Back in the early 90's there was a popular "contestant tv show" in Europe, where contestants tested their endurance over obstacles including tiger "pits" to win money and prizes called Les Cles de Fort Boyard. The fort is pictured above. It was shortened the second season to just Ft. Boyard. When Ft. Boyard are closed for renovation, the show moved to a different location, and the show became known as The Crystal Maze, with man made obstacles. It was syndicated in London, Sweden, Canada, Russia, Denmark, Belgium, Israel, and the Netherlands. It was created by Jacques Antoine. Is this picture below from that tv show?
Monday, November 10, 2008
This I am not sure of. Maybe our European readers can offer insight?
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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8 comments:
The picture below is from the show, but I would say the TV show came here in europe in the late 90`s or early 00`s.
Stefan
Stefan,
Yes it was syndicated in the late 90's. My brother Michael trained the tigers for this show when it was first filmed at Ft. Boyard and was with it for 3 years. He has some wild stories about having to crane the tiger cages over the top of the fort as they were too big to get in any of the existing doors.
I had never seen the modern set, but the bottom photo looked similar to the original set in the fort, which was why I asked. The girl worked with my brother, and later did a lion act on Soul Circus here in the states. Her first name was Monique.
Wade
The photo is on the Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Boyard_(TV_series) which also says Antoine created The Crystal Maze for UK TV, but that it was a games based show not an endurance-based contest. Crystal Maze wasn't actually a "remake" or name change of Ft Boyard, it just had the same creator. The forerunner of The Crystal Maze in the UK was The Adventure Game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_Game (1980 - 1986)
Les Cles de Fort Boyard sounds like a copy of the Japanese "Endurance" contestant show. On contest on Endurance involves contestants being pulled on a car mechanic's skate under a tiger cage with a lump of raw meat attached to their chest so the tigers could supposedly reach down through hatches and grab the meat. What the contestants didn't know was the paws clawing at the meat were fake.
I remember the show. It was kind of entertaining and on TV right after school ;-). The concept was kind of a mixture between fear factor and survivor. If I remember right the goal was to collect keys that would be used at the end to open a chest or something to release the treasure. While the contestants were trying to find the right key the tigers would come closer and closer through a cage/tunnel system.
Marco,
That is exactly as my brother has described it. I still have one of the "treasure" coin's that filled the chest that he sent me. He enjoyed working on that show very much, and he met his wife on the set. After he finished there he went to Thoriy Safari Park in France where he worked for a number of years managing about 40 lions, tigers, leopards, etc. He currently lives in France outside of Strausbourg.
Wade
Wade, just after I met Joe in 1992 he and a friend traveled to Europe. They went to Germany, Amsterdam, through Belgium, and on to Paris and Versilles, and then back to Germany to fly home. I believe that Strasbourg is ar rhe western edge of France, at the German border? Joe thinks that they may have trveled through there, and said that it is very beautiful.
Mary Ann
Mary Ann,
Beautiful country nothing!!! You should see the women. A mixture of Swiss, French, and German. You think you have died, and gone to "babe heaven." I was stranded there for 3 day's in the worst blizzard in a 100 year history. Kept myself busy by walking around looking for stranded ladies, in little bitty French car's to shovel out. A bit of "helping out American diplomacy."
Wade
I'm told by the locals I'm not involved in anyway that there is a vet on site all the time and that they are well looked after. They are not used in the current fort boyard ultimate version iv seen it's to do with animal right issues . Surely putting them back into a more natural environment would deal with that but who am I to know. But they app are looked after so I guess if they know no better that's all that matters.
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