The Most Underrated Game Show Sound Effect

[geno57]

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.

[Mark McNeil]

The three dings when stopping the board shuffle from the 1990-91 Tic Tac Dough.

Also, from the 1990-91 The Joker's Wild, the musical sound when the Joker comes up on the third wheel.

[wdm1219inpenna]

Wink's Tic Tac Dough, the sound effect whenever the board shuffled either the categories or the bonus game amounts.

Also, when there was a dramatic main game win either with a huge pot being won or when a car was won, especially when a car was won...the win cue would play twice and in the middle of that tune being played, the third X would fill in on the board and the "ding" sound...just was super awesome to me as a youth and still is today!

[chris319]

Say When!! used a cash register as a sound effect.

The effect you describe on The Match Game doesn't sound like a cash register.

[BrandonFG]

I forgot one. The illegal clue rapid beeps from Password+/Super. Something about those synthesized SFX intrigues me.

[Brian44]

Say When!! used a cash register as a sound effect.

Was it the same cash register sound used in Pink Floyd's "Money"? That seems to be the de facto sound used in radio contests and I'm pretty sure I've heard it used on at least one other game show (maybe FF '94?).

[Matt Ottinger]

Say When!! used a cash register as a sound effect.

Was it the same cash register sound used in Pink Floyd's "Money"? That seems to be the de facto sound used in radio contests and I'm pretty sure I've heard it used on at least one other game show (maybe FF '94?).

Say When aired from 1961 until 1965.  Pink Floyd's song Money was released in 1973. I guess it is theoretically possible that they both are the same effect, but it seems wildly unlikely.

[KrisW73]

Say When!! used a cash register as a sound effect.

Was it the same cash register sound used in Pink Floyd's "Money"? That seems to be the de facto sound used in radio contests and I'm pretty sure I've heard it used on at least one other game show (maybe FF '94?).

Say When aired from 1961 until 1965.  Pink Floyd's song Money was released in 1973. I guess it is theoretically possible that they both are the same effect, but it seems wildly unlikely.

Roger Waters himself recorded the cash register and the "coins" sound effect (which was a chain being dropped into a glass bowl).

[Matt Ottinger]

Roger Waters himself recorded the cash register and the "coins" sound effect (which was a chain being dropped into a glass bowl).

Thank you.  Something like that seemed far more likely.

[Casey]

I'll add the ascending sound effect used when pulling the lever on the Joker's Wild's bonus game (and used in Penny Ante on TPiR).  That sound, especially on Joker, seems to convey that something exciting may be about to happen.  There's definitely a difference in how the bonus game feels before they had effect.

[mystery7]

I'll add the ascending sound effect used when pulling the lever on the Joker's Wild's bonus game (and used in Penny Ante on TPiR).

I heard it on Joker first so I was surprised to hear it on Penny Ante. Even more surprised to hear it on Double Dare when a player's isolation booth opened.

[BrandonFG]

I'll add the ascending sound effect used when pulling the lever on the Joker's Wild's bonus game (and used in Penny Ante on TPiR).

I heard it on Joker first so I was surprised to hear it on Penny Ante. Even more surprised to hear it on Double Dare when a player's isolation booth opened.

Whereas I always loved it on Penny Ante, but when I first watched TJW for the first time on GSN it never occurred to me it was the same sound. Great choice.

[chrisholland03]

I forgot one. The illegal clue rapid beeps from Password+/Super. Something about those synthesized SFX intrigues me.

I'm a deedley-deet fan as well

[Neumms]

The effect you describe on The Match Game doesn't sound like a cash register.

I don’t think so, either. I do enjoy the brief electro-mechanical hum (or buzz?) mentioned when the boxes flip, though. The NBC machine shop gave those parts some zip.

[gamed121683]

I know some preferred the "ding" sound used on the CBS game shows from the '70s and '80s, but the right answer "PING" used on numerous NBC game shows throughout that same era (The one heard on shows like Card Sharks and The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour) I always thought was a bit of an unsung hero in the world of game show SFX's.