If so, then so does the Dragnet dun da-dun dun.
Some purty pitchers to go with Ritual Fire Dance from “El Amor Brujo”
And of course, Dun-Dun-Dunnnnnn, also known as Shock Horror by Dick Walter.
Nope. The one I’m thinking of predates Leroy Anderson by about twenty years. It was even used as background music in an Our Gang episode or two, when cats appeared. And Jack Benny mimicked the meowing part with his violin, on his TV show.
I remember Anderson’s tune as the one with this end: a small dog barks, and the orchestra plays a riff suggesting the cat is running.
As long as we’re doing TV stuff, the opening bars of the “Twilight Zone” intro should qualify as folks would, in real life, toss them ouit when something weird happened.
Later this practice was superseded by whistling the opening bars of “The X Files” theme.
Horror movie violin shriek.
I heard a classical-type theme played as background music in commercials suggesting a sour stomach. Finally I heard the piece played formally on a classical-music station (KUSC-FM) in Los Angeles; it was identified as Haydn’s Sonata Andante Cantabile.
More horse music: My Pony Boy
To evoke anything Irish: The Irish Washerwoman
For a rural feeling: The Arkansas Traveler
To indicate the painkillers are taking effect, the first 18 seconds of this are pretty effective.
Oh, here’s my personal entrance theme.
Well, if we’ve devolved to that. Here’s mine (and it’s just riffs upon riffs.)
These are great, thanks everyone for posting. I was already familiar with many of these by ear, but it was great to finally put a name/source to them.
So what’s the source of the riff heard in the dramatic prairie dog video?
Put me down for curious on that one, too.
I just have to point to The Riff Song - Gordon MacRae as a prime example of what a riff AIN’T! :mad:
That said, this ought to imply that there are more definitions to explore here! 
No love for “The Syncopated Clock”?
And what was the one that sounded like the clack-clack-clack of an old-fashioned manual typewriter, complete with hitting the arm to reset the carriage and advance the typing to the next line?
You accidentally posted the Wikipedia entry twice. Here is a live performance.
The bottom of the Wiki entry has two external links to live performances. The first listed–by Alfredo Anaya–has an amusing “set-up.” Didn’t want you to miss 'em.
This Wikipedia article on Ostinato has a few titles we haven’t already included, along with some keys to finer points of the concept.
One of the earliest (in my life) to get me going was the early version of Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley (1970)
And because it’s so NON-Chet-Atkins check out Chet Atkins - Boo Boo Stick Beat
How about the Jaws theme? Jaws - Theme song - YouTube