In Development: Possible New Kids Version Of Wheel Of Fortune

[BrandonFG]

I think it being the late-90s - where everything had to be “Xtreme” and hip - also contributed to what we saw. A a result, the producers felt they had to pander in a way that looked lame and trying too hard. Around the same time, GSN had a Saturday morning block with shows like “Joker! Joker! Joker!” that tried and failed to be hip as well.

In other words, it was very much Steve Buscemi asking “How do you do, fellow kids?”

/At least they didn’t make Cyber Lucy rap

[TimK2003]

What bugged me about Wheel 2000 and Jep! was the smallness of both. And I don't mean in terms of stakes. I'm not arguing that kids' game shows should have comparable prize budgets, I mean just the smallness in what I was seeing. Wheel 2000 wanted to have Cyber Lucy and the trade-off for that is there's no puzzle board in that studio. I was watching a version of Wheel of Fortune that was missing half the set and looked like the rest was crammed into a corner. Jep! was the same way. You couldn't help noticing the set was physically smaller. Both of them had utterly unhummable themes that could have easily been recorded by one guy playing all the instruments necessary.

And then you look at the adult versions, which had enormous game boards in lavishly-decorated studios. Do you know what a kid immediately picks up on when watching Wheel 2000? "Your version is less important. Our version is the one that matters."

Kids will sense that. Kids will see right through it. If you're going to do a kids' version of Wheel, you owe it to your audience to actually spend money on it, and invest in it, and make it look like something that's just as good and just as valid and legitimate as the version that's not intended for them.

This was one of the RARE occasions when Stone-Stanley took top honors for something ‐‐ kid shows with sets that took up the whole studio both horizontally and vertically!

[Sodboy13]

Full disclosure: I was eight years old in 1997 and loved Wheel 2000 at the time.

One thing I loved about the first decade or so of Nickelodeon game shows is it didn't feel like they had the pander knob turned to 11. More often, they happened to be shows kids would enjoy. By contrast, Slime Time and Treasure Mall were every bit a sitcom's interpretation of what a kids game show should be.

This is what I've long felt is the defining difference between Double Dare and Fun House. Double Dare was made as a game show that happened to have kids as contestants. They built a simple, tight format that works, and got a host and announcer that weren't trying to be cool, they were trying to be a good host and announcer; sometimes they even leaned into being uncool with references only the parents would ever get. Fun House was a kids show first with a weak game format and the chrome and skateboards on full blast. It's the sort of place where you never knew when you'd get treated to a scripted rap written by a 45-year-old balding Caucasian named Mortimer who was doing this after "Just The Ten Of Us" got the axe.

All of which is to say there's a reason why Double Dare endures in the American Gen X/Xennial consciousness 35 years on, and Fun House is a niche topic for boards like this.

[whewfan]

Full disclosure: I was eight years old in 1997 and loved Wheel 2000 at the time.

One thing I loved about the first decade or so of Nickelodeon game shows is it didn't feel like they had the pander knob turned to 11. More often, they happened to be shows kids would enjoy. By contrast, Slime Time and Treasure Mall were every bit a sitcom's interpretation of what a kids game show should be.



-Jason

Slime Time was a very obvious Double Dare ripoff. I'm surprised Nickelodeon didn't sue them. Marty Cohen... never got his appeal... he just comes across like fingernails on a chalk board... just never cared much for when he was a celeb on game shows. Treasure Mall, I liked a little better... it wasn't a direct ripoff of any game show. The main game is kind of interesting as kids try to predict how other kids responded to questions, but the "find the coins" games were not very well executed. The bonus game is okay, the concept being, find the right key to a chest, but it too could've had better execution. I thought Hal Sparks was actually a decent host.

[JasonA1]

Slime Time was a very obvious Double Dare ripoff. I'm surprised Nickelodeon didn't sue them. (...) Treasure Mall, I liked a little better... it wasn't a direct ripoff of any game show.

I've never given it thought until now, but in so far as Slime Time was cashing in on Double Dare's success with two teams answering questions and performing stunts on a square-patterned floor, I think the show where kids search stores of a mall for coins is pretty similar to a show where kids search rooms of a house for hidden objects. It might actually be how both shows were...*ahem*..."developed."

That said, the minds behind Beat the Clock would come knocking at a lot of doors if these elements alone were cause for lawsuit, which I don't imagine they are.

-Jason

[Kevin Prather]

TIL there was a Double Dare clone called "Slime Time". Here I thought you all were talking about "Slime Time Live", and struggling to think of ANY parallels between that and Double Dare.

[WarioBarker]

Per Deadline, Sony will be officially unveiling the new show at Mipcom Junior this month.

According to Sony, it will “stay true to the format” but incorporate gameplay twists for a younger audience, including physical and comedic challenges to earn letters or buy vowels.

...Yeah.

[BrandonFG]

I mean, it's hard to discern what that all means when there's only a one-paragraph blurb. Let's not sound the alarm just yet.

[Kevin Prather]

Based on that paragraph, it sounds like Wheel 2000.