So with comic and actor Stephen Merchant announced as the host of the one-off revival (a name incidentally we probably wouldn’t have considered, but on reveal pretty much immediately thought “yes that’s quite good”) I thought it would be fun to look at some parody as the show is ripe for that sort of thing.

The earliest one would probably be the Punt and Dennis “making a cup of tea” game:

Meanwhile Tony Robinson wrote a spoof into an episode of kids show Maid Marian and Her Merry Men. Here’s actually the entire script, but here’s the relevant video.

Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish frequently did take-offs of popular TV shows with Star Wars models for their TV show. “The pony trekking holiday in Ullswater will be mine!”

My personal favourite is The Crystal Muck from Dick ‘n’ Dom In Da Bungalow, one of many gameshow-based endgames they played out. Dave Chapman giving it everything, “CORRUGATED IRON and PIPING.”

Finally the most recent and probably the best observed, this from Cardinal Burns a few years ago:

Well now. Well well well now.

The Sun is reporting that The Crystal Maze is set for a big budget comeback, initally as a one-off for Stand Up To Cancer with a view to a series. David Tennant is being tipped as host. I’ve had some private convos with some TV peeps who won’t give anything away but suggest it’s true.

Gosh and indeed blimey. Tennant’s a good choice as well if true.

I am simultaneously the world’s most excited and terrified 35-year-old. Excited because it was my fave show growing up. Terrified because modern production and editing techniques risk urinating all over my childhood.

I would have presumed they’d film a one-off at The Crystal Maze Live Experience in London except I don’t think that would come across that well on camera. Stand Up To Cancer night is October 21st. This feels like it’s going to be a massive rush job or someone’s been secretly building a maze somewhere. If it’s big budget are they hoping other countries will film here Fort Boyard style?

So many questions. So much anticipation. Don’t be rubbish.

Edit: If it’s anything less than a 9/10, there WILL BE consequences. I will relentlessly slag off your next daytime quiz regardless of how good it actually is. If there’s ANY HINT of diary room style confessional or Field Removed Video, every show you work on gets 1/10 in perpetuity. BE WARNED. No I don’t care how hard it is, you break it you buy it.

Edit Edit: It sounds like they ARE filming it at the Live Experience, I think I am already over this.

Edit Edit Edit: It’s going to be hosted by Stephen Merchant. Actually quite a good choice I think. Press release.

#hostholdingfourquestioncards

Coming soon to CBBC: Top Class with Susan Calman, a show which aims to find Britain’s smartest school and looks excitingly like it has a passing resemblance to top 80s quiz First Class. I hope there are Paperboy and Hypersports rounds! What’s behind the spinning golden disc! Etc!

Anyway I’m only mentioning this here because here’s a promo shot of Calman holding FOUR question cards. Is this cheating or does it make it four times as good?

Anyway right now I’m currently addicted to watching old episodes of High Rollers on Youtube, the US quiz from the 70s and 80s based around dice-game Shut the Box hosted by Alex Trebek then Wink Martindale. I remember watching it on satellite in the late 80s (I can’t remember if it was part of Sky 1’s Panel Pot Pourri strand or Lifestyle with Diddy David Hamilton). The Martindale version would be the show I grew up with and I love everything about it (one of the all time great themes! Glamorous set! What passes for 1980s US quiz show trivia! When one of the prizes was a bonus game! Golden dice because why not!).

The game, by modern standards, actually isn’t all that great – probably a little too much passing the dice in the hope the opponent rolls bad and loses the game rather than gambling to try and take prizes, but right now I also don’t care. Here is a random episode. Have a good rest of Bank Holiday!

There was loads on Monday and on Saturday we’ll have another one for Go For It, so in the meantime here’s something that might have got lost in the shuffle that Chris M Dickson posted about on Monday:

Take a look at a 1985 US pilot for a show called Finders Keepers, which has nothing to do with Finders Keepers (1) or Finders Keepers (2) as we know them. Take your strongest stereotypes of what a mid-eighties US game show might look like, then consider a take like that on the UK Treasure Hunt. It’s deliberately zany; the prizes are notably off-beat, and there’s a human sidekick pretending to be a computer character, because that’s what people did in 1985. (Max Headroom might have popped up in a movie, but was still a couple of years off being a show yet.)

There’s a particularly cute Sale of the Century-like mechanism in there which is by far the most interesting part of the show. The whole thing isn’t horrible, but you can see why it was a pilot that didn’t sell.

This has definitely come up on The Bar before, although it may well have been in an older version of the site. Anyway have a look: