The Crystal Maze | A PTV 90s British Game Show Retrospective

The Crystal Maze was a British game show aired in PTV Channel 4 in the Philippines back in the 90s usually at around the evening 6-7 PM slot. The Crystal Mazewas produced by Chatsworth Television and shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom between 15 February 1990 and 10 August 1995. There was one series per year, with the first four series was hosted by Richard O'Brien and the final two by Ed Tudor-Pole. Let's go down memory lane and reminisce the phenomenal game show that was The Crystal Maze.


The Crystal Maze - The Show
About The Crystal Maze

The objective of The Crystal Maze was to gather as many time crystals (golf ball-sized Swarovski glass crystals) as possible by playing different games in each zone. The multi-million game show set was divided into four zones set in different periods of time and space mainly the Aztec Zone (ancient village amidst ruins), Futuristic Zone (a space station environment), Medieval Zone (a castle set where the host purportedly lived), and Industrial Zone (a present day chemical plant) which was later replaced by the Ocean Zone (a sunken ship, the S.S. Atlantis) on later seasons. Before the team start with a game in each zone, the team captain will be first act on which contestant (team member) will be doing the challenge and which type of challenge the game would be chose (Skill, Physical, Mental, and Mystery). Contestant can be "locked in" if they fail to accomplish the challenged within the set time or have comiited a certain number of fouls (game mechanics violation). Winning each game secured a crystal worth five seconds of time for the team which will be used when they reach the final stage, inside the Crystal Dome. Inside the Crystal Dome, they had to collect as many gold tokens as possible in order to win a prize.

The Crystal Maze Opening Theme
The Crystal Maze Series Intro



Youtubers have uploaded a few episodes online for your reminiscing.
Check out the very first episode of The Crystal Maze Season 1 here:





Have you seen the episode I shared above? Better check it before it gets taken down like it always happen on Youtube (due to Copyright concerns). You can clearly see why was this show that popular. We could say that it was ahead of its time. Little known fact, did you know that The Crystal MAze game show set cost £250,000 to build and was the size of two football pitches? Going back as I said The Crystal Maze was ahead of its time. One testament is the intelligently designed challenges are; which are somehow borrowed and emulated in more contemporary reality shows (e.g. Survivor, Wipe Out, etc.). It was definitely a blast to watch as a 90s kid. We have yet to appreciate the scope (in terms of budget) of this show back then, but looking at it now, I have much more admiration for it now than ever. This is the first game show that I recall popularizing locking in (to a young kid, imprisoning) a contestant for failure to complete a puzzle challenge. The Crystal Maze will be forever be one of the more better quality game show from the past. Now if they can only remade it for the newer generation of game show audience.


How about you guys? Do you still remember the phenomenal The Crystal Maze? what is your fondest and most memorable experience with the 90s game show? Any favorite moment or episode? Share your thoughts and opinion about The Crystal Maze in the comments section below: