Best Children's Games Shows from the 80s and 90s

This show was really the leader of children's game shows. Kids had to answer questions and if they didn't know the answer they could opt for the physical challenge, which almost always ended in them being covered by some sort of green slimy gunk. The best part of the show though was when the kids got to go through the obstacle course, which was one gross challenge after another. My favorite obstacles was a large nose that you had to slide through and then search for the prize flag in a pool of slime below. I recently watched an episode again for the first time in years, and I was shocked at how little money the children won. I think today's kids would need to be paid off with much more expensive toys in order to endure this type of yuck factor. The crowning moment of each episode was the obstacle course, when kids would slide through mountains of whipped cream and pick a giant nose in the quest of prize flags. I once made my parents drive to a mall an hour away just so I could go through a replica of The Wringer.

You have the Newlywed Game, but sadly that can't be adapted for children. Oh wait, yes it can! This game was a similar set up, except the teams were of siblings who were then tested on their knowledge of their brother or sister. The best part of all these games was always some sort of challenge or obstacle course at the end. In I'm telling there was a large obstacle course of toys, and one sibling had to run through and guess which toys the other sibling had chosen as their favorite. If they got enough right, they won ALL THE TOYS. Pretty awesome really.

This show was an obvious rip-off of Double Dare, with the same sorts of messy gross-out challenges. However, they made the brilliant addition of go-karts that each team would ride around in, collecting tokens and gaining more points. Go-Kart plus Double Dare equals instant success.

Based on the popular computer game, this show was a sort of live-action chase around the world, trying to locate Carmen Sandiego by solving geography based clues. The show introduced us to the musical stylings of Rockapella.

This show was pretty much a miniature version of American Gladiators. Because when you steroid-enhanced gladiators battling against bankers and administrators, the first thing you think of is that there needs to be a kids version of this.

This was definitely the cheesiest of the children's game shows, featuring a talking Easter Island-esque statue named Olmec. The best part of the show was the temple itself, where one of the challenges was always putting together a three-piece silver monkey. Who doesn't like assembling monkeys?

Children's version of the ever popular challenge show from the 1990s, Gladiators. It was filmed at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham but surprisingly made by LWT (London Weekend Television) So some of the employees from the South Bank based building (now ITV) travelled to Birmingham to film some of the scenes and edited them back in the London Studios.

Anglia Television partly made this programme.