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?

To be clear I don’t think Pictionary is a necessary commission, although it’s nice to have a new 30 minute format for the first time in years and years, if the US one is anything to go by it’s a particularly uncrucial watch. But we will commend Mel Giedroyc’s commitment to the bit here, an old school #hostholdingaquestioncard promo shot (with extra points for pointing and facial expression) for an old-school kind of show.

Great stuff. Mel’s done this sort of thing before of course, with Draw It! on Channel 4 about a decade ago, it’s unlikely to be as piss-takey as Win, Lose or Draw in its pomp. Still though, two Christmas episodes on 23rd and 26th December, with the series starting at 2:30pm on January 6th and perhaps interestingly it will have five minutes longer to fill than the US show (after Tipping Point: Best Ever Finals at 2pm which is the sound of ITV giving up, and new 18-month-old Lingo going out at 4pm).

Stickying this to the top and hiding it under a click, click to see the guide! Happy Christmas!