Nickelodeon Studios

**Nickelodeon Studios** is a former television studio and attraction that opened at Universal Studios Florida on June 7, 1990. It was a 40-minute attraction that allowed guests to take a tour of Nickelodeon's studio facility followed

by an interactive live show which featured games based on Nickelodeon
shows of the time. It then permanently closed on April 30, 2005 and got replaced by *Blue Man Group Sharp Aquos Theatre*.

## History

In November 1988, Nickelodeon joined the Universal Studios Florida team to make its first production studio. In spring 1989, they filmed its first show there, *Super Sloppy Double Dare*.
 On June 7, 1990, the studio (along with the park) officially opened.
There was a 3 hour opening day ceremony party broadcast live on Nickelodeon, with Marc Summers as the master of ceremonies for the event that day. Other hosts included Greg Lee and Skip Lackey. The ceremony also included performances by The Perfect Gentlemen, Kid 'n Play, and The Cover Girls,
 a behind the scenes look at the studio, an inside look at the Universal
 Studios theme park, and a short round of a physical challenge from *Double Dare*. The same year Nickelodeon
 unveiled its Slime Geyser on October 27, 1990. On April 30, 1992, a
time capsule was buried to commemorate the studio's opening. A special
capsule burial ceremony was broadcast live on Nickelodeon and was hosted by Mike O'Malley and Joey Lawrence. The facility was a working studio where many Nickelodeon and Nickelodeon GAS shows were produced, the first being *Double Dare*.
 It consisted of soundstages 18 and 19, along with a central building
between them that housed both Nickelodeon production offices, dressing
rooms, makeup rooms, the Gak Kitchen, and the Game Lab live show located
 on Stage 17 for guests of Universal Studios Florida. Soundstage 21,
 located directly behind Stages 17 and 18, was also part of the
production facility in the early 1990s when a larger soundstage was
needed for the taping of *Nickelodeon/Global Guts*.
 Stage 21 was not part of the studio contract Nickelodeon had with
Universal, but was leased separately for the time of their productions
on it.
While Nickelodeon Studios was in production, there were many
orange benches scattered around the facility, incorporating shapes like a
 footprint, carrot, finger, cruise ship, wave, cloud, etc., reflecting
the network's station IDs. Some of these benches were moved to the
"Control Room" at Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast,
 which closed in 2011. A gift shop was also located near the Slime
Geyser, featuring Nickelodeon characters on the front of the building.

### Decline and closure

In
 1998, Nickelodeon opened two new studios in California, Nickelodeon On
Sunset, (Live Action Studio) & Nickelodeon Animation Studios.
Nickelodeon shifted away from live-action shows towards focusing on
animation reducing the need for a television studio. In 1999, besides *Figure It Out's*
 final season and other shows that aired, no new shows were made and
filmed at the Orlando location. By the summer of 2001, Nickelodeon
Studios had fewer than 100 employees, and began to see a steady decline
in visitors as Nickelodeon's live-action productions began to transition
 from game and stunt shows with audience participation to traditional sitcoms, many of which required closed-set production. The majority of Nickelodeon production had moved to the closed-set Nickelodeon on Sunset facility in Hollywood, California. In late 2004, the studio got its new paint job. The final program taped was *Nickelodeon Splat!*, which ran live from March 7, 2004 to August 17, 2004. The studio closed its doors on April 30, 2005. This was a result of Nickelodeon gradually moving its administration to the MTV Networks headquarters in Santa Monica, California and One Astor Plaza in New York City and its live-action production arm to the Nickelodeon on Sunset.

A time capsule
 buried by the network in 1992 in front of Soundstage 18 was removed in
August 2007 and later paved over. It contains items deemed important to
the children of 1992 as voted upon by Nickelodeon viewers, including bubble gum, a skateboard, a comic book, a phone book, VHS copies of *Back to the Future* and *Home Alone*, assorted photographs of bicycles, trains, cars, politicians, and celebrities, a piece of the Berlin Wall, the Orlando, Florida TV Guide from the week of April 30, 1992, a baseball, a Barbie Doll, a Nintendo Game Boy, a Nicktoons T-shirt, Michael Jackson CDs, Twinkies, an issue of *Nickelodeon Magazine*, Rollerblades, a can of Nickelodeon Gak, Reebok Pump sneakers, and a copy of the Book of Endangered species.

