I'm going to go find an episode of Finders Keepers to watch. When I was a kid, I liked that show, and I've wondered why Nickelodeon never includes it in its retro game show packages. Maybe the game isn't as compelling as young Scott thought it was at the time?
I think there are a few things about Finders Keepers that makes the show less engaging to watch as an adult 30 years later.
First off, Wesley comes off as
very raw and nervous in the first flight of episodes, but honestly the show doesn't do him any favors. The entire half-hour is wall-to-wall gameplay (no pun intended) with almost no opportunity to let anyone breathe. Wesley is hurrying through everything he says, partially because he's nervous, but also because I can imagine a stage manager standing right next to Camera 1 frantically making the "MOVE IT ALONG" gesture. He settles down a lot after the first 13 weeks, but it doesn't really solve the problem that 30 minutes with one commercial break is
barely enough time to contain this game. Compare to Double Dare, where it didn't take long for Harvey, Dave and Robin to become de facto cast members that gave the show a bit of character.
Second, a lot of games were boat races. Because of how the scoring works, once a team breaches the $500 mark they've locked the game up. And there were a whole lot of episodes Adam & I saw where one team dominated the Hidden Pictures rounds to the point where one team is searching six or seven of the 8 rooms and the other team has to hope that they back into a victory. Maybe one out of the 20 or so episodes we've watched came down to the last room.
And third, it's just not as fun to watch kids trash a room as it is to watch them try to catch an egg between a pair of cymbals blindfolded.
