U-Pick Live

U-Pick Live
Upick live's logo
Genre	Live Action
Created by	various
Starring	Brent Popolizio Candace Bailey Jeff Sutphen Antonio Neves Logan Sekulow Tom Lamberth Garbagio Kenneth Harton
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	401
Production
Location(s)	New York City
Running time	120 (counting commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	Nickelodeon
Original run	October 14, 2002 (2002-10-14) – May 27, 2005 (2005-05-27)
Chronology
Preceded by	Slime Time Live
Followed by	ME:TV
Related shows	Nick in the Afternoon Nickelodeon SPLAT!
External links
Website

U-Pick Live was a program that aired on Nickelodeon from October 14, 2002 to May 27, 2005 on weekday afternoons from Nickelodeon Headquarters in New York City's Times Square. Starting at 5:00 p.m. EST to 7:00 p.m. EST. The show allowed viewers to pick via internet voting the Nickelodeon shows, usually cartoons, that would air. The hosts of the show also took part in sketches and gags, often including members of the studio audience and celebrity guests. Interviews with celebrity guests and musical performances were also frequent features.

It originally was U-Pick Friday from 1999 to late 2000, hosted by Henry and June of KaBlam!. The concept of U-Pick originated with the Nick in the Afternoon block in 1994.

Cast

• Brent Popolizio as himself
• Candace Bailey as herself
• Jeff Sutphen as Pick Boy, a "Super Hero" that "picks" people from the audience. Pick Boy is egotistic yet naïve. Pick Boy became a target to many polls at nick.com such as "What kind of hairstyle should Pick Boy Have?". Despite his popularity, Pick Boy was kicked-off the show literally when he was voted the most in a poll asking "Who should be kicked off from the show forever?". Pick Boy was brought back to the show next season. After U-Pick Live ended, Pick Boy made many appearances in ads, 2006-2007 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, and ME:TV. He made an appearance at the Democratic National Convention in August 2008 for Nickelodeon's Kids Pick the President campaign and at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con.
• Antonio Neves as himself (2002–2004), best known by fans on the show for playing the Nicktoon tapes and using extreme stunts to deliver the tape. He also appears as Antonio's Floating Head.
• Garbagio as himself (2002–2004), best known by fans on the show for wrestling random objects (most notably, in a special episode entitled: "Milk and Cookies"). Wears a modified Mil Mascaras wrestling mask.
• Tom Lamberth as Cow, a guy in a cow suit that might just stand there and moo, or do various strange things. There was also another cow, more realistic.
• Kenneth Harton as Professor Pickens, usually made inventions such as Pick-Bot 2000.
• Logan Sekulow played "Logan the Intern" on a number of the final season programs. He was best known for his dance off with Brent and he also sung with Brent on a number of skits. He has since starred in his own Christian-oriented talk show, The Logan Show.
• Other random characters

Regular aspects

Activities and sketches

• The Prize Wall -- A member of the studio audience picks one of 14 and 5/8 doors to try to get the Bucket of Bucks. All the other doors have other possible prizes behind them. Prizes could be anything from electronics to random junk such as a plunger.
• Candace's Corner -- Candace talks to the viewers about various subjects, though she is frequently interrupted by other members of the cast.
• Brent and Candace go outside to Times Square to do various things picked online by viewers.
• Boys vs. Girls - Brent and boys from the audience compete against Candace and girls from the audience in various, often messy, games.
• Celebrity guests engage in a lightning-round style barrage of silly questions and commands from audience members. Acting silly with kids frequently takes celebrities off guard and brings out a side of them we do not typically see.
• Ten Seconds with Brent -- What the title suggests. Normally, Brent would be cut off in the middle of an important sentence. Once, he got a "cookie-on-a-string" to distract the stagehand who managed the timer, successfully preventing him from starting it for about thirty seconds. On one occasion, he was given only three seconds.

