Pump it Up

(=Broadcast=)
(=Broadcast=)

Revision as of 13:16, 8 June 2005

Contents

Host

Andy Collins and Julia Bradbury (Fearne Cotton in series 2)

Broadcast

Carlton for ITV, 1999 to 2000

Synopsis

YEAH! MAD! CRAZY! EWHGEGHE! ZAMMO! Yep, it's the unmistakable sound of kids telly on Friday afternoons. So, it looks like Fun House is dead, we need a new show that will fill the gunge gap. That show, it would appear, is going to be Pump it Up - whether you like it or not.

Two teams battle through four rounds of inflatable fun (it says here) and then attempt to brave the final obstacle course in order to win... something. Each team has four members in it and each show plays four games out of a large pool of several and there is the final Obstacle course which happens at the end of each show.

Games are called things like Dodgy Geezer (Geyser?) where players must make it over the inflatable hills (with water spurting up from the top of each hill - hence the geyser) grab a bit of capstan, bring it back to the start. When all four people have done it, they can construct the capstan and use it to open a valve which will inflate the big Dodgy Geyser bloke.

And then there's that game where the players roll and run about inside a giant inflatable sausage thing. Easy to run forward, difficult to turn. Harsh.

Original line-up of Andy Collins and Julia Bradbury

Anyway, most of these games involve giant inflatables (hence the title of the show). However, despite being a game show they don't score conventionally - oh no - that's because... "Scoring is boring!" a clever little catchphrase and shockingly witty for a Friday afternoon. Instead, by winning a round the team can turn off one of the 'gunge zones' on the final obstacle course. A useful advantage, or at least it would be if it seemed to do anything significant.

The final obstacle course is an obstacle course by numbers with added gunge. Climb up netting, go through holes, cross bridge, don't fall in the gunge blah blah yaddah yaddah. However, the Gunge zones now come into play for one hill. The hill is split into four sections - flat, uphill, downhill, flat - and each section represents one gunge zone. If the players haven't turned off a gunge zone then when they enter the area they get dumped on. This apparently makes things a bit more difficult but you'd be hard pushed to notice truth be told. It's meant to make things a bit more slippery at any rate, and people completely covered are going to find climbing up the giant inflatable hill end obstacle (not seen since, ooh, Run the Risk?) that little bit more challenging. And the team are the first with all the members up the top. Hurrah!

OK, so it's a bit unoriginal and predictable but it does make up for this in terms of set and production values. The studio is huge, lots of industrial looking lights, dance style game music and a computerised voice counting down from five to zero (with subliminal graphic effect!) for each game.

And the hosts aren't too bad either, even if Andy Collins has become more annoying since hosting Games World.

Inventor

Devised by the Chatterbox Partnership.

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