Author Topic: Game Show Terrors (Read 33745 times)

thewhammy_2000 · « **Reply #75 on:** February 03, 2013, 05:10:26 PM »

There were at least two things that scared me when I was young. The one that got me the most was when anybody picked the 0 answer on Play the Percentages. I would later cover up the right side of the board so I won\'t see the 0 if it was picked. Don\'t know why I was okay with it on Feud\'s Fast Money. The other was the ever-frightful Dragon on Tic Tac Dough.
Sometimes the Price is Right\'s logo looks like a creepy laugh whenever it zooms into the center.
Now it\'s the tolerating scare whenever a contestant stops on a Whammy or any other (tropes) whammy.

Steve Gavazzi · « **Reply #76 on:** February 03, 2013, 06:54:51 PM »

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?

bscripps · « **Reply #77 on:** February 03, 2013, 08:26:06 PM »

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.

NickS · « **Reply #78 on:** February 04, 2013, 02:53:44 PM »

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?

Johnissoevil · « **Reply #79 on:** February 04, 2013, 05:01:45 PM »

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.

JMFabiano · « **Reply #80 on:** February 04, 2013, 05:36:59 PM »

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.

chris319 · « **Reply #81 on:** February 04, 2013, 09:42:05 PM »

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.

clemon79 · « **Reply #82 on:** February 04, 2013, 09:53:03 PM »

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.\"

chris319 · « **Reply #83 on:** February 04, 2013, 10:16:59 PM »

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:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Hollywood,+Los+Angeles,+CA&hl=en&ll=34.103916,-118.325629&spn=0.002194,0.009645&sll=37.269174,-119.306607&sspn=9.489599,19.753418&oq=holly&t=h&hnear=Hollywood,+Los+Angeles,+California&z=17&layer=c&cbll=34.103867,-118.325728&panoid=Nj7iqXlwFyWOU3esDiA5tQ&cbp=13,244.82,,0,-21.57

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?

Duck and cover!

Twentington · « **Reply #84 on:** February 04, 2013, 11:02:14 PM »

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.

trainman · « **Reply #85 on:** February 04, 2013, 11:50:12 PM »

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.\"

bscripps · « **Reply #86 on:** February 05, 2013, 01:09:45 AM »

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.

And I\'ve got an air raid siren about 200 yards from my home; that thing still scares the piss out of me the first Saturday of every month at noon...

chris319 · « **Reply #87 on:** February 05, 2013, 01:12:26 AM »

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.

aaron sica · « **Reply #88 on:** February 05, 2013, 06:49:52 AM »

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...

NickS · « **Reply #89 on:** February 05, 2013, 09:36:16 AM »

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.