Wild & Crazy Kids

Wild and Crazy Kids was a game show on Nickelodeon that aired from 1990-1992, in which large teams, usually consisting entirely of children, participated in head-to-head physical challenges. It was hosted by Omar Gooding, Donnie Jeffcoat, and Annette Chavez. Chavez was replaced after a year by Jessica Gaynes. The show also aired on YTV in Canada. In 2002, a remake hosted by Mati Moralejo, Dave Aizer, and Viviane Collins was aired for seven episodes.
==Games==
Three games were played per show, with one host emceeing each game. The teams were identified by the color of the shirts they wore, which varied from show to show. The games varied in style; many were takeoffs on playground games, sports with unusual rules added, or messy games involving pies or slime (the latter was referred to as "blap" beginning in season three). Occasionally, the show taped special episodes at a water park (Raging Waters and Wild Rivers, both in California, were featured during the show's run.) There were no prizes awarded to anyone.
Examples of games used on the show:
*Contestants had to find the name of a food on a giant word search board. The contestant who found the word first got to dump a bucket of whatever the word was over the other contestant's head. Buckets included chocolate sauce, raw eggs, Spaghetti-o's, flour and whipped cream. One child also got a bottle of mustard squirted in his hair.
*A large scale pie fight was intended to pit children against their camp counselors; however, the fight quickly got out of control and turned into a massive free-for-all, with participants throwing pies at anyone and everyone else, no matter which team they were on.
*Kids did a long jump and landed in a pit of mud or shaving cream.
*Children and their parents jumped up and down on an air mattress to break shaving cream filled balloons. Whichever team broke the most balloons won.
*Teams riding a roller coaster while holding cups of water; the team with the most collective water remaining won.
*A game of polo using bumper cars and a very large (about 1 m in diameter) rubber ball.
*The playground game "red light/green light" - each player held a cream pie, with which they had to hit themselves in the face if they lost. If the player reaches the other side without getting caught, he gets to hit the grownup waiting there with the pie.
*Slip 'n' Slide races
*A modified version of "Steal the Bacon" involving three teams where the object to be retrieved was a bucket of a mystery substance; contestants who lost a round got its contents dumped onto their heads. To win a round, a player must either steal the bucket without getting tagged by both opponents or tag a thieving player.
*The game most notably repeated was Dizzy Bat Home Run Derby. Two teams, one of children and one of adults, had three innings to hit home runs. When the kids batted, a pitcher pitched to the batter, and the batter would attempt to send the ball out of the park. Hit balls that did not leave the field in fair territory counted as an out. After three outs, the adults had a chance to bat. During their at-bat, a grownup would have up to three chances to hit home runs off a batting tee; however, he was first required to spin around his upright bat with his head down seven times before attempting to hit; furthermore, each adult must attempt to hit the ball within a time limit of 30 seconds. Three adults were allowed a chance per at-bat inning. At the end of the original and second versions, the kids, who lost both times, would demand a rematch. Donnie, who hosted these games, would then declare a sequel or a part three.
*A game was played where kids would drive remote controlled cars around in an arena where a construction worker was driving a steamroller. The object, of course, was to not get one's car run over by the steamroller (aka Adam's piece). The team with the last remaining car won. Variations on this game included a blindfolded player attempting to steer a remote controlled car through a gauntlet consisting of opposing team members (also blindfolded) armed with mallets, and a player attempting to steer a car through a beach obstacle course lined with small explosives buried in the sand. The further the contestant progressed in the gauntlet, the higher his score; the team with the highest collective score won the event.
*Parents sat above their kids holding buckets of slime. Kids had to pick a number. The parent who had the bucket with the number the kid chose got to dump the bucket of slime over the head of the kid seated below them. Kids and parents then reversed.
*A massive maze with students challenging their teachers. The group with the most correctly finding the exit to the maze won. Ultimately the teachers prevailed.
*A game of three soccer where pairs of participants had their legs tied together "three legged" style.
*Teams of kids played "cops and robbers" on the set of Miami Vice at Universal Studios Hollywood
*A triathlon where competitors had to throw a ball, long jump, and run an 80-yard relay race backwards.
*Children teamed up with professionals to in a sandcastle building contest. At the end, all the sandcastles were destroyed with small explosives.
*A street hockey skills competition where two teams of kids took shots at a net with a tire target, then tried their luck against a professional goaltender.
*A spray painting contest where the object was to create a mural of what "wild and crazy" meant.
*in an olympic swimming pool, teams of kids and their dogs raced to see who could swim across first.
*boys raced against girls in an obstacle course at a waterpark which featured a speed slide, cargo net climb, throwing baseballs to a teammate on another cargo net, and a lily pad race, all while untying balloons to move to the next section.
*teams of kids armed with Nerf swords equipped with pins at the end tried to pop balloons while riding down a speed slide.
*parents vs kids teams rode down a waterslide while trying to squeeze milk from a baby bottle, peel bananas, and hold the most ice cream.
*a slam dunk competition using a trampoline and gymnastics pit.
*teams of kids and adults armed with fire hoses try to blast a ball tethered on a line above them past their opponents.
*kids were thrown footballs by all pro quarterback Rodney Peete while leaping off a diving board into a pool.
*boys vs girls race where girls on horseback raced against boys on BMX bikes
*a massive pillow fight with the object of the participants was to protect eggs pinned in a bag to each player.
*human space invaders where kids dropped water balloons from a cherry picker onto a grid of invaders.
*contests in a shopping mall, which included a root beer chug, pie eating contest, putting on surfer clothes, pumping up sneakers and dribbling a basketball, and running a power pad race and skateboarding through the mall to the finish line.
*on the set of a western, kids tried collecting assorted objects for points which were blown around by giant wind machine fans.
*four teams are in canoes on a lake, two teams of boys and two of girls with the object to stay afloat and sink your opponents' boats using hoses and pails.
==Revival==
Wild and Crazy Kids was briefly revived on Nickelodeon in 2002 but only lasted for seven episodes.
==Guest appearances==
*Occasionally, Wild & Crazy Kids would have celebrity appearances, such as Lark Voorhies from "Saved by the Bell", Jonathan Taylor Thomas from "Home Improvement", Michael Fishman from "Roseanne", and Marc Summers from "Double Dare".
*A young Tobey Maguire appeared on the show long before he was famous, promoting the short-lived FOX sitcom Great Scott!
*Olympic skier Bode Miller appeared on the show in 2002.
==Production==
The show was executive produced by Woody Fraser, and aired 65 episodes from July 4, 1990, to December 1, 1992. It was produced by Woody Fraser Productions and Reeves Entertainment Group in association with Nickelodeon. Summers himself appeared on several episodes.
Category:Game shows
Category:Shows
Category:Cancelled shows
Category:1990s premieres
Category:2000s endings