History Series / FindersKeepers

''Finders Keepers'' was split into two rounds. In the first half of each round, players had to identify hidden pictures to earn points and the right to search one of eight rooms in the life-sized house built onstage. In the second half of the round, teams had 30 seconds to ransack the room in play to find a hidden object that matched a clue read by the host. Some of the rooms were normal, such as the living room and bathroom; others were "fantasy" rooms like the Toy Shop, Dracula's Den, and the Fairy Tale Room. The team in the lead after Round 2 won and went on a [[BonusRound Room-to-Room Romp]] through the house in hope of winning more prizes.

* FlokatiRug: Too many to list. The Franklin Word Wiz (a staple of ''[[DoubleDare1986 Double Dare]]'' and even ''RemoteControl''), a microwave that only popped popcorn, and ''one'' backpack were just a few.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Since the demise of Nick [=GaS=], the series is no longer being rerun. Moreover, [=GaS=] only showed about 10 episodes from the 1987 season with Harvey, although another 12-14 episodes from that period are known to be on the trading circuit.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Eure starred in ''DaysOfOurLives'' and ''LandOfTheLost'' several years prior. Toffler would later appear as a contestant on several game shows (''{{Debt}}'', ''Series/{{Greed}}'', and ''Series/RussianRoulette'', to name a few) — yes, '''after''' his stint as a host.
* HeyItsThatVoice: Harvey, announcer for the first Eure season, also announced ''Double Dare''.

The United Kingdom had their own version of the show a few years later, with several changes to the format.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Since the demise of Nick [=GaS=], the series is no longer being reran. Moreover, [=GaS=] only showed about 10 episodes from the 1987 season with Harvey, although another 12-14 episodes from that period are known to be on the trading circuit.

* NintendoHard: The Romp during the Eure era (the Closet in particular derailed many Romps due to the sheer number of hiding places). Inverted many times in the Toffler era, as most of the clue cards could be seen before the kids even entered the room.

Following the wild success of their first GameShow, ''[[DoubleDare1986 Double Dare]]'', {{Nickelodeon}} rolled out this show that fulfilled every kid's fantasy of tearing up his bedroom... and the kitchen... and the bathroom... and the sewer.

''Finders Keepers'' was split into two rounds. In the first half of each round, players had to identify hidden pictures to earn points and the right to search one of eight rooms in the life-sized house built onstage. In the second half of the round, teams had 30 seconds to ransack the room in play to find a hidden object that matched a clue read by the host. Some of the rooms were normal, such as the living room and bathroom; others were "fantasy" rooms like the Toy Shop, Dracula's Den and the Fairy Tale Room. The team in the lead after the second round won and went on a [[BonusRound Room-to-Room Romp]] through the house in hope of winning more prizes.

* FlokatiRug: Too many to list. The Franklin Word Wiz (a staple also of ''[[DoubleDare1986 Double Dare]]'' and even ''RemoteControl''), a microwave that only popped popcorn, and ''one'' backpack were just a few.

** TheAnnouncer: Harvey, Bob Lorman, Joe Conklin and finally Harry Stephens.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: The team that made it through the entire Romp in less than half the allotted time (of course, most of the clue cards were HiddenInPlainSight). And Toffler getting [[CoveredInGunge slimed]].
** Any Romp where the sixth clue card was found with 1 second or less remaining.

* [=~Hey, It's That Guy!~=]: Eure starred in ''DaysOfOurLives'' and ''LandOfTheLost'' several years prior. Toffler would later appear as a contestant on several game shows (''{{Debt}}'', ''Series/{{Greed}}'', and ''Series/RussianRoulette'', to name a few) — yes, '''after''' his stint as a host.
* [=~Hey, It's That Voice!~=]: Harvey, announcer for the first Eure season, also announced ''Double Dare''.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Since the demise of Nick [=GaS=], the series is no longer being re-run. Moreover, [=GaS=] only aired about 10 episodes from the 1987 season with Harvey; another 12-14 episodes from the '87 season are known to be on the trading circuit.
* LargeHam: Harry Stephens, announcer during the Toffler era, really leaned into each word during his opening spiel. "Iiiif YOU can find the LOBSTER hidden in this picture!!..."
** ...And then fell flat halfway through the most important parts of the spiel: "[=FINDERrrrrrrrs=] keepers" and "[=LARRyyyyyyyy=] toffler".
* NightmareFuel: The Dungeon, Dracula's Den, and the Torture Tower.
** For the contestants as well; several teams were noticeably more hesitant when searching the Dungeon than when searching other rooms, which had unfortunate results when it was the Instant Prize Room in one episode.

