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Takeshi's Castle (風雲!たけし城 Fūun! Takeshi Jō) was a Japanese game show that aired from 1986 to 1989 on the Tokyo Broadcasting System. It featured the esteemed Japanese actor Takeshi Kitano as a count who owns a castle and sets up impossible challenges for players (or a volunteer army) to get to him. The show has become a cult television hit around the world. A special live "revival" was broadcast on April 2, 2005, as part of TBS's 50th anniversary celebrations. International versions When shown outside of Japan, it is often dubbed for comic effect, spoofing the original. This style of fake dubbing of a foreign show is very similar to Kung Faux & Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily?, where the entire plot, the order of events, and even the events themselves are completely changed. United States — It currently airs as MXC (subtitled Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, which became abbreviated in season 2 due to cable guides clipping off the title) on Spike TV, providing both dubbing and commentary in English that effectively spoofs the original show. In addition, CBS aired a special one-hour version of the show entitled Storm the Castle in 1993. This version, which was packaged by Vin Di Bona Productions and hosted by Michael Burger, pitted 30 families against each other and against well-known monsters in a quest to win $15,000. Only one episode of Storm the Castle was produced. United Kingdom — A shortened version given a comedic voiceover by Craig Charles has been shown on the Challenge television channel since 2002, where fans of the show (as well as those in Japan) are known as "Keshi-heads". On Saturday 3 September, 2005, MXC aired for the first time on UK television between 9 and 10 p.m. on Challenge under the name of Takeshi's MXC. India — A shortened version of the show is aired on the Pogo TV channel, with Hindi voiceover by comedian and dancer Jaaved Jaffrey on weekends (formerly everyday) and by Indian comedians Raju Srivastava, Sunil Pal, Navin Prabakar and Ahsaan Qureshi. Germany — A dubbed version of the show aired on DSF. France — A shortened version given a comedic voiceover by comedians Vincent Desagnat and Benjamin Morgaine has been shown on the W9 TV channel since october 2006, in a program called "Menu W9" which also presents a shortened version of sushi TV. Spain — The program aired as Humor Amarillo (when translated it means "Yellow Comedy") in the early-1990s on TV channel Telecinco. Comedians Cruz y Raya (later Juan Herrera and Miguel Ángel Coll) commented on the images; this version of the show has achieved cult status and there are some fansites and web petitions for reruns. In fact, the Spanish version created some terms now familiar to either Takeshi's Castle or Humor Amarillo, like “El Laberinto del Chinotauro” (name for any of the maze challenges), “Las Zamburguesas” (for Skipping Stones),"Gacela Thompson", a pathetic bussinessman character, and “Chino Cudeiro”, a character that is a player that always "dies" and, in Spain, is one of the most popular characters. Since January 28, 2006, the show has been dubbed again by Fernando Costilla and Paco Bravo and can be seen on Spanish TV channel Cuatro TV. Australia — A version of the show was produced by The Comedy Channel, it had hosts in The Comedy Channel studio, it was redubbed, but unlike the American version it still kept to the real plot of the episode and showed the final challenge, rather than taking random footage and making up "teams". This has since been cancelled and/or finished. Highlights appeared in Australia on the television program World's Weirdest TV in the 1990s & currently Channel V (an Australian cable music network) is screening the American version "MXC". The Australian writer and critic Clive James was once a celebrity contestant on the original show. Malaysia — The Japanese version was aired over NTV7, although edited to be shortened to half an hour and a Malay overdub was added (the original Japanese audio track is still audible in background). It aired around the early 2000s, and is no longer airing. Italy — A shortened version, called Mai dire Banzai ("Never Say: Banzai!") and given a comedic voiceover by Gialappa's Band was shown on Italia 1, one of Silvio Berlusconi's channels, in the 1980s; now the UK shortened version is being broadcast on Italia 7. The voiceover is done by Lillo and Greg, an Italian duo of comedians. Taiwan — A gameshow called 100 Wars, 100 Victories was formed from the original show, similar to how MXC Almost Live was formed. Pan-Arab countries Arab countries — In Arab countries the show was called The Fort (Arabic: الحصن). It aired in the early nineties where it became a cult hit. Commentary was provided by Lebanese actor Ryadh Shararah (Arabic: رياض شرارة). Philippines — It was shown on the TV network Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation in the early 1990's, with actors Anjo Yllana as Takeshi and Smokey Manoloto as "Iwakura" (an erroneous mispronunciation of Ishikura which was never corrected). Initially, the show was dubbed completely in Tagalog. Later episodes contained scenes shot on a studio set with the actors, dressed as the Takeshi and