An Interview with Former Crystal Maze Contestant and Jungle Run Host Michael Underwood

 Hello, it's Jack here! As well as being an editor for this blog I also run a separate blog and podcast called Jack's Throwback Attack. For the last few years, I have been getting in contact with people I remember watching on TV during my childhood during the '90s and '00s. You may remember back in 2018 that I was lucky enough to interview both David G. Croft and Richard O'Brien about their time on The Crystal Maze.

Well I've now begun my fourth series and my next guest also has a link to the maze, it's Michael Underwood. 

Michael was a contestant on the first children's special of The Crystal Maze aired during Christmas of 1990, at the time Michael was only 15 years old. One of the things we discuss in this mammoth 90-minute interview is his time on the show and reveals a few stories about the filming, including why he found the Aztec "feed the god" game so tricky. 

Of course, a few years later, Michael won the chance to be a CBBC presenter on the Saturday night TV show Whatever You Want which started out as just a 6-week contract. He ended up staying for three years before moving over to CITV. 

It was of course during his time with CITV he became the third and final (and the longest) host of Jungle Run. A show which was very similar to The Crystal Maze in many ways. Also, a favourite of the maze bloggers too and of course that show gets discussed at length. 

Here's the podcast, video and audio-only versions, enjoy!

Jack's Throwback Attack · S4 E1 - A Chat With Michael Underwood

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.

Jungle Run: Playing Games In Themed Areas To Obtain Items Worth Time For The Final Game, Familiar?

Warning: The following contains mentions of Keith Chegwin in a state of undress towards the end. Consider this a customary nut allergy warning.

In what could easily be classified as the Jacques Antoine genre (play some games to dictate how easy the end game will be), CITV dipped their toe with ‘Jungle Run’. 

Starting 20 years ago this week (see, there is some planning goes into these posts, it's honestly not a complete coincidence brought to my attention on Twitter) in 1999 and initially hosted by Dominic Wood. Jungle Run invited a team of three kids to play a few games in a series of themed areas to collect as many MacGuffins as they can to have as much time as possible in the final game where they could win something... well, something.

Game Shows That Crossed The Pond #4 - Fun House

Cards on the table here: for years, for some reason, I was under the impression that Fun House was a Nickelodeon show. Turns out it isn't, but nuts to it I'm going to talk about it anyway. This mid-series break is dragging on and there are weeks that need filling with posts. Plus it's Fun House and it was a building block in the television habits of 90% of the UK population that grew up in the '90s.

Nickelodeon Game Shows That Crossed The Pond #1 - Finders Keepers

 So I'm flicking through Youtube, and I'm thinking to myself "What on Earth am I going to jabber on about in blog posts until the series starts back up again?" At this point, I'm scrolling through my subscriptions and I see friend of the blog Jack's Throwback Attack has uploaded a big, long compilation of 90's kids' TV themes. And when I stopped worrying about why I still know the words to the Sooty & Co theme 25ish years after last hearing it, I saw some reminders of shows which dropped an idea in my lap.

 Later this month, 10 groups of 5 family members from America will be flown across the Atlantic and will find themselves in Bristol. They'll maybe see some of Banksy's, and numerous other artists, finest on various walls, they'll take advantage of the hotel amenities, and they'll film their own adventure in The Crystal Maze to be broadcast back home in the States on Nickelodeon in the hope of winning a huge cash prize.

 This isn't the first exchange of formats between a UK broadcaster and Nick however, although in the past it's been their shows getting remade over here. This week, I'm starting off with everybody's favourite CITV show featuring teams of two, a house and an awful lot of mess...

Finders Keepers

 Yes OK, don't worry, I'll get to that other one another time. It was too obvious to start with.