Finders Keepers (American game show)

*Finders Keepers*
Finders Keepers
	File:Image45.gif The Finders Keepers logo from the Nickelodeon run
Genre	Children's; game show
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Original release
Network	Nickelodeon
Release	Nov. 2, 1987 –; ; Sep. 11, 1988

This article refers to the children's game show, for alternate meanings see Finders Keepers (disambiguation)

Finders Keepers was a children's game show that debuted on the Nickelodeon network in America on November 2, 1987, airing until September 11, 1988. The show then began airing in first run syndication the following day (Sept. 12, 1988), and ran until March 10, 1989. Repeats aired on Nickelodeon until June 30, 1990. The show featured two teams of two children who participated in four rounds of game-play (divided into two sections) followed by a final bonus round for the winning team.

Studios

The first season of Finders Keepers was taped at WHYY-TV in Philadelphia, PA. For the syndicated run, the show moved to Hollywood Center Studios in Los Angeles, California.

Hosts

Wesley Eure (Nickelodeon)(1987-1988)
Larry Toffler (Syndication)(1988-1989)

Announcers

John Harvey (as Harvey) (Nickelodeon)(1987)
Bob Lorman (Nickelodeon)(1988)
Joe Conklin (Nickelodeon)(1988)
Harry Stevens (Syndication)(1988-1989)

File:FindersKeepersHouse.jpg

The Finders Keepers house, from the syndicated version

Main game

The main game was played in two rounds each with two halves. The first half of each round involved finding hidden pictures in a complex drawing; the second half involved ransacking rooms in a large house built onstage.

Hidden Pictures round

The first half of each round had the two teams looking at a cartoon drawing of some random scenario. The host would then read clues describing a hidden object drawn into the picture. Correctly identifying the item in the picture that matched the clue awarded a team $25 and the right to search one of the rooms in the house. Players could buzz in while the clue was being read; however, if a team ran out of time or found the wrong item, their opponents were given a chance to steal the money by finding the correct item once the host re-read the clue. If neither team found the hidden object, the host would reveal where it was in the picture and read a clue to another hidden object.

In the Eure version, the teams saw the picture on a monitor in their podiums. To answer, the team had to buzz in and circle the hidden item with an electronic pen.

In the Toffler version, a giant trilon revealed a board with a giant picture in the center, and the hidden objects drawn onto plastic laminates on either side of the picture (so that the teams already knew what the items looked like.) When the clue was read, they had to buzz in, run over to the board, pull a laminate off of the board, and stick it where it appeared in the giant picture. To make the challenge more difficult, there were more laminates than there were hidden objects, thus allowing for vague clues to match two or more laminates, with only one correct answer. When a team buzzed in, the running contestant had three seconds to find the picture, with the opposing team receiving five seconds to find it themselves if time expired or the original team guessed incorrectly.

During the first half of the Eure version, the players chose the rooms they wanted to search; this was then switched to the host dictating which room corresponded to the current clue in the hidden pictures round.

Each Hidden Picture had a maximum of six clues to go with it. Consequently, in the first half of the Eure run, an incorrect answer usually meant that a room would remain unclaimed (hence, one unclaimed room meant that only three rooms would be searched.) In later Eure episodes and the Toffler version, the teams played the round until all four rooms were claimed, or they played out all six clues in the hidden picture (there was still the possibility of unclaimed rooms, which occurred on at least one occasion on either show during that time).

Searching the house

For each correct find in the "Hidden Pictures" half of each round, the teams were awarded with a chance to search a room in the Finders Keepers house. The house (originally behind the main set during the hidden pictures on the Eure version but then later moved to the side of the set in the Toffler version) consisted of eight rooms that could be whimsical versions of real rooms in a typical home such as a living room, a bathroom, "Dad's Den" and "Granny's Kitchen", or they could be complete "fantasy" type rooms such as "Sherlock's Study," "Ali-Baba's Bathroom", a "Fairy Tale Room", a "Pastry Shop", or "Frankenstein's Laboratory."

In each room, the host would read a clue describing an object hidden in that room. The team then had thirty seconds to tear apart the room to find the object. If they located the object, they won $50. If they did not find the object (either guessing the wrong object, or running out of time), the money went to the other team. For the viewers, the location of the hidden object was pointed out periodically during the room search, handled differently in both versions of the show: In the Eure version, the camera would zoom in every now and then on the object's location at the time (even if the object was knocked over or tossed to the ground accidentally during the search), whereas in the Toffler version, a small picture of the room pre-search would display halfway through the search, with an 'X' to mark where the object was hidden.

