From Pilot to Final Product: Nick Arcade ft. Bilaal Smith

In our first episode of From Pilot to Final Product of 2017, Patricia and special guest Nickelodeon enthusiast and maker of the upcoming documentary, Nickelodeon Studios: Past, Present, and Future Bilaal Smith, look back on the Nick Arcade pilot and see how it differs from the eventual game show.

Check out Bilaal's links down below
https://bilaalsmith.com
https://www.facebook.com/NickStudiosPastPresentandFuture
https://twitter.com/b_smith5
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz1MdnwY-slHM2ty5h78TGQ

Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 76: Nick Arcade

In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia and special guest Nickelodeon enthusiast and creator of the Nickelodeon Studios: Past, Present, and Future documentary Bilaal Smith discuss about Nick Arcade in honor of its recent 25th anniversary celebration.

Check out Bilaal's links down below
https://bilaalsmith.com
https://www.facebook.com/NickStudiosPastPresentandFuture
https://twitter.com/b_smith5
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz1MdnwY-slHM2ty5h78TGQ

Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 75: Interview with Phil Moore

In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia interviews actor, comedian, and Nick Arcade game show host Phil Moore discussing about how he first got started in his acting career, his experiences of being the host of Nick Arcade and You're On, and what his favorite video games are.

Check out Phil's links down below.
https://m.facebook.com/PHIL-MOORE-1474669936156288/
https://twitter.com/PhilMoore4u

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: My Family's Got GUTS

At this point in time, game shows for Nickelodeon were dead. Just plain dead. After Nickelodeon Studios shut down its doors in 2005, people's interest for kids' game shows waned down fast, especially when Nickelodeon GAS was done in 2007. However, Nickelodeon decided to bring back kids' game shows with another revival. The first two attempts of game show revivals such as Double Dare 2000 and the 2002 Wild & Crazy Kids were such colossal failures that they didn't last longer than a year and people still look back to the original with fondness. Third time would be the supposed charm with the revival of the 1992 game show Nickelodeon GUTS with My Family's Got GUTS debuting on September 15, 2008.



The game show starts with a group of two families competing each other in a tournament filled with extreme games and concluding it at the Aggro Crag. The families with the highest points will move on to the next round, receive a piece of the Aggro Crag and the next family competes. It continues on until the final two families compete in the Aggro Bowl and the winner receives a full Aggro Crag trophy and a family trip. The host of My Family's Got GUTS is film critic/actor Ben Lyons and his co-host is Australian celebrity Asha Keurten.



What makes My Family's Got GUTS interesting is the fact that it was filmed in Sound Stages 23 and 24 of Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, which is something to behold since as previously mentioned, Nickelodeon Studios had shut down 3 years prior and every show that was being filmed were taking place at Nick on Sunset in California. Similar to the original Nickelodeon GUTS being a kid version of American Gladiators coming out around the same time, My Family's Got GUTS came out a few months after the American Gladiators revival back in January 2008. However, My Family's Got GUTS lasted for 2 seasons ending its run on October 10, 2009 despite the fact that Season 2 was never shown in North America due to most likely low ratings. There are a lot of reasons that My Family's Got GUTS frustrates me.

First off, this would've been a great opportunity to not only to revive the Nickelodeon game show genre that had been dead for 3 years, but it could've been the thing to bring back Nickelodeon Studios. If the show would've been a big hit, maybe more game shows or live action shows could've been filmed at the different Sound Stages at Universal Studios. Unfortunately, there was no mention of My Family's Got GUTS being filmed at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida similar to most of the game shows during the 80's and 90's during the ending credits. Parents could've taken their kids there and Universal Studios could've made a lot of money, but it was wasted potential.



Secondly, the hosts of Ben Lyons and Asha Keurten are very forgettable. It seems that the people who created this revival wanted them to be the next Mike O' Malley and Moira Quirk, with Lyons being kooky and wild and Keurten having a exotic language, but didn't understand what made O'Malley and Quirk work in the first place. Mike O'Malley was very goofy and silly, which would have normally been out of place for an "extreme" game show like Nickelodeon GUTS, but he was likable. Moira Quirk was the steady, down-to-earth referee who explained the rules to the kids and had a cheerful personality that was a much needed balance for O'Malley. They worked great together and no other Nickelodeon game shows accomplished this feat ever since. Lyons and Keurten were rehashes of what O'Malley and Quirk did 15 years prior as oppose to their own true personalities with no chemistry or likability.

Double Dare 2000 was a revival that played itself way too safe with little to no changes. Wild & Crazy Kids back in 2002 had too many changes that didn't make it unrecognizable from the original. My Family's Got GUTS was a mixture of both. While it retained the extreme games, the Aggro Crag, the theme song, and the criteria of the hosts' personalities, there were a lot of changes that were made that were mostly unnecessary. For example, the addition of the families being the contestants didn't mesh very well and made the pacing slower. The scoring system is very different from the original and can be confusing at times. Plus, the Aggro Crag was very confusing with the different gameplay, having a few seconds start with the teams with the highest score, and it being 5 feet smaller than the original Aggro Crag, it became a letdown since every Crag in each season became taller with more challenges with the Mega Crag being 28 feet tall and the Super Aggro Crag being 30 feet.



