Fun House (game show)

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Fun House
UK Fun House logo
Genre	Game show
Creator(s)	Bob Synes
Presenter(s)	J.D. Roth (United States) Pat Sharp (United Kingdom)
Country of origin	United States
Production
Executive producer(s)	Steven Goldberg, Scott A. Stone, Bob Synes
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Syndicated (1988-1990) Fox(1990-1991) ITV (1989-1999) Talkback Thames(2007)(Adult version)
Original run	(1988-1999, 2007 UK)(1988-1991 U.S.) –
Links
IMDb profile

For other uses see funhouse (disambiguation)

Fun House was a United States children's television game show that aired from September 5, 1988 to April 13, 1991, originally in syndication, and later on the Fox Network. A British version was also made, which screened on ITV at teatime between 1989 and 1999. Fun House was produced by Stone Television (later Stone-Stanley Productions), in association with and distributed by: Lorimar-Telepictures (1988-89), Lorimar Television (1989-90), Telepictures Productions (1990-91), and Warner Bros. Television (1989-91).

Contents 1 Hosts and Assistants 2 Main Game 2.1 Round 1 (Stunts) 2.2 Round 2 (The Fun House Grand Prix) 2.2.1 UK Version 3 The Fun House 3.1 Rooms in the Fun House 3.1.1 US version 3.1.2 UK version 3.2 Power Prizes 4 College Mad House 5 Trivia 6 Episode Status 7 References 8 Repeats 9 External links

[edit] Hosts and Assistants

The American version was hosted by future Endurance star and The Biggest Loser announcer J. D. Roth, who was assisted by cheerleading twins Jacqueline "Jackie" and Samantha "Sammi" Forrest. The announcer on the syndicated version was John Hurley, a.k.a. "Tiny". He was replaced for the Fox version by Michael Chambers, a.k.a. "MC Mike"

The UK version was hosted by Pat Sharp, who was also aided by twin cheerleaders, Melanie and Martina Grant. The voiceover artist was Gary King.

[edit] Main Game

Two teams of two children (a boy and a girl) played messy games and answered questions to win a chance to run through an obstacle-strewn Fun House at the end of the show.

[edit] Round 1 (Stunts)

Both teams play three stunts (one for the boys, one for the girls and one for all players). Some games included searching through gunge in the UK, or slime in America. Other stunts resembled those on another popular children's game show, Double Dare; still others involved hitting opposing players in the face with pies. Several games, such as "Pinhead" and "Dump-O", were races to answer a certain number of questions first, with the losing player being slimed by some weird contraption. The winner(s) of each stunt win 25 points. If the stunt ended in a tie, both teams received the points. After each stunt, the teams returned to their podiums to answer a toss-up question for an additional 25 points. One stunt on each episode of the UK version was dubbed a "key game", in which the losers of the stunt earned 1 point depending on their score at the end of the stunt, also used on one of the pilots of the US version.

[edit] Round 2 (The Fun House Grand Prix)

This was a high-stakes point earning round that decided the winning team. Team players had to race two laps around the studio; one pushing the Grand Prix "car" and the other steering. While racing, teams collected white and blue point tokens worth 10 and 25 points, respectively (tokens that are dropped are out of play and do not count, in JD's own words). After one lap, the contestants switched places in the car (the pushing contestant now steered and vice versa). Usually small challenges were set up around the track that each team had to complete (such as gathering each of several food items or hitting targets with a seltzer bottle).

Starting later in the syndicated version, a token bank was placed near the track on the second lap, at which teams could make a pit stop to grab as many tokens as they could. The first team to cross the finish line earned an additional 25 points. At the end of the race, the teams returned to their podiums and the host counted up the tokens, starting with the trailing team. The team with the most points after all the tokens were counted up won the game and advanced to the Fun House.

[edit] UK Version

Teams in the UK version originally collected tokens like the U.S. version, but later collected steering wheels. Each steering wheel gives you 50 pts, and there was 5 of them for each team. Also, unlike the U.S. version, actual go karts were used, instead of fake vehicles that had to be pushed by the other team member. The team who won the race received 25 points. Image:Fh10-1.jpg

[edit] The Fun House

Contestants on the winning team took turns entering the Fun House and tried to grab a series of tags (three tags per player per turn) in each room in the Fun House. The green tags were cash tags, and the red tags were prize tags. One randomly selected tag also included the "Power Prize", which if found awarded the team with a big trip (the sound of a school bell and siren {in the American version} or rooster crow {in the UK version} indicates that the team had picked up the Power Prize tag). This continued for two minutes, after which the cash and prizes were added up, and the team was told if they had won the Power Prize.

