Nickeleodeon's newest game show, Tooned In, a review

[whewfan]

And now, my review of Nickelodeon's newest game show, Tooned In.
Three kids compete answering questions about Nick toons, so no questions about The Flintstones or Bugs Bunny. The game is played with various categories, but the structure is the same... answer a question right, get points, answer wrong, get slimed.
The host is Nicky, a robot cartoon character. He does a decent job, I guess.
The bonus game is answering a series of questions in 60 seconds, but if you don't know the answer, guess what, you get slimed. Get to the top of the board, and you'll win $1000.
I suppose I am just the wrong age for this show, but for me, the sliming got old fast, and showing the highlights later in the show, did nothing for me. I guess I don't mind that the trivia is about Nick toons only, and some of the questions were challenging enough.
I just don't see this as a long running series. While the questions lend some variety, the slime doesn't. There might be some that would tell me "Matt, Double Dare had contestants getting messy all the time, and it was on for a LONG time." Well yes, but the methods of getting messy were always different, Double Dare had a lot more variety, a great host, and also Harvey and Robin as effective sidekicks.
So I guess I can say, unlike Double Dare's recent return, this game show is really just for kids, and I am doubtful young adults or adults old enough to remember the classic Nick Game shows will find much enjoyment. So my best recommendation is, ask a random 10-12 year old kid.

[BrandonFG]

I suppose I am just the wrong age for this show, but for me, the sliming got old fast, and showing the highlights later in the show, did nothing for me. I guess I don't mind that the trivia is about Nick toons only, and some of the questions were challenging enough.

I mean, that's Nickelodeon's trademark. Been that way for at least 35 years. I know not all Nick games did that, but it shouldn't be that surprising that a Nick game show is messy.

[whewfan]

Brandon, of course I realize that getting messy on a game show is Nick's trademark, but for it to happen for EVERY time a question is answered wrong, or if you fail to answer the question, I think after a while, it's just not fun to watch. Perhaps to make the slime moment a bit more special, make the slime happen when a contestant fails to answer or gives a wrong answer to THREE questions. Also, why confine it to slime... what about confetti, or whipped cream pies? (This variety I am suggesting is what the short lived game show "Boom!" tried to do, fill the "bomb" with a substance unknown to the players or audience.)

[MSTieScott]

I watched the episode that aired this morning. About every three or four questions, instead of slime, the contestants who didn't earn points were hit with "frosting" (a substance similar to Family Double Dare's gak) shot out of chest-height cannons.

When I read the premise of the show -- a quiz about Nicktoons -- I wondered how they were going to generate enough material that was gettable for 12-year-olds without half of the questions being about SpongeBob SquarePants. As it turns out, most of the opening rounds simply used Nicktoons characters throughout the decades as the foundation for general "spot the difference in the picture" and memory games (along with other question types that didn't necessitate any specific trivia recall). When the show did ask trivia questions that required knowledge of Nicktoons, they were always multiple choice.

Which was good, because I suspect the contestants in the episode I saw were not selected based on their Nicktoons trivia ability. During the first couple of rounds, they seemed a little hesitant to buzz in, so maybe during a break, a contestant producer came in and encouraged them to be more aggressive, but by the end, those kids were offering up a lot of wrong answers. Unfortunately, that isn't good strategy in a game where an incorrect answer deducts the point value of the question. When the game was over, one of the contestants had a score that was far, far below zero.

On the plus side, the bonus round was extremely winnable, which is what I want to see in a kids' game show. Kids don't care about the size of the prize -- they just want to win.

In the end, Tooned In filled thirty minutes of air time with new content so the network didn't have to schedule yet another repeat of The Loud House. No one will remember this show five years from now, but if it was able to fill that time inexpensively, then that's all that matters.

[jjman920]

I suppose I am just the wrong age for this show, but for me, the sliming got old fast, and showing the highlights later in the show, did nothing for me. I guess I don't mind that the trivia is about Nick toons only, and some of the questions were challenging enough.

I mean, that's Nickelodeon's trademark. Been that way for at least 35 years. I know not all Nick games did that, but it shouldn't be that surprising that a Nick game show is messy.

I've posted two episodes to the Video section of the forum. It's hard to be like, "they're doing their trademark too much," but they're definitely going in with the slime. It was a little surprising. One episode puts an entire season of Figure It Out to shame or a couple of years of Kids' Choice Awards. That said, maybe they're making up for lost time because there haven't been that many shows that consistently slime on the network over the past decade.

It's a very flighty show. Only two commercial breaks the entire proceedings and so they pack in a lot of quick material. It looks fun. The kids look like they're having fun. Seems like a neat idea and comes together alright. I hope it has legs. Seems like most Nick game shows from the past five years don't really and I'm curious about the future of a couple of them once things start to return to normal.

[BrandonFG]

I just skimmed through an episode. I'll admit they could prolly tone down the slime a bit, maybe only use it when someone answers wrong, and an opponent gets it right. But overall, kids will tune in for the slime, just like we did 30 years ago. I actually didn't know they still did "green slime" until Nick aired the playoff game last month, so maybe they'll get back to their roots.

My only question is do they run out of questions by only asking about Nicktoons of the last few years?

[Mr. Matté]

I just skimmed through an episode. I'll admit they could prolly tone down the slime a bit, maybe only use it when someone answers wrong, and an opponent gets it right. But overall, kids will tune in for the slime, just like we did 30 years ago. I actually didn't know they still did "green slime" until Nick aired the playoff game last month, so maybe they'll get back to their roots.

My only question is do they run out of questions by only asking about Nicktoons of the last few years?

The show's logo that was posted on the V&C board showed Hey Arnold, but I'm wondering if the nearing-30-year-old Rugrats episodes are well known among the youngins nowadays.

/"Dear Ronald Thump, if you ever want to see your precious liddle baby Thump again, bring a million smackers in unmarked bills to 22 Elm Street."

[MSTieScott]

My only question is do they run out of questions by only asking about Nicktoons of the last few years?

No, because more than half of the questions are things like tests of visual acuity and memory. Even if a child has had the good sense to have never seen an episode of Pig Goat Banana Cricket, they don't need to know the show to spot the difference between two pictures of the characters.

If worse comes to worse, they can just write questions where the wrong answers are clearly wrong ("On Rocko's Modern Life, what animal is Rocko's pet Spunky? Shark, buffalo, or dog?").

[snowpeck]

My only question is do they run out of questions by only asking about Nicktoons of the last few years?

No, because more than half of the questions are things like tests of visual acuity and memory. Even if a child has had the good sense to have never seen an episode of Pig Goat Banana Cricket, they don't need to know the show to spot the difference between two pictures of the characters.

If worse comes to worse, they can just write questions where the wrong answers are clearly wrong ("On Rocko's Modern Life, what animal is Rocko's pet Spunky? Shark, buffalo, or dog?").

Also, per a disclaimer at the end of the show,

"Prior to taping, all contestants were provided a study list of specific Nickelodeon cartoons that could represent the source of some of the questions and answers found on the program. In addition, contestants were allowed to choose the Nickelodeon show to study from that list if they were to play the end game."

[jjman920]

If worse comes to worse, they can just write questions where the wrong answers are clearly wrong ("On Rocko's Modern Life, what animal is Rocko's pet Spunky? Shark, buffalo, or dog?").

They've got that covered. They asked about a character and what they spoke two of, and the choices were "Languages, Sandwiches, Two Words at the Same Time"