FIGURE IT OUT

'''Figure It Out''' was a television game show hosted by Summer Sanders that originally aired on Nickelodeon. Kids with special skills or unique achievements compete as contestants on the show while a panel of four Nickelodeon celebrities compete against the clock as they try to guess the predetermined phrase that describes the contestant's talent.

Contents

Rules

Panelists

Spin-offs

After Games

Slime Spewer

Name That Thingy

Trivia

External links

Rules

The game is composed of two sets of three one-minute rounds per episode in which the panelists take turns asking yes-or-no questions to try to guess the contestant's talent. Each time a panelist mentions a word that is part of the phrase that describes the secret talent, the word is turned over on Billy the Answer Head (right), a game board that displays a puzzle. The solution to this puzzle is always the contestant's secret. Billy shows which words of the phrase have and have not been guessed. The contestant wins a prize after each round that his or her talent remains unguessed. After the third round, each panelist is given one final guess as to what the contestant's talent is. The game ends either when a panelist guesses the secret talent or if no panelist guesses the secret talent correctly after the "last guess" stage.
During each round, the panelists receive one clue as a hint to one of the words of the secret phrase. The clue can take the form of physical objects, such as dates (the fruit) to indicate a clue about calendars, sounds (rarely used), or pantomime (the "Charade Brigade", usually two or three cast members, only appearing in round 3, who act out a word from the phrase).
Another aspect of the game show is the "Secret Slime Action." Before the second round of each game, a randomly selected member of the studio audience is revealed; that member stands to win a piece of merchandise, typically a Figure It Out-branded article of clothing (in the first season, it was a merchandise prize, such as a Nintendo 64 or a mountain bike), if at least one celebrity panelist performs the Action (and is subsequently "slimed") by the third round. The Secret Slime Action is typically a simple and almost guaranteed action; actions such as touching a clue, looking to the left (which was reflexive, as clues were commonly wheeled out on a small track from the contestants' left), using the phrase "are you..." or "is it..." and having a certain name were all used as actions. Some actions were even intrinsically unenforceable, such as "thinking about coconuts" or "thinking about mushroom soup"; especially in later episodes, a successful Secret Slime Action was mostly a foregone conclusion, and the variables were only when it would be triggered, and by whom. ''(Contrary to popular belief, the Secret Slime Action was sometimes NOT actually performed by a panelist.)''
At the conclusion of the game, after the secret talent has been revealed, the contestant demonstrates or displays his or her skill and talks about it with the host and the panelists.

Panelists

Either three or all four panelists were taken from Nickelodeon shows at the time. Regulars on the panel included Amanda Bynes, Lori Beth Denberg and Danny Tamberelli of ''The Adventures of Pete and Pete''. The first seat on the panel was usually an older panelist, either an older actor from Nickelodeon, a non-Nickelodeon celebrity, or a member of the contestant's family.

Spin-offs

Due to the popularity of the show, two spin-offs occurred. ''Figure It Out: Family Style'' (season 3; Autumn, 1998) featured 2 contestants who were related, typically parent-child or sibling-sibling; sometimes the panel would be surprised by seeing the aforementioned contestant's relative jump into the game. ''Figure It Out: Family Style'' also featured "Little Billy." If the panelists figured out the contestants' secret, they would bring out Little Billy. The panelists had to guess the one (impossible) question on Little Billy, therefore giving the contestant another chance to win a prize (usually ''Figure It Out'' apparel). ''Figure It Out: Wild Style'' (season 4; Autumn, 1999) featured solely talents involving animals; during these episodes, Billy the Answer Head was reshaped as an animal, including Billy the 'Aaaan'swer Goat, or Billy the Enormous Answer Elephant.
Cardinal Games also adapted a ''Figure It Out'' board game version in 1998.

After Games

Slime Spewer

The Slime Spewer slimes the panelist(s) who perform the famous Secret Slime Action. The sound when activated sounds like an alarm klaxon and can be heard on the Figure It Out site on the Nick.com site under Nick Gas.

Name That Thingy

Summer Sanders would call down one member of the audience and give the Panelists an object. Each of the Panelists would give a name and description of the object, but only one of them were telling the truth, and the audience member (usually a child) would have to figure out who's telling the truth. The audience member will usually get a prize (even if they don't find out who's telling the truth), and it's usually an official Figure It Out sweatshirt.
Other after games include Name That Critter, The Last Laugh, Lightning Letters, Winner's Wheel, Drench Bench, Little Billy, and The Secret Panel Match Up.

Trivia

★ Host Summer Sanders was actually slimed twice during the show's run: once as a panelist (where she was slimed three times in succession) and once as a surprise during her normal hosting duties while closing the show. Unlike her sliming as a panelist when she was wearing a jumpsuit, when Summer was slimed as the host she was in normal clothing (T-shirt, sweater vest, denim mini skirt and white Converse sneakers). After the sliming, Summer said on-air, "Yugh, very funny guys, now my new outfit is ruined."

★ Sometimes, the Secret Slime Action would be based on one panelist's clothes, profession, character, etc. In that instance, the offending panelist was slimed at a random point in the second round. For example, when Steve Burns of ''Blue's Clues'' was a guest on the show, the secret slime action was "Having a Blue dog", which he did have on ''Blue's Clues''. However, he was slimed about 3/4 of the way through the 2nd round. Mike O'Malley got slimed for "Wearing Orange" just one second (i.e., :59 left on the clock) into the second round. In another episode, both Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell were slimed for "having a TV show named after them" (which they did, as the show was Kenan & Kel). Once, Carrot Top was slimed because he was "a natural redhead" (Danny Tamberelli got slimed at the same time since he too was a redhead).

★ In one episode of ''Figure It Out: Family Style'', ''Cousin Skeeter'' from his eponymous show appeared as a panelist.

★ Several episodes of ''Figure It Out: Family Style'' included family members of the contestant who swore they didn't know what the contestant's secret talent was.

★ In early episodes, contestants that won the first round were given original props from the sets of ''Global Guts'', ''Legends of the Hidden Temple'', ''Clarissa Explains it All'', ''All That'', and various other Nickelodeon shows.

★ In ''Figure It Out: Family Style'', there are several episodes where Jay, the announcer, is replaced by "Jay's Mom." It may be supposed that she was replaced due to her being difficult to understand.

★ Show regular Danny Tamberelli was often slimed. When he got slimed, he normally flipped his hair back towards the audience so they got some of the slime on them.

★ Catdog, in real life (non-CG), was seen for the first time ever in an episode.

★ The audience members usually wore unusual hats.

★ During the credits roll on versions besides ''Wild Style'', Summer polls the studio audience about unusual talents they have, usually accompanied with a demonstration.

★ The tagline for this show is ''That Strain On The Brain'', which is used on that show's "back to" and "up next" bumpers on Nick GaS.

★ In almost all the episodes with Danny Tamberelli as a panelist when he gets confused he says ''I DON'T KNOW!!!'' in a funny way. The comment could be a reference to ''You Can't Do That on Television''.

External links

★ Nick GAS: Figure It Out