Overall, I have mixed opinions of My Family's Got GUTS. On one hand, it was the best revived game show that Nickelodeon had at that point and it felt like Nickelodeon GUTS. However, due to a mixture of keeping things way too safe with things that needed to be changed and having unnecessary changes that shouldn't have been made makes it a game show makes this a very frustrating experience to sit through. I think the game show would've done better if it wasn't based on Nickelodeon GUTS and was an original idea. It's an okay game show by itself, but it's nowhere near as good when compared to the original.

That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Nickelodeon Robot Wars/Scaredy Camp

Around 1987, there was a new competitive sport that formed around Denver, Colorado involving two people building robots to fight one another in a huge tournament against other people and their robots. That was called "Critter Crunch". Then around 1991, a man named Marc Thorpe, a designer for LucasToys division of Lucasfilm organized Robot Wars, a televised program about a group of people building robots for battle. As time went on, more and more robot combat tournaments formed. The popularity slowly grew into a major cult following and became more mainstream when another TV program named Battlebots debuted on Comedy Central around 2000. When I was in Willvolution, one of the members of the site was involved in robot combat with a group of his friends. Nickelodeon decided to make a kid version of Robot Wars and called it Nickelodeon Robot Wars which debuted on August 25, 2002.

The show would follow the competitors, which mostly contained kids with their parents, as they would talk about their robot and how they would build them. Then as time went on, we would get to a battle between the robots. Each episode had a couple of battles, but some would spread to other episodes. The robots would be placed in a arena filled with many hazards to damage it more such as the Disc of Doom which would spin a robot to disrupt the controls, The Drop Zone where a heavy object such as a giant hammer would be dropping in a certain spot in the arena, and much more. The robots would have a few minutes to fight one another and the robot who survives, wins the round. 

Nickelodeon Robot Wars was cancelled due to low ratings on October 6, 2002, less than two months after it aired. Next to the 2002 reboot of Wild & Crazy Kids, it's currently the shortest lasting game show in Nickelodeon history. I can understand that robot combat is not for everyone. Some find it exciting, some found it boring. Most kids who saw it were confused to what it was and that something so bizarre could even exist. As for me, I enjoy this sport. It's very creative, filled with ingenuity, and very action packed. As for Nickelodeon's version of Robot Wars, it's pretty decent. Sure, some of the hazards had to be omitted such as flame pit, the fire jets, the buzzsaws, and the constant swearing, but it was shown on Nickelodeon. What do you expect? As time went on, robot combat slowly died away from the mainstream audience and went back into the underground territory where it's still hugely popular to this day. But now this sport is coming back in a new way in the form of the 2011 movie Real Steel and Syfy's Robot Combat League making fighting robots cool again. 

If you're a fan of robot combat tournaments, I would say check it out. But definitely watch the original Robot Wars since it has more hazards and action.

The next game show that debuted on Nickelodeon was based on another fad: scaring people in real life scenarios. Horror movies such as Friday the 13th and The Blair Witch Project made kids go into the woods or a camping ground where the unexpected was around the corner. It was dark, mysterious, spooky, and scary. Not since Are You Afraid of the Dark? there was a scary and thrilling show on Nickelodeon. That is until Scaredy Camp debuted on October 27, 2002.

The show was about a group of kids in a summer camp called Camp Lindenwood. At night, the host of the show Emma Wilson, the daughter of Weakest Link host Anne Robinson, would tell the story of an urban legend based on the camp. At the end, they would have to find clues based on the legend that they learned about. We would get to see the kids looking for the clues in the dark, scary camp in which as time went on, spooky things would be occurring. Really, not much to say about the show. The show lasted for less than a year until it ended on August 16, 2003. It was extremely difficult to find episodes online since it hasn't been on the air since 2007 and hasn't aired on Nickelodeon ever since. The show was a very interesting concept and had a really spooky atmosphere. 

I commend these game shows since it wasn't a reboot of an old game show and it was outside the box of what was a typical Nickelodeon game show was at that point. It was nice for them to take risks, but those risks were their downfall. It didn't find an audience and nowadays, it had been hugely forgotten. It's a shame too because if people would've have given it a chance, maybe more unorthodox game shows for Nickelodeon would've came out. Unfortunately, this would be the first indication of people's disinterest in game shows for kids.

That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Figure it Out/The Journey of Allen Strange

Before we talk about our main review, let's quickly discuss about the game show that featured the many talents of kids. What were the talents, you say? Well, my friend, you have to figure it out. That was the name of the game: literally. On July 7, 1997, Nickelodeon debuted a new game show called Figure it Out.

The show would start out with a kid who would reveal his talent to the audience and the viewers. There were four panelists consisting of huge Nickelodeon stars at the time trying to guess what the talent was. The panelists were consisted of people such as the cast members of All That like Amanda Bynes, Lori Beth Denberg, Josh Server, Kenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell, Mark Saul, Kevin Kopelow, and Danny Tamberelli. There was also Mike O'Malley and Moira Quirk from Nickelodeon GUTS, Irene Ng from The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, Phil Moore from Nick Arcade, Marc Weiner from Weinerville, Vanessa Baden from Kenan & Kel, Arjay Smith from The Journey of Allen Strange, and Michelle Trachtenberg from Harriet the Spy.



