I Have Had My Tiny Little Mind Blown - There Was A Sequel Series to Crystal Maze: Magic Carnival

It's escaped my notice for 25 years, but there was a follow up to The Crystal Maze.

Last night I was watching Channel 4's "Back to the '90s", part of a series celebrating 4 decades of Channel 4. I was doing my usual thing on Twitter, liking and retweeting everything remotely relevant to this humble little blog. Every mention of quality Channel 4 programming (of which GamesMaster was noticeable by its absence). One tweet certainly grabbed my attention:

I Art Directed the last original series of The Crystal Maze, such a buzz to work on #backtothe90s

— Richard Drew (@dickydrew) December 28, 2020

The whole thread is there to find on Twitter, and after some messages, something came up that I've never heard of in 30ish years of being far too obsessed with a quirky Channel 4 gameshow:

I was very fortunate in my AD career to work with some fantastic Production Designers, but James and Dennis ( de Groot) probably had the biggest influence on me. James n I did the follow up show Magic Carnival together, was meant to succeed CM but it only got to pilot stage.

— Richard Drew (@dickydrew) December 29, 2020

Fort Boyards 30th Anniversary Celebration Reveals Some Interesting Richard O'Brien Footage

 Up until now, we'd only ever seen two seconds of the back of Richard's head, so we knew it existed but it hadn't been seen online in any longer form. However last night, as part of the start of the new series of Fort Boyard in France, footage of the UK pilot appeared.

 The UK was the first country to buy the format after seeing the French pilot episode, then titled 'The Keys to Fort Boyard'. Chatsworth Television decided to devise a British version. A non-televised pilot of the British version was filmed with Richard O'Brien as presenter. However, it soon became clear the fort would not available for filming due to its renovations during 1989.

The Crystal Maze is possibly getting a US version

Before I say this, it must be taken with a wheelbarrow sized pinch of salt so prepare accordingly. An article popped up online today suggesting the possibility of a US version of everyone's favourite British game show devised by a Frenchman.

https://www.c21media.net/banijays-crystal-maze-leads-to-us/

For a bit of background, as I understand it, the ownership of the show is as follows:

TCM is produced by Fizz, which is owned by RDF Television, which itself is a subsidiary of Banijay Group after BG bought RDF's parent company Zodiak Media. I think this is how it goes, I may not be 100% accurate but I know the name above the door at the top of the pile is Banijay Group.

An American producer by the name of Bunim Murray Productions, which is also under the Banijay Group umbrella, is wanting to shop the format around to US broadcasters. BMP being the people who brought the world 'Surviving R Kelly' and some unknown thing called 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians', so TCM seems like something a bit different for them.