While a team tried to find the object in a room, certain distractions would appear to make the game more difficult. These included objects such as ping-pong balls falling onto the contestants from cabinets or the ceiling, confetti cannons firing, water spraying from various places, and in later episodes, entire shelves collapsing. Any breakable objects were made of special materials that would not hurt the teams; Eure omce demonstrated this by breaking a plate over his own head without injury.

Round 2

In Round 2, the dollar values increased to $75 for finding a correct Hidden Picture and $100 for successfully finding a hidden object in a room. In addition, one of the rooms was selected as an "Instant Prize Room". This room was not revealed until a team actually entered it, at which point the room's lights blinked and a school bell went off. If the team found the object in that room, those contestants won a prize (in the Eure version and for the early part of the Toffler version, it was usually larger and better than the grand prize in the bonus round) in addition to the $100 for finding the item. If the team failed in the "Instant Prize Room", the opponents would get the money, but not the prize.

The team with the most money at the end of the game won. If the game ended in a tie, a shortened Hidden Pictures round was played, with the first team to find two hidden pictures winning. A possible $1000 cash was up for grabs between the two teams, although the most any one team ever won was $975.

With the nature of the scoring system, the potential existed for one team to do absolutely nothing, and win $600 and a trip to the bonus round. The scenario could occur if one team found all of the hidden pictures for both rounds, yet did not find any of the hidden items in the rooms. This is also possible for a team that does not win the right to search any rooms and the other team does not find any of the hidden items in any rooms.

Bonus round ("Room-to-Room Romp")

At the end of the game, the winning team won a chance to participate in a "Room-to-Room Romp". Given a 90-second time limit, the team had to locate a chain of clue cards, which were hidden one per room in six of the eight rooms. Each card contained the room to go to next and the clue for the location of the next card. For each tag that was found, the team received a prize. Typical prizes included bicycles, skateboards, a trip to Space Camp or Disney World, gift certificates to either Kay-Bee Toys (Toffler) or Toys "R" Us (Eure), or a video game system.

Beginning with the second half of the Eure version, the audience would usually yell out the order of the rooms to be trashed in the Romp before the round started; a musical accompaniment was added to this practice on the Toffler version.

International Versions

In the United Kingdom the show aired on CITV, following the same format for most of its run. It was produced by Television South and then Scottish Television (SMG Productions) and was presented by Neil Buchanan of Art Attack fame from 1991 to 1996. In 2005 it was announced that the show would soon return with Jeff Brazier. On January 6, 2006 the first episode of this new series was aired. The new series is produced by "The Foundation" for CITV. Due to the law in Europe and Australia, children are not allowed to win any money on game shows, but instead prizes are won in the bonus round depending on the number of rooms completed.

Some episodes taped in the UK followed a different format. In these, Buchanan shared hosting duties with Diane Youdale. Each host stayed with one team throughout the entire episode. Instead of the teams finding hidden pictures, they raced to find "tools" hidden in a pit of "oil" in the house's garage (which was set off to the side of the eight main rooms.) Correctly finding all the tools earned a head start in the house. The second round was the "Room Raid", where teams raced to find hidden objects in each of the four rooms on their designated floor. The winning team proceeded to the "Super Search", where they had four minutes to find eight prizes, each of which was hidden in one room in the house. The prizes increased in value with each room, beginning with a booby prize (such as a dishcloth) and ending with the final grand prize. The rooms were much more complicated in this version and had many more distractions to throw the contestants off while searching.

Set/music/personnel changes

About halfway through the Eure version, the show was tinkered with a bit, although the format remained the same. Harvey was replaced with Bob Lorman (and later Joe Conklin) in the announcer's booth, many of the rooms got a facelift or were completely remodeled, rooms such as Tarzan's Treehouse and the Back Yard made their first appearances, the lighting was improved, and the contestants' podiums were modified somewhat.

The music for Finders Keepers was written by Edd Kalehoff. The music package was updated when the show went into syndication, with more instruments being added to all tracks (similar to that of Double Dare when it went into other versions).

The sets of the two series differed in their construction. The Eure version's set consisted of the play area, which contained a door that Eure would enter through when he was introduced and the teams would go through when they would enter the house, along with the host and contestant podia. Once the teams entered the house, the set would break away to reveal the house. On the Toffler version, the play area and house shared the same set, with the house being built to the play area's right.

External links