Fun House (American game show)
Fun House is an American children's television game show that aired from September 5, 1988 to April 13, 1991. The first two seasons aired in daily syndication, with the Fox network picking it up and renaming it Fox's Fun House for its third and final season.[1]
This article is about the American game show. For other uses, see Funhouse (disambiguation).Fun House
Bob Synes
John "Tiny" Hurley (Syndication)
Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers (FOX)
United States
English
3
375 (353 on syndication; 22 on Fox)
Hollywood Center Studios
Hollywood, California
approx. 22 minutes
Stone Television (1988–1990)
Stone Stanley Productions (1990–1991)
Lorimar Television (1989–1990)
Telepictures Productions (1990–1991)
Syndication (1988–1990)
Fox (1990–1991)
September 5, 1988 –
April 13, 1991
The format of Fun House was similar to that of Nickelodeon game show Double Dare, which was being produced for syndication at the time and which became a primary competitor for ratings. Two teams of children answered questions and played messy games, competing for a chance to run an obstacle course and win cash and prizes. The course was modeled after the funhouse attractions seen in carnivals and amusement parks, from which the series took its title.
The show was hosted for its entire run by J. D. Roth. John "Tiny" Hurley was the original announcer and appeared on the first two seasons in syndication. Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers, a famous breakdancer turned actor, replaced him when the show moved to Fox and took on the name "MC Mike".[2] Identical twin sisters Jacqueline and Samantha Forrest ("Jackie" and "Sammi", respectively) served as the show's cheerleaders.
The show was created by Bob Synes, a veteran producer of game shows who previously worked on Let's Make a Deal and had created several other programs of his own, with Synes and Scott A. Stone serving as executive producers.
Fun House was initially a co-production of Stone Television and Lorimar-Telepictures, the latter of which took on the role of distributor. From the second season onward, Lorimar Television became the co-producer and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution the syndicator. After Bob Synes died in 1990, Scott Stone replaced him with David G. Stanley and his production company then took on the name of Stone Stanley Productions, a name which it kept until the company dissolved.
British Knights sponsored the show during its first two seasons, replaced by LA Gear for the third. Everyone appearing onstage wore a pair of the sponsoring company's shoes.
A year after the show premiered, a spinoff series called College Mad House was created. Premiering in 1989 and running in weekly syndication for one season, it was hosted by Greg Kinnear and featured teams of college students from various universities around the United States competing against each other.
Pilot[edit]
The pilot for the series featured several differences. First, voiceover artist Brian Cummings (of Let's Make a Deal 1984-1985 fame) filled the role of announcer. Tiny Hurley was involved in the production, but his role was different (see below).
Four stunts were played, with cash at stake rather than points; the winning and losing teams in each stunt received $25 and $1, respectively. The winners of the Grand Prix won $50, and tokens in three different colors could be picked up from the stations during the race: red ($10), white ($25), and blue ($50).
The Fun House featured a total of $25,000 in cash and prizes, and each teammate was only permitted to grab two prize tags at a time, but could take as many cash tags as desired. One room contained a device called the Button Banger, which awarded a random cash bonus of up to $2,000.
Once the Fun House run ended, Roth checked each of the prize tags by inserting them one at a time into a scanner on the podium to determine if the team had found the Power Prize. Hurley announced the result of each scan; if the Power Prize was found, the team won every prize on offer for the day.
College Mad House[edit]
College Mad House was a spinoff of Fun House that featured two teams of young adults representing various colleges and universities, with the content intended for a more mature audience. The show was aired on weekends in syndication and was hosted by Greg Kinnear, with Beau Weaver as the announcer.
As before, two teams competed. This time, there were four members of the team instead of two. Like on Fun House, there was an equal distribution of males and females.
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 contestants.
Stunts were reworked to accommodate the larger teams. The first stunt featured the men, the second featured the women, and the third featured all eight contestants. Scoring remained the same.
The fourth round was the "College Mad House Finals", a ninety-second speed round of general knowledge questions. The two teams would stand in line behind the podium and each member of the team had a pie. Buzzing in with a correct answer won the team 25 points and the contestant got to hit the opponent with his/her pie. After two contestants played, they moved to the end of the line and the next two moved up to face each other. Play continued in this manner until time ran out, and the team in the lead won the game. The losing team receives $500 for their university and a parting gift. If the teams were tied, one more question was played with the next two contestants in line. The tiebreaker was an all-or-nothing question, as buzzing in with a wrong answer resulted in an automatic loss. This game mechanic, minus the pies, was later used on the Stone-Stanley game show Shop 'Til You Drop, which premiered a year after the show went off the air.
The winning team then got to run through the Mad House, which was laid out in the same manner as the Fun House, except with rooms that were more centered on college life than children. One at a time, the winning team would run through the Mad House trying to collect as many of the prize tags and cash tags as possible. A contestant was not limited as to how many tags they could grab, but after thirty seconds elapsed that contestant had to freeze wherever they were, and the next contestant in line was sent into the Mad House. Play continued until all four team members had taken their turn or until all of the tags had been found. There was no Power Prize in the Mad House; instead, the bonus vacation was awarded if the team managed to "clean house" by getting all of the tags before the last teammate into the Mad House ran out of time.
The members of the losing team were also allowed into the Mad House, and used various methods in an attempt to slow down the winning team so that they would not have a clean house.
Players
2 to 3
< 3 minutes
< 60 minutes
Mild (mostly skill)
3 and up
- Reading
- Counting
- Answering questions