TV classics - The Crystal Maze

IN A new feature, it is time to take a dip back into looking through the classics of yesteryear on television.  It begins with the fantastic gameshow concept Channel 4 came up with in 1990, The Crystal Maze.

    Beginning in February 1990, the show lasted five years, with six series and a selection of kids Christmas specials also aired.  The show was made by Chatsworth Television and it became a huge hit almost overnight, attracting a regular weekly audience of 6million viewers.  The Crystal Maze came at a time when Channel 4 needed to attract a viewing figure which would frighten the main terrestrial heavyweights, BBC and ITV.  The star of Rocky Horror show Richard O’Brien was persuaded to host the show, which at the time, was the biggest arena around for any kind of gameshow.  Filmed at The Shepperton Studios, the maze itself cost £250,000 to construct and is the size of two football pitches.

     The set was constructed into four different zones, offering the team players a variety of challenges and obstacles to negotiate their way to the ultimate prize for winning a game, a precious, shiny, silver crystal.  The ‘Aztec’ zone was often referred to as the most popular zone with the fans.  Aztec was based on a small, parasitic village that had the feel of Egypt to it!  Futuristic was seen as the zone which offered the ‘modern’ world which we live in today.  Clearly, the producers ideas of what the world would look like in 2011, back in 1990 were completely different!  Nevertheless, it gave everyone, including the competitors a feel of future land.  The Medieval zone is set in a castle area, and is where ‘Mumsie,’ played by Sandra Caron was based.  Often, O’Brien would pay a visit, even if a game featuring her would not take place in the episode.  The least popular zone was Industrial, which was set around a chemical factory.  Being scientific was the name of the game, but this zone was dropped for the more popular and demanding Ocean zone in 1993.  Of course, at the centre of the maze was The Crystal Dome, where after the physical, mental and skilful challenges of the four zones before them, the climax would take place.  The Dome was where the teams of six would compete to find out if they won or lost the ultimate game.

DOME: Another team take on the maze, guided by Richard O'Brien

    The teams would be led by a captain, with a vice-captain taking over should the captain get locked in.  A time limit to complete each game was set by Richard O’Brien and it would be within the limit that the challenger would compete in either a skill, mental, physical or mystery game to earn a crystal.  If a crystal was won, five seconds would be gained in The Crystal Dome and the more time in the Dome would give a better chance of overall success.  If time ran out and the challenger failed to get out of the game in time, they would be locked in and it would up to the rest of the team to decide whether to buy the individual out, or keep them stewing to reflect over the grave mistake they’d made.  If they went ahead with the buying option, a crystal would have to be sacrificed.  Teams who went around The Crystal Maze had varying degrees of success.  In 1992, one team was so bad, they only won one crystal and consequently, five seconds of time in The Crystal Maze.  Even O’Brien gave them little hope when he let the contestants into the Dome; “I would wish you good luck, but I’m not going to bother, because it’s a waste of time.”  Unsurprisingly, the hapless team lost!  In the Dome itself, the team had to collect as many gold credits as they could, and avoid collecting silver credits.  Every silver slip that went through the letterbox would deduct a gold token off the team’s final tally.  Should the team earn a final total of 100 gold tokens, after deductions, all the members of the team would win a mediocre prize.  Even if a team lost, they would still go home with a crystal engraved; ‘I cracked the Crystal Maze!’

    In 1993, Richard O’Brien left the show just before the Christmas special.  It was a mysterious and confusing exit and was a body blow to the show’s popularity.  In an interview many years, O’Brien gave the reason for his decision to leave;

"The Crystal Maze was a road I walked down; I never imagined I'd go down that particular byway. I liked it but even at the time I thought - I never saw myself doing this kind of work. So I did it for four years and thought I better get out while I am ahead, while I am remembered fondly."

    Ed Tudor-Pole was his replacement, but he never lived up to expectations.  Tudor-Pole was dismal and struggled to fill O’Brien shoes.  As with most shows, changes were made to rules, as were the costumes and by the time of August 1995, The Crystal Maze had become a pale shadow of its former glory.  Once Chatsworth Television’s contract with Channel 4 expired, The Crystal Maze was consigned to the history books on 10 August 1995.

     Despite its unfortunate demise in the 90s, there are some dedicated fans (including myself) that are campaigning for an eventual return.  ITV has been rumoured in the past to be bringing the show back, especially in 2009, but these talks ended up reaching a dead end.  The Crystal Maze’s popularity remains very strong though.  Challenge, now on Freeview shows classic episodes every weeknight at 6pm and in two polls conducted by online site UKGameshows.com, The Crystal Maze came out on top as ‘The Greatest Gameshow of All Time’ in 2006 and 2010. 

