The Crystal Maze Turns 31: A Look at the US Version Against The UK Original

 From the desktop of Phillip Newton-England:

The year 2020 was, as someone once said, an Annus Horribilis for....well, all of us really. One of the only decent things to come out of last year was the avalanche of ‘new’ Crystal Maze episodes. Not only did we get the remaining celebrity episodes of what was technically series 3, but we also got to see the ‘missing’ civilian episodes from the very first series over on E4.

 But the extra icing on the cake for me was the airing of The Crystal Maze U.S. on NickelodeonUK. Now I know not everyone has seen it yet so I won’t give too much away, but here at the blog we’re going to give you a moderately detailed description of the differences and similarities to our own U.K. version.

A Crystal Maze Christmas Special (for Future Consideration)

 'Tis the season to forget what an utter pile of [insert your own choice of something unpleasant here] this year has been. I'm finding myself laid up for a few days after a doctor stuck a needle in the underside of my foot and as such have spent today ploughing through various specials of various shows. 

My Christmas seasonal viewing tends to include the same shows year after year, I'm a creature of habit. I'll enjoy Richard Richard taking a finger off while preparing Christmas dinner in 'Bottom', I'll watch Blackadder's Christmas Carol and see the most harrowing use of a codpiece as Baldrick presents himself to the future Queen. I'll even revisit episodes of Never Mind the Buzzcocks I've got stashed for a Rick Wakeman/Bill Bailey supergroup the world needs more of.

But there's one set of shows that it should come as no surprise to anyone to know that'll I'll be watching without fail, the TCM Kids Christmas Specials. Yeah, I'll still be watching the more recent offerings that's have made the effort to offer up a more festive mise-en-scene but I do have a slight problem with them. As the show is currently, every show is a celebrity special, so they aren't all that special. I do really enjoy all the extra changes they make but, to me, they are missing one big shift that'd make them a proper Christmas Special.

The Crystal Maze Live IN YOUR LIVING ROOM!/BATHROOM!/CUPBOARD UNDER THE STAIRS!

 Well, the world's not getting any less weird. We seem to be going backward in terms of progress and supermarkets are apparently rationing stuff again.

So before you get roped back into another endless routine of Zoom quizzes, how about something different? Those delightful people behind the Crystal Maze (Hi Charlie!) have come up with a fun alternative to the same stuff you've been doing since March - A play at home Crystal Maze team challenge. 

For £15 a head, your team of at least 8 will be guided through 16 all-new puzzles and tasks. Sign up here and you'll be led by an experienced Maze Master where you can still shout at one another through smaller digital windows. Meaning you get to question your friend's choice of putting Argos catalogues on their bookshelves. 

Been working on this for an age and it's finally available! You can now play a Virtual @CrystalMazeHQ from home, 16 new games and the new Crystal Dome round - hosted by your own personal Maze Master! It's £15 a head and you can book here!https://t.co/a8pTuxwo6G

(1/2) pic.twitter.com/hjBbcTwFTK

— Charlie (@Wheeler____) September 25, 2020

There's also a free offering for 4 players to download without a mazemaster that includes 8 games to play along with. Sign up free and download the necessary PDF files HERE

To play, you'll need some form of video conferencing software (eg Zoom), pen and paper to make notes with, and access to Youtube.

Get your team together, tell them you're sick of quizzes, and do something different together: booking a mazemaster and yelling at each other's ineptitude online.

Don't forget, The Crystal Maze is on TV over on Nickelodeon every Friday at 7pm. Adam Conover is mazemastering with all new (to the UK) episodes of the US version of the show.

Stay safe people.

The Crystal Maze USA Starts Tonight at 7pm on Nickelodeon UK

 Morning, just a quick one. Wanted to stick a reminder out into the ether that the American incarnation of The Crystal Maze is starting tonight (September 4th) on Nickelodeon US. We reviewed the first episode after it aired stateside but for most of us, that is the only episode we've seen so we'll get to enjoy it show by show just like we would any new series. 

The show's hosted by TV personality and comedian Adam Conover, if you've never seen him before go and watch some 'Adam Ruins Everything' clips over on YouTube and prepare to lose several hours of your day. 

