Legends of the Hidden Temple is an action-adventure
game show for
children. Hosted by
Kirk Fogg, the show was produced by
Stone Stanley Productions in association with
Nickelodeon and was taped at
Nickelodeon Studios at
Universal Studios in
Orlando, Florida. The show incorporated physical stunts, as well as questions based on topics related to
history,
mythology, and
geography. Each episode featured six teams of two children (one boy and one girl) competing for prizes. Teams competed in various elimination contests until one team remained, who then earned the right to go through "the Hidden Temple" and retrieve a historical artifact to win a grand prize.
Legends of the Hidden Temple was the last show to air on
Nick GAS on April 23, 2009 from
Dish Network.
Legends aired on
Nickelodeon from September 11,
1993 to
1995 in first-run and through August 23, 1998 in reruns. From 1999 to 2009, reruns of the show have aired on
Nick GAS. The series received positive acclaim, and, in 1995, the show won a
CableACE award for Best Game Show Special or Series. In the late 2000s, the show developed a
cult following, especially among college students who grew up watching the show.
Broadcast and production history
Legends of the Hidden Temple began airing on Nickelodeon on September 11, 1993. The show originally aired on weekends at 6:30. In that time slot, it increased the Nielsen rating from 1.5 to 2. Due to this success, it began airing weekdays at 5:30 starting the week of February 14, 1994. The show was renewed for a second season in February 1994,. Auditions took place in February 26 and 27, and production occurred from March 27 through April 17. Second season episodes began airing June 6, 1994. The show aired interspersed first-run and rerun episodes until 1995, when the show halted production.
In 1996, the
Orlando Business Journal reported that Nickelodeon was considering renewing
Legends for a fourth season, but according to Scott Fishman, Vice-President of Production Services at Nickelodeon, renewal was "not
a sure bet" because Nickelodeon was considering three new game show pilots filmed in Orlando. By April 1996, the show had been canceled.
It continued airing in reruns for three years until August 23, 1998 when the show stopped airing on Nickelodeon.
New York Times television listings for August 23, 1998 (as well as August 30, 1998). However, in 1999, the show once again began airing in reruns on
Nick GAS. In May 2007, the show appeared back on
Nickelodeon's schedule, airing every weekday morning; however, it was unexpectedly taken off the schedule after its last Nickelodeon airing on June 7, 2007. The show continued to air on Nick GAS until April 23, 2009 when Dish Network (the last provider to air Nick GAS) decided to replace the network with the West Coast feed of
Cartoon Network. A limited selection of Legends episodes were available on Nick's internet television service TurboNick from January 2008 until that service was discontinued in Summer 2009; the current Nick Video portal features a focus on the network's current programming only. Currently no network is airing Legends.
In March 2009,
TV Week reported that David Stanley acquired the rights to several Stone-Stanley shows, including
Legends of the Hidden Temple.
International broadcasts
In 1999, Nickelodeon included
Legends in a block of Nickelodeon programming that aired on
Zee TV.
Audition process
Prospective contestants for
Legends had to be 11 to 14 years old."Kids Can Audition for Nick Show." "The cable network is looking for about 150 kids age 11 to 14" Those trying out had to compete in several physical tasks, including rope climbing and running, as well as a written test on history.
Theming and premise
The set design of
Legends was based on the
Indiana Jones movies,, and Marianne Arneberg of the
Orlando Sentinel described
Legends as "a combination of
Jeopardy and
Raiders of the Lost Ark". The set design has been described as
Mayan.Katz. "Much more threatening this season will be the timed chase through the Mayan ruins" It included areas for different types of physical challenges: a broad but shallowKatz. "'We still have the occasional kid fall into the moat because it looks like fun,'
Huntington says. 'But the water's not that deep.'" pool of water (the
Moat), a set of steps (the Steps of Knowledge), and a large, two-and-a-half-floor"Kids Can Audition for Nick Show." "kids
scramble through a 13-room, 2 1/2 -story Mayan temple" vertical
labyrinth (the Hidden Temple) at the back of the stage. At the labyrinth's gate was a giant animatronic talking
Olmec head simply named Olmec (voiced by
Dee Baker). Olmec narrated the stories told in the steps of knowledge and temple game challenges. Every episode had a theme: a particular legend was picked (written), regarding a certain
artifact from around the world that found its way to the Temple (a
replica of the actual artifact, if such an artifact existed in real life), and the winning team had to retrieve it. Some artifacts included "
Lawrence of Arabia's Headdress," "The Walking Stick of
Harriet Tubman," "The Jewel-Encrusted Egg of
Catherine the Great," "The Levitating Dog Leash of
Nostradamus," and the "Broken Wing of
Icarus." In addition to providing an artifact, the legend also was important to other aspects of the show: the Steps of Knowledge used questions based on the historical legend, and the theming of the Temple Games was also loosely based on the legend.Arneberg. "The 40 episodes of Legends 'are all story driven' — the stunts are themed around a specific legend, as are questions contestants must answer during a segment of the show, Stone said."
