Rat Labyrinth

Rat Labyrinth is a Kuboian children's game show created by Dominic Halls and Tone Riddles, and also presented by the latter. Taking inspiration from Fort Boyard and The Crystal Maze, the show involves a group of children entering the titular dome to rescue Riddles' friend, Tack the Rat. It premiered in 1994 as part of the Bumper's Block programming block on Vision Network.

Format
The show's premise involved Tone Riddles and four children who had previously never met rescuing Riddles' friend Tack the Rat from a group of evil rodent creatures called the Ratinators. To do this, they must enter their hideout, the Rat Labyrinth.

The main pat of the show involved the children taking part in four different challenges (one child doing each), which often had a time limit of two minutes. Completing the challenge awards the team with a Tack Balloon, though they always moved on to the next challenge regardless of the outcome.

After the fourth game, the children would enter the Rat Dome. Here, the children had three minutes to run around a large maze collecting keys and bringing them to a large cage in the centre. The children had two lives to do this, with Tack Balloons won in previous challenges netting extra lives. Red spotlights called Rat Detectors would move around the maze, and would take a life if one of the children stepped into one. Bringing five keys to Tack's cage in the middle would set him free. Losing all lives or running out of time would cause the Ratinators to escape with Tack still prisoner.

Throughout the show's 65-episode run, the team only lost on nine occasions.

History
Rat Labyrinth began development in 1992 as a Kuboian version of The Crystal Maze. However, it was re-worked into its own show so it could fit in a half-hour timeslot on Bumper's Block. Dominic Halls approached Edward Reizer to see if he was up for being the show's presenter, with Reizer agreeing to do so as well as help Halls come up with ideas for a format.

Rat Labyrinth is the first time Reizer adopted the Tone Riddles stage name. As Reizer had previously voiced Mr. Riddles in the animated series The Incredible World of Riddles, Halls suggested to adapt the Mr. Riddles nickname for familiarity purposes. However, Reizer decided to mix the nickname using his middle name, Tone, believing it "sounded funny and appealing".

Casting
In September 1993, Bumper's Block aired short advertisements asking viewers "Would YOU like to appear on television and win prizes?" and showed a website where parents could put their children down to appear on a physical game show. Riddles mentioned how he was "very shocked" at how many children were put down to appear on the show, and felt bad for turning down many candidates simply because entries were already full.

In order to appear on the show, children had to be aged between nine and twelve years old. Children were turned down if there were over a weight limit, which previous contestants claim were very strict. Halls also wanted to make sure that the children appearing in episodes together did not know each other beforehand.

Tack the Rat was voiced by Arnoud Flack, who had previously auditioned for a role as a presenter for Harvy's House but was turned down. Flack mentioned he got a phone call from Halls around midnight asking if he wanted to voice the character, which Flack reluctantly agreed to as he was having difficulty finding a job.

Filming
Rat Labyrinth was filmed in a custom-built arena at Gutstone, East Kuboia. Generally, two episodes were filmed a week. According to previous contestants, they had to stay over in a private house for two nights, with the children being put in a room with a Super NES, a set of VHS tapes and a shelf of books and board games so they could bond with each other. Riddles and one of the camera crew stayed in two rooms next-door to keep an eye on them.

Episodes were shot over a single day, and took anywhere from ten to twelve hours to film. The contestants were not given any uniform, instead just wearing their normal everyday clothes. However, they were allegedly told not to wear tops with logos and "recognisable designs" on them. Riddles himself, on the other hand, would always wear a black formal suit when filming episodes for the show. According to Riddles, the children were usually tired when filming episodes, and Halls gave them fizzy drinks to keep them awake.

Legacy and possible revival
The character of Tack the Rat, whom was introduced in this show, has since became a popular puppet character, and later appeared in other shows starring Riddles.

In 2021, Riddles, Flack and several of the show's former contestants were interviewed for a YouTube documentary. In it, Riddles mentioned he would like to do "some sort of revival" for the show's thirtieth anniversary in 2024.