* ReplacementScrappy: Larry for Wesley, although it is arguable which one was actually the better host.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: With Toffler came an overhaul of the Hidden Pictures round, an increase in difficulty of the room searches, and a decrease in difficulty of the Romp. Of course, YourMileageMayVary.

* WhatAnIdiot: Perhaps a rather harsh judgment when the contestants are nervous, excitable middle school age kids, but there were numerous episodes where the contestants missed objects or clue cards in plain sight (in some cases despite actually ''touching them several times'') or did not search the most obvious hiding place during the Romp.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Since the demise of Nick [=GaS=], the series is no longer being re-run, [=GaS=] only aired about 10 episodes from the 1987 season with Harvey. Another 12-14 episodes from the '87 season are known to be on the trading circuit.

** ...And then fell flat halfway through the most important parts of the spiel: "FINDERrrrrrrrs keepers" and "LARRyyyyyyyy toffler"

* [=~Hey, It's That Guy!~=]: Eure starred in ''DaysOfOurLives'' and ''LandOfTheLost'' several years prior. Toffler would later appear as a contestant on several game shows (''{{Debt}}'', ''Series/{{Greed}}'', and ''RussianRoulette'', to name a few) — yes, '''after''' his stint as a host.

* [=~Hey, It's That Guy!~=]: Eure starred in ''DaysOfOurLives'' and ''LandOfTheLost'' several years prior. Toffler would later appear as a contestant on several game shows (''Debt'', ''Series/{{Greed}}'', and ''RussianRoulette'', to name a few) — yes, '''after''' his stint as a host.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In one Toffler episode, the announcer described one of the rooms as the "bitchin' kitchen".

* CurbStompBattle: Several Toffler episodes in particular, one of which had a final score of 975-25 (out of a possible 1,000).

