The new TV show, 'Syrup Explosion' required three things in order to be a success.
1. The fake pot of caramel. This was tricky. What looks like a large pot of thick caramel sits on a stove. A female contestant stands at the counter leaning over it when a faint ding can be heard from a cooking timer, and then all of the caramel explodes into the face of the contestant. It was built like those fake cannons at the circus. The blue gas flame below the pot is just LED's, and the 'pot' has no bottom, but connected to a launching device built into the cabinet and filled with thick, gooey caramel syrup.
2. An attractive hostess. We ran ads and got a whole lot of very pretty young women wishing to host our new TV show. We had to thin them out, as there were simply too many to choose from. Maybe we could get some of them to quit. Although they were not to get messy in the show, perhaps we could stage some syrupy 'accidents'. We even had twins wanting to host.
3. Timing. Each contestant had to work on perfecting the thick caramel sauce before a timer went off, in order to escape getting enveloped in the exploding caramel. We had it set for approximately one minute. To get some of our extra hostesses to quit the show, we'd set it off as they were doing the introduction, surprising the hell out of them, as the ding of the timer would be followed instantly by the caramel syrup explosion all over them. We also had some caramel dropping down from a hidden panel in the ceiling at the same time, just in case the pot didn't erupt.
Here are the first two applicants for the hosting position, and also the technicians preparing the booby-trapped 'pot' of caramel and ensuring that the explosion was safe, yet big enough to mess up the contestants.
Here's a sneak peek where the hostess is arguing with the producer about getting messy. She wants no part of it, and is wearing her own dress, but the producer has his own agenda. Too late, she realizes maybe she should have worn a bra.