In different occasions, there would be celebrity guest panelists such as Aaron Carter, Carrot Top, Coolio, Mya, Tara Lipinski, Colin Mochrie, Chris Jericho, and more.

Each game consisted of three rounds. If the panelists wanted to know what the kid's talent was, they would ask "yes" or "no" questions. If they couldn't think of a question, they could say "pass". In each round, a clue would be given to them. The first two would be an object or noise and the third clue would be charaded to them by a group of people called "The Charade Brigade". If they're able to say a word that matched the kid's talent, then it would be revealed on a giant head called Billy the Answer Head.



If the panelists fail to guess the talent for each round, the kid gets a prize. If they fail in all three rounds, then he gets the grand prize! The grand prize would be mostly a trip to Universal Studios or a trip to Mexico or Jamaica. Once again, just like Nick Arcade, I find that winning a trip to Universal Studios, the same place where the show is being filmed, is very lazy! We already learned from Legends of the Hidden Temple that big trips can be adventurous and fun like Mexico, Venezuela, the Bahamas, or even in a ranch in Montana and that game show had stopped airing two years before. Way to take a step backwards, Figure it Out.

In the second round, there would be a section of the show called "The Secret Slime Action". A random person would be chosen from the audience for a chance to win a prize. If one of the panelists performs the secret slime action, he or she would get slimed and the audience member would win the prize. Some of these actions were either simple ones like passing a turn, guessing a clue correctly, or sitting next to someone. But the majority of the time, they were beyond impossible to complete. In one episode, the secret slime action was scratching your head. No one was scratching their head so Summer told Danny that there was something on his head. He scratched it and he was slimed. That's so forced and contrite. Nobody likes something forced on! Also, the amount of slime that would be poured on the panelists were inconsistent. The slime would come down either fully.

Or partially.

Slime was the main substance in Nickelodeon. It would've been so great to see them get poured with so much slime. For the people who grew up with Flgure it Out, this was their favorite part of the show. I just wished for a little bit more. Maybe I was spoiled with the amount of slime that they poured on people's heads in Double Dare, but still. I wanted more slime.

 

The show was hosted by Olympic gold medal swimmer Summer Sanders. She was the very first solo female game show host in Nickelodeon and her persona towards the panelists and the kids was very cute and quirky. She was able to run things smoothly while all the crazy things were going on.



The show was created by Kevin Kay and Magda Liolis. They had loved game shows like What's My Line? and I've Got a Secret, so they decided to make a kids version out of it to showcase kids' talents, inventions, and abilities. Some of them were quite neat such as being able to waterski barefoot, instantly playing any song he hears, squiring milk from his eye socket, being an accuracy and freestyling frisbee champion, inventing a self soaping washcloth, knowing the day of every date, inventing a no tear onion slicer, and discovering a recipe for edible plastic. However, some of them were a bit weird and lame such as burping a Christmas song, making a ball of toe jam, working in a pet library, sticking a lizard in your tongue, pinning clothes pins to your face, a dog drinking milk from your mouth, collecting large spiders in a jar, and sticking lobster eyes on your tongue.

Then before the round was over, the kids would then show off their talents to the audience, the panelists, and the viewers. Depending on what the talent was, they were really cool to see.



Figure it Out would have two spinoffs from their show: Figure it Out: Family Style and Figure it Out: Wild Style. Family Style involved with the kid and a parent doing a talent together and Wild Style involved with a kid and his animal doing a talent.

The show had lasted for 5 seasons ending its run on December 12, 1999. Overall, I found the show to be okay. While the panelists can be fun at times, especially Danny with his goofball antics and Lori Beth getting most of the answers right, there are a few things about it that just makes Figure it Out flawed. Besides the forced actions to make a panelist get slimed, some of the lame talents, and the inconsistent slime, another thing that I didn't like were the prizes. While they're not the worst prizes giving on a Nickelodeon show, that would be Nick Arcade, some of them were just lazy. For example, some of the prizes were props from Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Nick Arcade, Legends of the Hidden Temple, or Double Dare. But I felt that they gave them away because they knew that the shows weren't coming back so they had to think of a way to get rid of them. It feels manipulating on their part to give something away like that. Unless you're a huge Nickelodeon fan and grew up with these shows, you would feel like you were gypped if you were given a helmet from Hidden Temple or a piece of the wall from Double Dare. Some of these kids probably didn't even know where they came from or what they are. They were probably expecting something like a bike or a video game or a new movie or something. Maybe I'm just nitpicking, but I felt that the prizes could've been better.



Overall, I find the show to be okay. Not one of my favorite game shows on Nickelodeon and not up to par with Double Dare and Legends of the Hidden Temple, but I recommend checking it out sometime.

Now we get to the main review. On November 7, 1997, a new teen series debuted on Nickelodeon asking the question: What would you do if an alien lands on Earth stranded away from home? Do you report to the police or do you take it in and help it get home? Well, in this show, they do the latter. This is The Journey of Allen Strange.

It follows the story of a young Xelan alien who is stranded on Earth. While exploring his surroundings, he meets up with a young girl named Robbie Stevenson (played by Erin Jean), her brother Josh (played by Shane Sweet) and their father Ken (played by Jack Tate). They decide to take the alien into their home to live until he can find a way to get home. They name him "Allen Strange" and he eventually shapeshifts into an African American human (played by Arjay Smith) being to blend in with society.



