Finders Keepers (American game show)

The main game was played in two rounds, each with two halves. The first half of each round involved finding hidden pictures in a complex drawing, and the second half involved ransacking rooms in a large house built on-stage.

In the first half of each round, the object for the teams was to find hidden pictures drawn into a larger picture based on clues given by the host. On the Nickelodeon series, the picture was displayed on a telestrator and the team used a light pen to circle the object. On the syndicated series the picture was displayed on the game board with plastic laminate stickers similar to Colorforms representing the objects, and the team had to run to the board and stick a laminate to the picture to show where the hidden object was.

Each correct item located earned $25 for the team and an opportunity to search one of four rooms in the house for that round. During the first half of the Nickelodeon series the players chose the rooms they wanted to search, but this was later changed so that each hidden object found awarded the opportunity to search a specific room.

Each picture had a maximum of six objects hidden within it. In the first half of the Nickelodeon series, an incorrect answer meant a room would go unclaimed. For the subsequent episodes and syndicated series, the round was played until all four rooms were claimed or all six clues were played.

The house consisted of eight rooms that could be whimsical versions of traditional rooms in a typical home (e.g., a living room, a bathroom, a den or a kitchen), or complete fantasy rooms, such as "Sherlock's Study," "Ali-Baba's bathroom", a sewer (which contained a pool of water), Tarzan's tree house, a pastry shop, or "Frankenstein's laboratory."

In each room, the host read a clue describing an object hidden within that room. The team had 30 seconds to find the object, and were given one chance to show it to the host once found. Each room in this round was worth $50, which went to the team if they found the object in the room. If the team either failed to find the correct object or showed an incorrect one to the host, the opposing team won the money. On the Nickelodeon version while the team was trying to find the item associated with the clue, the camera would discreetly zoom into that item. In the syndicated version, a picture of the room would appear at the bottom of the screen with the object the team having to find being marked with a flashing white X.

Rooms were frequently set up with distractions to hinder the teams' searches of finding the object, such as ping-pong balls falling onto them from cabinets or the ceiling, sprays of water or confetti, and (in later episodes) entire shelves collapsing. However, any breakable or collapsible objects were fabricated in such a way as to prevent any injuries to the host or contestants.

Two teams playing the hidden picture round on the syndicated series (note the laminate stickers on the boards)

The process repeated with a second hidden pictures round and set of rooms to search. The dollar values increased to $75 for finding a correct hidden picture and $100 for successfully finding a hidden object in a room.

One of the rooms in round two was the "Instant Prize Room". If a team was in the room, a bell would go off and the lights in the room would flash to indicate this. If they managed to find the hidden object in the Instant Prize Room, both teammates won a bonus prize in addition to the $100 for finding the object; the prize could only be claimed by the team in the Instant Prize Room.

The team with the most money at the end of this round won the game and advanced to the Room to Room Romp. Both teams kept all money earned, the losing team receiving consolation prizes.

In the event that both teams were tied at the end of the second round, everyone went back to the play area and a shortened Hidden Pictures round was played. The first team to find two objects in the picture won.

In the Room-to-Room Romp, the winning team had 90 seconds to find a hidden object in each of six rooms, in a sequence given to them before the round began. All six objects had tags attached, with each of the first five tags directing them to the next room and giving a clue for the object hidden there.

The team won a prize for each object found, increasing in value to a grand prize for getting through all six rooms within the time limit.

The music for Finders Keepers was written by Edd Kalehoff. The music package was updated when the show went into syndication.

The first two seasons of Finders Keepers was taped at WHYY-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (as was Double Dare), while the syndicated version was taped at Hollywood Center Studios in Los Angeles, California. The sets of the Nickelodeon and syndicated versions differed slightly. The set of the Nickelodeon version consisted of a mock exterior of a house that included a door through which Eure entered at the beginning of the show. Prior to searching the house, the set would break away to reveal the house and rooms the teams would be searching. On the syndicated version, the play area and house shared the same set, with the house built stage left and the play area stage right.

Converse was a major sponsor of the show during its run, and every contestant and stage crew member (including the host) wore a pair of the company's shoes.