Can Nickelodeon Replicate The Curious Charms of ‘The Crystal Maze’?

Try and describe the concept of The Crystal Maze‘s first incarnation to a newcomer and it sounds like the by-product of a particularly outlandish cheese dream. There’s the team of random strangers in ill-fitting tracksuits navigating a four-part labyrinth that spans four historic periods. There’s the array of bizarre games which involve answering riddles posed by an adulterous clairvoyant named Mumsie and maneuvering yourself inside a space robot. Oh, and it’s all presided over by an eccentric star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show prone to whipping out a harmonica at any opportune moment.

Yet in the early 1990s, this curious set-up regularly attracted four million viewers across the UK, picking up four nominations at the TV BAFTAs in the process. And despite being taken off air after just five years, its reputation as a cult classic over the next two decades only continued to grow.

It’s why there was a mixture of excitement and slight trepidation when original home Channel 4 revived the concept in 2017 for a brand-new full series. But long-time fans needn’t have worried. Richard Ayoade, aka bushy-haired nerd Maurice Moss from The I.T. Crowd, fitted neatly into the shoes of Maze Master predecessors Richard O’Brien and Ed Tudor-Pole. And the easy-on-paper/perplexing-under-pressure games could still leave audiences shouting at their screens in frustration.

A full 30 years on from its British debut and The Crystal Maze will finally make its way across the pond this week (January 24) on a network no stranger to slightly mystifying adventure-based puzzle games. Children of the 1990s will certainly remember Nickelodeon’s Legends of the Hidden Temple, a Raiders of the Lost Ark-inspired mix of trivia and trials that was fun to watch but apparently emotionally traumatic to make.

Best known as the host of myth-debunking series Adam Ruins Everything, Adam Conover sure does. In fact, he was inspired to sign up as the first American Maze Master having grown up on Nickelodeon’s wild and wacky game show output. And judging by the first episode, the comedian’s natural charisma has helped this rather belated adaptation to retain much of the original’s peculiar charms.

On the surface, Conover has little in common with his current UK counterpart. Even with his trademark Afro and colorful sharp suits, there’s little that screams ‘pizazz’ about Ayoade, a man so uncomfortable with physical interactions that he guides teams to each challenge using a giant outstretched wooden hand.

Conover has no qualms about lifting a victorious mother-of-three to her feet when she’s piled on by her over-excitable family. And unsurprisingly, he’s also far more animated than Ayoade, who remains brilliantly deadpan from his gently-mocking team introductions to his parting words, “thank you for watching… if indeed, you still are.”

However, Conover still balances his more obvious enthusiasm with the kind of eccentricity that has made The Crystal Maze such a game show outlier. He undoubtedly looks the part, sporting a dazzling mint green suit in which suggests the Maze Masters all share the same tailor.

And he’s just as capable of delivering a witty aside to camera whenever the action in the escape room-style challenge starts to lag (“I thought my house was shrinking once… turns out I’d just put some weight on,” he quips while a contestant frantically unlocks themselves out of a narrowing jail cell).

Conover isn’t averse to the odd prop, either, riding a vintage exercise bike while a hapless kid finds himself firing from a cannon for the first, and presumably last, time in his life. Random yes, but these offbeat non sequiturs are all part of The Crystal Maze folklore.

While Conover undoubtedly brings something new to the table, the Aztec, Industrial, Futuristic and Eastern Zone sets are exact replicas. The challenges themselves are tried-and-tested favorites, too, which can sometimes result in impressive feats of physical and mental agility and at others abject humiliation. This poor British gamer is no doubt still haunted by his hilariously hopeless attempt to swing across numerous interplanetary pogo balls.

Thankfully for the first Nickelodeon participants, the Blairs, there’s no such epic fails in the season premiere, although the “fun-sized father” probably shouldn’t put dodging swinging boulders while simultaneously balancing on a log on his resume any time soon.

The only other notable differences are that families, rather than co-workers, friends and random variations, join forces to gain as much gold token-grabbing Crystal Dome time as possible. Under-16s are also now permitted to test their wits, with the youngest member of the team automatically appointed captain.

Unlike the British version’s famously “middling prize,” (a trip to an indoor target sports center is the best it gets), Nickelodeon offers cold hard cash (up to $25,000, in fact). Although this ups the stakes considerably for those involved, it undoubtedly robs the show of its “taking part that counts” spirit. “You’re also taking home a commemorative crystal, but c’mon, the cash is better, right?” Conover asks the Blairs after their reward is revealed. That may be true, but spelling it out also slightly cheapens the experience a little.

It’s the only change likely to bother the purists on a transatlantic transfer which should appeal to the current Nick audience and those old enough to remember its ’90s game show heyday. Turns out that Adam doesn’t ruin everything after all.

The Crystal Maze premieres on Nickelodeon on Friday, January 24, but the network has already released the first episode in full on YouTube. You can watch it above.

Jon O’Brien (@jonobrien81) is a freelance entertainment and sports writer from the North West of England. His work has appeared in the likes of Esquire, Billboard, Paste, i-D, The Guardian, Vinyl Me Please and Allmusic.

Watch The Crystal Maze on Nick