History Series / FindersKeepers

* BlatantLies: The prizes aren't actually in the house, despite the intro mentioning "our prize-filled house".
** Of course, "what you find is what you keep" is also inaccurate, considering that none of the objects in the house were ever used as prizes.

* CatchPhrase: "FIND IT!" (or, occasionally in the early episodes, "Trash it!").

The United Kingdom had its own version of the show a few years later on [[Creator/{{ITV}} CiTV]], with several changes to the format; there were no hidden pictures (the teams would earn the right to search rooms by matching clues to answers on a "Memory" style board or playing a toss-up search in the Garage), the [[BonusRound Super Search]] covered all eight rooms instead of just six, and the teams played for points instead of money due to (then-current) UK broadcasting regulations governing cash prizes on children's series.

** TheAnnouncer: (John) Harvey, Bob Lorman, Joe Conklin, and Harry Stephens.
** GameShowHost: Wesley Eure, then Larry Toffler. Neil Buchanan (and Diane Youdale for a little while) in the UK.

* OddballInTheSeries: The only Nick game show not to return to the network after its' syndicated run (unlike ''Double Dare''), and the only one for many years that taped in Los Angeles (all the others taped either in Philadelphia or Orlando, with ''Series/MakeTheGrade'' taping in New York before moving to Orlando; ''Series/BrainSurge'' would be Nick's first LA-based game since the syndicated ''FK'' ended).

!!This show provides examples of:

The United Kingdom had its own version of the show a few years later on [[Creator/{{ITV}} CiTV]], with several changes to the format; there were no hidden pictures (the teams would earn the right to search rooms by matching clues to answers on a "Memory" style board or playing a toss-up search in the Garage), the [[BonusRound Super Search]] covered all eight rooms instead of just six, and the teams played for points instead of money due to (then Current) UK broadcasting regulations governing cash prizes on children's series.

* BonusRound: The Room-to-Room Romp: The winning team has :90 to find six objects in six rooms using LinkedListClueMethodology. The first clue gave the location to a clue card hidden somewhere in the room; on the card was the room the team was to go to next as well as the clue for that room. Increasing prizes were awarded leading to a grand prize for all six.

* GoldenSnitch: 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. In fact, the scoring format makes it possible for one team to do '''[[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing nothing]]''' and win the game. This can be accomplished by the other team getting all eight Hidden Pictures questions correct and failing to find every item (or every item except one worth $50) in the room searches.[[note]] Though no team lost despite finding all eight hidden pictures, several teams lost despite finding seven hidden pictures.[[/note]]

* ProductPlacement: Mr. Gameshow[[note]] who was not only a prize for the Romp, and the Instant Prize at least once, but also the hidden object at least once[[/note]], and some of the items in the store-based rooms, especially the Toy Shop.

** Eure era: "In our hidden pictures round, being first to correctly circle what's hidden will get you $25 and earn you the right to search a room, where if you can find the hidden object, we'll give you $50, but remember, if you don't find the object, the fifty bucks goes to the other team, and it's the team with the most money at the end of the game that goes on that wild Room-to-Room Romp where you can win some great prizes. When we reveal the hidden picture, the teams will have ten seconds. When they think they know what we're looking for, they'll buzz in and circle as fast as they can." The latter two sentences were dropped for the 1988 series.
** Toffler era: "Here's how ''Finders Keepers'' works. In our hidden picture round, the first team to match the clue with what's hidden wins you $25. They also win the right to search a room; if they find the object in the room, they get $50. If they don't, the money goes to the other team. The team with the most money at the end of the game wins, and they get to go on a wild Room-to-Room Romp through our house for some terrific prizes."

* TheScrooge: One episode from the first Eure season had Wesley and Harvey imply that producer Michael Klinghoffer was a bit of a penny-pincher, using the "birthday party" configuration of the Living Room to get a free birthday party for his wife Judy.[[note]] Eure and Harvey also had turns as the "birthday boy" for this version of the Living Room.[[/note]]

** The hidden pictures round, as the gateway to the room trashing for which audiences really tuned in, was gradually made easier over the series' run. In the first Eure season, there were four clues in the first hidden picture round and four or five in the second, so it was quite common for one, two, or even three of the eight rooms[[note]] sometimes including the Instant Prize room[[/note]] to go unsearched, requiring Eure to pad the episode's run time by bantering with the contestants. In the second season, the pictures had six clues each, so it was far less common (but not unheard of) for rooms to go unsearched. And in the Toffler era, the pictures were the size of a wall rather than displayed on a monitor and the hidden items were pre-identified via a set of Colorforms, and rooms almost never went unsearched.