Each episode, Allen tries to blend in on Earth and learn about their ways while figuring out how to get home. We learn more about each of the characters and their hobbies and problems. Allen is a very intelligent alien: he can read books quickly, learn languages in an instant, and has unique powers such as hovering in his alien form and being able to turn a mannequin to life to portray as his "father". He sleeps in the attic in a strange looking cocoon and has a love for canned cheese. Allen misses his mother in his home planet and wishes to find a way to go home. Robbie has new sets of responsibilities to uphold ever since their mother left. She feels lonely and overwhelmed having to be the new woman of the house. That's actually refreshing! In almost every sitcom or teen series at that time, everytime there would be a family consisting of a dad with kids, the mother would always be prounonced dead. It's nice to see a change in this show that doesn't need to use the "mother's-not-in-the-show-because-she's-dead" cliche. I'm looking at you, Full House. Allen misses his mother and Robbie misses hers, but they start to form a bond with each other. Josh likes sports, comic books, video games, and the Internet. Whenever an episode involves with anything technical, Josh always shines through. He's beyond excited about having Allen in their house since he loves UFOs and aliens.



The father is my least favorite character. He's goofy, cracks stupid jokes, and is unaware about what's going on around him. He's always the last to know about what crazy situations Allen, Robbie, and Josh get into and sometimes doesn't put two and two together. We already had these kind of TV dads billions of times already and it's a shame that in a show that already has likable characters, they had to throw this guy in. He's just there for laughs and goofy moments.

The show was created by Thomas Lynch, the creator of The Secret World of Alex Mack. While the 4th Season of Alex Mack was going, he wanted to release another show that had more realistic situations that a teen would be going through. They were based on things he went through when he was a kid.

"I think The Journey of Allen Strange illustrates my feelings of alienation as a child," Lynch says. "He is separated from his family and the comforts of his usual lifestyle and just wants to fit in. I was 13 and I left my home and lived in a garage. Nobody really ever missed me." When pressed for details, Lynch said with a laugh, "I'm from a single-parent family; there's eight siblings in my family."



The show mostly contains these funny, goofy moments that would involve with things like babysitting an alien baby or trying to fit in among the humans. The more serious episodes like Robbie trying to hide her grades from her father because she was upset about her parents' separation or Allen and Robbie comforting each other when it came to missing their mothers are really touching and well written. These were my favorite episodes and I wished that there were more of them. But unfortunately, the show never pushed itself to make the show too serious, since it also had the comedic goofy moments to lighten it up.

"There are fun romps, such as the episode that features (alien space pests) who eat all of the furniture in the house. The Christmas episode really rocks. Allen brings to life two elf statues, which add a lot of whimsy, but at the core the episode teaches Allen that Christmas is about giving of yourself and not the material things."



Just like Alex Mack and Shelby Woo, Allen Strange also had a book series that contained stories not shown in the series. However, unlike Shelby Woo or Alex Mack, the Allen Strange books only had eight books.



As for the series finale, oh man, where do I start? It's so weird, insulting, boring, and anticlimatic at the same time. Allen finds out that there's an archelogical dig in the Middle East going on and that they had discovered a relic that contains the Xelan language. Allen thinks that it might be a secret for him to get home. So they go to an airport, split up to find the plane leaving for the Middle East, and finding out it's boarding and have no tickets. Robbie disguises herself as an airport employee and sneaks them into the plane leaving for the Middle East. Remember people, this is before 9/11, in which there were no heavy security and you wanted to go to the Middle East. While never explaining how Robbie was able to find Josh and Allen or where she got the uniform, they finally arrive. With a long way the dig, they conveniently find Arab gear, escape the gun-weiding guards, and hop on a bus heading to their destination.



Apparently, when they arrive at the last stop, they meet up with a nomatic tribe, a prince, and the diggers who happen to speak English. They continue their journey surprisingly with no food, water, or a map knowing where to go. Along the way, they have to come across an radio personality who hosts a program about UFOs and government conspiracy and uses him to get to the tomb site where the relic is. Finally, they find it, Allen has a chance to go home, and...he doesn't. After all this time of wanting to go home, Allen loves his friends and his life on Earth so much that he chooses to stay. When they get home, the father never questions of where they were or why they were wearing the Arabian clothes. He's clueless as usual. Then the series ends with Allen looking up in the stars saying that maybe he was left on Earth because he was meant to be on Earth.

The show lasted for 3 seasons ending its run on April 23, 2000. Some of the actors did other projects while some faded into obscurity.

Arjay Smith has been in a few movies and TV shows such as Step by Step, Boston Public, The West Wing, 24, That's So Raven, Malcolm in the Middle, The Day After Tomorrow, Vacancy 2: The First Cut, ER, Figure it Out, and Perception.



Erin Dean has appeared in other TV shows and movies such as Figure it Out, Boy Meets World, Monty Against the Grain, Lovers Lane, and Lolita. She had quit acting in 2000 and does not plan act again.



Shane Sweet has been in other TV shows such as Star Trek: Enterprise, Figure it Out, Static Shock, and Caprica. He's currently on a band called The Celestial Matinee.



