The '90s Was The Golden Age Of Television, And Has Filled My 2020 So Far

The '90s was the golden age of television. Nothing will sway me from this opinion. Could I be slightly biased in that the '90s were my formative years? Absolutely. Were my years from the age of 1 to 11 based solely around that box in the corner and whatever was projected on the screen? Definitely. Did I learn to read age 3-ish by using the TV guide so I knew when my shows were on? Odd but true. It worked and I could read to a level where my nursery school ran out of books for me, all because I needed to know when The Crystal Maze and Fun House were on. However, it doesn't alter the fact that all the best TV was around during the '90s.

One of the perks of living in the here and now is that everything is online somewhere. Whether officially available through services like iPlayer and All4, or if it's a forgotten series that's just been uploaded by a YouTube user who enjoyed a show, had it recorded on VHS and wanted to share. 

With the recent situation seeing a lot of increased TV time, I've found myself trawling a lot of older TV shows. Sitcoms like 'Drop the Dead Donkey', 'Red Dwarf', 'Bottom' and 'Absolutely Fabulous' have kept me amused and dramas such as 'Crime Traveller' and 'Jonathan Creek' have filled a few hours. I found a show I'd forgotten existed called 'Harry' which was a BBC One drama set in and around Darlington, a town I'm very familiar with. I spent most of it infuriated by moments where I found myself saying "...and that street doesn't lead into there" far more often than I'd have liked to.

Trailer for 'Jedi Temple Challenge' Released - Inspired by TCM, Jungle Run and Raven

A game show based in the world of Star Wars had it's preview drop today. Jedi Temple Challenge, hosted by Ahmed Best a.k.a the voice of Jar Jar Binks, sees teams of Jedi Padawan take on challenges in a series of Star Wars themed areas.

Why mention it on here? Well the creator, Scott Bromley, openly names Crystal Maze, Jungle Run and Raven as inspiration behind the show on his podcast The Comedy Button (listen from 17:45)

We did. A lot. In fact we referenced Raven numerous times during the development of the series. Keep in mind this is 1 minute of hyper-paced action and not a full episode.

— Scott Bromley (@Scott_Bromley) May 27, 2020

Have to say, the Jedi temple looks very Jungle Run - Temple of the Jungle King.

Watch the trailer below and you'll certainly get very strong TCM and Raven vibes from the action on screen. At least they've taken inspiration from the best, but what I'd give for some of that sweet, sweet Disney budget.

Jedi Temple Challenge starts on June 3rd on Star Wars Kids.

Crystal Maze's Mumsey in America Alongside Fred Willard

Comedy great Fred Willard passed away at the weekend. You may remember him from roles in This is Spinal Tap, Anchorman, Modern Family, Everybody Loves Raymond and much, much more. Our thoughts go out to his family.

This got me on the hunt for footage of him from a comedy show: "An Evening at the Improv". I'd seen it a while back and the clips I was after are, I think, now set to private. So after a bit of hunting around through Reddit, this clip came to my attention this morning that I had to share.

Fred Willard hosting, and doing a skit with Sandra Caron. Her name may not be familiar but you know the face. This ought to clear up who she is for anyone unsure -

Mumsey/Auntie Sabrina worked on stage with the late Fred Willard. This clip is from 1981 so it was 9 years before she was seen sat behind her crystal ball with a smoke machine under the table. Should I find another clip of them, I'll be sure to share.

Crystal Maze Games That Were Too Hard 2: 2 Hard 2 Crystal

Ok, I admit it, that title is terrible. I apologize and I promise I'll never do anything that atrocious again until the next time I do it.

Following on from my last post covering all the '90s games that nobody won, I just wanted to have a quick look at all the games that have been used since Richard Ayoade took over which saw nobody walking out one crystal heavier than how they walked in.

Before I start, for reference and photos I'm using David Newton's website www.crystalmazedatabase.com. Much like if you want '90s show details you use Marc Gerrish, David Newton is who you can rely on for revival stats. Marc and David are to adventure game show fans as Stanley Gibbons is to stamp collectors. I only know that thanks to The New Statesman, I've been really ploughing through the boxsets lately.

