Wild and Crazy Kids was a game show on Nickelodeon, that aired from 1990–1992, in which large teams, usually consisting entirely of children, participated in head-to-head physical challenges. It was hosted by Omar Gooding, Donnie Jeffcoat, and Jessica Gaynes. Gaynes replaced Annette Chavez in the second season. The show also aired on YTV in Canada. In 2002, a remake hosted by Mati Moralejo was aired for seven episodes.

Games

Three games were played per show, with one host emceeing each game. The teams were identified by the color of the shirts they wore, which varied from show to show. The games varied in style; many were takeoffs on playground games, sports with unusual rules added, or messy games involving pies or slime (the latter was referred to as "blap" on very late episodes). Occasionally, the show taped special episodes at a water park (Raging Waters and Wild Rivers, both in California, were featured during the show's run.) There were no prizes awarded at all for unexplained reasons.

Examples of games used on the show:

• Contestants had to find the name of a food on a giant word search board. The contestant who found the word first got to dump a bucket of whatever the word was over the other contestant's head, gunging the contestant. Buckets included chocolate sauce, raw eggs, SpaghettiO's, flour and whipped cream. One child also got a bottle of mustard squirted in his hair.
• A large scale pie fight was intended to pit children against their camp counselors; however, the fight quickly got out of control and turned into a massive free-for-all, with participants throwing pies at anyone and everyone else, no matter which team they were on due to the fact that both Donnie and Annette wanted to get revenge on Omar after Omar hit both of them with pies earlier in the show.
• Kids did a long jump and landed in a pit of mud or shaving cream.
• Children and their parents jumped up and down on Moon shoes to break shaving cream filled balloons. Whichever team broke the most balloons won.
• A game of Simon Says which looked more like a comedy routine by leader, Brian Seeman.
• Two teams ride the Colossus roller coaster while holding cups of water; the team with the most collective water remaining won.
• A game of polo using bumper cars and a very large (about 1 m in diameter) rubber ball.
• The playground game "red light/green light" - each player held a cream pie, with which they had to pie hinself if they got caught. If the player reaches the other side without getting caught, he gets to use his pie to hit the grownup waiting there.
• Slip 'n' Slide races
• A modified version of "Steal the Bacon" involving three teams where the object to be retrieved was a bucket of a mystery substance; contestants who lost a round got its contents dumped onto their heads. To win a round, a player had to either steal the bucket without getting tagged by both opponents or tag a thieving player.
• The game most notably repeated was Dizzy Bat Home Run Derby. The game consisted of two teams (one of kids and one of adults) batting in three innings. The kids would attempt to hit home runs off of pitched balls. Hit balls that did not leave the field in fair territory counted as an out. Once the kids had three outs, the adults would bat. During their half-inning, a grownup would have up to three chances to hit home runs off a batting tee; however, the adult was first required to hold his bat upright against his forehead and spin around it three times; furthermore, each adult would only get thirty seconds to hit the balls. Three adults would bat every half-inning. At the end of the original and second versions, the kids, who lost both times, demanded a rematch. Donnie, who hosted these games, then declared a sequel or a part three.
• A game was played where kids would drive remote controlled cars around in an arena where a construction worker was driving a steamroller. The object, of course, was to not get one's car run over by the steamroller. The team with the last remaining car won. Variations on this game included a blindfolded player attempting to steer a remote controlled car through a gauntlet consisting of opposing team members (also blindfolded) armed with mallets, and a player attempting to steer a car through a beach obstacle course lined with small explosives buried in the sand. The further the contestant progressed in the gauntlet, the higher his score; the team with the highest collective score won the event.
• Parents sat above their kids holding buckets of slime. Kids had to pick a number. The parent who had the bucket with the number the kid chose got to dump the bucket of slime over the head of the kid seated below them. Kids and parents then reversed.
• A massive maze with students challenging their teachers. The group with the most correctly finding the exit to the maze won. Ultimately the teachers prevailed.
• Children would ride down a water slide, with a bucket attached to their head, and would also be wearing a backpack on their front filled with tomatoes. From the top of the slide to the bottom, the object was to remove tomatoes and place them in the bucket.
• Also at a water park, children would ride down a high speed slide, skim across a pool, and attempt to knock down as many of a row of inflated 'bowling pins' that were attached to an overhead cable with velcro, as possible.
• A game of "Human Battleship" which is played like the classic board game. When a player is hit, he or she would have a bucket filled with a type of food dumped on them.
• A tug of war which pitted 50 kids against 3 giant pro wrestlers.

Revival

Wild and Crazy Kids was revived on Nickelodeon, premiering on July 29, 2002 as a seven episode weekly summer series hosted by Mati Moralejo.

Guest appearances

• Occasionally, Wild & Crazy Kids would have celebrity appearances, such as Lark Voorhies from "Saved by the Bell", Jonathan Taylor Thomas from "Home Improvement", Michael Fishman from "Roseanne", Marc Summers from "Double Dare", Chuck Norris, Hulk Hogan, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• A young Tobey Maguire appeared on the show long before he was famous, promoting the short-lived Fox sitcom Great Scott!
• Olympic skiier Bode Miller appeared on the show in 2002.
• Professional baseball player Bruce Hurst appeared in one of the "Dizzy Bat" baseball games, with another appearance made by professional baseball pitcher Scott Bailes.
• Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega of the Spy Kids movies appeared for one episode during the Nick GaS revival of the show.
• Former Detroit Lion QB Rodney Peete was in an episode throwing footballs to kids jumping into a swimming pool.

Production

The show was executive produced by Woody Fraser, and aired 65 episodes between 1990 and 1992. It was produced by Woody Fraser Productions in association with Nickelodeon and Reeves Entertainment Group. Marc Summers appeared on several episodes.