If I Could Bring Back: "Fun House"

Hello, everyone:

I was cruising through "YouTube" perusing through game shows from my childhood about a month ago...when I ran across this little gem:



That's right...it's "FUN HOUSE"!! This is one of several game shows from the 1980s that brought back so many memories of my childhood. The stunts were mildly amusing to watch, and the bonus questions (all multiple-choice) were pretty good. The fact that equal emphasis was given to brain and brawn...25 points for each stunt, and 25 points for each question...is even more appealing to me now than when I originally began watching Fun House. The different variations for the "Fun House Grand Prix" really didn't make for that much variety in the final 2-lap race between the Red and Gold teams...but for some reason, I was always fascinated with just how many tokens (worth 10 or 25 points) each team could gather as their final scores were tallied.

However, the most fun part of the show was to watch the winning team run through the FUN HOUSE! Not only was it fun to watch each winning team's approach to collecting as many cash and prize tags as possible in 2 minutes (a 15-second bonus clock was added after a few seasons), but the background music was awesome...though I would get to hear the same music during the Grand Prix as well. I once had the opportunity to be on "Fun House" by participating in a citywide trivia contest (courtesy of the "FOX 28 Kids Club" in Columbus, OH), which qualified me to audition for the show! Unfortunately, I didn't make it past the audition, so....

There really isn't much I would change about "Fun House", quite frankly. In order to add my own personal touch, I might have the two teams participate in five physical stunts worth $50 apiece...two for the boys, two for the girls, and one where both teammates work together. Next, the game would end with a "lightning round" of 10 multiple-choice questions worth $25 apiece...in which the boys and girls take turns at their respective buzzers for each question (the girls would compete on the first question, the boys would compete on the second, and so on). This would make a total of $250 for each section of the game, which keeps an equal emphasis on mind and body. Both teams would win the amount of money earned during the game, and that money would be awarded to each teammate...rather than being split between them.

For the Fun House, I would probably have 8 Cash tags, 6 Prize tags, and 2 Time tags. For the Cash tags, there would be two $100s, two $150s, two $200s, and 2 $250s...it's a much better variety than having mostly $100s with a few $200s sprinkled in. The Prize tags I would more or less leave alone...it's nice to have bicycles, sailboats, trips, and other things that kids in general would like to have up for grabs in the Fun House. The Time tags would be a great twist, however...because they could be collected just like the other tags, rather than going for the lone time clock in addition to the tags. The Time tags would be worth 15 seconds apiece, and this would be very important to the way I would set up the Fun House: I would have each teammate go in and collect 4 tags instead of just three...so it would be possible for the teammates to grab all 16 tags in two trips each. If they were successful in "cleaning house", as in "College Mad House"...they would win a special bonus prize similar to that of the "Power Prize" featured in the above video. This is where the Time tags would come into play...if both were collected, the teammates would have up to 2 minutes and 30 seconds to collect all of the tags. It'd be interesting to see if any team could pull it off. What do you think about this?
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How Would I Change: "Duel"?

Greetings:

I happened to see the special "Duel" mini-series on ABC in December (2007). It's a very interesting game...two players start each Duel with 10 chips worth $5,000 apiece, competing to answer multiple-choice questions correctly, even if it means selecting two, three, or all four of the possible answer choices by covering said choices with a chip. Each player has all the time in the world to answer a question, unless the first player to lock in decides to use a "Press" and limit his/her opponent's time to 7 additional seconds. Any chips placed on wrong answers are taken away and added to a progressive Jackpot. The player who is caught not covering the right answer is eliminated, and the winner collects all of his/her remaining chips in cash. In order to begin a Duel, a lone player (either the first randomly selected player of the tournament, or the winner of the last Duel) must select one of three randomly chosen opponents from the "Players' Gallery", which started with 24 players. One person is eliminated at a time...until the final night of play, when the four players who won the greatest number of Duels enter a single-elimination tournament for that progressive jackpot that had been building from all of the previous Duel...it reached over $1.7 million by the time of the final Duel.

There is really just one thing I would change about Duel if it was up to me. The way Duel is currently set up, there isn't enough time for all 24 players to have a chance to play. Also, since the Top 4 is determined by the number of Duels won first (and money won from the Duels second)...a minimum of two, in this case...the very last person to be picked before the final tournament is totally screwed. Even if he/she wins, there won't be enough time for that player to play another Duel to possibly make it into the Top 4. Something else that bothered me about "Duel" was the selection process for opponents...I was annoyed by the fact that the "Software Engineer", from near the beginning of the tournament on to the end of the week, was consistently passed over. I'm not sure why...but I'm guessing that all the players who had him as a potential opponent were afraid that someone who was a software engineer would be too smart for them (remember my third directive?).

There is one simple solution that would resolve both of these problems. Why not make "Duel" a single-elimination tournament from the very beginning? Start with 16 players instead of the original 24 (since 6-8 out of the original 24 wouldn't get the chance to play, anyway), and play through four rounds of matches. This way, all of the participants who qualify for the main game are given the chance to play...with no chance to be "passed over"...and the winner is the player who had the right combination of knowledge, skill, and luck to win all of his/her matches. That is how competition is supposed to work, after all. I wonder if ABC would actually take this suggestion seriously...?

Also, I couldn't help but notice the way the final match ended...in which Ashlee Register (the Nurse) chose to cover all of her answers on the final question: "Which of these weighs more...a gallon of water, a gallon of crude oil, a gallon of vegetable oil, or they all weigh the same?" Ashlee promptly covered all of her answers, clearly having no idea. The Car Dealer, on the other hand, covered everything except "a gallon of water"...which was, in fact, the correct answer. I understand that the object of "Duel" is to make sure you are covering the correct answer in order to survive...but Ashlee won simply because she covered all of the answers. At least the Car Dealer tried to eliminate an answer he thought was wrong. I can't quite put my finger on why that bothers me, though. Oh, well....
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