Most people remember Canadian actor Alan Thicke for his role as Dr. Jason Seaver on the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains. He appeared alongside several other celebrities in Fear Factor’s tenth episode of season two in 2002. Thicke made it clear in the video, posted on YouTube, that he was representing his generation — and at 55 he was the oldest member in the competition. Unfortunately, while he was able to scale a 36-story building for the first challenge, he fell before he completed the task, which involved collecting flags.

“Frankly I’m disappointed, I’m bitter, I’m fed up,” he deadpanned after losing the challenge. He further joked, “I’ve embarrassed my family …cI wish nothing but ill will for [fellow competitor] Stephen [Baldwin].” The good news is that the show still donated $10,000 to his chosen charity, the Shining Stars Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Thicke hosted a variety of game shows and appeared in several TV shows before he died in 2016 of a type-A aortic dissection, according to People. He was 69 years old.

The idea for a celebrity edition of Fear Factor came from an actual celebrity. Actress Kelly Preston, who appeared in films such as Twins, Jerry Maguire, SpaceCamp, and Old Dogs, and husband John Travolta were huge fans of the show. Executive producer Matt Kunitz told the Deseret News the couple liked the reality program so much they contacted NBC to get copies of episodes they missed.

“And Kelly said, ‘If you ever consider doing a celebrity episode, please think of me,'” Kunitz explained. That little morsel of information prompted the team to put together a celebrity edition. Kunitz added that the celebrity element changed the vibe, and it was a “ton of fun.” He was surprised that the stars were so easy to work with. While Preston, who competed on the show in 2001, had a tiny entourage on set, the other stars showed up on their own with little pretense. 

In 2018 rapper/singer Lil Yachty’s challenge involved corralling some turkeys. All he had to do was wrangle some of the Thanksgiving dinner favorites and move them from one cage to another. It doesn’t sound too challenging, but for Lil Yachty, it was quite difficult. At one point he was able to get one into the required cage but only after making some suggestive hip thrusts in the animal’s direction. The show’s host Ludacris joked, “Did you just hump the turkey?” (via MTV).

In this YouTube clip, you can see how fellow competitor Tyga thought the whole thing was hilarious because he knew it was going to be hard for Lil Yachty to complete the task. Lil Yachty then got more comfortable with the fowl creatures, telling one of them, “You’re my friend, we’re cool,” as he ushered it into the pen. Ludacris was obviously impressed by his performance and commented that Lil Yachty seemed to have a future in turkey herding.

You may have thought Joanie “Chyna” Laurer was tough due to her professional wrestling career, but she was quite used to the glamorous life before joining the reality show. “Last week I was posing for Playboy in the most glamorous atmosphere you could possibly imagine, and this week I’ve got bugs all over my a–,” Laurer told EW. “This is all foreign to me. I’ve never even been camping.” She competed in the celebrity edition alongside Coolio, Kelly Preston, David Hasselhoff, Brooke Burns, and Donny Osmond in 2001.

In the episode, Laurer admitted that she hated bugs and creepy crawlies, and Osmond tried to psych her out during the insect challenge, telling her she was going to get stung, and the millipedes would crawl into her mouth, as seen on YouTube. Despite her fears, she lasted the entire three minutes. However, it was not enough to win the show. Coolio took home the top prize (even besting Osmond). Laurer died several years later in 2016 of a drug overdose when she was just in her mid-40s, reports NPR.

Pauly D from Jersey Shoretold viewers in this MTV clip that he was claustrophobic and didn’t like to eat weird things because he was a picky eater. He was disgusted by fishy-smelling food because it can make you sick. Luckily, he was paired with fellow Jersey Shore alum Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, who also said he was claustrophobic and didn’t like bugs. “We’re scared of Fear Factor, yet we’re doing it together,” Pauly D laughed.

The reality star was happy to face his fears with a buddy who was scared of the same types of things. Ortiz-Magro later joked during the competition that while he showed off his “gym, tan, laundry” skills rather well, he didn’t demonstrate any toughness. The duo competed alongside fellow Jersey Shore alumni Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Deena Cortese, as well as four stars from the show Floribama. On the last challenge, the guys had to descend from a helicopter and rescue a dummy by attaching it to the helicopter hook. The Jersey Shore pair rocked the task, seen in this clip from MTV.

When MTV revived the series in 2017, the network replaced Joe Rogan with rapper/actor Ludacris, who also executive produced the program. The show changed its focus slightly, avoiding challenges such as eating disgusting insects to more “playful” tasks that resonated better with Generation Z viewers, like coping with a waterlogged smartphone. The rapper told The Hollywood Reporter that the project would be “even more insane and ludicrous than what you remember.” No pun intended.

The challenges are “extremely crazy,” Ludacris told EW when the news show visited the site of one of the new episodes. The rapper explained that some of the tasks were very dangerous, including one involving cars driving over a ramp as explosions were set off at the same time. The aim was to flip the car over and slide it on the roof as far as it could possibly go. While the show maintained the “same DNA” as its earlier incarnation, it also added some new flavor. When the show premiered and one million viewers tuned in, it was MTV’s most-watched premiere in the past two years.

Ludacris explained that he decided to do the program because he is an adrenaline junkie. Plus, he liked how many of the contestants participated to conquer their fears. He enjoyed helping people overcome them. As for his biggest fear? Watching Jaws as a child made him wary of the ocean. He confessed he didn’t like being in open water and having something brush against his leg.