Overall, the entire show is a combination of blandness, touching moments, realistic characters, cheesy, goofy moments, a concept that wasn't fully executed, and a crappy series finale. It's a disjointed mess that doesn't know whether to be serious or funny or relatable or goofy. The moments that are good are really good. I like the characters of Robbie and Josh. Robbie is going through a problem that a lot of people are going through: her parents are separated and she has a new batch of responsibilities. She misses her mom and wishes that they could be a family again. That is so refreshing and new! I like that conflict.  Also Josh may be a technical geek, but he's not really a geek. He's a relatable person who always knows how to help in any technical situation. He's reflecting on whay a typical kid was at the time: a boy who has a love of comic books, video games, and the Internet. Trust me, he could have been worse.

But those aspects are not the main focus of the show: the show is about Allen Strange. It's in the title, for goodness sakes. But Allen is not that interesting: he's just your typical alien. An everyman who lands on a strange planet, adapting to his surroundings, and trying to get home. He's like E.T. without the charm. The show has some huge flaws and some things that are never explained like why Allen has disguised himself as an African American human, but lives in a home with white people? Why didn't he disguise himself as a White kid to blend in with the family? Did anyone question why a Black kid is living with a White family all of a sudden? If it's because they're "Putting diversity in the show" or "It's sort of like Diff'rent Strokes in which a Black kid is adopted into a White family", then with Allen Strange, it seems sort of vague and...strange. Speaking of, why did they decide to call him Allen Strange? Don't you think the name's a bit odd and people might question it? It's not a name you hear of every day.

It's like they were trying to put two completely different shows into one. The one about the alien trying to get home and the family going through a tough time with their mom leaving them and the struggles they go through to be whole again. I can see this becoming a flowing story, but it's not done well. They talk about serious conflicts in one scene and have something goofy in the other. It doesn't work. You have to choose between being either serious or funny. You can't do both unless you can put it in a cohesive matter. In The Journey of Allen Strange's case, it doesn't.



If you want to see this concept done in a cohesive matter that's funny and goofy, see either Alf, Mork and Mindy, or 3rd Rock from the Sun.



If you want to see this done in a serious matter, Roswell is your show.



If you want both, then see E.T. The Extraterrestrial or Lilo and Stitch. These are done so much better than Allen Strange.



Just like The Secret World of Alex Mack, Thomas Lynch had created a really good concept of a TV show, but did not executed it well at all. When the show first came out, it was not seeing by many viewers. Today, it's one of the Nickelodeon shows that has been forgotten. There's a reason why that no one remembers it. It's clumsy, it's flawed, it doesn't focus on the main plot, and there are too many goofy moments overlapping the good, serious moments. It's a show with an identity crisis. I don't recommend checking it out.



That's all for now. Tune in next time as we conclude 1997 with Nickelodeon's next feature film Good Burger.



Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Legends of the Hidden Temple

In the early 90's, game shows for kids were hugely popular. While PBS had Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Nickelodeon was king of the kids' game shows. However, as we reviewed the previous game shows before, a good majority of them have not aged very well or were just mediocre at best. But that completely changed on September 11, 1993, three men created and released, in my opinion, the best Nickelodeon game show of the 90's. I'm talking about Legends of the Hidden Temple.



The game show was about six teams consisting of a boy and a girl doing various obstacles to retrieve an item from a temple to gain prizes. In order to get into the temple, the six teams must battle it out until only one remained. The teams were of the following:



The obstacles were of the following:

The moat. The teams had to cross a shallow swimming pool filled with fog known as the moat in various ways. Whether it was on a raft, swimming, or leaping on large tires, the first four teams to make it first would go on to the next round.



The next obstacle was the Steps of Knowledge. The large talking Olmec rock god known as Olmec would tell the legend of the artifact and the teams would have to remember it in order to make it to the next round. After the legend, Olmec would then ask questions about the legend that he just told. If the team knew the answer, they would stomp on the marker in front of the step. If they get it right, they take a step down closer to winning. If they get it wrong, they have to stay on the same spot. The first two teams to make it to the bottom would go on to the next round.



The next obstacle were the Temple Games. There are three temple games focusing on the theme of the legend. There were three temple games and each time a team won the first two, they would receive a half pendant. The final temple game was a full pendant. The pendants were used to protect themselves from the Mayan temple guards guarding Olmec's temple and preventing the winning team from retrieving the artifact.



Last, but certainly, not least, is the Temple Run. Following the tradition of almost every Nickelodeon game show, they saved the best for last. The winning team would have 3 minutes to go into Olmec's temple and retrieve the artifact before time ran out. Each of the rooms were locked and had to be opened by doing a certain task. Inside the temple were the guards being there for the sole purpose of preventing the team from getting the artifact. Depending on how many pendants they won, whether it was 1, 1 and a half, or 2, they could give a pendant and go on. But if there were no more pendants, they would be taken out of the temple. If they retrieve the artifact, all of the doors would instantly unlock and the temple guards would vanish. If they made it out of the temple with the artifact before time ran out, they would win the prizes.



Throughout the three seasons of the show, the 13 rooms had been changed to increase the challenge of the contestants. There were 15 layouts overall: 9 layouts in Season 1, 5 layouts in Season 2, and 1 layout in Season 3. But the one thing that still remained in all 3 seasons was The Shrine of the Silver Monkey. There were three pieces of the monkey that the kid had to put together. Sometimes, some moronic kid would put the monkey together all wrong and you would be yelling at the TV saying, "Come on! I can do better than that! What's wrong with you? Turn it around! Turn the head around, you idiot!"