     The Crystal Maze is considered to be ‘a highly ambitious high-risk show which paid off handsomely.’  I’d certainly agree with that.  It might have fallen from grace, but its popular cult following, even today, means it will always have a strong legacy.

More Woe For Toyota

TOYOTA’S worldwide reputation, already having been completely battered in 2010, took another significant smashing on Wednesday.  The company announced the recall of over 1.5million cars worldwide to fix a brake fluid leak which was seriously harming the braking capabilities of some of its models.

Most of the cars affected are believed to have been in Japan and the US and the move is also said to be a precautionary one.  The Japanese company has confirmed that GS300 models built between September 2004 and February 2006 were the affected models.  It is thought that around 2,000 Lexus models, built underneath the Toyota name have also been recalled from the UK.  IS and RX models built between February 2003 and November 2005 could also have a smaller braking issue, caused by the brake master cylinder. 

Like BMW at the start of the month, Toyota has said that it is working closely with the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency to contact owners to tell them how to get their cars repaired.  No accidents have been reported by the glitches so far.  It is positive news that action is being taken instantly, but for how long Toyota can continue with these problems is another matter.

Fallen Car Giant Recalls More Models Over Engine Concerns

Despite a recent upturn in fortunes, Japanese fallen car giant Toyota is facing more pressing concerns from customers in the United States, after over 1 million Toyota Corolla models were recalled, amid fears of engine issues.

Although this latest recall is not thought to affect those, who own the Corolla from the UK, it will drive fear into many Toyota drivers, following the plague of issues they suffered in February this year, which battered their reputation significantly.  Reports in the US suggest that there have been at least three accidents with the Corolla, due to the engine fault detected.  However, these have not been confirmed by the under-pressure Japanese company.

The models affected are thought to have built before 2008.  The latest batch of recalls take Toyota above the 11 million mark for this year, which is absolutely staggering figure for a company that previously was well trusted for its safety and security of its established model.  The recalls have been previously prompted through braking fluid issues and sticky accelerators that were leading to shocking stories of accidents and more tragically, deaths.  Some will argue that the quick recall could be seen as the company pressing into immediate action, but others will say that they shouldn’t be in the sorry mess that they have been engulfed with in 2010, so there is little sympathy towards Toyota’s plight.

Models made in Canada have also been recalled for safety issues, though it is widely believed that these models have been recalled on a precautionary basis.  Toyota has said that the engine fault can cause the engine to stop whilst the car was being driven, or for it to not fire-up properly on start-up.  For the earlier problems this year, Toyota was fined £10.6million pounds and despite a record increase in profits worldwide in the spring, these issues don’t seem to be going away.  Toyota are going to have to produce a lot of convincing with people to ensure their cars won’t cause any issues, and that is certainly not going to be an easy job.

Facebook Reaches The 500 Million Mark

On Wednesday, the king of the social networking battle, Facebook announced that it had reached the milestone of having 500million members on its site, just six years after it was set-up in a University room.  This means that nearly 10% of the worldwide population have Facebook available to them.  Last January, it still had only 150million members, so it has had a massive increase in the last eighteen months.  This is despite the rise to the fore of Twitter, though the almost complete dismantlement of Bebo and MySpace must have helped Facebook’s healthy figures.

The inventor of Facebook back in February 2004, Mark Zuckerburg believes that Facebook will have one billion users worldwide within the next five years.  Despite increasing concerns about the publication of personal information and complaints from some over the lack of privacy settings, Facebook’s popularity continues to soar.  The advanced competition continues to give Facebook many more challenges to overcome in the future.  Its delay in placing a child panic button on the site has received a lot of criticism, but that still seems not to be putting people off signing up for the fun features Facebook provides, such as Farmville, SuperPoke, Social Interview and Facebook Chat. 

Recent figures also have come out; suggest that Facebook is now getting more web visits on a daily basis, than the No.1 search provider, Google.  This could provide a major headache for advertisers looking to sell their products, now that Google is being outdone at its own game.  There is continued talk that Google are planning to break onto the social networking craze, though they refuse to comment on such frenzied speculation.    

Despite some who have their fears, Facebook continues to rule the networking area in the world and it is going to have to take something really special to knock it off its perch as top of the class.

6-Year Old Controls JFK Airport - Plane Stupid!

