FUN HOUSE / FOX'S FUN HOUSE

 

FUN HOUSE / FOX’S FUN HOUSE
(Syndication, FOX, September 5, 1988-April 13, 1991)
 
Stone Television/Stone Stanley Productions, Lorimar-Telepictures (season 1), Lorimar Television (season 2-3)

 

MAIN CAST:

J.D. Roth – Host

Jacqueline Forrest – Jackie the Cheerleader

Samantha Forrest – Sammi the Cheerleader

John “Tiny” Hurley – Announcer (season 1-2)

Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers – Announcer M.C. Mike (season 3)

Brian Cummings – Announcer (pilot)

 

 

Nickelodeon struck gold when it debuted its kid-centric game show Double Dare in 1986. Double Dare would pit two teams of two kids against each other by having them win money answering trivia questions. If they didn’t know an answer, or thought the other team didn’t, they could pass it over with a “dare” for double the money. But it could be “double dared” back for four times the money, in which case that dared team either had to answer or take a “physical challenge”. These physical challenges often featured deceptively simple and incredibly messy tasks; like building an ice cream sundae on their partner’s head, popping goop-filled balloons with a needle headpiece, plucking cherries out of gelatin with their mouths, etc. Success won them the money; failure gave it to the opposing team. The team with the most money then went on to an even messier obstacle course for a chance to win up to 8 prizes within a minute.

A contestant making soup on top of her partner's head on Double Dare.

In the world of entertainment, a success breeds imitators trying to duplicate that success. One such attempt came in the form of Fun House, created by veteran game show producer Bob Synes. Tasked by Lorimar-Telepictures with coming up with a kid’s show for syndication, Synes presented executive producer Scott Stone with a drawing of carnival midway games leading to a funhouse at the end. Stone scaled down Synes’ ambitions a bit and suggested focusing on just the funhouse aspect of it. Lorimar fronted the money to construct a massive set designed by Phyllis Hofberg, Rick Bluhm, Bill Harris and Anthony Sabatino (for which they won an Emmy), and produce a pilot to sell the series.

The teams and their respective cheerleaders taking their places at the podium.

Like Double Dare, it featured two teams of kids comprised of a boy and a girl either related or friends. These teams were distinguished by red and gold uniforms, rather than the wacky self-made names utilized on Double Dare. Occasionally, young celebrity guests would appear or fill the role of one of the teammates, including Danny Ponce (The Hogan Family); Staci Keanan (My Two Dads, Step by Step); Danny Pintauro (Who’s the Boss?); Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster); Jeremy Miller and Leonardo DiCaprio (Growing Pains); Sara Gilbert and Michael Fishman (Roseanne); Tiffany Brisette (Small Wonder); Josh Saviano (The Wonder Years); Jenny Beck (Paradise); Brian Austin Green and Douglas Emerson (Beverly Hills, 90210); Candace Cameron and Jodie Sweetin (Full House); Alexander Polinsky (Charles in Charge); Jaleel White and Kellie Shanygne Williams (Family Matters); Benji Gregory and Josh Blake (ALF); and Tannis Valley (Head of the Class).

The teams sitting in the "Slop Machine", where they got showered in either slime or candy.

Unlike Double Dare, Fun House placed a greater focus on their “stunts”, which would then segue into a single related toss-up question asked at a colorful podium equipped with buzzers. Three timed stunts were played each episode; either with one player at a time (alternating for each solo challenge) or both teammates together. Stunts could involve using their faces to lift up a pie to find a “win” symbol on the bottom of the tin; bobbing for bagels in chocolate milk; assembling a mixed-up image on giant blocks; batting slimy softballs into the audience; pulling “hair extensions” off a giant model’s head to place on their own while being covered in goop; using their teeth to remove gum from under rows of seats; turning their partner into the world’s largest sandwich; using a giant slingshot to fire water balloons at pictures of the announcer; and more. Synes would come up with a title for the stunt first, and then the crew, overseen by producer Stephen Brown, had to create a stunt to go along with that name. The type of stunts featured were usually related to the overall theme of that week’s batch of episodes in keeping with Stone’s philosophy of everything telling a story. The winning team—or both, in the case of a tie—won 25 points. Answering the question correctly earned them an additional 25 points.

