Family Challenge

"Family Challenge" was a one hour show that aired on The Family Channel from 1995-1997. The show was hosted by Ray Combs from 1995-1996 while veteran game show personality Gene Wood, (who previously worked with Ray Combs on "Family Feud" from 1988-1994), served as announcer. "Family Challenge" was basically a cheap, low-budget version of Marc Summers' "Double Dare" (1986-1994). Two families, (each consisting of six members), competed in a variety of stunts and obstacles in order to win points. At the end of the show the family with the most points won the bragging rights and was awarded the "Family Challenge" championship trophy/cup. Despite Ray Combs' death on June 2, 1996 "Family Challenge" returned in the fall of 1996 with a new host, (Michael Burger), and a new name, ("The New Family Challenge"). Although this show was nowhere near as great as "Family Feud" it was nice to see Ray Combs back on television hosting something. Ray always tried his best and put so much effort into his work. He poured his heart out and that is why he is remembered as one of the greatest game show hosts in history.

Anybody remember the GUNK tank that was used on The Family Channel's "Family Challenge". It's the tank that the contestants go barefeet and slide down to the tank to be messy with the gunk. I wonder what they used to make the so far called "gunk". Was that used on every episode of "Family Challenge". I remember one of the episodes when Ray Combs was on the GUNK tank's slide along with the contestants at the end of the episode. Speaking of Ray Combs, ever since Ray committed suicide on June 2, 1996 until September 30, 1996 when "Family Challenge" became "The New Family Challenge", The Family Channel only showed "Family Challenge" in reruns.

I was on the game show family challenge. WE won. Then a year later we got a call asking us to be on a Thanksgiving special where we had to ice skate the entire time on the show. We won again. Then several months later we got a call to do the championship. By that time Ray was gone, and Michael Burger took his place at Universal Studios. Being on the show was a highlight of my life. The prizes were mediocre but it was a blast doing the show. The final championship show was when I dove into a fake rock so I could plant a flag on the moon. I broke several fingers doing that. Well at least we won. I think both Ray and Michael were good hosts. I was saddened when Ray committed suicide. I hope his children are okay.

This is a show that will go down in history forever. It was just a simple show that kids loved to watch and loved to go on. I loved the fact that they made sure kids were always in bare feet on the show and had them walk in bare feet through oil and stuff because kids love having messy bare feet. The gags that included dumping cakes on people and smashing pies in kids' faces were great too because they would just get covered in pie and if they asked, would be allowed to mess their bare feet up in it which is great because, again, kids love messy feet. And that's the other good thing about it, is because it was so low-budget, you could easily do these things at home, getting whip cream pies smashed in your face and walking in bare feet through mud. The host, Ray Combs, was amazing too. What a great show. One to be missed.

Ray has proved to be one of the best game show host on television. I've been saying this and I'm going to say it again, Family Challenge was a kids friendly show and like other stunts and obstacle course kind of shows, this show was pretty successful. Although, I've never seen the show on television, I've been watching Ray's back to back family challenge episodes on you tube via the internet. I could see that he was having fun with the kids especially the kids. If one day the television network decides to show re-reruns of "family challenge" I would consider updating or add to my review at some later time, but in the mean time, it was my pleasure to watch on line video clips of this wonderful show. He has such beautiful smiles on his face. It was my dream for years to watch this fantastic show. The audience just loved watching him do his job and he did a great job. I remembered there was an episode when Ray said, I think he said this was one of the greatest game show or something like that, he's right on. I liked how he chatted with the families before the show even started. I really liked his laughter. This was the second best show for him to host. Of course he previously hosted family feud which I've seen. Ray has such a great will power to entertain people and work hard at the same time. I really liked the show, I'm not going to say it was perfect because I don't think there is a such thing as a perfect show; maybe next to perfect. Yes, it was a pretty good show and I enjoyed it and having Ray as the host really made a big difference compared to someone else who wouldn't be as successful. What's important to Ray is determination and sense of humour and he delivered them into our hearts. Some of my favourite events of the show are: PEARL DIVING, VACUUM HAIR SUCKER, BALLOON BEE STING, HUMAN HOT DOGS, MONSTER TRUCK DONUT THROW. These are just some of them. At the end of the day, Ray got himself back on track and hosted a new show and did his best, he is deeply missed. Who knows how Ray's future would unfold if he was still alive. One of my favorite episode of "family challenge" was the Sept 22, 1995 one, I can't remember the names of the teams. This episode was posted on you tube. One of the things I liked about the show is that some of the games/stunts correspond to the color of the team. Example: family in blue: balloons is blue, family in red: balloons is red. family in blue: blue bed, family in red: red bed. I like how there are wide varieties of stunts played. I liked the show so much that I enjoyed watching the videos over and over.