The best game shows for children and teens

Children of the ‘90s surely remember the Orange Iguanas, Olmec, and the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. Legends of the Hidden Temple was a game show built around jungle adventure with a real “Indiana Jones” vibe. The Nickelodeon version was a lot of fun back in the day, but the show was rebooted on The CW with Cristela Alonzo replacing Kirk Fogg as host. That version only lasted one season.

Double Dare is perhaps the preeminent game show for kids. It spanned decades and was one of Nickelodeon's first successful original shows. The mix of trivia and messy physical challenges has been rebooted multiple times. We only consider episodes involving Marc Summers as the host to matter, though. We grab orange flags out of our noses in his honor.

Figure It Out was immensely popular, even if sometimes a little dubious on the “game show” aspects. It was an excuse for kids to show off a “talent” and to try and give them a prize. Summer Sanders was a solid host, though, and the celebrity panel was always fun and often doused in slime.

We break away from the Nickelodeon hegemony for a moment to dip into the world of Carmen Sandiego. This geography-based show gave us the Chief, Rockapella, and a lot of fun. There was also a “Where in Time” version, but we prefer the “World.”

Have you ever wanted to be in a video game? Nick Arcade could bring you close. Kids played video games, moved Mikey around the board, and then got a chance to “go into” a video game to battle with Mongo or Merlin. Sure, it was all green screen, but it was fun to watch (and to imagine being on).

Kids have some experience finding things in a messy room, but Finders Keepers took that mess to the next level. Not in a Double Dare way, though. This was a different kind of a mess, but it was still an enjoyable watch for kids in the late ‘80s.

There are teen tournaments on Jeopardy!, but that is still Jeopardy! and is not a game show explicitly for children. Jep! was a straight-up version of the classic quiz show for kids aged 10 through 12. It didn’t last very long, but it was a noble effort.

It never really felt like there were stakes to Wild & Crazy Kids. Then again, do kids really need stakes? Let them make a mess, throw some water balloons, and they’ll be happy, especially if they get to mess with Donnie Jeffcoat or Omar Gooding.

Guts was for the athletic kids. It was about showing off your swimming, jumping, and ability to climb assorted Crags — all for glory. And a glowing piece of that radical rock, naturally. Mike O’Malley brought the right energy as the host, and then, of course, he could always throw to Mo.

Sometimes, you forget how many episodes a game show can churn out. Masters of the Maze only lasted two seasons, but they did 80 episodes. We won’t go into all the logistics of how this show worked, but needless to say, a maze was involved, and mazes can be fun when executed properly. This show got two Emmy nominations, so clearly, its execution was pretty on point.

Weirdly, there have been multiple attempts to create a child-safe version of the Cryptkeeper of Tales From the Crypt fame. Old Crypty was around to play the role of announcer here in a game show that pitted two teams of kids against one another in a series of events with names like “The Incredible Shrinking Room” and “The Swamp from Hell.” Yes, this children's game show had a round called “The Swamp from Hell.”

Think Fast is the secret gem of Nickelodeon’s game show history. It was fast-paced, energetic, and often funny. This was especially true in the first season when it was hosted by Michael Carrington, with all due respect to Skip Lackey. For what it’s worth, Lackey definitely had a name better suited for a game show host.

Fun House has a lot in common with Double Dare. You could call it highly inspired by that game show or a bit of a ripoff. The difference was putting everything into a carnival fun house motif, particularly for the obstacle course round. Oddly, they created a spinoff called College Mad House, hosted by Greg Kinnear, of all people.

So far, this list has probably felt like it is entirely catering to kids of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Well, this show ran from 2006-10. The PBS show was educational but notable because its host, Ruff Ruffman, was an animated anthropomorphic dog. How many game shows can say that?

We gave you a game show from the new millennium, but now, we flip all the way to the other end of the history of television. Juvenile Jury first aired from 1947 through 1954. Strangely, it got caught up in the game show scandals of the era. However, the show has been revived and rebooted on multiple occasions. There were versions in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s.

Contraption was an exercise in stealth marketing for Disney Channel. Each round in the game show involved showing a clip from a Disney movie. The final round took place in the “Magic” area. It was all about answering questions about clips, but to be fair, it launched when the network did. Then, it lasted until 1989.

Pictionary is a game you can play at home, but it also makes a good game show. Indeed, they made a version for adults in 1997. Before that, Pictionary was a game show for kids in 1989. They only did it for one season, but it lasted 65 episodes. Notably, the show was hosted by Brian Robbins. At the time, he was one of the stars of Head of the Class. He would go on to create All That and, um, is now the President and CEO of Paramount. Bit of a rise there.

This show debuted in 1964 and would go on to influence a lot of game shows for kids. It involved kids moving around a big game board and competing for points that could be spent on prizes. Legendary comedian Stubby Kaye hosted as the “Mayor of Shenanigans.” It doesn’t get more old-timey than that sentence.

Many children love animals and zoos. Animal Planet is a network dedicated to animals. Naturally, they would have a game show within that realm for kids. Filmed at the San Diego Zoo, the ultimate prize for winning Animal Planet Zooventure was getting to be a zookeeper for a day. That’s a pretty shrewd prize to give away. Kids love it, but it’ll keep the cost down.

Justice for Jar-Jar Binks! Jedi Temple Challenge is a game show that was released onto the Star Wars website and YouTube channel, but these are modern times, so that still counts. Kids, or Padawans as it were, compete in tests of athleticism and knowledge to try and earn the ranking of Jedi Knight. What’s most notable is that the host is Ahmed Best playing Jedi Master Kelleran Beq. Best previously played Jar-Jar, which at the time hurt his career, but history has come around to the idea that, hey, he was doing his best with what he had to work with.