Do yer remember Bullseye? Do yer? Do yer remember “stay out of the black and into the red, nothing in this game for two in a bed?” Do yer remember “iiiiiiinn one?” Do yer remember the speedboat? They were always giving away a speedboat weren’t they! Do yer remember that bit where they’d “check that with Bully?” Do yer? Do yer remember that? Do yer remember the Bendy Bully? Do yer remember getting yer BFH? Bus Fare Home? Do yer remember pounds for points? Do yer remember “the ones that are lit are the ones you can hit?” Do yer remember the “ooo-OHHH-eee-ooohhhh” sound when the board revolved? Do yer? Do yer?
Let us know what you thought about the Xmas Special in the comments below!
2 eps on Friday 19th December, 1 ep weekly thereafter Amazon Prime
This has become a bit of a curio really. Mr Beast, world’s most famous Youtuber famous for his big money challenges and giveaways (and basically doing Real Life Squid Game in 30 minutes), now throwing his considerable weight around for Amazon Prime with a show with a very similar eliminatory premise – 1,000 people whittled down to 1 (so it’s Ultra Quiz then) – and a very similar (albeit bigger) prize – $5m which remains not “the biggest single prize in television and streaming” as X Factor US was offering it years ago and many shows have offered more in the past.
Like Squid Game: The Challenge there have been stories of the contestants not being treated in a way you’d hope to be treated. However despite this SG:TC ended up being a hugely compelling final product in a way I was hoping it wouldn’t be really. This show is promising 41 different challenges, quite a lot more than the 6 large-scale games SG:TC offered (although not counting its Moral Dilemmas of course), it will be interesting to see how many are repurposed from Mr Beast’s existing video ideas and how the whole thing is paced – it’s meant to be six episodes total, so ought to be getting through them quite quickly.
For such a big event show we’re slightly baffled by the lack of promo it’s had recently, you’d think Amazon would be pushing it a bit more, and next week on Boxing Day it crashes slap bang into Squid Game 2 on Netflix which may be diminishing returns but is going to get most of the press that weekend.
It might end up being really fun and good! Let us know what you think in the comments.
We knew this was in the works and it looks like the lines have recently opened, France’s Department of Charente-Maritime have launched a charity drive to look after and restore the Fort to its original glory.
The project will include the repair of the very deteriorated embankment that surrounds the structure, as well as the restoration of a berthing haven to the south-east and a spur to the north-west.
The objective is to ensure the fort’s durability by restoring it to its original appearance. Once the work is completed, a dream will come true for many people: for the first time, Fort Boyard will open to the public and tours will be organised from 2028.
Fingers crossed they will still be making the show by then, 2029 will be series 40 effectively.
Impression of what the finished Fort will look like
If you want to throw it a few Euros, here’s the site set up for it. The aim is €1.4m over three years which feels eminently doable. Presumably Pere Fouras can’t afford it himself.
More retro fun! A really good-quality (condition as opposed to content) episode of Cyberzone from 1993 has turned up. Smack bang in the middle of the Tim Child Virtual Reality era.
I love the aesthetic of Cyberzone (including an unexpectedly rocky banger theme from Ed Welch), but God watching people try and Do Stuff in it was a bit of a chore wasn’t it? I wonder how many tasks they thought teams would get through – they’ve built all these areas, and they’ve a vehicle strategy dimension, but nobody gets past more than three puzzles. I watched all of these when they went out, I don’t think anybody ‘found Thesp’.
Oh, how fun, a new Youtube channel from Mister Doc has been uploading some interesting old things in recent weeks but we really hit the jackpot yesterday – the very first episode of You Bet!
It is fair to say that we are not quite in imperial You Bet phase here, and looking back at it it’s amazingly weird for such a big show. Brucie coming down in a lift! The inaugural You Bet rap! The completely out of place chat show element they dropped in favour of another challenge in later series! Well I say out of place, they’re sort of aping the German show a little bit there I suppose, but it feels out of place in this context. It also doesn’t have the classic theme that we all know and love, instead the original is by Alan Lisk (who went on to do the theme from Men Behaving Badly), but you can certainly hear where the inspiration for Jonathan Sorrell’s music came from. Also it’s interesting and pleasing that there’s no attempt to hide the artifice of television here – cameras and staff in shot at every opportunity. We’re not quite in the You Bet Betsie stage, but I forgot they called the award an Oscar, can’t imagine The Academy were too thrilled with that.
This went out in February 1988 and I would have been 6, but I do distinctly remember Richard Digance’s builders vs artist challenge from when it originally went out, it’s funny the stuff you remember isn’t it?
