Legends of the Hidden Temple
Host: Kirk Fogg
Announcer: Dee Baker (also Olmec's voice)
Premise: Six teams of young people try to avoid elimination and get to the temple to rescue the lost artifact
of the day and win prizes.
Play: The six teams, from camera left, are the Red Jaguars, Blue Barracudas, Green Monkeys, Orange Iguanas, Purple Parrots, and Silver Snakes. Only four of those teams will advance through the first round. The teams are told what the lost artifact is, usually an item associated with a myth, legend, or folklore story. The first four teams to cross the moat and ring their gong (a button on a pedestal) move on. The other teams win a small prize. The method of crossing the moat changed, but usually involved a raft, tightropes, nets, inner tubes, and so forth.
The four teams remaining are then told the Legend of the Day. In a nod and wink to "Hit Man," questions are asked about the legend with three choices. A correct answer moves down one step on the Steps of Knowledge. Three correct answers moves through to the Temple Games, but only for the first two teams.
The Temple Games are a series of three contests. Each teammate (boy and girl) play in one game, and then team up for the final one. The first two games are worth half of a Pendant of Life, and the third is worth a full
Pendant. The team with more Pendant pieces wins and goes to the Temple. If a game ends in a tie, both teams win the Pendant pieces. If there is a tie after all three games, a tie-break is played. The gongs of each color are brought in. A question is asked. A right answer wins, and a wrong answer loses. Games in the first season relied heavily on slick surfaces and bungee cords, while the second and third season branched out farther. Games were reused, but titled differently.
In the Temple, the team had three minutes to retrieve the item, and bring it out. Just getting into the Temple won a small prize, reaching the item won a bigger prize, and returning the item within the three minutes won
a vacation for the team. The first player to enter was given a full Pendant earned from the Temple Games.
The second player then got the other pendant, half-piece, or none. These Pendants are important: three rooms in the Temple are surveyed by Temple Guards, and if a runner enters the room, the runner must surrender a Pendant to continue, or be taken out of the Temple. Thus, having both Pendants of Life guarantees that one member of the team will survive the three attacks. If the second player has one half-piece, the other half can be found in the Temple, and joined to make a whole one. If the team only won one Pendant, and the tie-break, the second runner is powerless to an attack.