* BonusRound: The Room-to-Room Romp.
* BonusSpace: One of the four rooms in the second round was dubbed the Instant Prize room; finding the hidden object here resulted in that team winning a prize that was often bigger than the grand prize in the Romp.
* ConsolationPrize
* FlokatiRug: Too many to list. The Franklin Word Wiz (a staple also of ''[[DoubleDare1986 Double Dare]]'' and even ''RemoteControl''), a microwave that only popped popcorn, and ''one'' backpack were just a few.
* GoldenSnitch: Arguably, the entire scoring system. Each time a team failed to find the object in the room search round, the dollar value for that attempt was awarded to the opposing team; as such, teams that were perfect at the Hidden Pictures round but always failed when searching rooms would hand their opponents the win without their doing a damn thing.
* HomeGame: A [[BoardGames board game]] was produced, complete with a Hidden Pictures book and eight cardboard boxes as the "rooms".
* Personnel:
** TheAnnouncer: Harvey, Bob Lorman, Joe Conklin and finally Harry Stephens.
** GameShowHost: Wesley Eure, then Larry Toffler.
** StudioAudience: Most of the time.
** TheVanna: "Mindy".
* ProductPlacement: Mr. Gameshow, and some of the items in the store-based rooms.
* PromotionalConsideration
* RulesSpiel
* ShowTheFolksAtHome: During the room searches on the Toffler version and in the UK, an indicator popped up on screen to show approximately where the object was hidden. In the Eure version, the camera would occasionally zoom towards the object's hiding place if the contestants were searching other parts of the room, and Eure himself sometimes pointed out objects HiddenInPlainSight, or made some sort of comment if the contestants emptied out the hiding place but did not actually notice the object.
* UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer: Some of the hidden objects were ''tiny'' - in some cases, even the hosts were unable to find them if the hiding place had been emptied out. Inverted, when others were HiddenInPlainSight.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: One of the room additions to the Toffler house.
* AntiClimax: Some of the Romps never really got going, with the contestants finding only two or even just one clue card. On at least two occasions in the Toffler era, the winning team found the first clue card in less than 10 seconds, but then spent over 80 seconds in a fruitless search for the second card due to a misunderstanding of the clue.
* BlatantLies: The prizes aren't actually in the house as stated in the intro (see top of page).
* BucketBoobyTrap: Subverted, as the contents would usually come out of cabinets, boxes on top of shelves, the ceiling, etc.
* CatchPhrase: "FIND IT!"
* CelebrityEdition: The syndicated version, along with the syndicated ''[[DoubleDare1986 Double Dare]]'' and ''FunHouse'', set aside a couple of weeks to pair young TV stars with civilian contestants.
* ChristmasSpecial: Subverted; one Eure episode had each room of the house representing a different holiday.
* CollapsingCeilingBoss: Entire shelves would collapse in the Toffler era, to the point where the room trashed itself more than the kids actually trashed it.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The Red Team vs. the Blue Team.
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: The team that made it through the entire Romp in less than half the allotted time (of course, most of the clue cards were HiddenInPlainSight). And Toffler getting [[CoveredInGunge slimed]].
** Any Romp where the sixth clue card was found with 1 second or less remaining.
* CurbStompBattle: Several Toffler episodes in particular, one of which had a final score of 975-25 (out of a possible 1000).
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The aptly named "Dinosaur Den" room, and the inflatable ''T. rex'' also showing up in the Dining Room once or twice.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In one Toffler episode, the announcer described one of the rooms as the "bitchin' kitchen".
* [=~Hey, It's That Guy!~=]: Eure starred in ''DaysOfOurLives'' and ''LandOfTheLost'' several years prior. Toffler would later appear as a contestant on several game shows (''Debt'', ''Series/{{Greed}}'', and ''RussianRoulette'', to name a few) — yes, '''after''' his stint as a host.
* [=~Hey, It's That Voice!~=]: Harvey, announcer for the first Eure season, also announced ''Double Dare''.
* HiddenObjectGame: Natch.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Since the demise of Nick [=GaS=], the series is no longer being re-run, [=GaS=] only aired about 10 episodes from the 1987 season with Harvey. Another 12-14 episodes from the '87 season are known to circulate on the trading circuit.
* LargeHam: Harry Stephens, announcer during the Toffler era, really leaned into each word during his opening spiel. "Iiiif YOU can find the LOBSTER hidden in this picture!!..."
* NightmareFuel: The Dungeon, Dracula's Den, and the Torture Tower.
** For the contestants as well; several teams were noticeably more hesitant when searching the Dungeon than when searching other rooms, which had unfortunate results when it was the Instant Prize Room in one episode.
* NintendoHard: The Romp during the Eure era (the Closet in particular derailed many Romps due to the sheer number of hiding places). Inverted many times in the Toffler era, as most of the clue cards could be seen before the kids even entered the room.
* NobodyPoops: None of the bathrooms in the American version had toilets. That didn't keep them from [[ToiletHumour being referenced]], though.
* OpeningNarration: See top of page.
* ReplacementScrappy: Larry for Wesley, although it is arguable which one was actually the better host.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: With Toffler came an overhaul of the Hidden Pictures round, an increase in difficulty of the room searches, and a decrease in difficulty of the Romp. Of course, YourMileageMayVary.
* TimedMission: The individual room searches, and the Romp especially.
* TrashTheSet: The premise of the show.
* WhatAnIdiot: Perhaps a rather harsh judgment when the contestants are nervous, excitable middle school age kids, but there were numerous episodes where the contestants missed objects or clue cards in plain sight (in some cases despite actually ''touching them - several times'') or did not search the most obvious hiding place during the Romp.

