GUTS certainly wasn't the best Nickelodeon show from the 1990s. It didn't make its stars a ton of money like other massively successful names who got their start at the network. And it certainly wasn't as beloved as show like Rugrats was. But GUTS had a fan base for the few short years it was on the air.
The competition show, which was dubbed the junior version of American Gladiators was a wish fulfillment of so many kids. Well, kids who actually liked gym class, that is. Either way, the show perfectly encapsulated what the network was all about back in the day. It was a network where the kids were in charge and was purely about fun. And GUTS was fun. It was also about physical stamina, problem-solving, and healthy competition. But despite the sports-centric competition show's appeal, it was ultimately canceled. Here's the truth about its origins and what it was ultimately taken off the air...
The True Origin Of Nickelodeon's GUTS
GUTS was born out of collaboration. After Nickelodeon first became popular in the 1980s, executives were looking for various high-concept game shows for kids that they could air between their animated and scripted programming. Albie Hecht, one of the show's co-creators, was mulling over a show that would have allowed him to live out his own childhood fantasies of being in the NBA. At the same time, Scott Fishman and Byron Taylor, who both worked at Nickelodeon in different capacities, were asked to come up with a sports action/fantasy show for kids, according to a fantastic oral history by The Ringer.
After brainstorming some ideas, the two did an animatic of the show (because shooting a test would be too expensive) and presented it.
"We put together this little three-act animation and we called it The Ultimate Gamer. And Round 2 for us was this giant sphere that would spew slime and the kids had to climb up there. It started off with three contestants, and then the final person got to run through whatever the ultimate thing was," Scott Fishman said. "At the same time, Albie Hecht was trying to produce this sports fantasy show for kids. And they basically put us in a room and said, 'You three should talk.'"
"The process actually started with Nickelodeon themselves. Herb Scannell, head of programming, had looked out on the landscape and said, 'Well, what’s popular out there for adults?' And they wanted to do some type of physical show," Albie Hect, the co-creator and executive producer, explained to The Ringer. "They had done the Double Dares and the Wild & Crazy Kids. But they hadn’t done anything in the sports area. And he said, 'American Gladiators is really cool looking. Is there anything like that for kids?'"
The idea for GUTS was something that continued to develop the more they involved other visionaries. While typical sports that most kids enjoyed were included, things started to get more extreme by the minute. Soon bungee jumping was involved and that epic climbing wall seen at the end of the courses. As things become crazier and crazier, the title of the show emerged organically... "Do you have the GUTS to do this!?"
"We often said, 'This is kind of American Gladiators for kids.' But American Gladiators certainly had that big, ominous super athlete feel to it," supervising producer Doug Greiff said. "We wanted kid athletes, but we wanted accessibility as well. Many of the people who watched this show as kids were like, “Give me a chance. You give me a bungee cord, I can do that."
Why Nickelodeon's GUTS Was Canceled
GUTS ran its course. This is ultimately why Nickelodeon decided to cancel the show after only four seasons. While GUTS momentarily evolved into a Super Nintendo game as well as a show that featured an international competition, the network was shifting its focus. By the late 1990s, they wanted to produce more and more animated and scripted shows that had staying power. Shows that you could re-watch over and over again in re-runs. GUTS did not have that appeal. It was a show that people wanted to watch once and move on.
Contrarily, shows like All That, Doug, and Spongebob Squarepants met the needs of an international market and had re-run appeal. On top of this. GUTS was produced and filmed in Florida. By the late 1990s, everything Nickelodeon was doing was moving to L.A.
While all of this could have been somewhat devastating to the creatives involved, many of them were happy to be done with the show for a while. Even though the show briefly came back in 2008 as a slightly rebooted series, it only lasted for 22 episodes. Those involved were done with this particular project and were ready to move on. It served its purpose and definitely entertained many Nickelodeon fans in the 1990s.
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