equally creepy.
Also on the syndicated BTB, why did Jaye P. Morgan start hugging everyone on the top row whenever somebody broke the
bank? Weird,
I don\'t know, but ISTR during the end of the ABC run it seemed to happen more than once that Jaye P. and one of her male celebrity neighbors would go to the floor and all you\'d see are legs sticking up in the air.
i know this isint game show related buts herse thats something thats crepy the DIC kid in ben logo il give you 3 reasons
1 stalking
2its dark
3 (i know it was removed but) the chrior fom hell variant
I agree. That DIC logo was semi-creepy. I had never heard the choir version until just now and can definitely see it being unsettling for a youngster.
Welcome to the board, M622!
Eh, we used to make fun of the DiC logo reveal.
Now, between some of the logo reveals on here, like WorldVision and Viacom, those sucked. Not appearing in that picture but also ginormously unsettling for a kid in the 70\'s was the Mark VII logo.
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