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?