Sponk! | |
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Genre | Sketch comedy, game show |
Presented by | Jonathan McLain |
Starring |
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Voices of | Karen Fowler |
Narrated by | Karen Fowler |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
Production | |
Producer(s) | Karen Fowler |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company(s) | Insight Productions Sesame Workshop |
Release | |
Original network | Noggin |
Original release | September 10, 2001 | – March 30, 2002 , reruns aired until January 1, 2003
Sponk! is a children's television game show, which premiered on American network Noggin September 10, 2001 and ran until March 3, 2002. After the last episode aired, the show went in reruns until January 1, 2003. The premise of Sponk! was improvisational comedy, similar to the show Whose Line Is It Anyway? Two teams of performers depicted suggestions in a variety of games. Viewers suggested their ideas by submitting them to the Noggin website. "SID" (Suggestion & Idea Distributor) was the name of the computer on the show that picked the ideas submitted by Noggin.com members. In 2002, the series was also broadcast to the on The N, a network targeted at the "tween" demographic of children approximately 9- to 14-years-old.
The cast included host Johnathan McClain, and announcer (as the voice of SID) Karen Fowler. The performers were all young actors. Among them were Julia Kay, Tim Dorsch, Scott Irby-Rainnar, Lori Wells, Miles Thompson (who later went on to star in the feature film Me and You and Everyone We Know and cameoed in Return To Sleepaway Camp), Allie Berdebes, Vanessa Lengies, and Louie Torrellas.
It resembled a classic Nickelodeon game show, featuring young actors and a young studio audience. The performers were four boys and four girls but with two sitting out and six competing in a red team and blue team. The ideas for the improvisational and sketch contests were submitted by the home audience through Noggin.com. SID would then pick a submission and provide credit for the home audience (as their screen name). Later, SID announced the winner of a small electronic device.
The studio audience participated as judges for the sketches. They disqualified a contestant by yelling "SPONK!". When time ran out, the audience voted the winner by raising the side of their "Spaddle" to vote for the red team or blue team. The "prize" that the performers competed was the Sponk Trophy, a golden rubber chicken. Occasionally an audience member would be the sketch participant while the original performers acted as a celebrity panel, and won a small prize.