Crystal Maze - Further Lock in Material

We've seen the PC game in the 90's, the Crystal Maze Phone and iPad game a decade ago... and now, during the lockdown it appears the Maze is still going strong. Someone has created an unofficial Crystal Maze Powerpoint game for £1.99, with proceeds going towards the NHS. Find it on eBay. It seems that you can play it over Zoom with friends and family. One of our Blog Members purchased it today to see if it's any good.

Meanwhile, during lockdown somebody certainly has been busy constructing a Crystal Maze for their Hamster! The video they have produced is absolutely brilliant and very funny, check it out here:

Crystal Maze Games That Were Too Hard To Win

One problem I've got with TCM since it came back, too many people going home with a prize. It's partly down to 50+ gold getting a middling prize but, and there's a mild spoiler for the US version rapidly approaching here so keep on reading at your own peril, out of 10 shows there was at least 3 and maybe 4 top prize winners.

A 100+ gold winner should be a treat, a rarity, there shouldn't be nearly half a series of winners. People are clearly winning too many games and earning too much time. A little conversation I had the other night started at frogs and ended up at games that were never won and as such, here's the '90s games that were never won, and should be looked at so as to stop people winning quite so often. I'm not including any of those one-off games made for a kid's Christmas Special as it's a lot easier to be an unbeaten game if only one small person has a go.

Series 1 - 1990

Nuke Defusing - A nice simple two minute game sharing a room with a nuclear bomb. It needed defusing by connecting the correct coloured wire to the associated image on the wall. For example connecting the YELLOW wire to a picture of some PAGES, or a GREEN wire to some FINGERS. The trouble comes in knowing what word was meant to be shown by the image, while it was meant to represent fingers, it's clearly a picture of a hand. With a two minute time limit, there was an explosion every time. Or the lights were turned up. Same thing.

Another 30th Anniversary - An Excuse To Mention Denis Norden

In February we covered the 30th anniversary of the start of The Crystal Maze so today I just wanted to mention it's 30 years since that first series ended. The last episode of series one went out on the 10th May 1990. It was the last show broadcast to be filmed at Shepperton Studios and it started with an outtake that they left in the final cut, a moment that wouldn't have been out of place on Denis Norden's 'It'll Be Alright On The Night'.

Today is 30 years since the last episode of series one, and it opened with this little outtake which they kept in the final cut pic.twitter.com/mXq8Wmcm8y

— Crystal Maze Fan Blog (@maze_blog) May 10, 2020

 

Series 4 Episode 4 - Laughter in the face of failure (w/ Behind The Scenes Clips)

There were 83 episodes of TCM in the 90's, including kids specials at Christmas, and of all of them there's one that stands out to me. People have suggested reviewing every episode and, whilst a good idea, that means 83 reviewing covering roughly 80 hours of material. However this one in particular is a show I want to give a bit of attention to.

First shown on 15th April 1993, S4E4 contained a record that remained until Richard Ayoade took over. And whilst that record was achieved in now standard 10 games, 27 years ago they didn't have a fixed amount of games to play, it was just however many they could squeeze in. Series 4 each episode had either 14 or 15 games and I'm talking here about a 14 episode show. I'm talking about the fewest crystals achieved by a team, in this case, one.

Wendy, Andrew, Dave, Hilary, Spencer and Jane

Game/Quiz Show Fantasy Casting

I was on Twitter last night (@maze_blog) and game show podcaster Jordan Hass was replying to someone in regards to a Weakest Link revival. Personally I felt there's only one choice for host and I woke up to a quick response from the gent in question:

😉 https://t.co/2E2nCpl0Nu

— Robert Rinder (@RobbieRinder) May 2, 2020

So I've been thinking, who else could be hosting what revival? And whilst I quite like Rylan on TV he's got enough shows under his belt, so he's not getting any more.