Nickelodeon Guts

The series was filmed at Sound Stage 21 at Universal Studios Florida on a set dubbed the "Extreme Arena". This arena consists of a turf playing field, a pool, a racing track, an obstacle course and the Aggro Crag.

Season 1 began taping on August 12, 1992.[1]

Reruns were shown on Nickelodeon from January 15, 1996, until January 31, 1999, before moving to Nick GAS from March 1, 1999, until the station ceased broadcasting on December 31, 2007 (April 23, 2009, on Dish Network). It has occasionally been seen in reruns on TeenNick since January 1, 2008. Since 2011, those reruns aired on the channel's NickSplat block on an occasional basis. Pluto TV's Nick Games channel showed reruns of 4 episodes in 2019, but Pluto TV removed the channel in 2020 after a major overhaul of the channel lineup. As of 2022, the show now airs as part of a Nick Games block on Pluto TV channel 1016, "No Parents Allowed".

In 2008, Nickelodeon produced two seasons of a revival of the program, My Family's Got GUTS.

On each half-hour episode, three children or teenagers (blue, red, and purple) compete against each other in four events that are based on "extreme" versions of skills in popular sports, such as basketball, baseball, football, and soccer. While most of these events include the use of an elastic harness, others make use of a wave pool, and sometimes a racing track is used. During the show's run, more creative and ambitious events were developed, even including a fabricated ski slope.

The competitors are awarded points based on their comparative performance in each event. First place in each event is worth 300 points. Second place receives 200 points, and third place earns 100 points. In general, in case of a tie, the players involved each receive the higher placing and points, however, if two or more players are disqualified, fail to finish, or fail to score, they each receive third place points. The player with the most points after all five events won the game and received a gold GUTS medal and a faux glowing piece of the Aggro Crag. Second place received a silver medal and third received a bronze medal.

The contestants are introduced in the breaks between events in a segment dubbed "Spill Your GUTS". The segment was done as an interview with one of the hosts in the first two seasons (O'Malley in season 1 and Quirk in season 2), and was subsequently a prerecorded segment. In seasons 3 and 4, the contestants introduced themselves. During Global Guts, a flag of the player's country was shown, followed by the contestant introducing themselves. Then, the location where the contestant is from was shown on a map, followed by them giving more information about what they do. Non-English speaking contestants introduced themselves in their native language, with an English-language voiceover dubbed over their voices.

The fifth and final event of each episode pits the three contestants in a race to climb a fabricated mountain called the Aggro Crag (seasons 1–2), the Mega Crag (season 3), or the Super Aggro Crag (Global GUTS).

The object of the Crag was for all three players to race to the peak of the mountain, while hitting a series of actuators (buttons that illuminated a light beacon when pressed) along the way to the peak. In season 1, players have a total of 7 actuators to hit. Seasons 2 and beyond, players have a total of 8 actuators to hit. If a player misses any of the actuators along the way, a spotter at the top (referred to as the "Crag Troll") prevented that player from completing the climb until they returned and activated whatever targets they missed. Each player had a separate, but identical side of the mountain to climb, and was not permitted to cross into their opponents' paths or disrupt their progress. The climb is made more difficult by strobe lights simulating "lightning", foam rock "avalanches", flying "snow" in the form of glitter and confetti, and "nuclear flying crystals" in the form of balls that are each triggered either at random or when the players stepped on specific switchbacks on the crag. The first player to successfully activate all of their actuators, including the final one at the peak, earns 725 points. The second and third-place earn 550 and 375 points, respectively.

A number of violations/errors on the Crag resulted in a player automatically receiving third place points, including:

• Crossing into another player's section of the mountain
• Hitting someone else's actuators (excluding the final actuator)
• Reaching the top of the mountain by grabbing a hand rail
• Making a false start at the beginning of the climb
• Finishing the climb without lighting all of one's own actuators
• Not stepping on all of the boulders in the Crag's "Boulder Canyon" section (Boulder Canyon was introduced in season 2 of GUTS)

The increased point structure in the final event allows players overcome a deficit of as much as 300 points to win,[2] despite earlier mistakes. The point structure for the Crag eliminates the possibility of a tie except in the unlikely event that two players who are already tied are each disqualified during the Crag and therefore both receive third-place points. While dual-disqualifications did occur during the show's run, it never resulted in a tie.

The sound design for the action on the Aggro Crag was created by Nickelodeon Senior Sound Designer Mark Schultz, who converted the voltages supplied by the infrared actuator "eyes" to triggers read by a MIDI-based sampler.[3]

The total height of the Aggro Crag was 28 feet (8.5 m). For the Mega Crag, as well as the Super Aggro Crag on Global GUTS, the total height was 30 feet (9.1 m) tall.[4]

In November 1994, a video game based on the series was developed and published by Viacom New Media exclusively for the Super NES. One or two players may compete in many of the events that debuted in the TV show, including the Aggro Crag. The game is based on the actual footage of the show and contains filmed contestants.[6][7] Nintendo Power praised the game's graphics, but criticized the poor control.[8]

• Siegel, Alan (2021-08-11). "An Oral History of 'Nickelodeon GUTS'". The Ringer. Retrieved 2023-10-03.