Messing with the background colour isn't so useful, but the palette for the foreground colours could probably be altered for nice twinkly high score table effects.
Update: This is the sort of thing I had in mind:
Code:
10 MODE 5
20 VDU 23,1,0;0;0;0;
30 FOR A%=0 TO 9
40 COLOUR (A% MOD 3) + 1
50 PRINT TAB(2, 4+(A%*2));1000-(A%*100)
60 PRINT TAB(8, 4+(A%*2));"High score"
70 NEXT
80 ?&1000=&20:?&1001=&80:?&1002=&A0
90 !&1004=&50401000
100 B%=0:C%=0
110 REPEAT
120 *FX 19
130 FOR A%=0 TO 3
140 V%=(C%?&1000 OR A%?&1004 OR B%)
150 ?&FE21=V%
160 B%=(B%+1) MOD 7
170 NEXT
180 C%=(C%+1) MOD 3
190 UNTIL FALSE