Piloting submarines in the Grand Prix Race.

The fourth and final round was The Grand Prix Race. The teams had to race two laps on a track that circled the studio; switching lanes on the second lap. There were two types of races: one utilizing a vehicle of some kind that was ridden by one teammate and moved by the other, switching between laps, and the other was a footrace with each teammate running a lap. The races all featured a different theme with associated challenges that had to be accomplished. For instance, a toy-themed race saw the contestants riding/pulling little red wagons while picking up various toys placed on the track. Additionally, the teams could snag white and blue tokens from stations around the track for 10 and 25 extra points, respectively. During the second season, a Token Bank was added on the second lap that contained a pre-packaged bundle of tokens worth up to 200 points. The winning team earned 25 points, but the ultimate winner was determined after the acquired tokens were tallied by being dropped into slots at the podium. The team with the most points went on to The Fun House obstacle course, while the losing team left with consolation prizes. Ties were broken with a toss-up question.

One of the many configurations of the Fun House obstacle course.

The titular Fun House stood roughly 3-stories tall and featured several interchangeable “rooms” of varying themes and obstacles. They could include toppling Styrofoam skyscrapers; punching out thinly covered holes in a board; an “ice mountain” climb; crawling through a tunnel full of balloons or one that’s spinning; digging through school lockers; traversing a ball pit; etc. Each room contained 16 oversized price tags either plainly visible or hidden somewhere: 6 red representing different prizes revealed before the course was run, and 10 green ones representing cash amounts ranging from $50 to $300. The contestants had 2 minutes to collect as many tags as possible; grabbing three at a time before switching with their partner. This continued until all tags were collected or time ran out. Additionally, one tag was designated as the “Power Prize” that if collected won them a bonus vacation along with everything else they picked up. For the second season, the Fun House became larger and featured more intricate elements like a swimming pool and shooting water.

Host J.D. Roth kicking off the show while John "Tiny" Hurley covers himself in mud.

Fun House debuted in syndication on September 5, 1988. J.D. Roth served as host for the entire run; becoming the youngest game show host in history at just 19. Aiding Roth on the playfield were identical twin cheerleaders. They escorted the teams to the podium, introduced them, and provided support to them based on what color uniform the teams were assigned: Jackie (Jacqueline Forrest) for the gold team and Sammi (Samantha Forrest) for the red. For the pilot, veteran announcer Brain Cummings was utilized. Cummings had previously announced the first season of the 1984-86 syndicated version of Let’s Make a Deal, which Synes produced. John “Tiny” Hurley took over those duties once the series went into production. Along with announcing, Hurley would appear on camera in wacky costumes, participate in skits, or sometimes in various stunts. Other differences in the pilot included playing for cash instead of points; four stunts played instead of three; The Grand Prix awarding $50 for winning and featuring a third red token worth $10 while blue was worth $50; contestants only being allowed two prize tags at a time in the Fun House, with as many cash tags as they wanted; a “Button Banger” in the Fun House awarding a random cash bonus up to $2000 when hit; and the prize tags being scanned at the podium to reveal the Power Prize, which awarded the contestants every prize in the Fun House. Unlike the $2,000-$3,000 Double Dare or fellow Nickelodeon game show Finders Keepers—which filmed in the same complex as Fun House—paid out in cash in prizes, Fun House offered contestants a potential prize payout in excess of $10,000. Score Productions composed the series’ music along with Matt Ender and Jonathan Firstenberg. Props from the show were used in another Lorimar-Telepictures production, Perfect Strangers, for the episode “Games People Play”. Series stars Mark Linn-Baker and Bronson Pinchot also filmed a promo for Fun House as their characters Larry Appleton and Balki Bartokomous.