* OddballInTheSeries: The only Nick game show not to return to the network after its' syndicated run (unlike ''Double Dare''), and the only one for many years that taped in Los Angeles (all the others taped either in Philadelphia or Orlando; ''Series/BrainSurge'' would be Nick's first LA-based game since the syndicated ''FK'' ended).

The United Kingdom had its own version of the show a few years later on [[Creator/{{ITV}} CiTV]], with several changes to the format; there were no hidden pictures (the teams would earn the right to search rooms by matching clues to answers on a "Memory" style board or playing a toss-up search in the Garage), the [[BonusRound Super Search]] covered all eight rooms instead of just six, and the teams played for points instead of money due to UK broadcasting regulations governing cash prizes on children's series.

* BonusRound: The Room-to-Room Romp.

* LinkedListClueMethodology: In the Room-to-Room Romp, the first clue gave the location to a clue card hidden somewhere in the room; on the card was the room the team was to go to next as well as the clue for that room. Finding a clue card in each of six rooms (all eight in the UK) won the grand prize.

* CelebrityEdition: The syndicated version, along with the syndicated ''[[Series/DoubleDare1986 Double Dare]]'' and ''Series/FunHouse'', set aside a couple of weeks to pair young TV stars with civilian contestants ([[Series/MarriedWithChildren David Faustino]] and [[KnotsLanding Brian Austin Green]] for one week, [[Series/CharlesInCharge Josie Davis]] and [[Series/SmallWonder Emily Schulman]] for the other week).

* ShowTheFolksAtHome: During the room searches in the Eure version, the camera would occasionally zoom towards the object's hiding place, and Eure himself sometimes pointed out objects HiddenInPlainSight, or made some sort of comment (such as "You saw that at home, didn't you?") if the contestants emptied out the hiding place but did not actually notice the object. On the Toffler version, an indicator popped up on screen to show approximately where the object was hidden. The UK version combined both approaches; initially, an indicator would appear on the screen to show where the object was hidden, but if time was running low, host Neil Buchanan would try to clue the players in to the object's location (sometimes all but telling them exactly where to look).

* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: Invoked. Failing to find an item in the room searches means the money goes to the other team. In theory, a pair of contestants can sweep the Hidden Pictures rounds and bomb every room search, giving their opponents the right to advance to the bonus round by doing nothing. This never happened in its run.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In a couple of Toffler episodes, the announcer described one of the rooms as the "bitchin' kitchen". Toffler ''himself'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klK-xNoi4SM#t=7m10s dropped the word]] as part of a clue on at least one occasion.

* ImpossiblyTackyClothes: One of the configurations of the Living Room in the 1987 Eure season was birthday party-themed, and one episode with this setup supposedly took place on Wesley's birthday; the clue for the room was in his birthday card (read by Harvey), and the hidden object was his gift from the crew: a stereotypical game show host's loud and tacky sport jacket, which he confessed to the home audience he hated. Harvey gave his closing spiel wearing the coat, saying that Wesley might not like it, but he did.

** The ''very'' earliest taped episodes featured no pink paint around the hall window on the top floor, as well as unusual room configurations - one episode featured what might be the only appearance of the Kids' Room prior to the second Eure season, while another episode or two had a ''principal's office'' as a room, never to be seen again afterwards. Some of the sound effects differed as well; for example, the "winning" bell was used to signal the Instant Prize Room. And while the instant prizes for most of the 1987 season were trips to either Walt Disney World or Space Camp, some of the very earliest episodes featured portable televisions or phone/answering machines as the instant prize.

* NobodyPoops: None of the bathrooms in the American version had toilets. That didn't keep them from [[ToiletHumour being referenced]], though. Averted in the UK version, in which the bathroom did feature a toilet.

Following the wild success of their first GameShow, ''[[Series/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 [[{{Squick}} sewer]].