** Although no team ever managed to win the game without finding a single hidden picture, at least two teams during the first Eure season managed to win the game (one capped this with a [[BonusRound Romp]] win) despite only finding one hidden picture. In both episodes, the Blue Team made a clean sweep in the first hidden picture round and found two of the four hidden objects; in the second round, the Red Team only found one hidden picture to three for the Blue Team, but whereas the Red Team found their hidden object, the Blue Team failed all three of their searches. Final score, 575-425 to the Red Team.
** On another occasion during the second Eure season, the Blue Team only found one hidden picture in the first round to three for the Red Team, and during the room searches, the Red Team managed one in three while the Blue Team didn't find their object. In the second round, the Red Team managed a clean sweep of the hidden pictures, but didn't find a single hidden object. Final score, 525-475 to the Blue Team. Unsurprisingly, they had a dismal Romp; in the second room, they cottoned on quickly to the fact that the clue referred to flippers, but kept missing the fact that there were ''two'' pairs of flippers available to search - and they were right next to each other.

* UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer: Some of the hidden objects were ''tiny'' - in some cases, even the hosts were unable to find them if the hiding place had been emptied out but the object had not been recovered. Inverted, when others were HiddenInPlainSight.

* AntiClimax: Some of the Romps never really got going, with the contestants finding only two or even just one clue card. On at least two occasions in the Toffler era, the winning team found the first clue card in less than 10 seconds, but then spent over 80 seconds in a fruitless search for the second card due to a misunderstanding of the clue (the members of one team clearly had no idea what a blotter was {which also happened during the Eure era, again in only the second room}, while the members of another did not manage to connect the phrase "whirly bird" with a toy helicopter - the latter was even more anticlimactic as the team in question had blazed to a 725-275 victory in the main game).

* CurbStompBattle: In one episode in the Toffler run, the Blue Team stormed to a 975-25 victory (the Red Team found one hidden picture in the first round and failed to find the object in their room, while the Blue Team found seven out of seven objects); the Red Team looked understandably dejected at the end. (Anticlimactically, the Blue Team only managed four prizes in the Romp.) In another episode during the same era, the Red Team were the ones to rack up a score of 825-175. And there were several episodes during both hosts' tenures when the Blue Team found all eight hidden pictures (though never all eight hidden objects).

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Leaving aside the fact that, since the demise of Nick [=GaS=], the series is no longer being re-run, even during the Nick [=GaS=] era it was quite rare for episodes to be aired from the 1987 season featuring Harvey as the announcer. They aired most, if not all, of the episodes from Eure's second season in 1988 and the syndicated run with Toffler (except for the celebrity episodes from the latter), but only included around 10 episodes from the '87 season in the rota (including the aforementioned Holiday Episode) out of at least 40-50. Another 12-14 episodes from the '87 season are known to circulate in a few collections on the trading circuit (mostly ultimately traceable to a single collector who stopped trading in the early 2000s). For the other episodes, it is a case of CheckYourAttic -- perhaps in the style of the ''Finders Keepers'' room searches.

* WhatAnIdiot: Perhaps a rather harsh judgement when the contestants are nervous, excitable middle school age kids, but there were numerous episodes where the contestants missed objects or clue cards in plain sight (in some cases despite actually ''touching them - several times'') or did not search the most obvious hiding place during the Romp. For example, during the Toffler run, a clue in the Kitchen during the Romp referred to ice cream, and the team did not think to check the freezer and proceeded to run out of time.

** On another occasion during the second Eure season, the Blue Team only found one hidden picture in the first round to three for the Red Team, and during the room searches, the Red Team managed one in three while the Blue Team didn't find their object. In the second round, the Red Team managed a clean sweep of the hidden pictures, but didn't find a single hidden object. Final score, 525-475 to the Blue Team. Unlike the team in the previous example, they had a dismal Romp; in the second room, they cottoned on quickly to the fact that the clue referred to flippers, but kept missing the fact that there were ''two'' pairs of flippers available to search - and they were right next to each other.

** Although no team ever managed to win the game without finding a single hidden picture, at least one team during the first Eure season managed to win the game (and the [[BonusRound Romp]]) despite only finding one hidden picture. The Blue Team in the episode made a clean sweep in the first hidden picture round and found two of the four hidden objects; in the second round, the Red Team only found one hidden picture to three for the Blue Team, but whereas the Red Team found their hidden object, the Blue Team failed all three of their searches. Final score, 575-425 to the Red Team.

* [=~Hey, It's That Voice!~=]: Harvey also announced ''Double Dare''.