The show proved a success, becoming the highest rated syndicated new show upon its debut and surpassing even Double Dare (in response, Double Dare added theme weeks and upped the ante in physical challenges by reinstating a previous limited time rebranding as Super Sloppy Double Dare). In 1989, Fun House gained two spin-offs. In the United States, there was College Mad House. Hosted by Greg Kinnear, it featured two teams of four college students (two men, two women) from rival universities playing it out. Rather than cheerleaders, Kinnear was assisted by referees Donna Wilson and Richard MacGregor, with Beau Weaver announcing. Stunts involved the men or women going against each other, and then all four together. The content of this show skewed a bit more risqué than the original; involving more gross-out humor and lewd body movements. Rather than the Grand Prix, the fourth round was the Finals Round. Each member of the team took turns answering as many toss-up questions as possible within a minute and a half; with the winner hitting their opponent in the face with a pie or whipped cream each time. The Mad House, which featured college-themed rooms, had each teammate getting 30 seconds to grab as many tags as they could in order to “clean house” by getting them all. Getting all the tags awarded them a trip; otherwise, they kept whatever prizes they collected for themselves with any cash (up to $1000) going to their school. College Mad House only lasted a single year, ending in September of 1990.

Over in the United Kingdom, ITV debuted their own version of Fun House produced by Scottish Television. It featured host Pat Sharp, twin cheerleaders Melanie and Martina Grant, and announcer Gary King. Played in much the same way as the original with minor gameplay and naming differences, it actually outlasted its parent program to run a full 11 seasons, ending in 1999. Their own adult-themed spin-off was planned and a pilot produced, but it never went to series.

Playing hockey with pies.

Unfortunately, Fun House was beginning to lose steam as sloppy game shows were wearing out their welcome. They were finding difficulty remaining in syndication, despite their best efforts. Enter: FOX. FOX was about to launch its new kid-focused effort, Fox Kids Network, and the show they wanted to acquire for it was…Double Dare. Previously, FOX was pivotal in the success of Double Dare; having distributed it and aired it regularly on affiliated stations, and even airing a version of the show, Family Double Dare, on their own network on Saturday nights. After attempting to bring the show over to their new line up, FOX ended its direct affiliation with the series over “creative differences” and abruptly cancelled Family shortly before they were set to begin filming a new season. Regular Double Dare continued on, however, and was still shown on FOX affiliates, and Family was eventually revived by Nickelodeon two years later. Looking for a replacement that could be just as popular, FOX turned to Double Dare’s closest competitor: Fun House.

M.C. Mike rapping his intro.

Renamed FOX’s Fun House for its third season, it joined the inaugural Fox Kids Saturday morning line-up on September 8, 1990. It also became the first weekday Fox Kids show, filling in for the delayed Peter Pan and the Pirates by airing a special week’s worth of programs featuring some of the earlier-mentioned celebrity guests. While essentially the same show, several changes were made. Hurley was replaced by Michael Chambers, a.k.a M.C. Mike, best known as “Boogaloo Shrimp” from the Breakin’ films. He opened each episode by showing off his rapping skills before the title sequence. While Jackie and Sammi still escorted players to the podium, introductions were now handled by Mike. Carrying over from College Mad House, the player that answered a question correctly got to slap a pie into the face of their opponent. The entire set also shed its carnival-like aesthetic in favor of more urban flair; with distorted cartoon skyscrapers and riveted pipe theming.

The all-new Fun House.

The Fun House itself was also redesigned to emulate a slice of a city block. Starting at the top rather than the bottom, Roth began the run by turning a large valve to activate the “Whitewater Slide” that let one of the players splash down into a waiting pool and officially start the clock counting down. From there, they could go into the “Hardhat Hallway”, which looked like a scrapyard or garbage-filled empty lot; the “Zippity Zoo Dah”, a zoo full of various stuffed animals, a performer in a creature suit, and bendable cage bars; the “Funky Slop Sewer”, resembling a slimy sewer pipe with fake rats and steamy sewage comprised of green balls in water; the “Recycling Zone”, where pulling a lever dumped trash on the player as well as a prize tag; “Bob’s Mad Mall”, which featured dummies holding shopping bags on rotating doors, one of which held the prize tag; the “Kockeyed Kitchen”, an upside-down kitchen whose cabinets held the tag (and was typically filmed upside-down to make it seem like the player was walking on the ceiling); “Flushing Meadows”, a bathroom-like area with three giant colored toilets that sprayed water up when opened; “Fast Food Fight”, a diner area where the opposing team got to impede the winning team by pelting them with food items; and returning from the original Fun House was the rotating “Tubular Tunnel”. Although cash tags were still in plain sight, the prize tags were now hidden within each area. A large slimy alarm clock called the Crazy Glop Clock was added that gave the team an additional 15 seconds in the Fun House when found.

