1987: The Krypton Factor

March 31, 2019

By Anarchist History of New Zealand

The Krypton Factor, hosted by Dougal Stevenson ran from 1987 to 1991 on TV2. In an era of Dignity Culture this is the form that game shows take. No contestant shaming, no gratuitous sexual displays, no aggression. The champion of this rather formal contest needed to excel both physically and mentally.

According to wikipedia the challenge covered, at various times of its run, personality, mental agility, response, observation, physical ability, intelligence, general knowledge

Along with interesting puzzles and quiz questions the finale was to complete what I remember as ‘the Krypton Factor’ course at Burnham Military Camp. There was often an inverse relationship between a contestant’s mental prowess and their ability to negotiate the course. By the end of the climbing and balancing and running the men and women were absolutely buggered. The final act of their race was a climactic zip-line/flying fox that all we kids would have loved to try out.

There’s no formal reason as to why it was called ‘Krypton’ except that it had a cool association with the element and science and perhaps Superman. The New Zealand show was not original but a chip off the old block from the Mother Country, Britain.

Here’s the wonderful outro theme music…

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ref. The Krypton Factor; Wikipedia

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