Hugo (game show)

Hugo
One of many logos for the Hugo shows, this one used by Kabel 1 in 1996.
Created by	Ivan Sølvason and Niels Krogh Mortensen
Presented by	Nina Klinker Jørgensen, various
Country of origin	Denmark
Production company(s)	Interactive Television Entertainment
Release
Original network	TV2
Picture format	480i
Original release	September 1990 – May 1995

Hugo (Danish: Skærmtrolden Hugo) is an interactive television show created by the Danish company Interactive Television Entertainment (ITE) in 1990, and since its premiere on TV2, this popular "live one-player multi platform interactive game show" has aired in more than 40 other countries, it has seen multiple video games and other media and merchandise in its extended franchise.

Hugo was first aired on Danish national television TV2 on the program Eleva2ren in 1990, featuring a video game that was played by the audience via telephone connection. A player would call the show, then be prompted by a human host to control a cartoon character on the TV screen in several scenarios by pressing digit keys on the phone (either 1,2, 3 or 2, 4, 6), assorted to the character controls. The hit show has been aired continuously for five years. Since then, there have been various merchandise produced in Denmark and elsewhere as welll as two attempts to adapt it into an animated film among other developments.

The show's original scenario, which ran on Danish television for a year, featured only the titular character - a small, friendly troll named Hugo, who is 220 years (a young age for his kind), navigating an old mine in a quest for a treasure. For the next season, the developer ITE added Hugo's family: his 180-years-old wife Hugolina (Hugoline) and their kids aged 20-50: Rit (TrolleRit), Rat (TrolleRat) and Rut (TrolleRut), as well Hugo's enemy, an evil witch named Scylla (originally Afskylia in Denmark and also having other international names such as Hexana in the German version, Maldicia in the Spanish version, Maldiva in the Portugaese version, Mordana in Croatia, Skylla in Finland, Sila in Turkey, and Simla in Vietnam) who is extremely old and hideous but uses magic to appear young and beautiful when she is nearby Hugolima. (Most Hugo video games and other adaptations would drop this motif as Scylla become always youthful by default and instead usually either seeks revenge against Hugo or searches for an ultimate power to conquer the world, and even tries to make trolls extinct.) The objective of the game became to navigate obstacles in a series of scenarios in order to reach Scylla's Skull Cave lair and rescue Hugo's family from cruel captivity, and several people would usually attempt this task to win the prize (depending on the amount of points from collecting gold along the way) during half an hour of airtime. Hugo would communicate with the player to comment on the game's progress, while the witch Scylla would taunt both Hugo and the player. Later, the show gradually expanded further with more characters (talking animals and regular animals, both good and evil) and increasingly diverse environments and gameplay, especially with the spin-off program Hugo Jungle Island (Hugo Vulkanøen) that premiered in January 1999. Another scenario, based on the video game Hugo: The Evil Mirror, was also created but never aired.