Celebrity guest Kellie S. Williams receiving a pie to the face for a wrong answer.

Behind the scenes, Lorimar-Telepictures was acquired by Warner Bros. Lorimar-Telepictures served as the distributor during the first season as well as the co-producer, but was replaced by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution for the remainder. This, along with Tiny Toon Adventures, would begin Warner Bros.’ association with Fox Kids that would prove mutually beneficial for both the studio’s burgeoning animation efforts and the block’s legitimacy as a major player in broadcasting. British Knights was replaced as the primary sponsor by LA Gear, and everyone on stage wore the sponsoring company’s shoes. Synes, sadly, died in 1990. Stone replaced him with David G. Stanley and renamed his production company, Stone Productions, as Stone Stanley Productions (now Stone & Company Entertainment). Each episode of the third season was dedicated to Synes.

A trade ad celebrating Fun House's Emmy win.

FOX’s Fun House only lasted a short time on the network, airing 22 episodes before it was replaced on the schedule by the short-lived Swamp Thing animated series in 1991. Despite being nominated for four additional Emmys, winning one other, and winning a Young Artist Award, the show disappeared from the airwaves….in the United States. The British version has aired reruns and even got a special one-time revival in 2015 as a promotional gimmick by Fayre & Square pubs and associated Wacky Warehouse play areas. The American version only eventually resurfaced in videos of various quality on YouTube, including the pilot as a feature entry of legendary game show host Wink Martindale’s Wink’s Vault series. Roth would go on to acting and hosting a few more game shows before moving into producing them—including Moolah Beach, which would air during the final year of Fox Kids (meaning Roth both opened and closed the block). Stone Stanly Productions continued producing game shows, including Fun House spiritual successors Legends of the Hidden Temple, geared towards kids, and Shop ‘til you Drop, geared towards adults. Both featured stunt-heavy gameplay in an elaborate setting: a Mayan temple for Legends, and a 2-story mall for Shop. The latter also reused some of Fun House’s music. In 2022, YouTube channel Hosts at Home hosted a Fun House reunion with Roth, Sharp, Stone, and Brown to discuss and reminisce about the show.

The Fun House NES game box.

In 1988, Pressman Toy Corp. published a board game version of Fun House. A travel game was made by Tiger Electronics the following year as part of their Klix Pocket Travel Games series, as well as their customary LCD handheld game. Hi-Tech Expressions produced a video game in 1989 for the Commodore 64 and MS-Dos, and in 1990 for the NES. No version fully captured the show, but the computer versions were closer than the NES’ as they featured some semblance of the stunts while the NES involved just throwing balls at targets and avoiding obstacles in a top-down view. The board game, and eventually the video games, were given out as consolation prizes on the show.

Exercising on the Fun House set.

The oddest tie-in merchandise had to have been the workout videos. Stone had been on a flight with Julie LaFond, who ran the Jane Fonda exercise empire. A conversation about fitness in kids led to a collaboration between Fonda and the show. Fonda came to the set to introduce Roth, who then led the exercise routines. Two videos ended up being made for the Fun House Fitness series: The Swamp Stomp for kids 3-7, and The Fun House Funk for kids 7+. They were re-released together onto DVD in 2005 as part of the Jane Fonda Collection compilation series.

WINK MARTINDALE DEAD AT 91

 

You can read the full story here.

He played Sphinx Martindale—a parody of himself combined with the legendary Sphinx—in an episode of Hercules: The Animated Series. 

JEAN MARSH DEAD AT 90

 

You can read the full story here.

Best known for creating and starring in the series Upstairs, Downstairs, she appeared on a couple episodes of Sesame Street.

DENNIS THE MENACE (1959)

 

DENNIS THE MENACE (1959)
(CBS, October 4, 1959-July 7, 1963)

 

Dariell Productions, Screen Gems, Hank Ketcham Enterprises

 

For the history of Dennis the Menace, check out the post here.

