WELCOME TO THE STUDIOS

For fifteen years, Nickelodeon Studios was a working studio you could walk through. Classic kids shows like Double Dare, GUTS, Legends of the Hidden Temple and Figure It Out shot there. It closed in 2005.

AT A GLANCE

Nickelodeon had already begun producing shows before the park opened, but Nickelodeon Studios officially opened to guests with Universal Studios Florida on June 7, 1990.

FROM THE NICKELODEON STUDIOS ARCHIVE

Photos, videos, stories and whatever’s left from Nickelodeon Studios.

The Studios

Nickelodeon Studios opened to guests with the park on June 7, 1990. Production had already started. For visitors, it was a working studio and an attraction. You could tour it, watch a show being made, and sometimes end up in the audience.

What Was Filmed Here

A lot of Nickelodeon came out of Orlando.

Super Sloppy Double Dare
Family Double Dare
Get the Picture
Nickelodeon Arcade
GUTS
Legends of the Hidden Temple
Figure It Out
Kenan & Kel
All That
Slime Time Live
My Brother and Me
Welcome Freshmen
Weinerville
What Would You Do?

A few careers started here too. Melissa Joan Hart filmed Clarissa Explains It All in Orlando. Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchellcame up on All That, then got their own show, Kenan & Kel.

That was the early-park idea. Television was actually being made next to the rides.

The Guest Experience

The tour took you through the production building and ended in a live show built around Nickelodeon games. For a lot of kids, the thrill was just being there. The slime, the colours, the giant logo, the stairs outside, and the chance that something was being taped.

Why It Closed

By the mid-1990s, Nickelodeon was moving more live-action work to California. The park was changing too, away from the working-studio pitch and toward rides that put you inside the story. Nickelodeon Studios closed on April 30, 2005.

The Building

The buildings stayed. Soundstage 18 became the Blue Man Group theatre in 2007 and ran until the Orlando residency ended in 2021. Soundstage 19 stayed a working stage for production and events. Nickelodeon came back briefly in 2008 for My Family’s Got GUTS.

What’s Left

Stages 18 and 19 are still standing, and so is part of the production complex. Most of the Nickelodeon paint is gone. For a while after it closed, old decor and murals were still inside. Later renovations took a lot of that out.

The 1992 time capsule made it out. It went to the Nickelodeon Suites Resort, then to the studio lot in California. Still set for 2042.

What’s left of the studio as people remember it is photos, tape, construction shots, and the shows.

The buildings are still there. Nickelodeon isn’t.