Make the Grade


Make the Grade is a children's game show that aired from October 2, 1989 through December 29, 1991 on Nickelodeon.

Broadcast history

Make the Grade premiered on Nickelodeon on October 2, 1989, with three seasons worth of first-run episodes airing weekdays. Reruns then aired until December 29, 1991. Reruns later aired on Nick GAS from January 2, 2000 to April 2, 2004.
The first season was hosted by Lew Schneider, and taped in a small New York studio with no live audience and pre-recorded crowd noise. For the second and third season, the show moved to the newly-opened Nickelodeon Studios at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, this time with a studio audience, with Robb Edward Morris taking Schneider's place as host for the third and final season. New York-based disc jockey Maria Milito was the announcer for the entire run.

Gameplay

Main Game

Three contestantseach situated at either a red, green, or blue desk – competed to answer trivia questions and acquire squares on a 7x7 split-flap game board. The category icons and grade levels lit up on the front of each desk when a question was answered correctly. Grade levels, which ranged from elementary school and grades 7 through 12, ran along the top of the board; six subjects plus a "special elective" ran down the left. The contestants' goal was to answer enough questions to light every category and grade level on the desk.
In the first season, each episode had a different set of all seven categories. In the second and third seasons, the last category was a "Special Elective", which was represented by a checkmark.

Subjects

Most squares contained questions. If a contestant answered the question correctly, he earned that square for his desk and control of the board. If incorrect, the other two had a chance to answer once the host had re-read the question. If no one answered correctly, the square turned black and could not be selected again, which Schneider referred to as a "dead square". Additionally, several squares contained "wild card" panels that could ultimately alter the outcome of the game. The wild cards were:
Like other Nickelodeon game shows, Make the Grade allowed contestants to participate in challenge stunts called "Fire Drills." Fire Drills took place when a contestant selected a square with the Fire wild card. All three contestants participate.
The goal of each Fire Drill was to complete the challenge first, thereby earning first choice at the three desks. When contestants answered questions correctly, the squares they earned belonged to the desks at which they were seated, rather than the contestants themselves. Once the Fire Drill was completed, the first place contestant picked whichever desk he or she desired, usually the one with the most grade levels and subjects completed. The second place contestant got his/her choice of the remaining two desks, and third place took the last desk remaining.

Fire Drill Events

Season 1
Season 2
  • Rocket Reducer - players use tennis ball cannons, to knock out the five parts of a rocket to win.
  • Lunchbox Bowling - players roll lunch boxes at bowling pins looking like space rockets, the player who knocks down the 10 pins first wins first pick.
  • Trash the Lab - Players toss balls at a pyramid of flasks, and whoever knocks over or down the flasks first, wins.
  • Rat Launch - A Rat version of "One Great Leap for Frogkind", except the mouse has to set off the mouse trap on the platform.
  • Skeeball Tic-Tac-Toe - Players roll or bounce miniature Basketballs on a skeeball board. whoever gets a line complete, wins.
  • Atom Smasher - A Game where contestants wear safety goggles. Players turn a wheel clockwise, lifting up a weight, and when the weight reaches the top, it crushes the atom. and the player who does it first, wins.
  • Ski Pinball - Players roll skeeballs at the white brackets. whoever lights up 6 brackets first, wins.
  • Space Hockey - Players use a hockey stick to slapshoot pucks up a ramp and into a scoring zone, to win.
  • Cafeteria Chaos - Players are to pick up all the trays and hold them to win.
  • Triple Trouble - Player toss beanbags at a tic-tac-toe grid, where they hope to reveal colored shapes in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line.
  • Flip Your lid - a difficult version of Toss Your Lunch, where the lunch boxes automatically open and close.
Season 3'
  • Spaceman Rescue - Contestants throw a life preservers at the Astronaut, pulling Him by the arm, and pulling Him in. the player who pulls in His/Her astronaut, wins.
  • Meteor Shower Bounce - Contestants bounce balls shaped like meteors into a basketball hoop, signifying a black hole. Whoever succeeds first, wins.
  • Tricky Tri-Tube Toss - Contestants bounce foam balls inside a bowl, until four balls fill up a player's chute.
  • Erlinmeyer Ektoplazm Slingshot - Players use a slingshot to shoot down flasks full of ectoplasm. whoever knocks down the first four flasks wins.
  • Dribble Tac Toe - Players roll miniature basketballs on a skeeball game, until they make a pattern, be it horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.
  • Lunar Rover - Players use a remote control truck to get an asteroid and return to the starting point to win.
  • Expanding Alien Ring Toss - Players toss rings until they get one ring around an anamatronic alien's antenna.
  • Blast Off - A Game where players wear safety goggles. Players turn a wheel lifting up a rocket with a sharp tip, popping five balloons. whoever does it successfully, wins.
  • Bean Bag Lab Rat Trap - Players use catapults to fling beanbag rats at the giant mouse trap until it snaps. whoever does it first wins.
  • Iron Claw - Players use levers to maneuver their claw to pick up an asteroid and put it in the bucket to win.
Because of this structure, a contestant could do poorly in answering questions but successfully complete Fire Drills to win the game. In extreme situations, a contestant completed their cards and won the game with one correct answer. While it was theoretically possible to win a game without answering
any'' questions, this never happened.
After two trivia rounds, the first contestant to light up 14 squares on their desk, or the contestant with the most squares in as many grade levels and subjects as possible, won $500 and goes on to the Honors Round. In the event of a tie for most lights lit up at the end of the game, the player who has the most squares in their current color on the category board wins. The other two contestants received $50 and two or three consolation prizes and all contestants were given British Knights sneakers to take home.

Honors round

In this round, the winner is offered their choice of three question categories. Each category contains questions from each of the seven subjects in the main game. The contestant has 45 seconds to answer one question correctly from all seven subjects.

First season

Each subject contained only one question and the contestant was only able to give one answer to each question. Each correct answer won $100, and getting all seven questions right augmented the bonus round total to $1,000.

Second and third seasons

The bonus round was played as before, but missing or passing a question moved to the next subject, and a contestant was able to return to the subject missed with new questions if time permitted. Each of the first six correct answers won $100, and the seventh correct answer won a trip to Universal Studios Florida.

Time-filling segments/University Round

In the first season, where the game finished early and there was additional time to fill in the program, it was filled with clips of host Schneider going to malls and asking questions, and during the third season, studio audience members were asked questions to win T-shirts and other small prizes. On a few episodes, a contestant won the game so early that they started another game with a second set of contestants, playing the second game in abbreviated time. On one occasion where the game ended early, the contestants played a physical challenge prior to the Honors Round, where the winner earned another $50 towards their winnings.
In second and third-season episodes, a University Round would occasionally be played, in which the day's winning contestant took part in. A series of five questions were asked, for $50, $100, $200, $500, and $1,000, respectively. The contestant could stop and take the money at any time. Any cash and prizes won in the earlier rounds was safe and never risked, so any cash won in the University Round was added to the winnings from the earlier rounds.