from 1989 to 1990, Nickelodeon had this 3 hour variety show on Sunday mornings called Total Panic.
They had these live action 'virtual' video-games like 'Eat A Bug'
(think PS2's eye toy on a huge screen) and Power Pad Pyramid that IIRC used the NES power pads.
anyway Total Panic was, to me, an awesome variety show that included videogame previews and reviews, including the well-established NES, as well as the TurboGrafx-16 and Genesis which were both new in the United States at the time
I had a tape with a small amount of footage still there (most of it was gone) but the best of what remains on that tape are amusing previews of
Sega Genesis Forgotten Worlds, and, NEC TurboGrafx-16 R-Type.
I've uploaded the Forgotten Worlds and R-Type segments to Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3z3K5y5iB0
(patience with youtube, they seem to be having a slow day)
it seems that i couldn't get it to play through FireFox, but with
Internet Explorer it plays fine, yay!
there is not a whole lot, and the tape cuts off when they actually get down to 'review' R-Type, but not before a look at 4 of its levels! it may seem retarded now, but back in 1989, this was awe-inspiring stuff, concidering most of us were used to Atari and NES.
for more info on Nickelodeon's TOTAL PANIC, see this post on Retrojunk
http://www.retrojunk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9285
when Total Panic was canceled by spring 1990, and after the re-runs ended, that was the end of my watching Nickelodeon. Nick crossed over into their era of 'complete crap', IMO, during the 1990s.