* AntiClimax: Some of the Romps never really got going, with the contestants finding only two or even just one clue card. On at least two occasions in the Toffler era, the winning team found the first clue card in less than 10 seconds, but then spent over 80 seconds in a fruitless search for the second card due to a misunderstanding of the clue (the members of one team clearly had no idea what a blotter was {which also happened during the Eure era, again in only the second room}, while the members of another did not manage to connect the phrase "whirly bird" with a toy helicopter).

* CurbStompBattle: In one episode in the Toffler run, the Blue Team stormed to a 975-25 victory (the Red Team found one hidden picture in the first round and failed to find the object in their room, while the Blue Team found seven out of seven objects). Ironically, their Romp fizzled out in the fifth room. In another episode during the same era, the Red Team were the ones to rack up over 800 points while the Blue Team didn't even reach 200. And there were several episodes during both hosts' tenures when the Blue Team found all eight hidden pictures (though never all eight hidden objects).

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Leaving aside the fact that, since the demise of Nick [=GaS=], the series is no longer being re-run, even during the Nick [=GaS=] era it was quite rare for episodes to be aired from the 1987 season featuring Harvey as the announcer. They aired most, if not all, of the episodes from Eure's second season in 1988 and the syndicated run with Toffler (except for the celebrity episodes from the latter), but only included around 10 episodes from the '87 season in the rota (including the aforementioned Holiday Episode) out of at least 40-50. Another 9-10 episodes from the '87 season are known to circulate in a few collections on the trading circuit (mostly ultimately traceable to a single collector who stopped trading in the early 2000s). For the other episodes, it is a case of CheckYourAttic -- perhaps in the style of the ''Finders Keepers'' room searches.

* AntiClimax: Some of the Romps never really got going, with the contestants finding only two or even just one clue card. On at least two occasions in the Toffler era, the winning team found the first clue card in less than 10 seconds, but then spent over 80 seconds in a fruitless search for the second card due to a misunderstanding of the clue (the members of one team clearly had no idea what a blotter was (which also happened during the Eure era, again in only the second room), while the members of another did not manage to connect the phrase "whirly bird" with a toy helicopter).

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Leaving aside the fact that, since the demise of Nick [=GaS=], the series is no longer being re-run, even during the Nick [=GaS=] era it was quite rare for episodes to be aired from the 1987 season featuring Harvey as the announcer. They aired almost all, if not all, of the episodes from Eure's second season in 1988 and the syndicated run with Toffler (except for the celebrity episodes from the latter), but only included around ten episodes from the 1987 season in the rota (including the aforementioned Holiday Episode) out of at least forty or fifty. Another nine or ten episodes from the first season are known to exist in a few collections on the trading circuit (mostly ultimately traceable to a single collector who stopped trading in the early 2000s). For the other episodes, it is a case of Check Your Attic - perhaps in the style of the ''Finders Keepers'' room searches.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Leaving aside the fact that, since the demise of Nick [=GaS=], the series is no longer being re-run, even during the Nick [=GaS=] era it was quite rare for episodes to be aired from the 1987 season featuring Harvey as the announcer. They aired almost all, if not all, of the episodes from Eure's second season in 1988 and the syndicated run with Toffler (except for the celebrity episodes from the latter), but only included around ten episodes from the 1987 season in the rota (including the aforementioned Holiday Episode) out of at least forty or fifty. Another nine or ten episodes from the first season are known to exist in a few collections on the trading circuit (mostly ultimately traceable to a single collector who stopped trading in the early 2000s).

* NintendoHard: The Romp during the Eure era. Inverted many times in the Toffler era, as most of the clue cards could be seen before the kids even entered the room.

* UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer: Some of the hidden objects were ''tiny''. Inverted, when others were HiddenInPlainSight.

* ShowTheFolksAtHome: During the room searches on the Toffler version and in the UK, an indicator popped up on screen to show approximately where the object was hidden.

* CelebrityEdition: The syndicated version, along with the syndicated ''[[DoubleDare1986 Double Dare]]'' and ''FunHouse'', set aside a couple of weeks to pair young TV stars with civilian contestants.