Fun House (UK game show)

Fun House
Opening title
Genre	Game show
Created by	Bob Synes
Presented by	Pat Sharp Melanie and Martina Grant
Voices of	Gary King
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	11
No. of episodes	146
Production
Executive producer(s)	Sandy Ross Elizabeth Partyka
Producer(s)	Elizabeth Partyka Anne Mason Ann Walker Alan Harding Kim Kinnie
Running time	25 minutes
Production company(s)	STV Productions (Scottish Television)
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV Network (CITV)
Picture format	PAL(576i)
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	24 February 1989 (1989-02-24) – 29 December 1999 (1999-12-29)
Chronology
Related shows	Fun House (US version)

Fun House is a British children's game show produced by Scottish Television and based on the American show, that aired on CITV from 24 February 1989 to 29 December 1999. It usually aired on Fridays (with the exception of Series 4, which aired on Wednesdays and Series 5 & 6, which aired on Thursdays). It was hosted by Pat Sharp, who was also aided by twin cheerleaders, Melanie Grant supporting the red team and Martina Grant supporting the yellow team. The announcer was Gary King. The theme tune was composed by David Pringle and Bob Heatlie.

Format

Each episode featured 2 teams each consisting of a boy and girl representing schools from around the UK. There were 3 rounds in each episode.

Round 1 (3 Messy Games)

The opening games were referred to as messy games and typically used gunge as opposed to food. One game would be for the two boys, another game for the two girls and a third game for all four players, though the order would vary from episode to episode. In later series occasionally all games would be for all four players. One of the three games would be a "key game", in which the losing team would get the same points as their score in that game.

As in the original American version, a question would follow each game, to the value of 25 points if answered correctly.

Round 2 (The Fun Kart Grand Prix)

1989 - 1994

The Grand Prix was run in red and yellow coloured go-karts and lasted for two (later three) laps. Teams race round the track picking up tokens to add to their score, alternating drivers with each lap. The first lap was for "10" tokens for 10 points, the second for "25" tokens for 25 points, plus 25 points for winning the race. Tokens that ended up on the floor were null and void.

The tokens were later dropped into appropriately coloured boxes and added to the team's current score.

1995

By 1995, the Grand Prix was extended to three laps and the numbered tokens were replaced with generic silver tokens with a blue stripe, and they were all worth 25 points. The winning team received 50 points and there was no driver changeover after the second lap.

The original format was revived in late 1995, but kept the third lap (which became a speed lap for 25 points, not 50) and the higher value tokens were collected first.

1996 - 1997

In 1996, tokens were replaced with buttons and the start of the race was similar in style to a regular Grand Prix race. There were buttons for 10 points and 25 points, pressed on alternate laps.

When it came to adding the points up, they were represented by a column of lights for the "10" buttons and the "25" buttons, and added to the team's score.

1998 - 1999

For the 1998 series, the buttons were replaced with wheels. There were four metal wires hanging above the track with all four steering wheels attached. There are four steering wheels for each team (valued at 25 points) bringing the maximum total points to 100. The first lap was a "power up" lap, the second lap was for the second team member to collect their first 2 wheels, The third lap was for the first team member to collect the second 2 wheels, The fourth lap was another power-up lap where the second team member has to win the race and collect an extra "50" points, (25 in 1999). Wheels dropped on the floor were not counted and neither were wheels collected on the first and final laps. The points were shown on the lights, as before, by Pat Sharp hitting the button on top of the team's podium. the results, as usual were then shown in numbers on the LED screen on the team's podium.

Round 3 (The Fun House)

In the UK version of the show, to actually win the power prize, they not only had to grab the tag, they also had to answer one question (often multi-parted) correctly within 10 seconds. Also, the only prizes in the Fun House were non-monetary because of a law in Europe stating that children cannot win money on game shows. The Fun House itself was completely different from the US version. In that version the Fun House itself was actually designed like a house, whereas in the UK version it was designed like a Funhouse ride that is often found at fairgrounds.

Fun House designs

1989 - 1991

Much smaller but more colourful than later ones. It is almost entirely different from later versions.

1993 - 1994

Much larger than the previous version and had a recurring theme of a bully (an inflatable figurine of such a person) in the Fun House, this included the inflatable bully at the back that was the same size as the Fun House.

1995 - 1997

The bully element has been removed from the show and the space previously occupied by the large bully figure at the back incorporated some flashing coloured lights and fake 'windows' to emphasise the 'house feel'. This was accompanied by colourful flashing studio lamps whereas the final run in previous series simply had the same studio lighting level that had been present throughout the entire episode.