Iwakura, both providing the commentary. While the show was not as popular as in other countries, it held a huge following among viewers there. In this version, the names given to most of the games are rather generic such as "Devil's Maze" for the Honeycomb and Square Mazes, "Flying Mushroom" for Mushroom Trip, and "Sumo Wrestling" for Sumo Rings. In the late 1990's and early 2000's, Takeshi's Castle is shown on SBN 21. The show was was not edited as before at IBC 13 and now in Quality Television (QTV 11). Takeshi's Castle is currently enjoying a revival in the Philippines, courtesy of Quality Television (QTV). This time around, comedians Joey de Leon and Ryan Yllana (Anjo's younger brother) provide the commentary as fictional characters shogun Shintaro "Taru" Gokoyami (Takeshi's right hand man) and sumo wrestler Kakawate Takehome (leader of the Takeshi's forces) respectively, fictional in the sense that there are no such characters in the original cast. Initially the two provide play-by-play commentary, but they as well as some added characters reduced themselves to skits and commentary in between clips of the show. Portugal — A version called Nunca Digas Banzai (portuguese for "Never Say Banzai") aired in station SIC in the early/mid nineties, where it reached some popularity. Voiceovers were provided by two hosts, including José Carlos Malato. Czech Republic — It was shown in 1990s by the name Takeshi's Castle (Czech: Takešiho hrad), with comedic voiceover by two famous Czech comedians. The show was quite popular among young viewers. Original Takeshis Castle The original show involved 142 contestants whom General Tani (Hayato Tani) "forced" into a series of silly physical challenges, eliminating many of the contestants. Each show finished with a "Final Showdown" in which Count Takeshi (Takeshi Kitano) was faced by the remaining contestants. If the contestants hit the paper ring on Takeshi's cart with their water guns and broke it (in later episodes replaced with lasers and a light-sensitive target), Takeshi's cart was deactivated, the castle was "taken" and the game "won". The player who stopped Takeshi won one million yen. Takeshi Kitano originally wanted the show to be like a human video game. Early in the series the games and production values were low budget, but later series featured extensive landscaping of a fixed campus that included large man-made lakes and extensive permanent obstacles. Takeshi decided the show should end while still at the height of popularity. Challenges See Takeshi's Castle Challenges for the full list of challenges featured in Takeshi's Castle. Characters Challenge (UK version) This condensed version of the original series became an unexpected hit when it premiered on Challenge on 9 November 2002, regularly dominating the top ten programs on the channel each week. The format followed closely the original Japanese format showing the contestants as General Tani's (named General Lee) troops trying to storm Takeshi's Castle. Each episode would have about seven games followed by the Final Showdown. Although it does follow the original format, Challenge decided to cut out the comedy sketches between Takeshi and Higashi to allow more games to be shown in the half hour block. The success of Series One was immediate with Challenge being told it was great from the first day it was shown onwards. More series were commissioned and shown over the next few months, culminating in a series of hour long specials in the Autumn of 2003, and a special highlights show, The A-Z of Takeshi's Castle, broadcast on January 1, 2004 which showed some of the best clips of the best games. Though no new episodes have been made since then (due to all the Japanese episodes having now been shown) repeats still air regularly on Challenge, including an eight-episode block feature broadcast on Sundays, with an average of 130,000 viewers an episode. Challenge have regularly been asked to consider showing unedited episodes, but from September 3, 2005, they aired MXC in the UK instead, retitled as Takeshi's Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. Recently there has been some activity at Challenge in trying to get some un-edited Japanese episodes to see if it would be worth showing, however there has been problems so far and plans for un-edited episodes are now on hold. Recently Challenge also attempted unsuccessfully to acquire the German DSF dub. MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) On April 13, 2003, Spike TV (then called "The Nashville Network" or "The New TNN") began airing a comedy-oriented dub of the series called "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge" (or MXC for short), which was produced by ADR company RC Entertainment. This version features voice-actors from the Groundlings comedy troupe, dubbing over both regular characters and participants; no serious effort is made to lip-synch. The effect is reminiscent of the Woody Allen film What's Up Tiger Lily? In MXC, two teams are pitted against each other. Usually these are matchups between teams that have no real relationship to one another (such as Inventors vs. Ex-Child Actors). "Vic Romano" and "Kenny Blankenship" provide commentary (featuring thinly-veiled vulgarity and sexually