Gags

• Antonio delivering a tape of the chosen Nickelodeon show to where it apparently will be played.
• Garbagio "wrestling" various objects.
• Pick-Bot 2000, robotic co-host
• Obstacle course races in the hallways of the studio.
• Pick Boy runs through walls of shaving cream, bricks, etc.
• Mr. Chi Chi, chimpanzee attorney at law
• Pantsing Candice. On one episode they had to cut to break as Candice's shorts came off revealing a red thong.
• Sometimes during a cut-in after a commercial break, it would feature Brent in front of the camera talking with Candice behind him. While he was talking, his arms were wrapped behind Candice. Candice put her arms through his arm pits and she moved her arms to correspond to what he was saying. This is revealed after Brent is done explaining. Candice backs away quickly, revealing the illusion. This happened 5 or 6 times during the run of U pick. The First occurred on the thanksgiving special.

Other

• Best of U-Pick Live episodes aired occasionally, featuring highlights of previous shows.
• Producers: Jonathan Judge, Mitchell Goldstein, Jeremy Slutskin
• The series was directed by Joe Perota
• Slime Time Live would often transfer viewers from STL to U-Pick Live near Slime Time Live's end.
• Once there was a blizzard that came to New York and Slime Time Live was in charge of U-Pick Live for that particular day.
• The Executive Producers of U-Pick Live were Richard Barry and Kevin Weist.
• In the premier of the new Fairly Odd Parents episode "Timmy's Big Super Hero Wish", they hosted a contest where the child who wins would become Pick Boy's new sidekick and added to the show. Despite this no such character was ever added.

Former Schedule

The first U-Pick Live logo used October 14, 2002 - Friday, June 18, 2004.

Season 2 Launch Schedule (Started: Monday, October 6, 2003)

5:00PM SpongeBob SquarePants
5:30PM UPICK the Shows (3 choices)
6:00PM UPICK (Head2Head, 2 choices)
6:30PM Hey Arnold!

Big June 2004 (Started: Monday, June 7, 2004) U-Pick Live Big June

5:00PM SpongeBob SquarePants
5:30PM UPICK Old School (3 choices, Nick classics), lasted one week then replaced by Danny Phantom on 6/14/04
6:00PM UPICK School's Out Pick (school's choice)
6:30PM Nicktoon Premiere (each day)

Season 3 Launch Schedule (Started: Monday, October 4, 2004)

5:00PM SpongeBob SquarePants
5:30PM UPICK the Shows (3 choices)
6:00PM Hey Arnold!
6:30PM Rugrats

Final Day Schedule (Friday, May 27, 2005)

5:00PM SpongeBob SquarePants
5:30PM Martin Mystery
6:00PM Jimmy Neutron (New episode)
6:30PM UPICK the Shows (Choices were: Neutron, SpongeBob and Rugrats—SpongeBob won)

Notable episodes

• (October 14, 2002) Series Premiere.
• (February 21, 2003) Garbagio wrestles cookies and milk and loses.
• (February 28, 2003) A rematch was done to see if Garbagio could beat the cookies and milk then.
• (June 2004) An episode focusing on fictional band The Pickles, made up of the cast members, and their history in documentary form.
• (June 2004) Jeff Probst of the reality show Survivor presides over a U-Pick Survivor episode. Pick Boy is voted off the show, but is later voted back on.
• (April 2005) U-Pick debuts its virtual lounger, a new segment in which a viewer attends the show via internet video conferencing
• (April 2005) Instagram debuts. A new segment in which one home viewer gets to determine the outcome of a live segment on air.
• (April 2005) Sheldon Shellstein from the Shiny Shoop Shoop Show makes a famed guest appearance in which he launches the catch phrase "I'm not your sister."
• (May 27, 2005) The U-Pick gang celebrates their 401st episode. This was the last episode.

External links

• U-Pick Live at the Internet Movie Database
• U-Pick Live at TV.com