Syndicated children's Game Show in which two teams of kids answered survey-type questions in a "mall" order to earn the right to search one of its "stores" for coins, which counted toward prizes. Hosted by a young Hal Sparks and paired with Slime Time, one of the most blatant Double Dare ripoffs in existence. Both it and Slime Time were short runners, only airing on weekends from June 11-Sep. 3, 1988.
Two teams, each consisting of a boy and a girl, answered a multiple-choice survey-based question (such as "what do third graders say they wish they could change about their mom?"). Each kid locked in his or her own answer, and all matching answers scored a point. Questions were asked until one team scored five points, at which point that team earned the right to search a store in the mall. Each store contained 16 coins, and prizes were awarded based on how many they found; finding all 16 won the team the two best prizes available. The process was repeated, and the team that had found the most coins after two rounds had the chance to unlock the Treasure Chest. This consisted of tearing through a number of boxes onstage to find keys, after which each would be tried in the Treasure Chest; finding a key that unlocked it won the grand prize package, which included a trip for the entire family.
Game Show Tropes in use:
- Bonus Round: The Treasure Mall Treasure Chest.
- Confetti Drop: Confetti cannons fired if a team unlocked the Treasure Chest; a good amount of it was stashed in the boxes the team had to search through to find the keys here as well.
- Consolation Prize: For the losing team; also, a $50 gift certificate per key found in the Bonus Round if unsuccessful.
- Covered in Gunge: To find the coins, you had to dig through props filled with it.
- Personnel:
- Game Show Host: Hal Sparks.
- The Announcer: Ed MacKay, who would later announce the 1990-91 run of The Joker's Wild.
- Studio Audience: Not shown, but definitely heard.
- Undesirable Prize: A sewing machine, on a kids' show! Granted, they did offer the standard TV/Nintendo/stereo fare as well, and the grand prize haul wasn't too shabby.
This show provides examples of:
- Colour Coded Armies: The red team vs. the green team, as indicated by their outfits.
- Excited Kids' Show Host: Of the Over Sixes variety.
- Hollywood Giftwrap: Inverted big time in the Bonus Round, and precisely what made it so damn hard. You had a grand total of 30 seconds to unwrap the boxes and find keys; most teams were lucky to find three or four.
- Rearrange the Song: One of the music cues was a slightly re-arranged version of the I'm Telling!! theme song.
- Recycled In Space: Finders Keepers IN A MALL!
- Short-Runner: Just 13 weekends in the summer of 1988.
- Timed Mission: Each store was divided into four sections, two per contestant, and you could spend 25 seconds in each; in the Bonus Round, you had 30 seconds to find the keys in the boxes in order to open the Treasure Chest.
- Totally Radical: Hal Sparks' hosting technique, and HOW.
