Legends of The Hidden Temple - Theme and Premise

Theme and Premise

The set design of Legends was based on the Indiana Jones movies, and Marianne Arneberg of the Orlando Sentinel described Legends as "a combination of Jeopardy and Raiders of the Lost Ark". The set design has been described as Mayan. It included areas for different types of physical challenges: a broad but shallow pool of water (the Moat), a set of steps (the Steps of Knowledge), and a large, two-and-a-half-floor vertical labyrinth (the Hidden Temple) at the back of the stage. At the labyrinth's gate was a talking Olmec head simply named Olmec (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker). Olmec narrated the stories told in the steps of knowledge and temple game challenges (although in a few early episodes Kirk narrated the temple game challenges). Every episode had a theme: a particular legend was picked (written), regarding a certain artifact from around the world that found its way to the Temple (a replica of the actual artifact, if such an artifact existed in real life), and the winning team had to retrieve it. Some artifacts included "Lawrence of Arabia's Headdress," "The Walking Stick of Harriet Tubman," "The Electrified Key of Benjamin Franklin," "The Jewel-Encrusted Egg of Catherine the Great," "The Levitating Dog Leash of Nostradamus," "The Bifocal Monocle of One-Eyed Jack" "The Diary of Dr. Livingstone," and "The Broken Wing of Icarus." In addition to providing an artifact, the legend also was important to other aspects of the show: the Steps of Knowledge used questions based on the historical legend, and the theming of the Temple Games was also loosely based on the legend.