The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: TimK2003 on November 05, 2025, 12:06:12 PM
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Many game- and non-game show fans can identify certain game show sfx and apply them to their daily lives.
The TPIR losing horns is a great example, as is the CLANG for the FF reveals.
One sound effect that I don't think ever got it's full respect is the $xxx,xxx Pyramid clock. That original cue has been used consistently.for over 50 years in the Pyramid incarnations, or used on other Bob Stewart shows.
That cue was so good, other producers had tried to imitate it in their shows. The last $OTC end game as well as the Every Second Counts end game countdown clocks are examples of the "oftern imitated, never duplicated" category. I think the Stewart family owned their countdown clock cue outright and never let anyone else use it.
Hence why I nominate it as the most underrated sound effect in game show history.
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My nominee for this is the "cuckoo" from Pyramid.
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The Hot Potato 'pass' sound
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Hence why I nominate it as the most underrated sound effect in game show history.
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.
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The BING when a contestant passed spins on PYL.
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How would you even quantify underrated?
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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.
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Hence why I nominate it as the most underrated sound effect in game show history.
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.
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.
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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.
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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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The "vowels only remaining" chirps from Wheel, as the rarity of their sounding these days typifies how the game has shifted from trying to spin and call every consonant possible in order to earn the cash to win prizes, to being able to win the game without much spinning at all thanks to there being no such concept as "score money" in the game with numerous Toss-Ups and bonuses tacked onto just solving puzzles.
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Another one: I love the reverberating sound made when someone freezes a window in Bullseye. Would love to know how composers and sound editors came up with some of the SFX.
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I'd like to nominate the "man lost" sounder from Hit Man.
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Obvs. the "EEYOOOOOWWW" Stinger scream from the second season of $1M Chance of a Lifetime.
Obvs. :)
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I'd like to nominate the "man lost" sounder from Hit Man.
Not necessarily underrated, but speaking of Hit Man, I love the sfx of the advancement of a hit man in round one. It believe it was the future Super Password clue reveal spliced with the correct answer bell from $ale of the Century.
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Another possibility. The "tacky buzzer" indicating time's up on Marshall's nighttime HS.
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Another one: I love the reverberating sound made when someone freezes a window in Bullseye. Would love to know how composers and sound editors came up with some of the SFX.
I'll double up on this, and add the sound of the windows swirling.
I may be weird, but I was really disappointed when Bullseye moved to Television City because CBS couldn't quite duplicate the bells NBC had on hand for right answers or player control.
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Another one: I love the reverberating sound made when someone freezes a window in Bullseye. Would love to know how composers and sound editors came up with some of the SFX.
I'll double up on this, and add the sound of the windows swirling.
Anybody remember back in the 80s or 90s when the Charlotte Hornets used to play a bee-swarming sound effect at their home games? You could hear it on the TV telecasts on occasion. Everytime I heard it, I always thought of the Bullseye swirls.
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If we can qualify "underrated" to "underrated in the United States", the Sale Of The Century buzzer. This is such an iconic sound to Australians that when Temptation was on its way back, they had an ad campaign revolving around the buzzer. The show ran quite a while here and I don't think anyone really thought twice about it but it really is a pretty defining sound.
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The “beeee-oooop” for wrong answers on Trivia Trap and TPIR’s Pathfinder.
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Not one but 14.... the original run of Scrabble! (According to Come on Down, The Game Show Book)
1- The gameboard opening up
2- The outline of the word appearing on the screen
3 and 4- Contestant ring in
5- Plunger sound in the bonus game
6- NBC right answer bells
7- Stopper cue
8- Letter scrolling left and right
9- Letter pops into place after scrolling
10- Letters popping in as contestants drop the tiles/letters appearing in the bonus game
11- Siren sounding for the solo bonus win
12- The cue that plays as Chuck reads the clue for the first time
13- Buzzer for wrong answers/time's up in the Scrabble Sprint
14- Buzzer to indicate thinking time has expired and contestant must pick tile(s)
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I know you're merely copying the list from the book and not trying to be exhaustive, but to wit, Jefferson's list doesn't include the "last letter" sound previously discussed, the "last stopper" sound that supplements the normal stopper sound, and the "we're running out of time"/"...finish the game in Speedword" bells. (Sound 14 would be phased out in later years.) Anything else?
-Jason
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It may be a function of all the "new" Musical Chairs episodes being posted, but I do love the buzz-in sounds as players race to lock in their choices of lyrics.
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“On the Nose” door reveal effect.
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Second Chance, 4th devil
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Also the ticky-ticky sound while the audience picked favorites on Celebrity Sweepstakes. Same thing may have played during spins on Spin-Off.
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Just thought of one... the CBS Double Dare buzz-in sounder.
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It had been a minute since I sat through a full episode of Lange's Name That Tune; there was always something magical to me about the Tune Topics category shuffle sound.
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I've always had an odd fascination with the sound that played when Lange spun the wheel of Melody Roulette on NTT. That slowing-down sound was super cool and unlike other SFX on other shows.
I always upset when they changed it to be spun only once.
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I've always had an odd fascination with the sound that played when Lange spun the wheel of Melody Roulette on NTT. That slowing-down sound was super cool and unlike other SFX on other shows.
Was that a stock effect or was the keyboard player in the band doing something with the pitch wheel on his synth?
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I go back pretty far. (I'll be 69 in a few weeks.)
On the original (NBC) Match Game ... the sound of the flippy boards flipping whenever someone made a match. I have never been able to figure out what it is, or even begin to duplicate it, but I think at the very beginning it's an old-school cash register ... mixed with some kind of electrical sound ... and finally a single-tone doorbell.