            Hank Ketcham was inspired by the antics of his son, Dennis, to create the comic strip Dennis the Menace. The strip followed young Dennis as he inadvertently caused chaos for the adults in his life through his well-meaning intentions. The strip became immensely popular, and it wasn’t long before Hollywood came calling.

Dennis with his parents (front) and the Wilsons (back).

            The first adaptation of the strip was a sitcom for CBS, who were looking to replace Leave it to Beaver after losing it to ABC, produced by Dariell Productions and Screen Gems. Like the strip, Dennis (Jay North) was a well-intentioned mischievous boy whose antics often came at the expense of his long-suffering neighbor, George Wilson (Joseph Kearns). Dennis, at first, was more directly responsible for the trouble he caused, but that was toned down at the network’s request to avoid imitable behavior among younger members of their viewing audience. Herbert Anderson and Gloria Henry portrayed Dennis’ parents Henry and Alice, and Sylvia Field played George’s wife, Martha. Missing was the Mitchells’ dog, Ruff, who was replaced by the Wilsons’ dog, Fremont. Other characters included Dennis’ best friend Tommy Anderson (Billy Booth); Margaret Wade (Jeannie Russell, cast at North’s suggestion), who had a crush on Dennis though he found her annoying; Sergeant Harold Mooney (George Cisar), a local policeman that took great pleasuring in ruining Mr. Wilson’s day; Otis Quigley (Willard Waterman), the local grocer; Miss Esther Cathcart (Mary Wickes), a spinster that threw herself at every man she could; and Grandma Mitchell (Kathleen Mulqueen), Henry’s mother who stayed with them briefly while Alice was away taking care of her father (a cover for Henry being on maternity leave). Ron Howard portrayed another of Dennis’ friends, Stewart, for six episodes before he was cast to star in The Andy Griffith Show.

The replacement Wilsons.

            Dennis the Menace began on October 4, 1959 and ran for a total of four seasons. North would also reprise the role for appearances on The Donna Reed Show, The Red Skelton Hour, and in the film Pepe. After the filming of the 100^th episode, Kearns died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. For the remainder of the third season, George was said to be out east settling an estate, and his brother, John (Gale Gordon), was staying in his house as a guest. John, interestingly enough, bore a stronger resemblance in appearance and personality to the Mr. Wilson of the comic strip than George did. For the final season, the original Wilsons were written out as having moved away, with John buying their house with his wife, Eloise (Sara Seegar). At the end of the season, CBS ultimately decided to cancel the show as North, approaching 12-years-old, was getting too old to believably be involved in the antics of the character. The show entered reruns on NBC Saturday mornings later that year before going into syndicated reruns in 1965. In the 1980s, it began to make the rounds on various cable networks including Nickelodeon, TV Land and Antenna TV, and on the streaming service Hulu.

THE HISTORY OF DENNIS THE MENACE

 

Hank Ketcham's autobiography featuring him drawing his greatest creation, Dennis.

Hank Ketcham grew up with a fascination for cartoons; beginning with the comic strips in newspapers and extending to theatrical shorts. Wanting to draw professionally, he headed for Los Angeles in 1938 and attempted to join Walt Disney Studios. Denied, former classmate and animator Vernon Witt got him a job as an animator for Walter Lantz Productions. After 14 months, he was finally able to get a job with Disney and worked on such notable projects as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and shorts starring Donald Duck. During World War II, Ketcham was drafted and became a photographic specialist in the U.S. Navy Reserve tasked with creating sales and training materials for the War Bond program. He created the character Seaman Hook, which became the subject of four cartoons (one made by Lantz). With spare time in the evenings for cartooning, he began a camp newspaper strip called Half Hitch, which followed a short, lecherous sailor and his friends in pantomime single-panel gags. The strip ran in The Saturday Evening Post from 1943-45.

The first strip.