When news came through on Wednesday of a six-year old child taking control of one of the busiest airports in the United States, it sounded really stupid.  Not surprisingly, an air traffic controller at New York’s JFK airport, the 6^th busiest in the States has been suspended and rightly so.  It was just fortunate that nothing horrific happened; otherwise we would be hearing one of the world’s greatest cock-ups.

US officials have opened investigations into the incident on February 17^th, when most pupils in New York were on a half-term break from school.  More reports have come in that a seven-year old girl was allowed similar responsibility by the same individual to take control of the tower, only one week later.  The JFK airport handles over 1,000 flights a day and serves 48 million passengers, with normally top-notch quality.

Whether the pilots were annoyed or not, they didn’t sound it on the transcript.  In fact, they found the whole incident quite humorous. 

TRANSCRIPT OF THE INCIDENT

Child: JetBlue 171 cleared for takeoff.

Male pilot: Cleared for takeoff JetBlue 171.

Man: Here's what you get, guys, when the kids are out of school.

Male pilot: I wish I could bring my kids to work.

Child's voice: JetBlue 171 contact departure.

Male pilot: Over at departure JetBlue 171. Awesome job.

[New transmission]

Child: 403 clear for takeoff

Adult: 403 clear for takeoff. Thank you very much and have a great day.

Child: AirMex 403 contact departure. Adios.

Woman pilot: Contact departure Air Mexico 403. Adios.

Child: Contact departure. Adios amigos.

Man: Adios amigos. Over departure JetBlue 195.

Very quickly, a probe has been launched by the Federal Aviation Administration, who in a statement said: “Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling air traffic.  “This behaviour is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected from all FAA employees.”

To conclude, this incident is shocking to hear about and though maybe will see it as bone-starving hilarious, imagine if something bad had happened at JFK on February 17^th, no-one would have been laughing then.  This was a bad case of just ‘Plane Stupid.’

Fashion Industry: A Crippling Victim of the Recession

Last Friday saw the beginning of one of the biggest events on the fashion calendar, London Fashion Week.  However, the fashion industry is in dire straits, thanks to the recession, which has seen the collapse of many major fashion houses across the world.

Big names such as Escada and Luella Bartley have gone bust and the tragic death of Alexander McQueen only ten days ago has sparked a major cloud over such an established and glamorous event.  Fashion designer McQueen was found dead in his flat on Thursday 11^th February, with suicide the apparent cause of his untimely demise.  An inquest has already opened into his death, and liabilities of around £32million could well be found as a main cause for his suicide.  McQueen’s amazing fashion designs may have dazzled many for over a decade, but if his perilous financial state is eventually confirmed, then his legacy could sadly be tarnished by crippling debt.  For the short-term at least, he shall be remembered for the crazy designs which were worn by many, including Lady Gaga, who paid an emotional tribute to McQueen at last Tuesday’s BRIT awards.  Her emotion when collected her three awards showed how much she had been affected by the death.

Other fashion houses have already disappeared from the eyes of many in the public in the last 18 months, largely due to the recession.  People may think that MFI and Woolworths were the two biggest names to have been dissolved by the credit crunch, but those who are linked into the fashion industry would soundly disagree.  The French fashion house, Christian Lacroix is probably the biggest name to have gone bust.  It collapsed last year and although it was seen as a flamboyant and extravagant house, it never actually turned over a profit, reporting losses of between £5million & £10million before the start of the credit crunch.  Another name that disappeared and sadly missed is Hardy Amles.  Set-up way back in 1946 by Edwin Hardy Amles, his chain designed dresses for the dearly missed Diana, Princess of Wales and the strip for England’s 1966 World Cup football success.  However, in 2008 it went bust, and just twelve months later, so did Luella Bartley, which was the outlet often, in use by singer Lily Allen and Kate Moss.  Luella Bartley only started trading business at the turn of the millennium, but its longevity didn’t matter when its main investor withdrew financial backing, possibly aware of the problems the UK was about to suffer.  Bartley was highly recommended and was gaining a decent reputation in the British fashion industry, so her demise sent a ripple of shock and dismay through the whole industry.

London Fashion Week is bound to forget its troubles briefly for the coming days, as it will play hosts to outrageous designs and gorgeous models, but for how long is it going to remain glamorous and successful to the naked eye of the general public.  It is quite clear that the fashion industry has been severely dented by money trouble, just how long can it continue to be a driving success…it is unknown. 

Alexander McQueen, you will be missed by everyone, RIP.