Sep 16

Sep 16 Bailey's Top Ten Kids' Game Shows

Some of my favorite television programming growing up was game shows. From Hollywood Squares to Supermarket Sweep, I was an enraptured audience member if there were contestants and a timer involved. By far, my favorite types of game shows were the ones featuring kids (like me), and today I'd like to share my top ten game shows for kids that I faithfully tuned in to week after week. Choose a team and get your hands on your buzzers. Here they are!

10. You're On! (Nickelodeon, 1998) - This series was a bit of a departure from Nickelodeon's standard showcase of physical feats. You're On! required the contestants to go out into the world and convince unwitting strangers to engage in a particular form of public humiliation. The challenge that sticks in my memory the most involves some children who had to convince people to take off their shoes and socks and squish grapes (with their feet!) in a kiddie pool. While enjoyable to watch, my social anxiety prevented me from ever wanting to be a contestant on this show...

9. Double Dare/Double Dare 2000 (Nickelodeon 1986-1993, 2000) - Is there a more classic Nickelodeon game show than Double Dare? Featuring a mix of pop culture trivia, messy physical challenges, and a nearly impossible final obstacle course, Double Dare set the standard for children’s themed '90s game shows. While most people associate Double Dare with the original series, hosted by Marc Summers, people around my age may have caught the show's reboot, Double Dare 2000. Whatever iteration you may have seen, it was chaotic, sometimes disgusting, but fun for the whole family.

8. The Great Pretenders (Fox Family, 1999-2002) - What kid didn't love to dance around lip-syncing to their favorite musical artists? On The Great Pretenders, contestants did just that in front of a live studio audience. Contestants dressed up like their choice musician, rallied their backup dancers, and performed their favorite songs to be judged by the audience via applause. Who wouldn't want to be an 'American Idol' who doesn't have to sing?

7. What Would You Do? (Nickelodeon, 1991-1993) - Hosted by Marc Summers (of Double Dare fame), What Would You Do? invited members of a live studio audience to participate in unusual and often embarrassing challenges. It was You're On! without the terrifying prospect of having to approach strangers. Episodes typically featured an innovative way to give an audience member a 'pie in the face,' the Pie Coaster being the most exciting method. I can't deny that I would have gladly taken a pie in the face on that show, as it involved two of my favorite things from childhood: rides and whipped cream.

6. Mad Libs (Disney Channel, 1998-1999) - This show was a far more original and entertaining effort by Disney than Off the Wall, which aired that same year and was essentially Double Dare minus the pop culture trivia. On Mad Libs, all of the challenges in this series involved language, such as filling in the blanks, word associations, etc., but the incorporation of fun physical challenges made the show all the more fun to watch. My favorite part of the show was the final challenge, in which a team member had to run from station to station and get their teammate to guess a specific word in a particular way (acting it out charades-style, saying it with a mouth full of marshmallows, or even writing it with ketchup and mustard). It was an engaging, fun game show that I'm surprised was so short-lived.

5. Where in Time is Carmen San Diego? (PBS, 1996-1997) - You may be more familiar with this series' predecessor, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? (PBS, 1991-1995), but I can't remember catching it on PBS at all as a kid. I remember its replacement, in which contestants, aka "Time Pilots," attempted to recover a historically significant artifact stolen by one of Carmen's minions. The show's challenges were mainly historical trivia-based, my favorite game being one in which the players had to put historical events in chronological order without messing up. They also managed to make a final-round challenge that was pretty darn intense, involving trivia and running through "Time Portals." It looks exhausting, but awesome.

4. Figure It Out (Nickelodeon, 1997-1999) - The best part of this game show was the 'play along at home' element that I always took advantage of whenever I watched an episode. Contestants would reveal a strange fact about themselves, and a panel of cast members from various Nickelodeon shows would attempt to uncover the contestant's secret by asking yes or no questions. I would always cover my ears when the contestant revealed their secret, but the facts were so outlandish (for example, one kid could eat cereal off of their stomach) that I never was able to guess the answer. There was also a "secret slime word," revealed to the audience and concealed from the contestants, who would be covered in classic Nickelodeon slime if they happened to utter the word. It was one part messy, two parts confusing, and ten parts fun.

3. Wild and Crazy Kids (Nickelodeon, 1990-1992) - This nostalgia-overload of a show featured several large teams of kids, with teams denoted by a specific color of oversized, pastel, ‘90s-as-all-heck, t-shirts. The games were often strange, or messy, takes on traditional sports, and the events took place mainly outdoors. It had the feel of summer camp games or a school field days more than a regular game show. Watching the parents of the kids participate was yet another plus to this show (so many flabbergasted moms and dads in khaki shorts and sunglasses!). This series goes hand-in-hand with summer, and may tempt you to fill water balloons with paint and go wild yourself.

2. Legends of the Hidden Temple (Nickelodeon, 1993-1995) - Iconic. Legendary. Infuriating. These are just a few words I would use to describe one of the most-beloved Nick game shows. While many fondly remember the show, I can't help but notice how miserable all of the contestants look whenever I rewatch an episode. The lackluster trivia portions (or, rather, listening comprehension, as the kids just answered questions based on Olmec's introduction to the topic of the episode) must have been a cool-down from all of the grueling physical feats that the kids undertook. They were always swinging or bouncing over something or other during these games, and it looks like it aged all of them at least ten years. So why does this show merit number two on this list? If you've watched the show, you know what it is: “The Temple Run.” The show's final challenge was the ultimate obstacle course, set up as various rooms in the temple that the contestants had to successfully navigate in and out of, while being ambushed by Temple Guards hiding throughout the course. It was every kid's dream to get to run that course, and we were all confident that we would have successfully assembled that monkey statue. It's three dang pieces, gang!

1. Guts (Nickelodeon, 1992-1995) - "D-D-D-Do you have it?" Guts was the ultimate kids game show, with three kids competing in sports-themed challenges that appeared to be the most physically demanding imaginable. The show made it seem like these kids were going through months of training before attempting these extreme challenges. Ultimate game show host Mike O'Malley was so invested in his commentary, which involved screaming astonishment, making you feel like each of these kids had just kicked a World Cup-winning goal... I mostly watched the final season of the show, rebranded as Global Guts, which featured international contestants and had all of the Olympics' gravitas, especially when Mike would throw it over to Mo to check the leaderboard. Her British accent made everything seem so official. Who can forget this show's intense final challenge, the ever-evolving Aggro Crag, a smoking, flashing mountain that the contestants had to scale, while avoiding 'avalanches' and other obstacles in their way? Watching this show was a serious, high-stakes business.

What were your favorite game shows growing up? Would you have been a Green Monkey or a Purple Parrot? Let me know in the comments below, and remember that your parents probably won't be too thrilled if you treat their furniture like that Aggro Crag we all know it is...