After the war, Ketcham settled in Carmel, California with his family and worked as a freelance cartoonist. He first attempted to create a newspaper strip called Little Joe, which would have been a multi-panel gag strip about a mischievous little boy. It ultimately ended up being rejected. He revisited the idea, however, when his first wife, Alice, burst into his studio declaring “Your son is a menace!” after he trashed his bedroom instead of taking a nap. He hastily whipped up 12 cartoons based on his son and Dennis the Menace was born. Ketcham submitted his new strip to New York-based Post-Hall Syndicate (later Publishers-Hall Syndicate) and they accepted. The strip made its debut on March 12, 1951, coincidentally the very same day that a similar yet unrelated strip debuted in the United Kingdom, also called Dennis the Menace (however, the UK Dennis was more of a vicious prankster). While Ketcham drew the daily strip through his entire run, he did employ gag ghost writers including Bob Harmon, Al Batt, Norman Maurer, Jerry Bendsen, Carson Demmans, Steve Dickenson, Bob Saylor and Dana Snow. A full-color Sunday strip debuted that January by request of his editors, done by artist Al Wiseman and writer Fred Toole. The strip initially appeared in only 16 newspapers, but by 1953 that had grown to 193 in the United States and 52 internationally and seen by over 30 million readers.

The Mitchells: Dennis, Alice and Henry.

Dennis lived in a middle-class suburb of Wichita, Kansas (which earned Ketcham the title of honorary Mayor of Wichita) with his father, aeronautical engineer Henry, stay-at-home mother, Alice, and dog, Ruff. Ketcham used his family’s names in the strip, giving them the surname Mitchell, and modeled the parents on his wife and himself. Dennis was full of youthful energy and enthusiasm and had a good heart—it’s just that he tended to cause more trouble than he realized with his antics. The frequent victim these antics was their next-door neighbor, cranky and cantankerous retired mail carrier George Wilson, whom he considered his adult best friend. George was driven crazy by Dennis often, although he was secretly fond of the boy. His wife, Martha, was more openly fond of Dennis and was often oblivious to the suffering her husband sometime endured.

Mock-up of a strip featuring Dennis and Mr. Wilson.

Dennis had friends his own age as well. Tommy Anderson was his best friend until he stopped appearing in the strip. Joey McDonald was Dennis’ timid, loyal, younger friend who was often an accomplice in Dennis’ schemes. Margaret Wade was a glasses-wearing redhead who had a self-important demeanor and was certain she would marry Dennis when they were old enough; much to Dennis’ chagrin. Gina Gillotti was a fiercely independent tomboy with whom Dennis is unaware he had a crush on; he just knew he enjoyed her company more than Margaret’s. Jackson was Ketcham’s attempt at introducing a Black character to the cast in the 1960s; however, because his design verged on racial caricature, the character was not received well and resulted in protests in several cities before he eventually disappeared from the strip.

Dennis delivering a burn to Margaret.

Because the strip was inspired by Dennis Ketcham, it remained largely grounded and focused on slightly embellished slice of life stories. The only real deviation was during the country’s bicentennial where the Dennis characters were depicted as living in New England in the days leading up to the American Revolution. Ketcham eventually retired from the strip in 1994, with his former assistants Marcus Hamilton and Ron Ferdinand taking over its production. They were eventually joined by Scott Ketcham, his son by his third wife. Ketcham, while exploring other creative endeavors like painting, remained a consultant on the strip until his death in 2001.

Dennis imparting his wisdom on girls to Tommy.

The strip won Ketcham a Reuben Award in 1953. That year, Dennis made the transition into supplemental original comic books and collections published by Standard Comics/Pines Comics, Halden-Fawcett, CBS Consumer Publishing and Marvel Comics through the 1980s. A special Bible-focused comic series was commissioned by World Books Inc. (now HarperCollins) in 1977. Ketcham and sculptor Arch Garner designed The Dennis the Menace Playground that opened in 1956 in El Estero Park in Monterey, California. In 1958, Ketcham established Dennis Play Products, Inc. to distribute toys based on the strip. Dennis was used in advertising campaigns for A&W Restaurants in the 1960s, and then for Dairy Queen from 1971-2001. But, most notably, Dennis made the transition to television and later film beginning in 1959 that would lead him to Saturday mornings…

JAY NORTH DEAD AT 73

 

You can read the full story here.

Best known as the original Dennis the Menace, he voiced Prince Turhan in the Arabian Knights segment of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour; Terry Dexter in Here Comes the Grump; and teenaged Bamm-Bamm Rubble in The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show and The Flintstone Comedy Hour (1972).