Nickelodeon Hosts Mike O’Malley and Kirk Fogg Ran Their Gameshows’ Courses

Nickelodeon hosts Mike O’Malley and Kirk Fogg were masters at their own games — with slight advantages.

Speaking about their respective throwback gameshows Nickelodeon Guts and Legends of the Hidden Temple at 90s Con in Daytona Beach, Fla, on Friday, Sept. 13, O’Malley and Fogg both said they personally took on the climactic challenges that the tween-aged contestants famously faced at the end of each competition episode.

For O’Malley, 57, that came in the form of climbing Guts‘ mountain Aggro Crag. Contestants had to complete the challenge largely in the dark as different elements were thrown at them on their way to the top.

“That being said, I did not go through it with all of the effects,” said the Emmy nominee. “The kids had the goggles on … and [the effects] guys were jokers, chucking Styrofoam boulders.”

“They had to perform with nuclear flying crystals – you can only imagine how toxic that was,” O’Malley joked. “For the kids in the dark, with googles on, mist, smoke, confetti. I didn’t do it like that. … We did ask a lot of [the contestants]. You can imagine how much, as an adult, you lose your focus.”

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In Fogg’s case, he had to run the entire temple that kids had to complete in 3 minutes or less to win the grand prize, facing dead ends, locked guards, dreaded temple guards and more.

The host, 64, did a run-through of his own during the show’s first season in 1993, however, “all the doors were open,” Fogg admitted.

“You had to watch your head,” he continued, pointing out he was a bit taller than the average 12-year-old. “I did wear a helmet. I wanted to make sure every season I could get in and out in 3 minutes, and I did.”

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Discussing their own series and other similar Nickelodeon competition-show programming like Nick Arcade, Get the Picture and Double Dare, O’Malley said kids of the ’90s were “watching because they imagined themselves” in the shoes of the contestants.

“The whole thing about Guts was like, ‘What would it be like if I could dunk a basketball?’, when you’re a kid [and] you’re pretending to be [Michael Jordan]. So that’s what the show was about.”

Continued the Glee alum, “Kids have a different experience laughing and having fun when their parents aren’t around. It’s just facts. It’s just very hard as a parent not to be parenting them at every moment.”

90s Con Florida is occurring through Sunday, Sept. 15, at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Fla.