explicit double-entendres) throughout. Failed attempts which look especially painful or ridiculous are highlighted via the "MXC Impact Replay," which is named after fake commercial sponsors in the manner of American sports coverage (although when the series first premiered it was the 'MXC Taco Bell Impact Replay'. Rather than showing the "Final Showdown" at the end of each show, Kenny counts down the ten most "Painful Eliminations of the Day," which are usually taken from the Impact Replays. Many of the contestants and games have been renamed by the show's staff after famous celebrities and/or have made-up names with some sort of scatological or sexual innuendo (including names like Log Drop, Sperm Wheelers and Saddle Sores). Therefore, it is not uncommon to see participants with names of famous athletes or Hollywood stars merged with sexual or scatological phrases (e.g. "Hugh Grunt") competing on the United States version. Nearly every episode features one contestant with the surname "Babaganoosh." Contestants of that name are said to have some sort of connection with the Middle East, but in reality it is a favorite (traditionally Middle Eastern) meal of co-writer/producer Christopher Darga. His mother is Lebanese, and he keeps a box of Baba ghanoush on one of the TV monitors in his office. On April 22, 2004, Spike TV aired a special edition of the show to start the third season, featuring skateboarder Tony Hawk and snowboarder Tara Dakides. The special was taped at the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida using students from nearby colleges and appropriately dubbed MXC Almost Live. The special edition is not based on the original Takeshi's Castle footage but only has some added in for Vic, Ken, the Captain and Guy LeDouche. Actors were hired to play those who would replace the roles of the latter two, named "Gip LeDouche" (Eric Esteban) and "Major Babe" (Michelle Sorrell.) While everyone in the episode is American, everything said by any contestants besides Hawk and Dakides is still dubbed into English. (One contestant, about to compete, says something in English, but it is overdubbed with "It doesn't matter what I'm going to say, you're just going to overdub my voice!") This episode also featured an appearance by Japanese punk band Peelander-Z, who performed the song "S.T.E.A.K." With the second season, Spike TV officially changed the name of the U.S. version to MXC. The overdubbed dialogue gives little regard to what contestants are actually saying in the original Japanese dialogue. (Unlike the UK version, where some of the background Japanese audio can actually be heard, the MXC version completely replaces all of the audio.) The text that appeared on screen can still be seen, and sometimes the characters on the screen will play off on it. The show tends to use jokes of a more American style that includes non-sequiturs and sexual humor. This is done to facilitate the tastes of the intended audience as well as for the creative fun of it. New episodes of MXC returned to Spike TV on October 20, 2005. The first of the new episodes featured the Desperate Housewives vs. Ultimate Fighting Champs. Characters Many of the characters and contestants on MXC are voiced by the producers of the show, who also serve as the series' writers. Of the principals involved, "Vic Romano" (who was named after a character from Miami Vice), whose lines replace those of Takeshi, is played by Victor Wilson, who also served as the supervising producer in Season Three. "Kenny Blankenship", MXCs counterpart of Takeshi's second advisor Higashi, is voiced by Christopher Darga. Romano provides level-headed play-by-play commentary; Blankenship, his color commentator, appears somewhat stupid. Vic is a more serious personality with a dark past of alcohol abuse and failed marriages; Kenny is a light-hearted high-school dropout who thinks mostly about "chicks and beer." Vic frequently acknowledges his partner's inane comments with his standard refrain, "Right you are, Ken," or, "Indeed." John Cervenka voices three characters: "Captain Tenneal" (whose name comes from the 1970s musical act The Captain and Tennille), whose views are overly conservative and self-absorbed, replaces General Tani/General Lee; field reporter "Guy LeDouche", who substitutes for Shingo-san, and is portrayed as a creepy French journalist who hits on every contestant he interviews (and in some episodes is absent because he is attending a parole hearing) and has other family members such as "Lyndon", "Geek", "Giddy", "Gip," "Goon", "Gawp", along with females named "Gay", "Grandma", "Gab" and "Gidget" (who were voiced by Mary Scheer); and "Your Humble Announcer" (since the show's fifth episode) for the program's opening and breaks to and from commercials. All of the female voices ("Everygirl" according to the credits) are done by Mary Scheer, who became Supervising Producer in Season Four. Though uncredited, Jamie Alcroft was the announcer for the first four episodes of MXC before Cervenka took over that role. DVD release A two-disc DVD set, containing the first season episodes, was released on October 3rd, 2006. It includes several bonus materials, such as: | |||||||
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