Main game
Teams
In each episode, six teams of two players (one boy and one girl) each competed in three rounds to get to the temple. Each team was designated a color and an animal, indicated on their uniform shirts: Red
Jaguars, Blue
Barracudas, Green
Monkeys, Orange
Iguanas, Purple
Parrots and Silver
Snakes.
Round 1: The Moat
The first round of the show involved a stunt where the six teams had to get across a narrow
swimming pool known as the "moat". Some of the commonly used methods included
rafts,
ropes, and
bridges. All six teams attempted to get both members across according to the rules and push a button, thus setting off the team's "
gong." Typically, if a team member fell in the water (especially if a team member touches the water, or partner with their hands), that partner (or occasionally both teammates) had to go back and try again until successful. The first four teams to cross the moat and hit their gongs advanced to the second round.
Round 2: The Steps of Knowledge
Olmec began the Steps of Knowledge by telling the four remaining teams the episode's legend, which would become the theme for the remainder of the episode. The legend would center around an "artifact" which the winning team would search for in the Temple Run. After finishing, he asked the teams a series of questions to test their memories. Each multiple-choice question had three possible answers. A team that knew the answer buzzed in by stomping on the button (known as the Ancient Marking) on their step (if Olmec was still in the middle of asking the question, he would stop talking immediately). If a team answered correctly, they moved down to the next level. If a team answered incorrectly or went too long without an answer (three seconds after being called uponFogg's explanation before the round in "John Sutter and the Map to the Lost Gold Mine"), the other teams had a chance to answer. The first two teams to step down to the bottom level by answering a total of three questions correctly moved on to the next round.
Round 3: The Temple Games
The Temple Games round was introduced as a turning point in the episode away from the unpredictable Moat and mind games of the Steps of Knowledge. Here, "the glory
went to the fastest and the strongest" as the two remaining teams competed for as many pendants of life as possible in three physical challenges.
Legends employed many types of Temple Games, with the day's legend serving as a theme for each. Temple Game challenges were either untimed or lasted for a maximum of 60 seconds (ending either when time expired or when a team completed the objective). After each challenge, the winning team (the team who completed the objective first or, failing that, the team who made the most progress) was awarded some portion of a protective Pendant of Life. The first two challenges, which pitted single members from each team, awarded a half-pendant each, and the final challenge, involving both players on both teams, awarded a full pendant. If a Temple Game ended in a tie, both teams were awarded the pendant value of that game. After these rounds, the team with the greater number of pendants went on to the final round.
In the event that the two teams' pendant totals were tied after the three games, the teams played a tiebreaker to determine which team would advance to the Temple. A "tiebreaker pedestal" was brought out, and Fogg (or, later in seasons 2 and 3, Olmec) asked a tiebreaker question to determine the winner. The first team to hit the button on top of their gong earned the chance to answer the question. The team had three seconds to answer, and their first response had to be accepted.This is according to Fogg's rundown of the rules before a tiebreaker occurred. A correct answer allowed the team to go to the Temple. In Season 1, an incorrect answer (or running out of time) automatically awarded the other team passage to the Temple, but in the second and third seasons, the other team simply received an opportunity to answer the question correctly.
Final Round: The Temple Run
In the final round, often known as the Temple Run, the winning team took whatever Pendants of Life they earned into the temple (1, 1½, or 2), and attempted to retrieve the day's ancient artifact and bring it back to the temple gate successfully. The player designated to go into the temple first would receive one pendant, and the second player received the remainder of what the team had won in the Temple Games (no pendants, a half pendant, or one pendant).
