When was crystal maze on tv

Filming began two months after construction had ended, in preparation for the release of the first series due in early The set was divided into four very specific zones originally Aztec , Industrial , Future , and Medieval : the Industrial zone was replaced by the Ocean zone from series four onwards , as well as the Crystal Dome itself, a giant geometric glass representation of a crystal at the centre of the maze.

It was here that the teams played their final challenge in an attempt to win the prizes that they had set out to obtain.

Each episode followed a team always consisting of three men and three women around the interior of the Crystal Maze, starting from a "random" pre-determined zone and then working their way anti-clockwise through the other three zones. The team played a number of games in each zone, usually three or four but on rare occasions only two, in an attempt to win as many game crystals as possible. Each game successfully completed would provide the team with a crystal often called 'time crystals' and provided the team with five extra seconds in the Crystal Dome.

As soon as the door was closed and locked, the timer was started. Several games were derived from familiar commercially available children's or fairground games, including steady hand testers and sliding puzzles. Game designs tended to become more elaborate in later series.

As a result, Richard O'Brien often encouraged teams to keep transitions as quick as possible with comments such as "It's your time".

For series 5 and 6 the number of games per episode was reduced to a standardised A major hazard for contestants on the show is the risk of being locked in a game room. There were two ways a contestant could be locked in:. Any contestants locked in were unable to take any further part in proceedings until the team captain chose to buy the contestant's freedom at the cost of a previously earned crystal. Buying out a contestant could be done at any time by leaving the crystal in the game room in exchange for their team-mate.

A small number of games on the show 'broke the mould' of what viewers would have come to consider the 'normal' features of a game:. After competing in all four zones the contestants, excluding any still locked in, are led to the Crystal Dome, a Template:Convert giant replica of one of the show's time crystals, surrounded by a seven-foot circular moat. One of the Dome's triangular panels acted as a door, pneumatically opened and closed to let the team enter and then to shut them inside.

After sending the team inside and closing the door behind them, the host would call for the fans to be switched on. Six fans were situated beneath the wire mesh floor of the Dome and blow around gold and silver tokens made of foil. Once the fans were up to speed with all the tokens swirling around the host blew a whistle to start the clock. The team's aim was to grab the flying gold tokens and post them into a plastic container mounted at waist height on the outside of one of the dome's panels.

The team have to collect at least gold tokens in the Crystal Dome to win, but each silver token collected cancels out a gold token. In the first series, a final balance of 50—99 gold tokens entitled team members to a runner-up prize, but this was dropped in later series.

In the case of the Christmas specials, featuring a team of children, they were awarded the prize regardless of their performance in the Dome.

Prizes originally consisted of individual adventure days out, but from series four onwards, the contestants would choose a single prize shared by the whole team.

Richard O'Brien frequently mocked the prizes on the show in his introduction to each show, referring to them variously as "inconsequential" or "underwhelming". All players who participate win a commemorative crystal saying "I Cracked the Crystal Maze".

The host guides the team between the zones and game rooms, he acts as timekeeper for every game and for the Crystal Dome. The host also provides specific assistance to the team during a game, usually after a team member has spent some time failing to understand an element or persistently makes a mistake.

During each game, the teammates crowd closely around the game room windows or viewing monitors, This allowed the host to wander a short distance away from the team and deliver a monologue to a camera. This allowed the host to be more disparaging about a contestant's attempt at a game 'privately' to camera.

Props were occasionally left around the maze which the host could talk about or use, and fictional 'side stories' relating to the maze's zones and its other 'inhabitants' were developed. According to the production team, the asides originated when O'Brien began joking with the cameramen; when the production team reviewed the footage and realised what it could bring to the show they "asked him to do it all the time".

O'Brien felt that looking straight at the camera, "unknowingly added a complicity between me and the audience at home". Richard O'Brien brought a very individual and distinctive style. This started with his physical appearance: [22] he always wore a long fur coat leopardskin in series 1 and 2; black and white in series 3 and 4 , paired with a brightly coloured shirt, skinny fit trousers and long, sleek leather boots. O'Brien was always broadly welcoming and encouraging to teams, and congratulatory on their successes.