1998

The Fun House has been completely re-built, but much based on the 1993-1997 version (although the big leap has changed from another tube slide to some giant steps). This included the Fun House being coloured of only red and yellow, instead of the multi-coloured Fun House used previously. The front entrance area has been completely re-designed. This included the removal of the "Fun House" logo hanging above the entrance and the removal of the two car-wash style spirals, being replaced by two stacks (one at either side) with blocks on top, each one having a Fun House logo on it. Also, this Fun House seems larger than the previous incarnations, and certain parts of it have been completely re-designed (the Snake Pit, for example, instead of simply being a multicoloured box with springy snakes inside, is now a more traditional snake basket.) Also, when Pat Sharp introduces the Fun House at the start of each episode, from now on, there are more explosions and firework bangs in the Fun House rather than simply two spark machines either side of the Fun House entrance logo. These "improved" explosions also included a few smoke machines to give a better impression of the special effects and along with sound effects throughout the teams 'run' through the fun-house added to the 'wackyness' and atmosphere. Also, a wall of stacked boxes was added at the entrance of the fun house after Gary King announced the episode's prizes, and the 1st player would plough through the wall to start the round when Pat said go.

1999

The final version was a slight re-designing of the Fun House. This included a change to the Big Leap from a tall fireman's pole leading to the giant steps to a zip-line seat built to carry the player from the top of the Fun House to the bottom ball pool.

Fun House obstacles

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• Wild slide - A very steep and fast tube slide (Series 4-11)
• Sneaky slip 'n' slide - Another tube slide opposite the wild slide but less steep and fast. (Series 4-9)
• Skelter Belter - A helter-skelter like slide which leads to the bottom ball pool of the Fun House (Series 4-7)
• The flying fox - A zip line which went from one end of the fun house to the other (Series 4-11)
• The ball run - A long ball pit at the back of the fun house (Series 4-11)
• firemans pole - A long pole similar to a firemans pole to slide down from the top of the fun house to the bottom. (Series 4-11)
• Crawl tube - A big plastic tube to crawl through. (Renamed the Tumbling Tube) (Series 4-11)
• Balloon Tunnel - A tunnel filled with balloons (Series 1-11)
• Monster Maze - An area at the front of the fun house filled with monsters (Series 4-9)
• The bob sleigh - A bob sleigh which goes down a large slide from the top of the fun house which leads to the sneaky slip 'n' slide. (Series 4-11)
• The danger net - A net bridge which leads to the wild slide. (Series 4-11)
• Hole in the wall - A wall with holes in, the tag hides behind one of the holes (Series 5 only)
• The Crazy Cuckoo - A giant birdhouse with a green bird puppet inside (Series 6 only)
• Machine Room - A room full of cartwheels, where the prize tag hides in one of the petals of one of the cartwheels. (Series 6 only)
• Angular triangular - A box with two triangle-shaped spinning shelves inside (Series 8 only)
• The turning twister - A box, oppose to Angular Triangular, with spinning circles (Series 8 only)
• Connections Wall - A wall with snakes inside, and the player had to make the right connection to that snake in order to grab the tag (Series 6 only)
• Magic curtain - A foam rubber curtain which you could walk through (Series 8 only)
• The trash cans - 3 rubbish bins filled with rubbish, the tag is hidden inside one of them. (Series 5 only)
• The bully - A giant head of a bully with giant teeth, you have to punch his teeth to get the tag. (Series 5 only)
• The tall tower - Very large tower with a ladder to climb up (Series 10-11)
• Snakes in a box - A box filled with snakes. (Series 9-11)
• Jungle Jump - The fireman's pole in the 7th series with jungle like tree leaves on it (Series 7 only)
• The A frame - A climbing frame in the shape of a capital A (Series 9-11)
• The sunken well - 4 long narrow tubes with ropes inside, the tag is attached to one of them (Series 10-11)
• The climbing net - A net to climb up (Renamed the Net Ladder in earlier versions) (Series 4-11)
• The big leap - A big firemans pole (Series 10 only)
• Stone faces - Hawaiian like stones with holes in their mouths, and the player had to punch out the right hole of that stone face to grab the tag (Series 7 only)
• The giant steps - A giant staircase (Series 8-11)
• Gong crazy! - A large box with a polystyrene gong at the front, smash it open to get the tag. (Series 9 only)
• Pullovers - An closet like area full of long sleeved Clothes with a tag hidden in one of the sleeves of that cloth (Series 7 only)
• Hungry Burgers - An area with 2 cheeseburgers, and one of the burgers has the tag hidden somewhere in its patty (Series 7 only)
• The big drop - A zip-line seat built to carry the player from the top of the Fun House to the bottom ball pool (Series 11 only)

Episodes

Series 1 (1989)

Episode	Date	Yellow Team	From	School Represented	Final Score	Red Team	From	School Represented	Final Score	Power Prize Tag Collected	Power Prize Won
1	24 February 1989		Southampton				Newcastle upon Tyne
2	3 March 1989

Transmissions

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	24 February 1989	26 May 1989	13
2	23 February 1990	25 May 1990	13
3	4 January 1991	5 April 1991	13
4	6 January 1993	31 March 1993	13
5	6 January 1994	24 March 1994	12
6	5 January 1995	30 March 1995	13
7	8 September 1995	15 December 1995	15
8	13 September 1996	6 December 1996	13
9	12 September 1997	12 December 1997	14
10	25 September 1998	18 December 1998	13
11	22 September 1999	29 December 1999	14[1][2]

External links

• Fun House at the Internet Movie Database
• Fun House at the British Film Institute
• Fun House at UKGameshows.com

References