In the FOX version of the show, a "Glop Clock" was also hidden in the house; finding this specially marked alarm clock earned an additional 15 seconds to collect tags.

In the UK version of the show, to actually WIN the power prize, they not only had to grab the tag, they also had to answer one question (often a multi-parter) correctly within 10 seconds. The kids would always get their heads together (literally), face-to face during this part.

[edit] Rooms in the Fun House

[edit] US version

• Balloon Lagoon (a small pool filled with water and balloons)
• Fundromat (a giant revolving tunnel filled with clothes)
• Tiny's Room
• The Shower Room (a series of connected shower stalls with seven doors, only one of which was unlocked)
• Zapeteria (a mock cafeteria in which the opposing team attacked the runners with whipped cream and pies)
• The Dump
• The Swamp
• Small Tall Hall
• Icecave/Batcave

[edit] UK version

1998-99

• The Sunken Well (four wells, one of which contains the prize tag)
• The Ball Run (A river of ball-pit balls)
• The Flying Fox (A sit-on zipline)
• The Snake In The Box (A box containing spring snakes, one holds the prize tag)
• The Fireman's Pole (A standard fireman's pole coming up through a circle in the floor)
• The Crawl Tube (A transparent crawl-through tunnel)( This later rotated in the final series with gunge inside. this was the only series where the FunHouse used gunge!
• The Bobsleigh (a car that runs down a hill, leading to a transparent tube slide, or in later series, some enormous steps)
• The Big Leap/Drop (In 1998, it was a tall fireman's pole leading to the giant steps. In 1999, it was changed to a zip-line seat built to carry you from the top of the Fun House to the bottom ball pool)
• The A-Frame (two climbing nets fixed together in a triangular shape, the idea was the contestants climbs over it)
• The Climbing Net (A net ladder leading to the Snake In The Box, Bobsleigh, Flying Fox & Danger Net)
• The Danger Net (A rope bridge leading to the Wild Slide)
• The Tall Tower (Climb up through a completley vertical tunnel via a ladder, leads to the Crawl Tube and The Big Leap/Drop)
• The Giant Steps (Three yellow giant steps)
• The Balloon Run (A tunnel filled with colourful balloons)
• The Wild Slide (A very steep, fast transparent tubular slide leading to the entrance)

[edit] Power Prizes

Some of the Power Prizes featured in Fun House included:

• Walt Disney World Resort
• Hawaii
• Aspen, Colorado
• Cancún
• Acapulco
• Alton Towers (UK version)
• New York

[edit] College Mad House

A version of Fun House for college students aired in weekly syndication, and was titled College Mad House. This version was hosted by future movie actor Greg Kinnear, and pitted two teams of four students each from rival colleges against each other (for example, one episode featured the University of Texas versus the University of Arkansas). Instead of cheerleaders, a male and a female "referee" assisted with the gameplay.

This version featured much more risqué content and stunts than the children's version, often involving crude college gross-out humor and games that required lewd bodily movements among the participants. The format was basically the same, but with some notable differences:

• The stunts were changed to accommodate four-person teams; the two men from each team faced each other, then the two women, with all four players on each team participating in the third stunt.

• The Grand Prix round was replaced with the "Finals", in which the teams lined up face-to-face at the podiums. Jump-in-questions were asked; getting a question right earned 25 points and the right to hit the opposing player in the face with a pie. These two players then rotated to the back of the line, with the next two players answering the following question. The team in the lead after a minute and a half advanced to the Mad House.

(Note: The pie in the face would carry over to the FOX version of Fun House; a correct answer to the question following a stunt allowed the player getting it right to pie his or her opponent.)

• The format of the Mad House was changed slightly from that of Fun House. As in the original version, the team had two minutes; however, each player had exactly 30 seconds to collect as many of the 13 tags as possible. After one player's 30 seconds ended, he/she had to stop collecting tags wherever he/she was at, and the next contestant was let in immediately. If a team "cleaned house" by collecting all thirteen tags, they won a trip - this rule was used instead of the Power Prize.

(Note: the layouts of the Mad House were almost identical to that of the Fun House layouts in use at the time that show was being taped; however, many of the names of the "rooms" or obstacles were changed to reflect college life.)