Nickelodeon is available in the UK on Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, and on NOW TV's £4 a month kids package

The Crystal Maze USA with Adam Conover Comes to Nickelodeon UK

 As first reported by NickALive!, The US version of The Crystal Maze is making its way to British TV. 

Starting Friday September 4th at 7pm on Nickelodeon, (repeated at 10pm) Adam Conover will be taking teams of American families around the familiar maze with a grand prize of $25,000 at stake in the Crystal Dome.

Nickelodeon is available on Sky, Virgin, Talk Talk, and if you now feel an urge to add Nickelodeon to your viewing habits, NOW TV's kids pack is £4 a month, which gets you Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Nicktoons, Cartoon Network, Cartoonito and Boomerang.

I vanished down an Adam Conover YouTube rabbit hole just before posting this. If you've never seen Adam Ruins Everything, go watch one, it'll soon turn into several.

QI, you've had Corey Taylor and Teri Hatcher, about time to give Adam a seat.

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.

98% Sure There's More Crystal Maze Coming This Year - Bunim/Murray Post a Casting Call

It looks like there's going to be more TCM getting made for viewers on both sides of the Atlantic. Bunim/Murray have posted a new casting call for more families to take part in the US version. As seen on the site, filming will again take place in the UK (safe to presume Bristol's Bottleyard Studios) and participants must have a valid passport by July 3rd 2020.

US readers can click the splat to apply

Another hint as to what's to come came in the form of a tweet from @mockrockuk

ETOnline Video Goes Behind The Scenes of The Crystal Maze - And It's All Very Familiar

As we've mentioned in the past, we've visited the Bottleyard Studios twice on the invitation of the Crystal Maze production crew to have a go on the games before filming. We've also been used as stand in contestants during camera blocking, the stage where they plan out the camera angles to give the audience at home the best view.

Well, with the new Nickelodeon series underway, a few US journalists were invited to enjoy similar experiences to promote the show, and this video with Cassie DiLaura from etonline.com should give you a great idea of how our days go. It even includes a moment with nicest bloke in the world, executive producer Neale Simpson.

The Music Of The Crystal Maze US - Ryan Lofty

Hi this is Ryan Lofty, one of the composers of the Nickelodeon adaptation of The Crystal Maze, here to chat about what’s new in music for the US version of the show!

Thank you to Liam, Jon, and the whole team for having me.

Co-composer David Butterfield and I were initially brought on to cover the theme song. The creative brief didn’t have too much detail other than a request for a contemporary hybridized take... plus a nicely worded warning that the UK series composer would be reviewing and approving – so don’t mess with his composition!

Covering a theme as well-known and loved as “Force Field” is a big responsibility. We spent a lot of time researching, reading YouTube comments, and checking out fan blogs like this one.

The Crystal Maze US Episode 1 Review

There's a storied history of UK shows getting remade for international audiences. Occasionally they click, Steptoe and Son was recrafted as Sanford and Son in the States and it worked out pretty well. Unfortunately more often than not, something gets lost in the translation. Red Dwarf had two pilot episodes produced across the pond in the early 90s and neither worked. The IT Crowd had a pilot made in 2006 which had Richard Ayoade reprise his role as Moss alongside Joel McHale as Roy in what was essentially a shot for shot remake of the first UK episode and that exercise in futility led nowhere. Davina McCall's The Million Pound Drop was hugely successful during its run here but The Million Dollar Money Drop hosted by actor Kevin Pollack only lasted 12 episodes.

What's successfully designed, written and crafted for one audience may not resonate with an entirely different target market. We love black pudding but there's some places where fried pigs blood just won't fly. So when I found out that The Crystal Maze was going to be adapted for US TV, I was apprehensive. This is a show I've a had special connection with since I was the grand old age of 1 and a bit. Ask a Whovian how they'd feel if NBC decided they were going to remake Doctor Who and I'd imagine the fear and anxiety levels would skyrocket. We correctly deduced that they'd use the current UK set, flying in contestants Fort Boyard style to make use of existing, and expensive, facilities so at least the zones and dome would look right. We also said it probably won't get past the pilot stage so it's a score draw for predictions. However the show is more than just an elaborate set, it's about having a host who does more than just throw contestants into games, it's about being fun and imaginative, it's about it entertaining us from start to finish and having us shouting at inept contestants on screen.