Everybody who grew up with this game show always had a favorite team and would brag on who was the best. "The Blue Barracudas were the best!" No, The Silver Snakes were #1!" According to IMDB, it tallied up the scores on which team did the best and worst. Out of the 120 episodes, The Orange Iguanas made it into the most Temple Runs out of all the 6 teams. There was a 17% chance that the Red Jaguars would win a Temple Run. The Silver Snakes and the Green Monkeys were tied on entering and completing the Temple Run, but the Green Monkeys had a slight higher percentage on winning by 33%. The Purple Parrots only made it to the Temple four times and won once. It doesn't matter who was the best or the worst, people still would represent their favorite teams regardless. In fact, you can even buy a replica T-shirt of the six teams for around $15. Go to http://www.templeshirts.com/ and pick up one yourself. It's really cool!



The host of the show was Kirk Fogg. He was a pretty good host; enthusiastic, optimistic, and entertaining for the kids. However, there were a few flubs that he would do on the show from time to time that people refer to as "Foggisms". Nonetheless, he was 1000% better than Phil Moore, that's for sure.



But the real star of the show, in my opinion, was Olmec. He had a very deep, serene voice when it came to telling the legends and explaining the rules of the games. He was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, who most of you guys know as the voices of Klaus from American Dad, the voices of the Storm Troopers from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Perry the Platapus from Phineas and Ferb, and Appa and Momo from Avatar: The Last Airbender. He also did the announcing voice telling the kids their prizes of the show. This was his very first voice acting role in a series. People still to this day praise him for voicing Olmec.

The show was created by David G. Stanley, Scott A. Stone, and Stephen Brown. Stanley and Stone came together and formed the production company Stone Stanley Entertainment in 1991. Stanley and Stone also did the music for the show crediting to The Music Machine. The show lasted for 3 seasons ending its run in 1995. Stone Stanley Entertainment went and produced other game shows and reality shows in the such as The Man Show, The Mole, Celebrity Mole, and Shop Till You Drop. Dee Baker returned in Shop Till You Drop in 1997 as the announcer.

In 2004, Stanley left the company and the name was changed to Stone & Company Entertainment. They're currently producing the Nickelodeon game show BrainSurge, now called Family BrainSurge. I'll discuss about that game show some other time.

When the show first came out, the critics were amazed by it. They loved the concept of the show with it being creative, unique, and exciting. Feminist author Susan Douglas praised it for being "nonsexist" and "non violent". There were some critics however, such as A.J. Jacobs from Entertainment Weekly, saying that it was an American Gladiators clone mixed with Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Nonetheless, Legends of the Hidden Temple won the CableACE award for best game show in 1995 and nominated two more times that same year. Overall, as I said, this is my absolute favorite Nickelodeon game show in the 90's and my favorite Nickelodeon game show ever! It's gripping with excitement, intense action, and the coolest concept for a game show that I have ever seen. It still holds up very well to this very day, even slightly better than Double Dare. 

*crowd booing

Oh come on, I didn't mean it like that. I love Double Dare to death. Don't get me wrong. The minor issue with Double Dare that slightly dated it to me were the pop culture reference based questions. If a kid were to see an old episode of Double Dare today, there's no way he'll know who the members of Kids in the Hall are. With Legends, the questions focus on the legends that took place in the past that seems like it could be asked at any time. Also, anybody who grew up with Legends always wanted to be in Olmec's Temple. They couldn't wait until the final part in the show to see the kids trying to receive the artifact. It was the best part in the whole show that still gets me excited to see it again 20 years later. There were even some moments in which I cried with joy that they won, especially if they really deserved it.

This was the show that combined skill, knowledge, strategy, and bravery all in one. In order for you to succeed in winning the game, you needed all those things plus determination and a strong will to never give up when things seemed dim. It still holds up today and I highly recommend watching this show! You will not be disappointed! 

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we conclude 1993 with The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: What Would You Do?/Nick Arcade

Before we wrap up 1991, let's quickly discuss the zany kids' talk show What Would You Do? hosted by Marc Summers that debuted on August 31, 1991.

The show was simply about Marc getting the audience into crazy situations and doing crazy dares, games, and obstacles to win small prizes. For the loser of those games, they would get hit in the face with a pie. Almost everyone involved got messy, including Marc himself.



There were special guest appearances on the show, fun games involving with pies, and crazy pie contraptions that the kids would get into in the end. An example would be the infamous Pie Pod in which the kid would sit at a seat where four or five pies would hit him all over.

There was also the pie coaster in which someone would ride a mini roller coaster and run over a huge pie at the end.

There was also the pie slide in which someone would ride a slide all the way down a giant pie.

There was also the pie wash which was kind of similar to a car wash. But instead of a car washed with soap and water, it was a kid being washed with pie creme.

There were other pie themed situations that happened on the show, but you get the idea.



One last thing that they would do at the end of every episode is call out numbers that the audience would have. If Marc called out that number, then you would have a chance to pick out a prize at the Wall-O-Stuff. You could pick from any numbers from 1 to 20. The prizes range from a What Would You Do? hat, T-shirt, water bottle, or sweatshirt to a trip to the Pie Pod, the Pie Coaster, or the Pie Wash, or some other cool surprises.

