Fun House

Host

Linda Lusardi (non-broadcast pilot)

Pat Sharp

Co-hosts

Two cheerleading twins called Melanie and Martina Grant

Voiceover: Gary King

Broadcast

STV for ITV, 24 February 1989 to 1999 (11 series)

Synopsis

Gunge = Good?

IT'S WACKY!, IT'S FUN!, IT'S CRAZY!, IT'S OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!

Gunge, inevitably

Two teams of two play three gungy games to win points. After each game they are asked a question worth more points. After the third game it's the Fun Kart grand prix, a race around the studio where they can earn lots and lots of bonus points. This section would be good, were it not for the fact that the karts go at around 2mph, seemingly. Also, if there was any way of balancing the distance given that the red kart always had the inside lane all the way round other then a foot-and-a-half disadvantage at the start, we'd love to know what it was.

The infamous kart race

Fun House = Fun?

At this point the winners go into the Funhouse, by far the best bit of the show where they can win some fabulous prizes. They have two minutes in order to collect the fifteen prize tags hidden around the various obsticles. Each person can only collect three tags before they have to come out, tag the other player and they do the same.

Everybody likes a slide

One of the prize tages is the Power Prize. Picking the Power Prize means that, after answering a general knowledge question correctly, they win a distinctly good prize of an action holiday whatever.

The animated clucking chicken whenever he gets grabbed by one of the kiddies.

It's better-than-average ITV kiddie fare. Usually quite entertaining and the Funhouse was very cool.

The kiddies confer by nearly headbutting.

Key moments

In the final jackpot question, one pair of kids were asked "Name three kinds of emergency service". The children replied: "Police, Ambulance... and the A.A". No, they aren't really the fourth emergency service.

In a 1996 christmas episode, Pat asked a question "The game we just played was set on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day is tomorrow, what's the day after Christmas Day?". The contestant replied "Easter".

Catchphrases

Pat Sharp: "Here's the Fun House!", "Good luck to all of our players on the Fun House today!", "Re-run the Fun!", "You're going in the Fun House!"

Melanie & Martina Grant: "I have (male contestant name) and (female contestant name) from (place of birth) and they attend (name of school/college they attend) YAAAAY!

Voice-over: "It's time for Fun House! Wacky contestants, messy games, the fun kart grand prix race and a crazy chase to win lots of prizes! Now, here's the guy who puts the fun into Fun House...Pat Sharp!"

Inventor

Credited as (deep breath): Based upon the USA TV series "Fun House" produced by Stone Television in association with Lorimar Television and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic TV distribution. Phew!

Theme music

By David Pringle and Bob Heatlie.

It's wacky! It's fun! It's cr-a-a-a-zy! It's outrageous!
Fun House... it's a whole lot of fun, prizes to be won,
It's a real crazy show where anything can go.
Fun House... it's a quiz, it's a race, a real wacky place,
Use your body and your brain if you wanna play the game!"

The Fun House theme music complete with mullet and bad joke.

Trivia

Brilliantly, a pilot for an adult-orientated version hosted by ex-Page three stunna Linda Lusardi was filmed. One of the contestants was none other than Carol Smillie, presumably filmed just before she started on Wheel of Fortune.

Sam Nixon made his TV debut as a contestant on a 1998 edition. Meanwhile on the other side of the world, future Liverpool FC striker Luis Suarez was a contestant on the Uruguayan version of the show.

It took 11 minutes for the production team to reset the Fun House for another show.

Already smelling a huge hit on its hands, Scottish Television went into partnership with S4C and Comataidh Telebhisein Gaidhlig (the Gaelic Television Committee) in 1991 to produce Welsh and Gaelic versions of the show from Glasgow. Neither version materialised.

Amazingly for a kids show, repeats unexpectedly showed up on Challenge TV in the mornings over ten years later. Now that's staying power!