The Crystal Maze US Debuts on YouTube

In a move not unfamiliar to Nickelodeon viewers, the first episode has made it's bow on Youtube.

Now if you're not located in North America it won't work for you. But this is the internet and when has that stopped anyone. There'll be no spoilers on here though, we want you watching it and enjoying it. So instead of us reviewing the episode over a week from the 24th, here's what Twitter thought:

The US Marketing Begins

With under two weeks to go until TCM starts in the States on Nickelodeon, the marketing push has begun.

Today Nickelodeon put this out on Twitter as a brief introduction to the world and format of TCM.

EVERYTHING you need to know about The Crystal Maze 🔮Premiering Jan 24! pic.twitter.com/8WCI5rgKjN

— Nickelodeon (@Nickelodeon) January 12, 2020

We knew it would be a $25k top prize rather than the underwhelming rewards that are part and parcel of the UK show but the video explains how this prize is earned. Every gold token is worth $100 (that's some pricey Mylar), and we can assume silvers are -$100, so a minus score should mean they go home with nothing. Also, whilst the current UK rules mean you get nothing scoring 49 or less, I'd assume that even a gold total of +1 we still see them get $100.

Happy New Year, and Here's To A Great 2020

Happy new year to all our readers and Twitter followers. 2020 looks to have worked out rather nicely as not only will it mark 30 years since The Crystal Maze debuted on our screens, it also marks the debut of a new incarnation of the show for US TV on Nickelodeon. That starts on January 24th so we'll try and have a spoiler-free review up as soon as we can afterwards.

There's more episodes of the UK version waiting to be shown so we'll have more 'Who's Who' posts to accompany them when they get scheduled, plus we'll relay UK broadcast info for the US show the moment we find out where you can watch it.

We aren't 100% saying it wont be Nickelodeon UK, but it 95% won't be Nickelodeon UK.

Maybe 96%

Beginners Guide to The Crystal Maze

If you've recently seen Adam from Adam Ruins Everything talking about doing a game show for Nickelodeon that's been on British TV for 30 years, you've thought one of three things:

• I've seen that on YouTube, he's perfect for it.
• Oh cool, never heard of it, but looks pretty good.
• What? 30 years? What is it? What's with the bald guy in animal print? Did I just see the guy from that Ben Stiller alien movie?

Well there's a lot more to it than this, but here's the basics:

'The Crystal Maze' comes to Nickelodeon Jan 24th 2020

At long last, we've seen officially released material regarding Nickelodeon's incarnation of The Crystal Maze (and not just us borrowing from industry sites). Thankfully I can say that what we've seen so far looks like a rare case of an American remake done right.

The Crystal Maze Board Game Eastern Expansion/Standalone Now Available To Preorder

The Crystal Maze Eastern Mini Game Expansion Pack we revealed in August is now available to preorder on Amazon.

Graphic Designer Julia Siemon and Possible Pitches For TCM US Title Sequence

Just another quick one, something to share with you all

Last night @FrasyBaby on Twitter brought to our attention some graphic design work for a title sequence for Nickelodeon's Crystal Maze created by designer, animator and director Julia Siemon.

Copyright Julia Siemon

@adamconover : For Those Who Have No Idea

In the same way that Americans are very likely to be totally unfamiliar with the work of Ed Tudor Pole, the vast majority of Brits are unlikely to be aware of the career of Adam Conover, the man taking ownership of the keys to The Crystal Maze for Nickelodeon.

"Adam Conover, 36, he's a TV host and comedian from Wading River, New York, USA"

Adam Conover named as Maze Master of The Crystal Maze for @Nickelodeon

Adam Conover, of Adam Ruins Everything, has been named the host of Nickelodeons incarnation of The Crystal Maze.

The First Official Image From The Crystal Maze For Nickelodeon

Thanks to @Danny_L_Kerner for bringing to our attention the first promo image for the US version of The Crystal Maze

Image taken from c21media.net