As a guide around the maze he displayed what has been described as an "infectious From series 2 onwards, he encouraged contestants to use every second of their time effectively, often giving harsh-sounding rebukes to any contestant he perceived to be dawdling or hesitating, or to any watching teammate who shouted that there was lots of time left. On occasion he would show visible frustration with a contestant for a particularly sub-standard attempt at a game.

However, O'Brien also "often appeared detached from proceedings, bordering on deadpan". He hammed it up marvelously and introduced a certain amount of campness into the show.

Once or twice in many shows O'Brien would produce a harmonica from his pocket during a game, he only ever played one short and repetitive tune which he called "excitement music".

The worst ever score is no time crystals at all the team won more than one game, but had a large number of lock-ins and forfeited one crystal for every person they had to get out. This was achieved by The Hauxwell Family during the revived series on the 15 April They were still allowed to enter the dome and Richard Ayoade blew two whistles simultaneously.

Unsurprisingly they scored no tokens at all. They were also the first recorded team to have the same member, Shelley, get locked in twice; the first broadcast team member was Adil Ray in a celebrity edition. The second worst score is one crystal; this happened twice, once in Series 4 and once in Series 5 of the original series.

The best ever score is ten crystals which, to our knowledge, was scored twice - one team got , while the other still didn't manage to get over ! The latter event happened in series 1, so at least they got the minor prizes. In the christmas special, Richard claimed that the record was eleven crystals won, which could be true since the excess might have been used to buy back lock-ins. The lowest ever score achieved inside the Crystal Dome was This actually happened twice during the show's run: once under Richard in Series 4, and again under Ed in Series 5.

In Series 6, Ed would sometimes start the fans in the dome by saying "Let the four winds blow! This is presumably a reference to Let the Four Winds Blow , which was the name of a song and album by Ed's punk rock band, Tenpole Tudor. He played the part of Riffraff, which coincidentally was originally played by Richard O'Brien!

It was a few years later that he was signed up to present The Crystal Maze. You can read the transcript and look at some pictures here. The producers didn't have any money to pay Richard O'Brien for hosting the pilot show, so instead he asked for some very nice sandwiches for lunch. At least twice, episodes were dedicated to contestants who had since died. In , one episode was dedicated to contestant David MacPherson who died in a motorcycle accident, he was better known as Mac in the show as two of his team mates were also called David.

They were called David, Dave and Mac respectively. In , the final episode showed a dedication to contestant Jim Alexander who had died. This was only shown once when it was on Channel 4. Channel 4 very cheekily tried to pass off the last three episodes from the first series of the revival as a "new series" on E4 from November , just before the second half of series 3 on Channel 4. They might very well have got away with it, had Richard Ayoade not begun one show by saying "I'm nearly 40" despite being 43 at the time of broadcast.

The Crystal Maze Puzzle Book. The Crystal Maze - book your game here. Chatsworth TV's site from , via archive. Marc Gerrish's site with descriptions of all the games and masses of statistics. Crystal Maze fan site - superb site by a German student that contains details of every game and show!

Via archive. Crystal Maze Database covers the s revival. There are also two outtakes compilations , featuring commentary and some strong language from the director's box.

Weaver's Week went round the London reconstruction in , and reviewed the Channel 4 series in The Crystal Maze. Computer graphic of the maze. In later series, Industrial Zone was replaced with Ocean Zone. Make a magic square - a puzzle from Medieval zone. Richard O'Brien with the geodesic Crystal Dome in the background. The fortune teller. Contestant Emma tries to made a valid sum during a Christmas Special programme.

Richard O'Brien sporting this season's must-have fashions. Ed Tudor-Pole, host of series 5 and 6. Stephen Merchant took the reins in Series 6 Episode 4: Celebrity Crystal Maze. Series 6 Episode 3: Celebrity Crystal Maze. Series 6 Episode 2: Celebrity Crystal Maze. Series 6 Episode 1: Celebrity Crystal Maze. No time for ads? Find out more Stream shows without ads. Find out more.