The temple consisted of 12 or 13 rooms, depending on the layout, each connected to adjacent rooms by doorways. The doors were either locked or unlocked; the pattern of locked and unlocked doors changed from episode to episode. Often, doors were locked to require teams to make a more indirect and longer path to the room with the artifact. The unlocked doors could be opened either by completing a specific task or puzzle within each room, or by simply pressing a button (or actuator). One room in the labyrinth contained the themed artifact; three specific rooms other than the artifact room held Temple Guards (spotters in lavish Mayan
sentinel costumes). If the winning team had 1½ pendants, the remaining half-pendant would be somewhere in a room as well. However, if the team had only one pendant going into the temple, no extra pendants were hidden.
When a player encountered a Temple Guard, the player was forced to give up a full pendant in order to go on; however, if the first contestant was caught without a pendant (whether he or she had given it to a previous temple guard, or dropped it elsewhere in the temple without picking it back up), he or she was taken out of the temple and it would be the second player's turn to enter, with all opened doors remaining such. Furthermore, each Temple Guard only showed himself once per run, leaving the second player with a clear route to where the first player was eliminated. If the second player did not have a full pendant upon capture, the run ended at that moment. This placed pressure on the second player to search for the hidden half pendant (if he or she had a half pendant) in order to prevent this. If the team had two pendants (whether by having two pendants to begin with, or the second player having two halves of a pendant, it didn't matter), they were guaranteed not to have their run end due to the guards, as the first player would remove two (one with a pendant, one with being eliminated) and the second player would remove the third guard with their pendant. Thus, the only way they could lose was by running out of time. However, temple guards were still present in order to slow the contestants down.
The team had three minutes to complete the temple in its entirety. If either player grabbed the artifact, all remaining Temple Guards "vanished" and all locked doors instantly opened, allowing the player to escape unhindered. Just for getting into the temple, the team automatically won a prize. If they picked up the artifact, they also would win another prize of slightly higher value. If they escaped with the artifact before time ran out, the team won a vacation in addition to the two merchandise prizes. Common vacations included
NASA's
Space Camp,
Roseland Ranch,
The Bahamas, and
Krystal Kancun.
In Season 1, Kirk Fogg would explain how the locked doors, temple guards, and pendants worked. In Seasons 2 and 3, Omec provided this explanation. Also, in Season 1, Kirk would ask the frontrunner if he planned to go up (into the Gargoyle Room) or down (into the Cave of Sighs).
In Seasons 2 and 3, the viewers at home had a map of the temple in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, with a pink line showing the current contestant's path through the temple, with a blinking pink dot showing the room where the artifact was located. The viewers also had a
heads-up display showing how many pendants the contestants had remaining.
Episodes
In its three years of production,
Legends produced 120 episodes (40 in each of the three seasons). Many historical and mythological figures were featured as subjects of legends during the show's run.
Reception
Legends of the Hidden Temple has been reviewed many times, both in the 1990s when the show originally aired, as well as the 2000s, when the show experienced a resurgence in popularity.
1990s
Writing for
Entertainment Weekly, A. J. Jacobs listed
Legends among a series of imitators of
American Gladiators, describing the concept as "
Gladiators meets
Young Indiana Jones Chronicles." Jacobs criticized the "Steps of Knowledge" round as filler, but concluded that "kids'll praise it to the moon."
Legends won the award for best game show at the Sixteenth Annual
CableACE awards in January 1995. The show received nominations at the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Annual CableACE awards in December 1995 and October 1996, but lost to
The News Hole and
Debt (game show).
Feminist author
Susan Douglas, a
Hampshire College professor of media and American studies, praised
Legends for being a "nonsexist and nonviolent" show.
2000s
Due to its popularity among college students (who were in the show's target audience during its initial run),
Legends has repeatedly been referenced and used as a theme.
A journalist at
West Boca Raton High School wrote an article in the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel about how high school students had fond memories for Nickelodeon shows including
Legends.
In a 2007 poll, the
Springfield, Illinois State Journal-Register found that ten percent of respondents said that
Legends was their "favorite 'old school' Nickelodeon show."
Legends served as a theme for Cornell's 2008 Greek Week. In April 2009,
Walnut Creek, California made
Legends the theme of its "Kids' Night Out" program.
References
External links