The end of this year marks the 30th anniversary of ABC debuting The Moneymaze, the New York-based, Dick Cavett-backed gameshow hosted by Nick Clooney, along with announcer Alan Kalter.
While we know where both Nick and Alan eventually ended up in the years since that 26-week run of the 'maze, I kind of wondered how it would work today.
My inspiration came in a Fear Factor segment from a couple of years ago [it could pop up in reruns on FX or check your local listings], where contestants went through a maze in the fastest time, pushing buttons to raise "flags", and fending off guard dogs in the process [fortunately, the contestants wore protective clothing].
Eschewing the guard dogs part, if Moneymaze were to be remade today, I think it could be as an hour-long reality-game where 5 two-person teams [married couples, relatives or friends] compete.
First, you drop the question part from the old version. The rest works like this:
One player guides the partner through the maze to push 5 tower buttons [as in the old version, you have to "hit the side of the tower that is lit up and flashing"] in the fastest time. The winners get to play for $100,000 by lighting up all 11 towers [or $1000 for each lit tower] plus the finish-line button in 100 seconds. [If you don't hit the finish-line button, you win nothing.] In an added twist, if a certain tower is lit, it stops the clock for a :20 "free run", meaning a maximum 120 seconds [2:00].
To give it that reality feel, there would be lots of pre-recorded comments from the contestants, as on Fear Factor.
Just a thought.
