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''Finders Keepers'' was a Children 's Game Show that aired on the Nickelodeon network in America from November 2 , 1987 to June 30 , 1990 . The show featured two teams of two youngsters who participated in four rounds of game-play (divided into two sections) followed by a final bonus round for the winning team. The theme song for both series was composed by popular game show composer Edd Kalehoff . Reruns of the series have aired on Nickelodeon Games And Sports For Kids since 1999 . There was also another children's TV show called ''Finders Keepers'' '''AKA "Finders"''' about the surreal adventures of a young boy. STUDIOS The Nickelodeon run of Finders Keepers was taped at WHYY-TV in Philadelphia, PA . For the syndicated run, the show moved to Hollywood Center Studios (better known as the studios of local station KTLA ) in Los Angeles, California . HOSTS
ANNOUNCERS
THE 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 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 circled 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, 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. The Finders Keepers 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, 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. 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 (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. 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 , gift certificates to either Kay-Bee Toys (Toffler) or Toys "R" Us (Eure) , or a video game system. On the Eure version, the audience would always yell out what rooms were being trashed in the Romp. Toffler's version didn't do this all the time (as sometimes time would run short), but when it was done, the yelling out would be accompanied by a fanfare for each room. INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS In the United Kingdom the show aired on CITV , following the same format for most of its run. It was produced by Scottish Television and was presented by Neil Buchanan of Art Attack fame from 1991 to 1998 . In 2005 it was announced that the show would soon return with ex- Big Brother contestant Jade Goody's ex boyfriend 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 British law children are not allowed to win money, but instead prizes are won in the final round (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 tar 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. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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