The time capsule resided at the Holiday Inn Resort Orlando Suites - Waterpark after the studio closed; upon the hotel's closure and rebrand in 2016, it moved west to its current location in the new Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank, California, where it is set to be opened on April 30, 2042 (exactly 50 years after being buried at Nickelodeon Studios).
At this time, Stage 19, as well as the second floor control room in the center building between it and 18, is home to Fox Sports Florida and its sister network, Fox Sports Sun. It is also being used as a storage area for Universal Orlando parade floats, and to train sporting events for *My Family's Got Guts*, which was a short-lived revival of the classic Nickelodeon game show *Guts*. The green room
 had been used as a one for the show, and has remained exactly the same
as it did when earlier Nickelodeon productions used it, albeit with new
furniture. Much of the Nickelodeon signage was still visible in the
second floor hallways including multiple murals of the *Ren and Stimpy* episode: *Space Madness*
 (now removed). Currently, the tube that runs above Soundstage 19 that
was part of the tour, is now used for storage of several old props and
A/V equipment, along with storage for the Blue Man Group.
 Additionally, the Gak Kitchen is used as the break room for the front
of their house staff and the space that formerly housed the Game Lab is
now a special event room for them and the park itself.

### Remnants

On
November 9, 2006, Universal Orlando announced that Soundstage 18 would
be redesigned to become a 1,000-seat permanent venue for the Blue Man
Group. The new venue opened on June 1, 2007. During the construction
phase of the new theater, no cosmetic changes were made, with the
exception of the addition of the new box office in the pavilion. The
sound stage was painted black with three giant blue heads, the main
building was painted white with black and blue trim, and the side of
Stage 18 was painted black with blue, yellow, and red paint splats. The
facility was renamed the Sharp Aquos Theatre.

In 2008, Nickelodeon returned for the only time to Universal Studios with *My Family's Got Guts*.
 Training was in Soundstage 19, and breaks were in the Green Room, while
 actual production was in Soundstage 23 with the Aggro Crag in
Soundstage 24.

In 2012, YouTube
 personality adamthewoo gained access into Soundstage 19 and the upper
floors of the main building; he documented vastly untouched murals and
decor from the heyday of the studios. He would later be banned from the parks permanently for trespassing.

In April 2013, leftover orange railing on the main building was
repainted blue after six years since the opening of the studios as the
Sharp Aquos Theater.

In March 2014, the "Production Crew Only" orange Nickelodeon
splat-shaped sticker was removed from the exterior door (formerly the
exit from the Game Lab) and replaced by a Blue Man Group-themed "Team
Members Only" sticker.

As of 2019, no vestiges of the studio remain. The first floor of
the main building has been completely changed with the escalators and *The Wild Thornberrys* murals completely removed. Additionally, the second floor walls (which contained various spaceship-themed murals from *The Ren & Stimpy Show*)
 were completely repainted, and leftover green paint on the left
exterior wall backstage was repainted yellow to match the colors of the
soundstage. The only remaining signs of Nickelodeon's former presence
include the bathrooms underneath the staircase which contain the green
slime-themed flooring pattern[5],
 two slime spills by the exterior staircase and bathrooms (albeit
painted blue), and the elevator door by the former Game Lab exit.

## Work

### Nickelodeon

* *Super Sloppy Double Dare* (1989, filmed before the studio officially opened)
* *Family Double Dare* (1990–93)
* *Make the Grade* (1990, Season 3)
* *Think Fast* (1990, Season 2)
* *Outta Here!* (1990–91)
* *Fifteen* (1992–93, Seasons 3 & 4)
* *Get the Picture* (1991)
* *What Would You Do?* (1991–93)
* *Welcome Freshmen* (1991–94)
* *Clarissa Explains It All* (1991–94)
* *Super Special Double Dare* (1992)
* *Roundhouse* (1992-93, Season 1)
* *Nickelodeon Arcade* (1992)
* *Nickelodeon Guts* (1992–95)
* *Legends of the Hidden Temple* (1993–95)
* *Weinerville* (1993–94)
* *All That* (1994–96, Seasons 1 & 2)
* *My Brother and Me* (1994–95)
* *The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo* (1996–98, Seasons 1-3)
* *Kenan & Kel* (1996–97, Seasons 1 & 2)
* *Figure It Out* (1997–99)
* *You're On!* (1998)
* *Slime Time Live* (2000–03)
* *Double Dare 2000* (2000)
* *Noah Knows Best* (2000-01)
* *Taina* (2001-02, Season 1)
* *Nickelodeon SPLAT!* (2004, Last work)

### Nick Jr.

* *Eureeka's Castle* (1990–91, Seasons 2 & 3)
* *Allegra's Window* (1994–96)
* *Gullah Gullah Island* (1994–98)
* *Binyah Binyah!* (1998)

### Other Networks

* *Hi Honey, I'm Home!* (1991-92, ABC/Nick at Nite)
* *Gamefarm* (2003–05, Nick GAS)