The show had around 90 episodes and ended its run in 1993.



Overall, it was a pretty zany, crazy, and kooky show and I enjoyed it as a kid. However, I was more of a Double Dare fan as a kid and I would see that show more as opposed to What Would You Do? As you recall from my interview with Marc Summers, he didn't really enjoy hosting the show really much thinking it was too weird and strange. If this is the kind of show that interests you, check it out. If not, then I would recommend watching Double Dare.



The year is 1992. Aladdin, The Bodyguard, Batman Returns, Wayne's World, and A Few Good Men were released in theaters. Batman: The Animated Series, Goof Troop, Barney & Friends, and Mad About You debuted on TV. The 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain would soon begin. The video game 16-bit war between the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis was growing stronger with games coming out fast from each system duking it out to see who would be on top. (Spoiler alert: the SNES wins!)

The SNES that year had Super Mario Kart while the Genesis had Sonic the Hedgehog 2. What do you do when you put video games into a game show? You get Nick Arcade which debuted on January 4, 1992.

The show started off with two teams consisting a boy and a girl playing an arcade game to see who would start first on Round 1. This was known as the Face-Off. Next, the host named Phil Moore, would talk about controlling a little adventurous boy named Mikey on the main screen in any direction except diagonally. Remember folks, this is video games in the early 90's. We could only move our characters in 8 directions. We didn't have those fancy, schmancy gimmicks that we could move them in 360 degree directions. That wouldn't happen for at least a few more years until the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation came out.



Depending on where Mikey was in the Video Zone, the questions would try to follow with that theme. If he was in space, then some of the questions would be about the solar system. If he was in medieval times, then some of the questions would be out medieval history. You get the idea.




For every question the team gets right, they would have a chance to move Mikey. If Mikey landed on a square that contained the four Ps: Puzzles, Prizes, Pop Quiz, or Video Puzzle, then they would get that. If they land on the main villain, they lose control of Mikey and the other team gets a chance to control him.



If it was the Video Challenge, then the team would play a video game for a chance to win more points.



This was always one of the best highlights of the entire show: seeing a video game in action.

The main highlight of the entire game show was when they went to the Video Zone to play a live action video game via virtual reality. In three levels, they have to complete each level grabbing three coins without getting injured. At the last level, they fight against the evil villain, grab three orbs, and prevent getting injured before time runs out. This is where you really see the gamer's full potential: they either are good or they suck.

Every once in a while, the show would have guest contestants playing Nick Arcade. They were the actors who were on the popular teen Nick shows at the time like Welcome Freshmen, Salute Your Shorts, and Clarissa Explains it All. 

There was even a regular teenager who entered Nick Arcade who would be a celebrity later on. That kid was known as Joey Fatone, one of the members of N'Sync.

The show was created by James Bethea and Karim Miteff, who revolutionizes live action and animation mixed with a blue screen to create their virtual reality games during the Video Zone segments. The virtuaul reality segments were designed by Bethea and Miteff and programmed by Curt Toumainian from Saddleback/Live Studios and Dean Friedman from InVideo Systems. You might remember that interactive blue screen game that Total Panic featured called Eat-A-Bug. Well, they were the ones who also worked on that and many other interactive video games.

Sure in today's standards, that's not a big deal. A good number of internet critics can purchase their own green screen effects and do it themselves. Video games are more sharper and cleaner looking. We see this kind of stuff in movies all the time. But back in the late 80's and early 90's, this was something that was never seen before. It was way ahead of its time. Here's what Phil Moore had to say about it when he first saw it in an interview by Mathew Klickstein at splitsider.com.

“You look at it now and it’s like, ‘Whatever,’” said Moore who has a technical background of his own. Right out of aeronautical school, he worked as a data center computer librarian before giving stand-up comedy a try at Florida’s Bonkerz Comedy Club, where he hung out with the likes of future SNL star Darrell Hammond.

“But when we were on the show,” Moore continued, “I was just kind of in the eye of the tornado and watched it happen around me. It was way over my head. Everything I had done in my field was about ‘science present,’ whereas they [Bethea and Miteff] came up with something that was ‘future science.’”

“James and Karim had created such an original, technologically-advanced show for its time, you couldn’t argue with them about stuff because you didn’t know it yourself. These guys just invented this, so how can you tell them they’re doing it wrong?”

James Bethea also discussed about the technological aspects of the Video Zone in the same interview.

“You know what was amazing was the scale — the thing people didn’t get to see. Our set was 10,000 sq. ft. 100×100. And half of our sound stage was dedicated to blue screen sets, full-scale. That was the awesome part, really, to see it from that side and look at the scale of what we had built. That was amazing to go back and see this blue wonderland. For Iron Man 2, there was a massive set built for the Stark Expo. It was the largest blue screen ever used in a film. It was so funny being there and having Jon explaining that to me, realizing we had done the same thing years before.”

“When he was doing Iron Man [1], Jon had told us that he went over to the set where James Cameron was doing Avatar, and Karim and I were thinking, ‘Wow, that sounds like Nick Arcade!’”

“Certainly in a technical arena,” Bethea continued, “some ideas hang around and reemerge in different contexts. It’s still amazing to think about, in a very literal sense, how far ahead of the time we were back then.”

