Back in the 1980s, Nickelodeon's Double Dare was
a staple hit in a child's life. All sorts of goo was placed before
kid contestants to dive through, dig through, and have dumped upon them.
Up until that point, any kind of concoction dumped on a kid was simply
called "slime" as dubbed by You Can't Do That on Television.
These two shows are two I was not only a huge fan of, but went on to
have strong professional relationships with in my career. I say
that to reveal this:
In the early days of Double Dare, as the folklore
goes, a simple standhand on the show idly referred to the concoctions by
a random name: "gack." Don't call me out on my spelling yet.
The name caught on and stuck around the show, and soon, it was being
referred to on-air as gack. There was slime and gack. Now,
for the spelling.
In these early days, there was no consumer product to
warrant an official spelling of the stuff. The first time it was
ever visibly spelled on-camera was during a behind the scenes special
done by Nickelodeon in 1988, hosted by Lew Schneider (Make the Grade,
later head writer for Everybody Loves Raymond) and Will Friedle (Don't
Just Sit There and later Boy Meets World). The two sit
in a tape vault and pull out bloopers from various Nickelodeon shows
such as Double Dare, Make the Grade, You Can't Do That
on Television, Think Fast, and others. Behind
them in the tape vault are canisters of green goo labeled "slime" and,
sure enough, "gack." I also smell another article brewing.
The first an-air "spelled" appearance of "Gak" as "gack"
In 1992, Double Dare was in its last season as
Family Double Dare and the word was still heavily used. At
this time, Nickelodeon decided to release it as a consumer product that
could be purchased in stores. At some point before this, the
official spelling was dubbed as "Gak" and Mattel slapped the product
into stores.
There were four initial products. Two were Gak,
two were Gak accessories. First off, there was the Gak Splat, a
small "splat" shaped container containing a single color of Gak.
If your mom was in a good mood that day, you might get the Gak Pak.
This hefty 13.5 ounce bucket of mass contained three colors of
Gak, each in separate compartments. Think of it as Gak contained
within a 3 flavor Christmas popcorn tin.
Then, you had your two accessories. First of all,
the Gak Vac. This was basically a hand-held vacuum that sucked Gak
up and spit it back out, in the process making flatulent noises.
It also came with little alien figures you could slime. The other
accessory was called the Gak Inflator. This device was used to
pump air into the Gak, which blew a giant bubble. You basically
lifted an O-ring on the top of the device and clamped your Gak down,
then inflated it. This device made the bigger mess of the two and
never worked right.
My first Gak experience was with a purple Gak Splat and
the Gak Inflator. The stuff dried out quicker than you could play
with it, and this problem even warranted instructions on the package
that instructed you to add water in case this happened. This was a
product with maintenance. And speaking of which, it was an Act of
Congress to get out of carpet and hair. Don't worry,
it happened to us all. Gak came with a huge set of
IMPORTANT! instructions:
It wasn't long before I moved up to Gak Paks, the Gak
Vac and all the rest of the product line that soon followed. There
was Gak that glowed in the dark, Gak that smelled, Gak that had stuff
buried in it, Gak that did just about everything. And there were
all sorts of contraptions to put it through. It was Nickelodeon's
own gross alternative to PlayDoh and it was selling like wildfire.
In the mid-90s, when I was still young enough to
appreciate Gak (who am I kidding, writing this article proves I'm still
young enough to appreciate Gak), I remember hearing a commercial that
Gak Paks were on a major sale at Toys R Us that weekend. I never
had a penny pinching mother who fretted over things being on sale or not
on sale, but for some reason, knowing that Gak was on sale just seemed
like something I had to take advantage of.
My mother agreed to take me to Toys R Us on a rainy
Saturday and I'll never forget walking around the store, trying to find
the Gak, and the disappointment that eventually set in when I finally
came to the conclusion that they weren't participating in the big event.
Until, that is, I walked around the corner and saw a display of Gak Paks
big enough to make a grown man cower to his knees.
I went home that day with 4 new Gak Paks. At this
point, they were adding new colors to the rotation of Gak. Colors
like white and orange. Colors that sorta stuck out weird in a tank
of bright, neon green and pink. At this point, I'd like to mention
that I also have a mother who has kept just about everything I've ever
owned throughout my childhood. Thanks mom. For without that,
I would have never recently found:
I couldn't believe me eyes when I dug this out.
These are the very Gak Paks bought on that rainy day during the Gak Pak
sale at Toys R Us. I know you're wondering where the 4th one is.
I do remember, and it's a long story involving action figures and a
video camera.
This stuff has held up absolutely astonishingly well
over the years. At a glance, you would never ever know that it was
15 years old. It looks exactly as it did when I brought it home
from Toys R Us. I really must remember to write Mattel and thank
them for making a fine product. Seriously, check this out:
Those who remember Gak will recall its very familiar
smell. I'm proud to say that after 15 years of hard time, Gak
still retains its smell as well. The only thing that Gak doesn't
retain over the years is its elasticity and ability to, well, not cling
to your hand. Gak had a quality about it that made it look
messy, but in reality, unless you made contact with something with
texture such as hair, carpet or clothes, it came right off. Not so
today. This stuff will absolutely cause havoc. It's runny
and unable to be contained in your hand.
I'm not kidding when I say this stuff was absolutely
EVERYWHERE, including on the camera. I cannot even describe how
hard it was to even get this photo. Casualties lost in the
emergency cleaning process of photographing this stuff included three
nearby socks and a nearby t-shirt. At this point, I just decided
to take out all my frustrations on everyone:
Take THAT, CGI movie Donatello. Also know that this
photo was nearly impossible to get too.
Gak departed forever as we know it in the late 90s. It
wasn't long before Double Dare 2000 came onto the
airwaves with its own version of Gak, called "Goooze" which
sprung its own consumer product made by Jakks Pacific.
Goooze was dubbed as "play stuff for the new millenium" and
was a clear substance that did all the same stuff Gak did.
In fact, it was just as successful as Gak. It had dozens
of varieties, transporters, devices, and even writing utensils
branded with the Goooze logo.
And, eventually the Gak brand name was revived by Flying
Colors with jelly-feeling baseballs and footballs called Gak
Splats. Make no mistake though, these hold absolutely no
similarities whatsoever to the original Gak Splats of
yesteryear.
Both Goooze and Gak Splats are still available in some form
as of 2008.
But the real stuff has never made a comeback and is
forever out of our hands...unless...you've got a little time on your
hands. Here it comes...
GAK RECIPE Any kid who grew up in the 90s probably experienced the
Do-It-Yourself Gak at some point, but if you're one of those who didn't,
here you go:
3 cups water (warm)
1 cup Elmer's white glue
Food coloring of your choice
4 teaspoons Borax
1 large Ziplock (or similar) bag
Mix half of the water with the glue and food coloring
until dissolved. Set aside. Mix the Borax with the remainder
of the water until dissolved. Then, combine your two solutions in
the plastic bag and knead. Voila! You've made your own Gak!
If you seriously make this, please email me and send me photos.
For everyone else, here's the original Gak commercial from 1992! Check
it out at our YouTube account, "cmonfwank"
or below!
Josh, 11/11/08
(PS, Happy Birthday Marc! Look what you started.)