Like Fun House, College Mad House was produced by Stone-Stanley; the theme music, as well as that of the run through the Mad House, would later be used on the Lifetime version of another Stone-Stanley game show, Shop 'Til You Drop.

[edit] Trivia

• Leonardo DiCaprio was a contestant on Fun House in 1990. He had a pie thrown in his face on the show.

• The "Answer a question correctly and pie your opponent in their face" round is currently used on Mega Match, a weekly competition between the Yellow and Green teams Saturday afternoons on Telefutura (originally aired in Venezuela on Venevision). During the mid-1990s and early 2000s, Brazil's version of Double Dare had this same type of round as well.

• The UK Game Show Page said that in early 1989, ITV shot a pilot for an adult version of Fun House in the UK with Linda Lusardi, a "page-three sun girl" as host instead of Pat Sharp. Instead of Melanie and Martina, bodybuilders were the assistants, and the "Power Prize" most likely would've been a new car. The pilot did not sell. The website also said that one of the contestants was Carol Smilie, best known in the UK as letter turner on that country's version of Wheel of Fortune, during the time Nicky Campbell was host. A clip from this pilot showed up on a BBC special that talked about TV pilots, according to one Fun House fansite.

• The pilot episode for the show had slightly different rules for the Fun House run: the winning team still alternated runs through the Fun House for the full 2 minutes gathering tags, but instead of any 3 tags, they were limited to 2 prize tags (with any cash tags they gathered added as a 'bonus' and not counted towards their tag total), and collecting the tag for the Secret Power Prize meant they won everything in the Fun House (the location of the Secret Power prize was never revealed until after the run, with the team only knowing if they collected it after the host ran the Prize tags through a 'bar code reader' to determine the value of each prize collected). The announcer was also very different from Tiny or MC Mike. It's Dean Goss, who also announced the 80s versions of Let's Make a Deal, High Rollers, and the $100,000 Pyramid.

John "Tiny" Hurley was the voice of the title character in the 1997 direct-to-video release Sammy the Screenplay, starring Jason Alexander and Rob Schneider. He currently works behind-the-camera on several low-budget projects.

Jackie and Sammi Forrest also appeared on Jennifer Slept Here (five years before their Fun House debut), and as sorority sisters to Alyssa Milano's character on one episode of Who's the Boss? in 1990. They also starred in the low-budget movie Pucker Up and Bark Like a Dog, according to IMDb. A game show site reveals that the twins appeared on Win Ben Stein's Money in 1997, playing Ben Stein's cheerleaders (in an ode to Fun House). It is not known what the twins are currently doing at the moment (or if they're still doing TV shows).

The set was used on an episode of Perfect Strangers in 1989, titled "Games People Play", in which Balki and Larry go on a game show called "Risk it All", hosted by Bob Goen. They did not win.

[edit] Episode Status

All episodes of Fun House exist in their entirety, but the show has not aired since it was cancelled on Fox in 1991.

According to a interview with Pat Sharp, he is interested in doing a adult version of the show, hoping to put it in the same timeslot as Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. He even plans to have Melanie and Martina as his assistants again.^[1] ITV have today announced that there will be a new series of an Adult Fun House which will be made later this year. The twins have also agreed to this.

It's likely that Gary King won't return as announcer, since he is currently announcing the new series of Dale's Supermarket Sweep for the same channel. talkbackTHAMES will produce the new show. It will premiere in the Fall of 2007.

talkbackTHAMES have announced that the New format will appear in september, no dates are schedueled. The company are also planning a new design of the House and games to make them more messy and interesting. The Fun House will however be much bigger, for obvious reasons. More obstacles will be placed but keeping many slides spinning tunnels ball pits and will feature the famous car wash like tubes. The grand prix will still be around the studio but at one point leaves the studio for a quarter of the track. More information uploading as soon as more information is sent through to me.

[edit] References

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a43791/sharp-wants-to-host-adult-fun-house.html The new Fun House layout will be completely different, mixed between the final series and the original series. It will be twice the size of previous Houses. Prizes will be for charity for the first series. If the series is a big success there will be a formal series.

[edit] Repeats

Unfortunately ChallengeTV and FTN have no rights to repeat any UK FunHouse shows, however they have looked into showing the series before and have had a positive output, they have said that next year they will or could be repeated if they decide to. No episodes have been shown since the show ended in January 2000.

[edit] External links

• UKGameshows.com: Fun House
• Fun House Factory: Fansite for the US version, with some information on the UK version.
• The Fun House Headquarters: Another fansite for the US version