How to play the Nickelodeon shows timeline game

This deck is a stack of Nickelodeon originals, from cartoons and sitcoms to slime-soaked game shows, and you put them in order of the year each series first aired. A short line under every title sums up the premise, which is handy when a name alone doesn't ring a bell. The game hands you one show already dated on the line. After that, every card needs a home: before it, after it, or in a gap between others. A correct call shows the premiere year. A wrong one sends the show to its real slot anyway and takes one of your three lives.

The lineup runs from the network's first homegrown hits through the cartoon boom and the teen sitcom years, on to its preschool and superhero shows. Your own childhood is the best guide here, but it can mislead: a show you caught in endless reruns may have started well before you first saw it. Several of the cartoons and game shows arrived within a season or two of each other, so the early part of the line packs in tight. The premise lines help separate the live-action comedies, which tend to blur together.

Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in release years and dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.

What's in the deck

Here are 28 of the 39 cards you might be dealt, with 11 more in the deck. Their values stay hidden until you place them.

Double Dare Messy stunt game show hosted by Marc Summers
Hey Dude Teens working on an Arizona dude ranch
Doug Doug Funnie and his journal in Bluffington
The Ren & Stimpy Show Unhinged chihuahua and a dim-witted cat
Clarissa Explains It All Melissa Joan Hart talks to the camera
Salute Your Shorts Hijinks at Camp Anawanna
Legends of the Hidden Temple Olmec's temple game show
Rocko's Modern Life A wallaby navigates life in O-Town
Aaahh Real Monsters Young monsters at a school under a dump
The Secret World of Alex Mack Teen gains powers from a chemical spill
Kenan & Kel Who loves orange soda?
Blue's Clues Steve and a blue puppy solve clues
The Angry Beavers Beaver brothers Norbert and Daggett
The Wild Thornberrys Eliza can talk to animals
SpongeBob SquarePants Sea sponge fry cook in Bikini Bottom
Dora the Explorer Bilingual adventurer with Boots and Map
Invader Zim Alien plots world conquest from a school desk
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius Boy inventor and his robot dog Goddard
Danny Phantom Half-human, half-ghost hero
Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide Tips for surviving middle school
Avatar: The Last Airbender Aang masters the four elements
iCarly Teen hosts a web show with her friends
Big Time Rush Hockey players turned boy band
The Legend of Korra Avatar Korra in Republic City
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles CGI heroes in a half shell
Sam & Cat Roommates run a babysitting business
PAW Patrol Ryder and his rescue pups
Henry Danger Sidekick to Captain Man