Make the Grade was a children's game show that aired from October 2, 1989 through December 29, 1991 on Nickelodeon. This article is about the television genre. ... October 2 is the 275th day of the year (276th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 2 days remaining. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickelodeon (Nick for short) is an American cable television network that is owned by Viacom International, Inc. ...

Broadcast History

Make the Grade premiered on Nickelodeon on October 2, 1989 and ended on December 29, 1991. Reruns of Make the Grade began running on Nickelodeon Games and Sports on January 2, 2000 until dropped on April 2, 2004. October 2 is the 275th day of the year (276th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 2 days remaining. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids (commonly referred to as Nick GAS), is a U.S. cable television network which was launched on March 1, 1999 as part of MTV Networks suite of digital cable channels. ... January 2 is the 2nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... April 2 is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 273 days remaining. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The first two seasons of "Make the Grade" were hosted by Lew Schneider and taped in New York. For season 3, the show moved to the newly opened Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida, with Robb Edward Morris taking Schneider's place as host. Maria Milito was the announcer for all three seasons. Lew Schneider began as a stand-up comedian and actor before becoming a television writer. ... NY redirects here. ... Opening Day, June 1990 Nickelodeon Studios (opened June 7, 1990 – closed April 30, 2005) was an attraction at Universal Studios Florida. ... Nickname: Location in Orange County and the state of Florida. ...

Main Game

Make the Grade was a question-and-answer game that combined elements of Jeopardy! and Trivial Pursuit. On each show, three contestants -- each situated at either a red, green, or blue desk -- competed to answer trivia questions and acquire squares on a 7x7 game board (the category icons and grade levels were branded in front of each desk and lit up when a question was answered correctly). Grade levels, which ranged from elementary school and grades 7 through 12, ran along the top of the board; six subjects plus a "special elective" ran down the left. The contestants' goal was to light up all 14 squares on their desk or acquire the most squares in as many grade levels and subjects as possible in their color. Jeopardy! is a popular international television quiz game show, originally devised by Merv Griffin, who also created Wheel of Fortune. ... Trivial Pursuit was an American game show loosely based on the board game of the same name. ... Look up Trivia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Most squares contained questions; the contestants had to buzz-in in the middle of reading a question. If a player answered the question correctly, he won that square for his desk and control of the board. If incorrect, the other two had a chance to answer once the host re-read the question. Several squares, however, contained "wild cards," panels that could ultimately alter the outcome of the game. The wild cards included:

• Take: allowed a player to steal any square from an opponent;
• Lose: forced a player to give up a square of their choice, which would be placed back on the board;
• Free: gave the square to the player who picked it, no questions asked;
• Fire: led to a "Fire Drill", a physical challenge for all three contestants.

Fire Drills

Like other Nickelodeon game shows before it, Make the Grade allowed contestants to participate in challenge stunts, sometimes messy, called "Fire Drills." Fire Drills took place when a contestant selected a square with the Fire wild card. All three contestants participated.

The goal of each Fire Drill was to complete the challenge first, thereby earning first choice at the three desks. Although a contestant could answer many questions correctly, the earned squares belonged to the desk. When the Fire Drill was completed, the first place contestant picked whichever desk he or she desired, usually the one with the most grade levels and subjects completed. The second place contestant took choice of the remaining two desks, and third place took the last desk left.

Because of this structure, a contestant could do poorly answering questions, but successfully complete Fire Drills to win the game. On one episode, in fact, a contestant was one subject away from winning the game. She selected a question in that subject, but it was a Fire Drill. She came in placed dead last in the drill; the contestant who wound up winning the drill hadn't answered a question correctly all game (he had only buzzed in once). He gained control over all the correct answers, answered the next question correctly and earned himself a cheap win.

Honors Round

After two trivia rounds, the first player to light up his/her desk, or the player with the most squares in as many grade levels and subjects as possible, won $500 and went on to the Honors Round. (The other two players received $50 and a consolation prize.)

In this round, the winner was offered three question categories, from which he/she chose one. Each category contained seven questions, and each question was from a different subject. The player had 45 seconds to answer all 7 questions; if the player was unable to answer 7 questions before time expires the player won what he/she won from the first two rounds. Early on in the show's run, doing so netted the contestant an additional $1000. During the second and third seasons, the first six questions were worth $100 each and the seventh earned a trip to Universal Studios Florida. Universal Studios Florida is a theme park in Orlando, Florida, part of the Universal Orlando Resort. ...

Trivia

• The opening sequence featuring a wide shot of the set was taped during the show's first season, and the "contestants" behind the podiums were actually still mannequins; the intro switched to a live shot about halfway through host Schneider's entrance.
• The sound effect was used similar to Double Dare when running out of time to answer the question.
• In second season episodes where the winning contestant won early (and, thus, there was enough time to fill), a special University Round was played. A series of 5 questions were asked -- for $50, $100, $200, $500, and $1000, respectively. Players could stop and take the money at any time. (In the third season, time was filled by asking questions of the studio audience -- they would get T-shirts as prizes.). In another episode, a contestant won the game in the first half of the show, and another game was played with a second set of contestants.

Double Dare was a childrens game show, originally hosted by Marc Summers, that aired on Nickelodeon. ...

Episode Status

All episodes exists, but have not been seen on Nick GaS since 2004. Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids (commonly referred to as Nick GAS), is a U.S. cable television network which was launched on March 1, 1999 as part of MTV Networks suite of digital cable channels. ...

External links

• Nickelodeon Games & Sports
• Make the Grade at IMDb
• Classic Nick Online
• Make The Grade Rule Page
• TV.com