The United Kingdom had its own version of the show a few years later on [[Creator/{{ITV}} CiTV]], with several changes to the format.

* GoldenSnitch: 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.
** In fact, the scoring format makes it possible for one team to do '''[[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing nothing]]''' and win the game. This can be accomplished by the other team getting all eight Hidden Pictures questions correct and failing to find every item (or every item except one worth $50) in the room searches.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: One of the room additions to the Toffler house.

* ImpossiblyTackyClothes: One of the configurations of the Living Room in the 1987 Eure season was birthday party-themed, and one episode with this setup supposedly took place on Wesley's birthday; his gift from the crew was an incredibly loud and tacky sport jacket, which he wore with great reluctance. Harvey gave his closing spiel wearing the coat, saying that Wesley might not like it, but he did.

* RansackedRoom / TrashTheSet: The premise of the show: find the hidden object by turning the room upside-down, and don't be afraid to make a mess while doing so.[[note]] Of course, while some teams lost the main game by being too tentative in their searches, others were too eager and either lost the main game by accidentally throwing hidden objects in with the rest of the mess or stalled in the Romp by immediately trashing the room rather than listening to the clue and taking a few seconds to think about what it described, often something already in plain view.[[/note]]

** In the Eure era, the romp record was 66 seconds, and contenstants sometimes had to find hidden objects in one or more rooms to find the next clue card. In the Toffler era, the clues were much more straightforward, with the cards often visible as soon as the contestants entered the room, and at least three teams finished the romp in under a minute (the record was 40 seconds).[[note]] Although the Toffler era also saw at least four teams find just ''one'' clue card in the romp.[[/note]]

** One of the hidden picture artists in the Eure era was a caricaturist, drawing pictures featuring Creator/BorisKarloff as Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}'s monster, Creator/BelaLugosi as Film/{{Dracula|1931}}, Creator/CharlieChaplin, the Creator/MarxBrothers, the main quartet from ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', Creator/TomSelleck as Series/MagnumPI, Creator/BruceWillis and Cybill Shepherd as Dave and Maddie from ''Series/{{Moonlighting}}'', Ralph Macchio as Daniel from ''Film/TheKarateKid'', Music/{{Madonna}}, Music/MichaelJackson, [[Film/PeeweesBigAdventure Pee-wee Herman on his bike]], and many others.

** [[YouWannaGetSued Somewhat averted with the "Caveman's Lair"]], a living room based on that of WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones; while it was never directly referred to as their living room, most of the clues referred to "Fred and Barney" somehow.

!!GameShow Tropes in use:

** In fact, the scoring format makes it possible for one team to do '''nothing''' and win the game. This can be accomplished by the other team getting all eight Hidden Pictures questions correct and failing to find every item (or every item except one worth $50) in the room searches.

* CoveredInGunge: Surprisingly averted, for the most part. The Pastry Shop was really the only room where the contestants risked getting messy, although there were several rooms where they could get sprayed with or fall into water, and every once in a while the object or clue was buried in a pit or bucket of slime. However, on one occasion the producers ambushed Toffler with a bucket of the green stuff from above while in the house.

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

->''"If you can find the light bulb hidden in this picture, then you could win a run through our prize-filled house, where what you find is what you keep on '''Finders Keepers'''!"''

* ConsolationPrize

* ProductPlacement: Mr. Gameshow[[note]] who was not only a prize for the Romp, and the Instant Prize at least once, but also the hidden object at least once[[/note]], and some of the items in the store-based rooms, especially the Toy Shop. Every player also got to keep the pair of Converse sneakers he/she wore on the show, just as ''Double Dare'' contestants kept their Reeboks. Also, every crew member (including the host) wore a pair of the company's shoes.
* PromotionalConsideration
* RulesSpiel

* ProductPlacement: Mr. Gameshow[[note]] who was not only a prize for the Romp, and was the Instant Prize at least once, but was the hidden object at least once[[/note]], and some of the items in the store-based rooms, especially the Toy Shop. Every player also got to keep the pair of Converse sneakers he/she wore on the show, just as ''Double Dare'' contestants kept their Reeboks. Also, every crew member (including the host) wore a pair of the company's shoes.