Classic Nickelodeon show Total Panic: plays Genesis, Amiga & TG16 games

[parallaxscroll]

Nickelodeon, Total Panic
(3 hour variety show on Sunday mornings, 1989-1990)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLs_wj-PmJ8

games in this clip:
Genesis: Altered Beast, Ghouls 'N Ghosts
Amiga: Battle Squadron
TurboGrafx-16: Alien Crush


A year or two ago there was a clip of another episode of Total Panic with Andy Eddy, editor of VG&CE, previewing all the new systems of 1989: TG16, Genesis, Lynx, and GameBoy....


Greg Lee (host), Andy Eddy, Molly Scott (host)

....but sadly it was removed. Anyone happen to have that on tape somewhere?

[NayusDante]

Holy crap, I can't believe I missed that one. I was born in 88, so all I got was Nick Arcade.

Come to think of it, when my generation started watching Nick, all the good stuff was gone. You Can't Do That On Television, Hey Dude, What Would You Do, etc.

[parallaxscroll]

Yeah and you never got to see Total Panic later in the 1990s when you would've been old enough to remember because there were no reruns after summer 1990.

[NayusDante]

You know, I've had people 2-3 years older than me get angry and scowl at me when I mention that I remember a lot of the old Nick stuff. Pete and Pete forever.

I think that this is proof that they knew what they were doing back then. Actually covering games at all would have been awesome, considering that gaming was still "nerdy" back then, and probably wouldn't have appealed to a wide audience. By the time Nick Arcade was on, they were treating arcade gaming like something far more generic, not like this with emphasis on individual games.

So what else was on Total Panic? Did it deal with more than just games, like music and movies? In the early 90s, they had something called "U to U" which I remember had game reviews, is that comparable?

[Leo_A]

Holy crap, I can't believe I missed that one. I was born in 88, so all I got was Nick Arcade.

Come to think of it, when my generation started watching Nick, all the good stuff was gone. You Can't Do That On Television, Hey Dude, What Would You Do, etc.

You didn't miss much, only Nick at Nite in the evenings with classic shows was anything decent in the 90s, and that started to suck pretty bad once everything decent started to migrate to TVLand in the latter half of the 90s.

I did use to enjoy a show where they'd have kids competing against each other. I remember a episode where they were all in boats that were like little tanks with guns that shot balls out, with other guns around the pool. Stuff like that was cool to watch.

[exit]

I didn't get cable until around 94/95, so I missed out on some stuff I didn't catch at a friends house, but luckily I was around for the end of the good stuff.

I remember when I used to pull online all nighters, a couple of fellow night owls would turn on Nick in the wee mornings and catch some old Nicktoons playing. One specific show we'd watch was Doug, we would analyze the characters behaviors and use those results to guess where they would probably be today, I came to the conclusion that Doug is probably woman beater.

[Superman]

Hey, I remember that review of Ghouls 'N Ghosts!

[parallaxscroll]

So what else was on Total Panic? Did it deal with more than just games, like music and movies? In the early 90s, they had something called "U to U" which I remember had game reviews, is that comparable?

Yeah Total Panic was a variety show. Although they always had videogame segments, there was a lot more to it.

The show had, among other things: quizes, cartoons (i.e. Star Trek)
movie reviews, the top music videos (i.e. Richard Marx, Paula Abdul)
live performances by some of the pop/dance artists of the day
(i remember Seduction & The Cover Girls), skits, live action virtual games (first to use the technology later used in Nick Arcade) and video/computer game reviews & previews.

[NayusDante]

The more I'm reminded of the old Nick, the more I want DVD releases. People deserve to see how much that network has changed. Last I checked, it's just daily Spongebob marathons. Even the commercials and station ads suck now.

They need more stuff like the early live-action series, with better humor that didn't just consist of bathroom jokes. I also miss the sci-fi stuff, like The Tomorrow People (1992) and Space Cases.

[norkusa]

My dad controlled the TV all weekend back then, so I completely missed out on this. I totally would have watched it too if I knew about it.

I do remember watching this one game review show back in the NES days. Think it was on Saturday mornings (CBS maybe?) but it was syndicated later to weekday afternoons on another channel. They had a cartoon at the end of every episode that featured a bunch of Acclaim characters (Kwirk, Kuros, Bigfoot the monster truck, and a couple others I can't remember) and they were always fighting this fat, stubby gangster that they called Big Boss. Anyone remember the name of that show?

[DeputyMoniker]

You know, I've had people 2-3 years older than me get angry and scowl at me when I mention that I remember a lot of the old Nick stuff. Pete and Pete forever.

I think that this is proof that they knew what they were doing back then. Actually covering games at all would have been awesome, considering that gaming was still "nerdy" back then, and probably wouldn't have appealed to a wide audience. By the time Nick Arcade was on, they were treating arcade gaming like something far more generic, not like this with emphasis on individual games.

So what else was on Total Panic? Did it deal with more than just games, like music and movies? In the early 90s, they had something called "U to U" which I remember had game reviews, is that comparable?

I was 11 in 1990. Gaming wasn't nerdy at all. It was nerdy for young adults, maybe, but it was a cool thing to do at my age. Consider how many consoles the NES sold...back when adults weren't gaming. At 11 years old, we talked about gaming every day at school. It seemed that everybody was gaming.

[thedeityofhardcore]

everything sucks now........all Nick is now is Slutty 101

[R.Sakai]

My dad controlled the TV all weekend back then, so I completely missed out on this. I totally would have watched it too if I knew about it.

I do remember watching this one game review show back in the NES days. Think it was on Saturday mornings (CBS maybe?) but it was syndicated later to weekday afternoons on another channel. They had a cartoon at the end of every episode that featured a bunch of Acclaim characters (Kwirk, Kuros, Bigfoot the monster truck, and a couple others I can't remember) and they were always fighting this fat, stubby gangster that they called Big Boss. Anyone remember the name of that show?

I've tried to remember the name of that show for a long, long time now. It had the basketball (Arch rivals?) guys in it too.

/edit: Yeah, I think it was on CBS. I remember it kinda looking rejected even at the time, I think it was before Captain N and Mario/Zelda and all that.