The host of Nick Arcade was Phil Moore. I have to say, out of all the Nickelodeon game show hosts, he is the goofiest of them all. He is really all over the place, making noise, cracking corny jokes, and dressing in some of the most ridiculous colored shirts. His style really screamed out early 90's and it's so hilarious to look at today. The show lasted for two seasons ending its run on March 12, 1993. 

I had loved this show to death when I was a kid, but looking back at it now 20 years later, there are some huge major flaws. First is Phil Moore himself: As I said previously, he's the corniest host that has ever graced  Nickelodeon game shows...and he was pretty fun to look at. He isn't incredibly annoying and crazy like Skip Lackey from Think Fast! However, he wasn't extremely boring and dull like Michael Carrington from Think Fast! or Robert Edward Morris from Make The Grade. He just didn't have the same wit, fun, and charm that Marc Summers from Double Dare had. 

Summers had just one thing that no other Nickelodeon game show host back in the 80's had: they had little to no experience with children and how they really are in real life. Marc Summers was a magician and helped with a local kids' show in his home town before he went to be a comedian and game show host. That experience makes a huge difference when it comes to being interacting with kids in a way that's not too over-the-top or boring. Phil Moore, at least, tried his very best to be fun with the kids, but it just looks a bit too goofy and pretentious in my book. Definitely not one of my favorite kids' game show host. 

I mean, this is the same guy who said Dr. Robotnik's name wrong and called him Dr. Roboneck. If you're hosting a game show about video games and you're constantly referencing video games in the wrong way in front of millions of viewers who are video game junkies, that's inexcusable. I'm sorry. 

Second are the prizes that they use to give away. Granted, back then the prizes were simple like bikes, video games, Walkman's, etc. But out of all the Nickelodeon game show prizes, Nick Arcade was by far the worst. They would give stuff like basketball hoops, candy, VCRs, karaoke machines, and a trip to Universal Studios. You know, Universal Studios, the same place you're actually at to compete in Nick Arcade. That's just lazy and stupid. At least Double Dare made you have a chance to win a trip to Space Camp. 

Third are the questions. Now, yes, I'm well aware that this is a game show and you need to ask questions. But, I must ask, why didn't they make the majority of the questions about video games? I mean, hello, this is a game show that focuses on video games. You play video games before the rounds begin, you play video games in the Video Challenge, you go into the Video Zone in which it's an interactive video game. Why didn't you stick with the theme and asked more questions about video games? I mean, come on, every other game show at the time already had the smart, easy questions. It would have been a great opportunity to split from that cliche and do something else. Double Dare did this. Make the Grade did this. Think Fast! did this. Get the Picture did this.

If Mikey is going into outer space, then ask questions about Metroid or Star Fox. If Mikey is going to the jungle, ask questions about Adventure Island. If Mikey is going to medieval times, ask questions about Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, or The Legend of Zelda. The possibilities would have been endless. Same thing with the puzzles. Make a good amount of them about video games. Not all of them because that would shove too much of it down your throat, but enough to emphasize the theme that the game show is about video games. 

Fourth and finally are the majority of the contestants. Some of them are so stupid and most likely have never played a video game before, especially the girls. Yes, at the time, most girls didn't play video games. Shocking, I know. But you just look at them playing a game and screwing up so badly, you want to scream at the TV saying, "Oh come on, I can do better than that." "Are you serious? You're suppose to jump and grab the coins." "Shoot the plane, don't go near it. Shoot it!" 

Also, there's the Video Zone. This is truly the stuff of legends. This is where you truly see the bad gamers' real skills and most of them are painful to watch. Real painful.

You might be thinking that I hate this show, but I don't. I like this show. It has a really cool concept and a really good execution when it comes to the games and the blue screen virtual reality games. I mean, people still want that in video games today. Why do you think we have the Wii, the PlayStation Move, and the Kinect? Because we want to interact with our games. We want to be in the adventure. We want to be the hero. We wanted to get into the Video Zone.

But everything else wasn't executed properly. It just shows more and more of the flaws of Nick Arcade as the years go on. It hasn't aged well at all. The host was too corny, the prizes sucked, the questions and puzzles sucked, the contestants were mostly idiots, and they didn't take advantage of the concept that they were trying to represent. I sort of recommend checking Nick Arcade if you're a huge gamer or a fan of cheesy virtual reality. If this doesn't seem like your thing, I would give it a pass. 

However, if there's anyone from Nickelodeon who's reading this, I advise you: do a remake of Nick Arcade. Yes, I know, arcades aren't popular anymore, but video games are. We've come such a long way from what Karim Miteff and James Bethea did 20 years ago, you can update it to the 21st century. Just fix the flaws from the original: get a new less goofier host, emphasize on the video game theme more, get better contestants, update the Video Zone, give out better prizes, and boom! You'll make a lot of money and gain a new generation of viewers! Make it happen, Nickelodeon! If you can do the same with remaking Double Dare, Wild & Crazy Kids, GUTS, and Figure it Out, then do it for Nick Arcade. Just do it right this time, I know you can.

Do you want to see Nick Arcade rebooted? If so, what changes do you want to see? If not, what Nickelodeon game show do you want to see rebooted? Post it in the comments below. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia