» Nickelodeon Studios: Behind the Scenes

[Tyrailius]

I recently came in contact with a former Nickelodeon Studios employee and asked him if I could share his story. He agreed as long as we do not tamper with his photos. The photos have C'Monfwank over them, because that is where he is currently employed and he doesn't want anyone tampering with them. The following is his experience with Nickelodeon Studios after they were shut down. This is his story.

Nickelodeon has always been special to me, and continues to become even more so. I grew up with it (and never grew out of it) like a lot of us did in the glory days of the network. It is completely responsible for my career into television. It even provided the means of meeting my girlfriend while working on one of their shows. But, other than the aforementioned personal and professional experiences, hands-down, the most important part of Nickelodeon's history to me is a little fortress of happiness in Orlando, Florida called Nickelodeon Studios.

Opening day; June 7, 1990.
This place means the world to me. For the most part, I've been at least in Nickelodeon Studios (or the building formerly known as) once a year for the past 8 years, more or less, and at least once before that. I live no where near Orlando (or the state of Florida), but I keep ending up there for various reasons. Whether working, visiting friends or just visiting for sentimental purposes, I've made a point to always stop by. More recently, while working on the new revival of GUTS titled My Family's Got GUTS, I spent quite a bit of time in the building. We didn't shoot in Nickelodeon Studios, as it's been closed since 2005, but we did take back over one of the stages for game testing and the main part of the building as well. More on that later. For now, a brief disclaimer and some history.

The photos from here on are all of the former Nickelodeon Studio's employee's, unless otherwise noted. They all have watermarks on them and we apologize for that. It is necessary to leave them as is because they are photos of things that for the most part were never available to the public. Please do not use these images anywhere else. I had to receive special permission from C'Monfwank to post them.

When Nickelodeon first broke into original, live action production in the early to mid 80s, they used rented studio facilities, namely WHYY studios (a local PBS affiliate) in Philadelphia and Unitel studios in New York City. As popularity grew with hits that utilized live audiences such as Double Dare, a facility strictly dedicated to Nickelodeon programming made sense. Television genius and then-president of Nickelodeon, Geraldine Laybourne (currently president of Oxygen) oversaw the creation of the facility, stationed in the backlot of Universal Studios Orlando, with a facade that was accessible to the theme park. The studios officially opened with a huge celebration on June 7, 1990.

Nickelodeon Studios. Photo courtesy Byron Taylor.
The building was designed by Byron Taylor, the same genius who designed the look of every single live-action show starting with Double Dare in 1986. One of the biggest draws to the facility was the huge slime geyser out front. As folklore goes, it was the source of all the slime used on Nickelodeon shows. The huge, clunky device erupted with slime in time intervals and was a fantastic photo spot.

Nickelodeon Studios' famous Slime Geyser.
During the early days of Nickelodeon Studios, they held group auditions of tourist kids to be extras on Nickelodeon shows that taped there. Kids would file in 8 or so at a time and play games of Simon Says to get a feel for their energy and their comfort level in front of people.

Nickelodeon Studios auditions, 1990.
Having the studios in a theme park also was perfect for finding contestants for the many game shows Nickelodeon Studios was putting out at the time. Auditions were constantly held for kids and families for their various shows. Other than the occasional, rare audition tour, all of the casting for the game shows came straight out of the park. The first major show to boast casting straight of the park, and by far the most successful (both before and after Nick Studios) was Family Double Dare.

Family Double Dare, 1990. Families were cast straight out of Universal Studios, Florida.
Visitors to Nickelodeon Studios were also given the free chance to be part of the live taping of its shows. Everything from Clarissa Explains it All, to Welcome Freshman to Legends of the Hidden Temple to GUTS and everything in between was taped here, and most used studio audiences. Signs were posted at the gates, and all throughout the theme park, displaying what shows would be in production that day. Lines would form outside of the studio door and when the time came, the lucky patrons were filed in and packed like sardines in the icy cold studio to watch a piece of now-Nickelodeon history made.

The Nickelodeon queue lines for live tapings and tours.
In the early days, Nickelodeon Studios was also utilized for daily broadcasts with kids in the park introducing themselves outside of the building and stating where they were from, followed by the Nickelodeon announcer plugging what was happening that day on the network. "The Place Where Nick is Made" was the studios' slogan, and they took advantage of that in every way possible to put kids first.

A more well-known attraction to kids in the park, however, was that people who came to Universal Studios, Florida could go on a tour of the facility in which patrons were taken above the soundstages to look down on the shows in production.

The Soundstage 18 "fishbowl" that allowed tourists to look down on shows in production. Taken in 1990
looking over the set of "Outta Here!"
The Soundstage 18 "fishbowl" in 2008, still completely preserved.
They were also taken by the control room (which had glass on the back passerbys could look into) and eventually taken down to the holy grail of the tour, GAME LAB.

Game Lab changed over the years quite a bit. Its gimmick was that you were testing games that would appear on Nickelodeon game shows in the future. But truthfully, there are all kinds of waivers and legalities involved to actually test games for shows and Game Lab's games were well pre-tested. The "set" for Game Lab was originally a white room with orange decor and was very brightly lit. Eventually, it became a darker room with scenery pieces and relics from Nickelodeon shows gone by, which is how it stood for most of its existence.

Game Lab, 2000.
Anyone who went to Game Lab knew though, that the climax of the whole experience was that one lucky kid was going to be slimed. This wasn't the cheap stuff either, this was the REAL Nickelodeon slime. The kid was selected at the beginning of Game Lab and taken backstage to change into a Double Dare-esque outfit while the show went on. When it came time, the kid entered like a rock star and sat in a little pool where he/she was given his/her crowning glory. The crowd counted down, the lights went crazy and the slime came down.

Game Lab, 2000.
Upon exiting game lab, everyone was ushered out of the door beneath the big, yellow staircase outside and back into the park.

Nickelodeon Studios with its original paint scheme, 2000.
At this point, Nickelodeon Studios was on a "dead-end" sort of part of the park, in which there was only one way to get to it and that same way had to be taken to get out. There was no Hard Rock Cafe or Citywalk entrance to get to the building like there is today. So, appropriately enough, the street used to walk to Nickelodeon Studios was called "Nickelodeon Way." When you got there, you KNEW what was ahead.

The beginning of Nickelodeon Way. The left side of this logo extended all down the
street to Nickelodeon Studios, as seen below. Classic Nickelodeon fans will remember the jump rope promos that were shot here.
Nickelodeon Way leading to Nickelodeon Studios.
Things started winding down for Nickelodeon Studios in the late 1990s as game shows and sitcoms started being replaced by reality shows and dramas in the mainstream marketplace of television. For obvious reasons, reality shows and dramas would have a difficult time on a children's network, so Nickelodeon relied more on its animation projects during this time, and the studios began to see less use. The year 2000 saw the resurgence of two Nickelodeon game shows, Double Dare 2000, a revival of the original Double Dare and Slimetime Live, a revival of Slimetime U Match U Win.

Double Dare 2000 set, from the top of the studio, 2000.
A few other shows came out of Nickelodeon Studios in 2000 also, but it was primarily Slimetime Live that caught on. It was essentially Nickelodeon's version of Total Request Live, in that it aired between shows. It ran for a good 8 seasons in 4 years and was finally canceled in 2003. In 2001, despite Slimetime's success, Nickelodeon Studios began its decline to its demise. A great number of the studios' employees were laid off indefinitely. Nickelodeon Studios also began having open-house auctions and sales in which old set pieces and props were sold to the general public.

Slimetime Live's success, did however, spawn several other shows of its kind: U-Pick Live, which broadcasted out of New York City and Splat!, which was the last production ever to come out of Nickelodeon Studios.

Splat! set, 2004.
Splat! lasted 3 months during the summer of 2004. Despite the fact that it had such a short run, it was one of the first shows to have a "classic" Nick Studios quality to it in years. Often times, intros and outros were shot in and around the studios, away from the set. The hosts were all local and had never hosted a series before, giving them a terrific organic quality.

In the middle of the run of Splat!, Nickelodeon Studios received a face-lift. For the first time, the building was repainted in totally different colors. Gone were the 90s loud colors and patterns, and so entered the current color scheme of the network. Lime green, teal blue, white and orange were the only colors that clad the building.

Nickelodeon Studios with its new color scheme, 2004.
By this point, Nickelodeon Studios was down to a single digit number of employees. The tour was nothing more than a walk through a hallway and into Game Lab (now renamed "Nick Live" since there were no other game shows to "test" for). Production in general simply was not happening in Orlando as frequently as it once had. A good percentage of Orlando's talent and crews had moved out west to further their careers. It wasn't cost-effective to fly talent in from LA, game shows and sitcoms were out, and Nickelodeon Studios was hurting as a result of all of the above.

April 30, 2005 was the day the decision was made for Nickelodeon Studios to officially close its doors. The following month, the Slime Geyser was removed. By the first of the next year, the wonderfully famous big Nickelodeon sign was removed from the front of the building, as were all other logos.

Now-closed Nickelodeon Studios with its new color scheme, but all logos removed, 2006.
It was announced in late 2006 that Blue Man Group would be taking over half of the lower level of the main building, as well as stage 18, for a 1000-seat theater for a permanent staging of their show. While no cosmetic changes, other than a box office and signage, were made to the building, it's currently almost unrecognizable as Nickelodeon Studios. The Sharp Aquos Theater, home to Blue Man Group, formally opened on June 7, 2007. This was seventeen years to the day that Nickelodeon Studios had opened.

Former Nickelodeon Studios, current Sharp Aquos Theater, 2007.
The only return Nickelodeon has made to Universal Studios since closing Nickelodeon Studios was in 2008 for the revival of GUTS, entitled My Family's Got GUTS.

My Family's Got GUTS set, 2008
This is one show I've had the privilege of working on and the experience was nothing short of magical. The production used Universal Studios soundstages 23 and 24 for shooting, but utilized Nickelodeon soundstage 19 for game testing/training as well as two floors of the main building. Much of the original crew returned to work on My Family's Got GUTS, and it was very much like stepping back in time. I'm very proud to now be a part of the family history.

There are many areas of Nickelodeon Studios that the general public never got to see when it was open. And today, there are areas that, like the front of the building, are radically different or non-existent. But for every one of those, there are areas of Nickelodeon Studios that today, are virtually unchanged. All still unavailable to the general public. Many people want to see and I'm more than happy to oblige.

Let's start on the first floor of the main building.

The first floor of Nickelodeon Studios, now half divided by Blue Man Group.
One of the coolest things that no one ever got to see in Nickelodeon Studios was the amazingly comprehensive wall of plaques that spanned an entire hallway. Every Nick Studios show had a plaque dedicated to it with the logo and dates on it. It was really a humbling sight to behold. It was so long that it couldn't be captured in one photo.



Nickelodeon Studios' wall of plaques.
A part of Nickelodeon Studios that many people knew about, and got to see partially from the tourist side of things was the infamous Gak Kitchen. The Gak Kitchen was where the gakmeisters mixed all the slime and gak for shows that required it such as Family Double Dare, as well as the Game Lab shows. The Gak Kitchen was down the hall from the wall of plaques and was between the makeup and wardrobe rooms.

It was a relatively small room that contained several industrial sized mixers, a huge refrigerator, a rack which contained ingredients for gak and slime, and a window for the tourist portion of the Gak Kitchen.

The entrance to the Gak Kitchen, taken from the hallway.
The left side of the Gak Kitchen.
The right side of the Gak Kitchen.
Taken from inside the Gak Kitchen looking out into the hallway.
Truthfully, for shows that contained a lot of the concoctions, the mixers were moved closer to the soundstage so that the gak and slime didn't have to be carried down the hallways. The Gak Kitchen was removed when walls were taken out and new ones were put in in different places for Blue Man Group. It was approximately where Blue Man's concession stand is now.

Next door to the Gak Kitchen on the right was wardrobe. The wardrobe department held hundreds and hundreds of clothing items to be used on Nickelodeon shows. Every shirt you ever saw worn on-screen was there, and then some. Wearable relics from years gone by adorned the walls and racks everywhere. It also contained sewing machines with every color thread in the rainbow for seamstresses to make alterations on the spot.

Like the Gak Kitchen, it had a window on it for tourists to walk by and look into on the Nick tour. Mannequins stood in the window like a Macy's store display, wearing recognizable shirts from Nick shows. Today, the wardrobe department no longer exists for the same reasons as the Gak Kitchen.

A wardrobe rack containing shirts from Slimetime Live, including
3 of Joe's shirts from Blues Clues from when he visited the show.
A helmet from Nick Arcade in the wardrobe department.
Another interesting room on the first floor was the Green Room. For those not familiar, the Green Room is where people who are appearing on television shows are held before going on. It's basically a glorified room to chill in, with beverages, snacks, and things to amuse yourself during all the waiting involved with taping a television show. In the cast of Nickelodeon Studios' Green Room, its main purpose was holding contestants for the game shows.

In Nickelodeon Studios' Green Room, there were video games, televisions, couches, tables and chairs, and a captain's room (a small kitchen) with a fridge. There were also restrooms in the green room. Today, the green room remains virtually unchanged. It's been maintained beautifully and has even had new Nickelodeon couches moved into it from other parts of the building. In fact, we used it quite a bit for My Family's Got GUTS. We utilized the bathrooms for players to change into their uniforms and took naps on the couches did absolutely nothing else.

Nickelodeon Studios Green Room while Nickelodeon Studios was open.
Nickelodeon Studios Green Room during My Family's Got GUTS, 2008.
There were a number of dressing rooms on the first floor of Nickelodeon Studios. Typically, four were in use. As years went by, some were converted into offices, or vice versa. Inside them were some couches, tables, chairs, TVs and a bathroom. Nothing too glorious.

Blue Man Group now uses the dressing rooms for their talent and aside from the walls being painted black instead of white, they've remained visually the same.

Outside of a Nickelodeon Studios dressing room, taken after Blue Man Group
took over, 2008.
Inside a Nickelodeon Studios dressing room while the studios were still open. This particular
dressing room was usually used for hosts because it was the closest to the soundstages.
Were you expecting more? Welcome to show business!
We've covered the main parts of the first floor. Now, let's move up to the second floor of the main building.

Upon getting off of the elevator that took you to the second floor, the first thing in front of you is the control room. This is where the magic happened for all of the Nickelodeon Studios shows, and today, it looks exactly as it did in 1990. Some of the equipment has been updated for the current clients who rent and utilize it (namely SunSports), but at a glance, it's just as it was during the glory days.

Nickelodeon Studios control room.
Typically, the director and his/her associates sat on the first row, and the producers sat on the back row. In the far back corner was the lady who did the on-screen graphics (aka CGs). The control room was a place to hear new four-letter words when cameras were rolling, and a place to laugh when they weren't.

Directly outside of the control room was an amazing piece of history that still remains to this day. When the studios first opened, the head honchos of the network all signed a slab of concrete that has still never been carpeted over. It's directly outside of the control room and is signed by people such as Geoffrey Darby (creator of Double Dare and You Can't Do That on Television) and the famous Geraldine Laybourne, president of Nickelodeon at the time.

Slab of concrete signed by those who opened Nick Studios in 1990.
Outside of the control room, the walls are overwhelmingly Nickelodeon themed. Ren & Stimpy were a hit on the network at the time the walls were being decorated and they're everywhere. In fact, the walls are themed after their space episode. Believe it or not, still to this day the walls are like this. Essentially, the second floor of Nickelodeon Studios is completely unchanged.

Right outside of the control room on the second floor of Nickelodeon Studios.
Even the copy machine area is Nickelodeon Studios themed, still to this day!
The second floor is essentially for production and post-production. Editing suites, audio rooms, sweetening rooms, tape libraries and a viewing room are what are found on the second floor. SunSports occupies these areas today.

Video Control area of Nickelodeon Studios' second floor.
Perhaps the coolest thing about the second floor is the giant Nickelodeon Studios mural that takes up an entire wall. As you can see by my My Family's Got GUTS shirt, it's still there today and in perfect condition. It's perhaps the greatest original piece of Nickelodeon Studios' history that still exists. If you're curious for bearings, a left turn at the end of the hallway behind me will put the control room on your left. The room in the above photo is behind the door behind me to the left. Directly in front of me down the hall is the tape library.

Original Nickelodeon Studios mural on the second floor of the main building.
Alright, we've covered the second floor. Now time for a quick mention of the third and top floor of the main building.

This floor is only offices and cubicles. It is occupied by SunSports and Blue Man Group today. Nickelodeon stickers still decorate the filing cabinets. There's also a kitchen area, which can be seen in the far right window of the studios from the outside. Often times we see pictures looking at Nickelodeon Studios, but never from inside Nickelodeon Studios looking out. Here's a photo from the kitchen area of the third floor, looking out over the roof where the sign used to hang.

Looking out from Nickelodeon Studios' third floor.
There you have the three floors of the main building. Nickelodeon Studios had two soundstages, stage 19 (on the left) and stage 18 (on the right). They housed most of the programming that came out of the facility. Occasionally, when larger spaces were needed, the Universal Studios soundstages were rented out as well, which were directly behind Nickelodeon Studios in the back lot.

Let's take a look at what the soundstages looked like when Nickelodeon Studios was still around, starting off with Soundstage 18.

Soundstage 18 is where Blue Man Group performs now. It's a 65,000 square foot stage that housed shows such as Outta Here!, Make the Grade, Welcome Freshman, Get the Picture, Fifteen, What Would You Do?, Weinerville, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Double Dare 2000, Taina, and Splat! Several shows could be set up at a time depending on the size of their sets. Here's how it looked when it was completely empty, awaiting a show to inhabit it:

Nickelodeon Studios Soundstage 18
A shot of the wall in Soundstage 18 with the windows from the tour covered up.
The other soundstage was identical in size to Soundstage 18 and had just as much classic programming come out of it. Let's take a look at Soundstage 19.

Soundstage 19, unlike Soundstage 18, was not accessible from the park. While Soundstage 18 was literally in the park, Soundstage 19 hung over into the employee parking lot. Shows that came out of Soundstage 19 include Family Double Dare, Hi Honey I'm Home!, Clarissa Explains it All, Roundhouse, Nick Arcade, Figure it Out, Slimetime Live, and all segments for Nickelodeon GAS.

Left side of Soundstage 19 with a floor from when U-Pick Live broadcasted in Orlando
for Nickelodeon's 25th anniversary.
Right side of Soundstage 19 with the floor from Nick GAS' Gamefarm.
Soundstage 19 was also utilized for My Family's Got GUTS. Our teams trained for the events in this stage. Our scenic department also painted large set pieces in here. The area you're looking at here is the same area in the photo right above.

Nickelodeon Studios Soundstage 19 during My Family's Got GUTS.
So whatever happened to the old Nickelodeon Studios tour? For some reason, rumors have been all over the internet for years. Let's finally lay those to rest and look at the Nickelodeon Studios tour today.

Here's the truth: it's all still there, and it's all still inhabited regularly. Blue Man Group stores all the paper they use in the finale of their show in the viewing area for Soundstage 19. There are literally hundreds of boxes stacked in there. Janitorial supplies also line the walls of the old tour.

Soundstage 19 portion of the old Nickelodeon Studios tour.
Behind where this photo was taken were big doors that lead to a right turn to the portion of the tour that showed the control room.

Nickelodeon Studios tour control room doors.
The window that looks into the control room is still very much in-tact, which honestly has to make it extremely creepy to work in there today.

Nickelodeon Studios tour control room viewing.
The last portion of tour before going down into Game Lab was the viewing room for Soundstage 18. It's still in completely pristine condition, as if it were still used today. A few items are stored here, and Blue Man Group uses the space right outside of this room for rehearsal.

Soundstage 18 portion of the old Nickelodeon Studios tour.

And then there's Game Lab.

Perhaps the most unrecognizable part of the entire facility is Game Lab. The only thing remotely similar to how it used to be are the columns in the middle of the room that used to bear the faux "Soundstage 17" logo on them. It is now used as a banquet hall. The elevator for access to the second floor still exists with the word "Elevator" in one of the network's font and is the only unchanged portion of the room.

Nickelodeon Studios Game Lab, 2007.
As mentioned earlier in the article, the first and only time Nickelodeon has returned to Orlando was for the revival of GUTS, titled My Family's Got GUTS in 2008.

Set of My Family's Got GUTS, 2008.
Most of the original crew returned, and dozens of faces from years gone by stopped by to visit. It was truly a magical, nostalgic, beautiful production to be a part of. My memories of working on My Family's Got GUTS are priceless. Everything from the entire crew singing me "Happy Birthday" with a cake on my birthday, to seeing players conquer the Aggro Crag once again.

Aggro Crag on My Family's Got GUTS, 2008.
The new Aggro Crag was an amazing new creation, designed by original set designer Byron Taylor. Because of the size of the four-person crag, it had to be contained in its own soundstage. The Extreme Arena was in Universal Soundstage 23, and the Aggro Crag was in Universal Soundstage 24. The Crag was quite a sight to behold in its casual state.

My Family's Got GUTS' Aggro Crag "sleeping" with no lights on, 2008.
In closing, Nickelodeon Studios was an incredible place, and truly was the place "where Nick was made." During the glory years, shows were truly made to kids' specifications and closely examined what kids wanted to see on their network. The studios catered to all of this in a way that no other network could, did or will.

Thanks Nickelodeon Studios for all the good times and memories.

[Starfire]

Well that was very interesting. I never got a chance to tour the studios and it is cool to at least know what it looked like. I am glad you got permission to post this. Also I enjoyed learning about this employee's part at the Studio and how important it was in his life. It is sad to know it's gone and with it some great kid's TV that will be forever in our memories.

[Thatdudeinthehoodie]

I never got the chance to go to Nickelodeon Studios as a kid, but I have seen a lot of videos via YouTube and it looked nice and it brought a tear to my eyes when I saw it had closed. (I literally cried... like I did when Toonami got canceled). So recently I was looking on YouTube to get my 90's fix and I came across a recent video that was very interesting and actually was pretty nice.



It was nice that they still had the stuff from the actual studio in it's golden age still intact and I hope it remains that way. To be honest, Universal should keep that part of the studio open and put all the 90's Nickelodeon stuff as a rest/play area. Or as a Museum for all the old stuff that used to be in the park including Nickelodeon Studios.

[Veronica23]

I am glad you were able to post this. I never was able to visit Nickelodeon Studios but always wanted to. Being able to read this was very nostalgic and I enjoyed reading about the employee's memories. Hopefully someday this place will be open to the general public again.

[Mech]

Hi,

I'm sure there's a policy of some sort against resurrecting dead threads, so I apologize. I was going through some old nostalgia stuff tonight and came across this thread, which was great. Then I noticed the hall of fame shots and decided to dig this out and take a picture. At least part of Nickelodeon Studios is still around - well, in my garage anyway, with a couple other "Legends" signage that I acquired about 14ish years ago.

I exchanged some messages with Kirk Fogg awhile back about getting him to autograph the ones I have and sell them off for charity, but he didn't seem too interested.

The '90s rocked. Legends for life! (Oh, and Nickelodeon too.)

[Tyrailius]

That is awesome, Mech! Welcome to the forum.

I think it's safe to say Nickelodeon Studios lives on through us all in one way or another. Did you work for the studio or just acquire the signages? Would you mind uploading your other cool memorabilia? I still find the studio fascinating.